The Blame Game: Why Ryan Murphy's "American Horror Story" No Longer Reigns Supreme

As embarrassing as it is to admit – yes, I too had a 2014-centric “American Horror Story” phase. Can you blame me? Being a fan of the show, back then at least, was something I wore as a badge of honour. It is a shame that seven years on, that same badge fans once wore with pride is now more of an untied shoelace that you are not aware of until it sends you tumbling down a flight of stairs. My disdain for “American Horror Story” and Ryan Murphy’s perpetual writer’s block in general is fairly recent.

Do not be mistaken – as a recovering fan of the show, I think the first four seasons are genius, visually appealing, masterfully written four-year run. Unfortunately – the run-in question quickly ran out of steam, coming to such a screeching halt that Ryan Murphy owes the fans compensation money for the whiplash they’ve suffered. A program that was once a tastefully-grotesque, campy, genuinely scary mashup of everything we cherish about the horror genre is now a ghost in the machine, haunting our television screens until we inevitably change the channel to something better.

The show’s speedy deterioration into a slump of rushed, far-fetched seasons began in 2015 with “Hotel” (Season 5). If you are watching “American Horror Story” solely for its visuals, aesthetics and costume design, look no further. If you are watching for actual horror, reasonable storylines and decent writing, run as fast as you can. Season 5 came right after Jessica Lange’s departure from the show.

The loss of Lange’s role as resident-matriarch left a void in every season that followed. “Hotel” saw superstar Lady Gaga (Lange’s replacement) join the Ryan Murphy universe in a lead role, as “The Countess”, a 112-year-old Vampire that lures her prey into the Hotel to do… you know – vampire stuff. Hotel is exactly where things became gimmicky. The pop star embodied the role but Gaga’s introduction meant Ryan Murphy kept on recruiting high-profile figures of the month in an attempt to round up more viewers which became a very inauthentic new tradition with each coming season.

In 2018 “American Horror Story: Apocalypse” (Season 8) brought with it a multitude of firsts for the show. It was the first time that the show’s events took place in the future. The first season we saw characters from previous seasons return in lead roles. Apocalypse was also a first for me as it was the first time a TV show had made me seriously consider getting lobotomised. It is hard to pinpoint which of this season’s (many) issues made the season go from slightly crummy to borderline unwatchable. The incompetent storytelling. The cheap, sycophantic use of guest stars (i.e., Stevie Nicks) to attract new viewers. The wholly unnecessary rehashing of previous (superior) seasons to keep long-time fans happy. The pointless, overly graphic sex and gore scenes that seriously made me consider whether Ryan Murphy was a sadist.

That stagnant, sluggish flashback sequence which ultimately ate the entire season up. Either way, the season that centred on the Anti-Christ was irredeemable. It just could not decide what it wanted to be about, A nuclear apocalypse? A Coven of Witches? The illuminati? Silicon Valley…? On the brighter side- if absurd plots, mediocre acting and writing is your thing, I would recommend Tommy Wiseau’s “The Room”, but if that is not available, you might have to settle for Apocalypse.

Back in November, Ryan Murphy began threatening the poor fans once again with a series of Instagram posts teasing the new season, titled:“American Horror Story: Double Feature”. The season is set to air later this year, but after 12 months in a global pandemic, another season of “American Horror Story” could be what finally turns our society feral. The anthology’s tenth instalment will see staple cast members return to the show, including Sarah Paulson, whose return is causing a lot of buzz after her notable absence in “1984” as well as Lily Rabe, Emma Roberts, Evan Peters and Frances Conroy. “Double Feature” will include new faces too, most notably, Macaulay Culkin, Hollywood legend best known for his role as Kevin McAllister in “Home Alone”.

However, it is certainly not a post-Lange season without a plethora of casting decisions made by a marketing team in one of FX’s many Hollywood boardrooms. The tenth season will also feature some of your favourite trust-fund babies; Kaia Gerber, daughter of 90s supermodel Cindy Crawford. Paris Jackson, daughter of the King of Pop Michael Jackson. Notice a trend? The nepotism-based casting choices this season reflect the show’s sharp decline. Murphy’s horror lovechild has devolved into a cash-cow whose teats he cannot stop milking, although this bovine’s milk is long past its due date.

We have established Ryan Murphy’s astounding party-trick of being able to completely ignore basic storytelling year after year, but it wouldn’t be fair for me to disregard some of his better projects. Believe it or not, Murphy (once in a blue moon), can put together a well-constructed series, featuring an ensemble cast of interesting characters that comes to a satisfying conclusion. It is a rare feat for Ryan Murphy programmes, a unicorn of sorts, but just look at the first three seasons of “Glee”. Look at “Pose”, “American Crime Story”, “Feud”, the early seasons of “American Horror Story”, even “Ratched”. I believe that Ryan Murphy is still capable of riding that unicorn off into the sunset, but resurrecting “American Horror Story” from the dead will not be an easy task.