Denis O’Hare

‘American Horror Story: Hotel’ Latecap 5×11: God Save the Queenie

American Horror Story has long teased out the idea that all its anthological seasons exist in the same weird universe, but it wasn't until last season's Freak Show that we saw how this concept would worm its way through Ryan Murphy's campy campfire series. And to be honest, the result was a little disappointing: Pepper, the "pinhead" from season 2's "Asylum" got a saccharine-sad backstory to explain how she went from Jupiter, FL all the way up to Massachusetts in time to witness the Bloodyface (R.I.UGGGGH.) murder spree and be granted extraterrestrial intelligence. I have a couple friends who feel differently--that Pepper's kitchen-sink maudlin tale was the zenith episode of the universally acknowledged worst season-- but personally, it made me long for the days when Rod Serling would just drop by to remind you that, yeah, you were still in The Twilight Zone, full stop.

By Drew Grant

‘American Horror Story: Hotel’ Recap 5×09: She’s Lost Control Again

Here's a type of riddling quandary that would fit perfectly into the Giger-meets-Escher infinite hallways of the Hotel Cortez: How come the better this show gets, the harder it is to talk about it? Sure, there's the (relative) ease of "hatecapping" shows with obvious, fantastical flaws, but I've never really trucked with the idea that people actually enjoy writing about programs that they hate, seeing as how they dedicate hour after hour every week to watching something they claim to loathe only to tear it to pieces. I believe that hatecapping, as a genre, is usually born out of the same thing that drives intense hate in reality: a former love. You can't hatecap a show that was always shoddily made (barring, as always, reality programming, which gets its own separate sub-genre in the recap community), because it would be a chore to even muster up the momentum to watch it every week, let alone write a few hundred words about why it sucked. No: true hatecapping is usually born out of a once-great love of a show that has since taken a darker turn. It's the inspiration you find in reveling in the downfall of quality in the last couple seasons of True Blood. It's True Detective: Season 2. And, for me personally, it's been slightly less than half the American Horror Story franchise.

By Drew Grant

Denis O’Hare

‘American Horror Story: Hotel’ Latecap 5×11: God Save the Queenie

‘American Horror Story: Hotel’ Recap 5×09: She’s Lost Control Again

‘American Horror Story: Hotel’ Recap 5×05: In the Company of Ladies

Big Apple Idolatry: Bushnell Settles <em>Sex</em> Score, Paul Rudd’s Lucky Strike, and Baldwin’s Beef Fetish

Milk Is Great, but Would Be Even Tastier With More Penn Smooches

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