American Horror Story?
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I DVR'd this and took a quickie read-through of TV.com's assessment this morning... it sounds like something rabid Silent Hill fans would love. After reading the "10 WTF Moments" article, though, I'm a little nervous (and dubious) about this. It seems alternately trying-too-hard-to-be-artsy and so-damn-freakish-I-won't-sleep. Definitely NSFB (that's "Not Safe for Basement" viewing).
Anyone else watch it? Can our UK delegation see it? It's on FX. -
I seriously doubt UK would show what was on last night: male nudity, bondage, frequent cursing, extreme teenage bullying and violence, child murder, gore, creature horror, etc.; not on first air date, and not without stripping out quite a bit of material. We watched it and enjoyed most of it. We were certainly freaked out by parts where we were supposed to be freaked out. The show steered a nice line between trying to hard to freak out US puritans and having just enough story and character not to push an audience away, I felt. The only time I got offended was during a commercial break when FX told us to go online to chat with other fans. I was like, "fans? You're already counting your fans on opening night? Bit presumptuous." But like Twin Peaks and Lost and anything else that strives to be different, I'm sure it will have a cult following.
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Considering that they've been promoting this show since Nixon was in office, I'd give them the "Fans" thing without too much quibbling. They don't have fans of the teleplay, not yet at least, but fans of the concept they've been pitching. And really, if you can hook people into believing what they just watched is or will become the thing they were told it was or would be (even with all evidence to the contrary), people will stick around. That's kinda like basic marketing.
Anyway...
Still haven't watched it, but the memory of the stills on TV.com made me sprint to the light switch this morning as I headed downstairs. Help a scaredy baby here: are there alot of Boo Scares (tm) or are the freaky bits more like WTF things that happen in the absence of musical cues and jump cuts? Your answer will determine whether I watch it tonight on the big tv or in broad daylight on the smallest TV in the house.
The UK's sensitivities are always something of a puzzle to me. I guess I need Plopper and Vince to do a FAQ of what would be OK. They seem unfazed by anything that's bawdy and funny, or sexuality that's "good," up to a point. So is bondage OK if it's in a comedy but not OK in a drama? I get their desire to screen violence, though. As an American, I'm patriot-bound to be appalled by the concept of it, but as a human psychology hobbyist (sp?), I get it. What about internet streaming of it over FX.com? (I think we may have talked about this once, but I'm getting on in years...) -
I'd have to see it myself before giving a more definite view, but from the first line of Dan's post I doubt it'd get shown on the major channels. Although Channel 4 are sometimes good with controversial stuff so I suppose they could show it.
I'll have a look online and see what I see about it.
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Okay, we're getting it on FX from 7th Nov.
http://fxuk.com/shows/american-horror-story/teaser -
@Jayne Psychological Horror, mostly. A few "boo" scares in the basement, so brace yourself for those scenes, I suppose. That might be one way of describing it. The show has taken the best elements of Kubrick's version of The Shinning and the more recent Amityville Horror and turned it into a really enjoyable series. A family moves into a house full of ghosts and begins to interact with them, thinking they're real people. Heavy plays on reality: what is real, what isn't? Who's a ghost, who's alive? That kind of thing.
@vincent: Good. Always glad to be wrong for a good reason. Enjoy. ;) -
We finally got around to watching the DVR'd episode, so we're presently current with the progress. I wasn't sure about it after episode 2. It was getting a big "meh" from me-- there was alot of style, but not much else. The most recent episode-- Halloween Pt. 1-- did some stuff that needed to be done, mostly in regard to making me care about the characters and showing them as more nuanced than before. It also raised the dreary misery of Ben's predicament into something rather campy and fun.
I also like that we get explanations, at least in part, to some of the WTF things we've seen so far, like (I'll be vague for our friends across the pond who haven't gotten a crack at it yet):
* The thing in the basement's origins
* What/who the gimp ghost isn't
* Tate's deal
I'm trying to get some people at work to watch so we can have some water-cooler chats about what's going on. Right now, I'm puzzling over the nature of the house itself-- or more properly the land it's on. It seems that the good doctor who built the place was affected by whatever the presence is, which means its been there before the house. Are we looking at some Poltergeist-like cursed land thing? Might be something to that given Constance's panic to get on the grounds at the end of the last episode.
Looking forward to Wednesday again! (Lost's old day!)
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