Wes Bentley

Well, I'm not too big to admit when I'm wrong: despite my previous assessment and all evidence to the contrary, I announced last week that the 10 Commandment Killer on AMFSNYAPCTNLAHS was not, in fact, John Lowe.  Instead, based on the information gleamed from Wren (not Red, although that made a nice little callback to Lowe's daughter, Scarlett)  at the looney bin, I assumed that James Marsh had committed the murders himself, using Wren as his vessel in order to shed blood outside the Hotel Cortez.

Ryan Murphy's shows tend to get a lot of backlash, not despite but because they are so popular. Personally, I hate Scream Queens. Couldn't stomach Glee after a couple seasons of the same old stale "Coach Sue makes fun of that milquetoast teacher's hair" jokes. I've had my beef with the American Horror Story franchise before, or as I like to call it: American Minus the Flyover States, New York or Any Part of California That's Not Los Angeles Horror Story. (Unfortunately, AMFSNYAPCTNLAHS isn't hashtag material; although I might change all my passwords to it. You are welcome, hackers. /fsociety.) When they showed the trailer for Murphy's upcoming series American Crime Story: OJ Simpson during AHS, it became apparent that the similarities didn't stop at the title: I literally thought I was watching another scene from AHS. That's how much the trailer kept the visual style/tone of the show I was currently watching. The shows that make up Murphy's oeuvre seems to embody some of the worst qualities of millennials (unsurprising, considering their target demo): laziness with a side of ADHD, a certain kind of aimless enthusiasm for conceptual ideas rather than any sort of work ethic, thoughtfulness or follow-through. It's all homages and pastiches that border on copyright infringement, and the parts that are original--the dialogue, the juicy character roles for older actresses, the stylistic flourishes that elevate it from pure camp into a obsessive fandom-type sincerity--get lost in the groan-worthy messaging that Murphy throws on top with all the subtlety of a Chloe Sevigny anti-vaccination rant in the middle of a show about vampires (and ghost serial killers I GUESS).