Monster Mania Day 11: American Horror Story Season 3: Coven

Written by Stu Cooper

The past two seasons of "American Horror Story" have made for some incredible horror television. The series brought a much needed horror feel to mainstream TV. Without anthology series, we are left with stuff like True Blood, which is fine but really lacks the balls and creepiness that horror fans deserve. Shows like that and the other vampire shows (even Hemlock Grove) seem to focus more on the actors and how sexy they are, rather than forming any type of actual scary storytelling. "American Horror Story" has knocked it out of the park the past 2 seasons. It's been established at this point that each season tells a dramatically different story that has nothing to do with the prior season. The catch is, they use the same actors, but put them in different roles. I do wish there was at least one re-occuring character to tie the universe together, but that's my only gripe. Jessica Lange seems to be the center piece for most of the storytelling, but I think that's because of how good of an actress she is, and her ability to play a crazy woman. Season 2 was a bit convoluted and had too many stories going on at once, but it appears the show has learned it's lesson. The writers said that this season will be a bit more laxed, and has a bit more humor to it. I think them saying that is an attempt to redeem themselves for taking on too many stories at once last time. With that said, let's get into the detail of this season.

This season of the show follows a young girl (played by Taissa Farmiga) who discovers that everytime she has sex with a guy, the guy's head basically explodes. Yep, you read that right. It's like watching what would happen if Rogue decided to just bang Ice-man without preparation. It doesn't end pretty. After she is mortified by this experience, she discovers it's actually part of her powers. She is a witch. The girl is soon enrolled into an academy that looks like an all girls boarding school, but in reality is actually a school for witches. When she arrives to the school we are introduced to the main teacher played by last season's star Sarah Paulson. She is apparently the leader of the "good witches". She is supposed to instruct and overlook the other witches and make sure they aren't misusing their abilities, but are still embracing witch culture. We are then introduced to a couple of the other witches. The two new actors this season are Emma Roberts, who plays a bitchy Mean Girls type witch named Madison Montgomery, and the comedic Gabourey Sidibe who plays...a goofy black woman, not much else to her character. I really don't like that they brought a mainstream comedic actor into the main cast, but her role seems to be minimal, so i'm ok with that. The school is kind of like a group of misfit girls, trying to learn to cope with their abilities and life as witches. Jessica Lange is actually the mother of Sarah Paulson in the series, and is a good example of a "bad witch". She actually has powers like The Vulture from Spider-man. She is obsessed with maintaining her appearance, and as a result she literally sucks the life out of younger people. Some pretty cool powers being displayed in the first episode. The level of power these women have surpasses anything we've seen in the previous seasons. We are also introduced to Kathy Bates who i'm guessing is the main villain for the season. She is a old ratty witch who thinks by sacrificing slaves (this is a flashback) she can maintain her looks and power. She tortures and brutally abuses several slaves. That was actually the most brutal part of the episode. She is truly a nasty character and i'm looking forward to seeing what happens there.

Overall they introduced A LOT of characters in the first episode, but the story is pretty easy to keep up with so far. The pacing is a bit cooled down and that is something they definitely needed to work on after last season. Jessica Lange shines as usual, as well as Taissa Farmiga and Emma Roberts. Those three characters were especially intriguing and I'm excited to see where their path takes them. I would definitely recommend this season of the show if you are into horror and if you enjoyed the past seasons. It's also nice to have a serious horror story on television as opposed to the live action Tiger Beat Magazine that is "True Blood". It's great for the halloween mood and with a new episode on every week throughout the month, there is no reason to skip this one!