American Horror Story: Freakshow [Archive]

SisterNightroad

11-13-2014, 05:14 PM

'American Horror Story: Freak Show' Review: "Bullseye"
Britt Hayes | 5 hours ago

FX
We seem to have officially hit our lull in this season of 'American Horror Story' -- every year there comes a point when the melodrama takes over for an episode or two, when the horror takes a backseat to the scenery chewing. This week Jessica Lange goes full-on Joan Crawford in her role of Elsa Mars, and that's not really a bad thing (hello 'Mommie Dearest'!), but the familial dynamics overtake the macabre wackiness and the end result is a bit tedious.

"Bullseye" is, at times, a bit boring and on the nose, even for a Ryan Murphy affair. The 'Mommie Dearest' homage brings a little bit of that garish pizazz, what with all the feathers and Murphy's sideshow spin on 'Game of Thrones,' putting Elsa in her own throne of power, as her performers lay gifts at her feet, and she becomes something of a Joffrey. It's kind of a cute mash-up and gives Lange plenty to chew on as the performers are sad that the twins are gone and Jimmy begins to investigate their whereabouts. As previously noted, he's becoming the hero of the season.

But what makes the episode and the trajectory of the season so agitating is the way that Elsa has become this season's monster, especially now that Twisty has died, and with Dell and Desiree sitting this week out. We've seen Lange play the complex lead before. We've been asked to identify with this character and her machinations in every season since the beginning, so when she eventually puts Paul the Illustrated Seal in the spinning wheel to throw knives at him in order to prove his loyalty -- and she predictably misses with a too-obvious grin on her face -- it's just all so expected.

Lange is great, but what would make this season greater is focusing more on the evil Dandy, or the complexities of Dell, or Stanley, who is perpetually sidelined. The moment with Esmerelda this week, when she decides not to kill Ma Petite by drowning her in formaldehyde, is a great one, and sets up an interesting chain of events to come -- although I'm unsure about the love story between Esmerelda and Jimmy, as it feels a bit too contrived.

Fraser's performance as Paul is another thing that keeps the episode from floundering too much. His moments with Elsa and at the drug store punctuate the hour with much-needed humanity. So much of "Bullseye" is about manufacturing an ideal living situation or creating a false family: Elsa secretly brings Paul into her bed at night to tend to her sexual needs, though she would never make him her lover in any official capacity because of what he looks like. At night, she snuggles with Ma Petite for comfort, as if the little woman is the child she never had. She uses these people for comfort, and they allow it because they have nowhere else to go; perhaps having their own loneliness soothed by this opportunist is a small price to pay.

Similarly, Dandy is struggling to create his own ideal with the Tattler twins. Naive Bette is charmed by the false front he puts on to win them over, while the pessimistic Dot tolerates their captivity in the hopes that she can use his wealth to have Bette surgically removed. But that's not good enough for Dandy, who desires love from both of them -- real love, not the kind of love you purchase, and if Dot keeps shoving him away, it's only a matter of time before his murderous tendencies surface again.

I'm not sure that pairing Dot and Bette up with Dandy and Gloria Mott is a wise decision -- the dynamics aren't really clicking, and Dandy's petulance is beginning to wear thin. The Patrick Bateman side of Dandy from last week's episode was more delightful and entertaining. When he gives in to his sinister urges, he's more fun to watch. This lovelorn, spoiled Dandy is just kind of a drag.

We've reached the midpoint, and "Bullseye" represents that familiar lull in every season of 'American Horror Story,' where the drama gets a little too big and the horror dissipates. And while these episodes are often great for the actors, they have a tendency to be boring for us as viewers. Hopefully next week revives that wacky terror because 'AHS' is at its best when it's absolutely bonkers. Even when it's messy, it's a fun, weird, and scary mess, and that's what makes it worth watching.

Additional Thoughts:

So the nurse is back, and she's in love with Paul, and her dad is Lee Tergesen, aka Terry from 'Wayne's World.' I think if Paul just went up to him and said, "I love you, man," it would solve everything.
"Are you going to escort them to cotillion?" Frances Conroy's line delivery in every episode is superb.
I don't know why you would shop anywhere else when Woolworth's has ice cream.
So when does Gabourey Sidibe show up?
Hey guys, remember Twisty?

Read More: 'American Horror Story: Freak Show' Review: "Bullseye" | http://screencrush.com/american-horror-story-freak-show-review-bullseye/?trackback=tsmclip

SisterNightroad

11-14-2014, 09:36 AM

'American Horror Story: Freak Show' cast update, spoilers: Neil Patrick reportedly playing 'chameleon salesman'

Camille Banzon|Friday, November 14 2014

'How I Met Your Mother' actor Neil Patrick Harris has been finally confirmed to join the ongoing season 4 of 'American Horror Story,' entitled 'Freak Show,' after many speculations by fans and the media.
Harris has expressed his desire to be a part of the series after watching some of its previous seasons, and show creator, Ryan Murphy did not ignore the actor's request.
Harris was initially offered a role in the first season of American Horror Story (Murder House), but turned it down for some undisclosed reasons. After seeing the success of the show and growing fanbase support, the upcoming Academy Awards host is finally appearing in Freak Show, alongside his husband, David Burtka.
According to a report by TVLine, Harris will appear in episodes 11 and 12 as a "chameleon salesman," while Burtka's advent is set for the season finale (episode 13) as a character connected to Elsa Mars (Jessica Lange). It is quite surprising that the real life pair won't appear together with each other, but in the world of American Horror Story, anything is possible.
Murphy stated that instead of just accepting a role, Harris had an idea what he wanted to portray in the series. It will be no surprise if Harris' character turns out to be freakishly colorful and vividly wild.
"He had very specific ideas for what he wanted to do, and I had very specific ideas, so we're working on melding those," said Murphy of Harris, in a report by TVLine.

Read more: http://www.ecumenicalnews.com/article/american-horror-story-freak-show-cast-update-spoilers-neil-patrick-plays-chameleon-salesman-27170#ixzz3J3OKmEeo

SisterNightroad

11-21-2014, 04:25 PM

Welcome to another episode of ‘Soap Opera: Freak Show,’ in which we’ve (hopefully) reached peak melodrama. Although Jessica Lange’s Elsa subdues herself somewhat in “Test of Strength,” allowing for more theatrical performances from the father/son bonding of Michael Chiklis’ Dell and Evan Peters’ Jimmy, there’s still way too much heightened drama and not enough of that horror that the show’s title promises. And where’s all the bonkers weirdness that we’ve come to love from Ryan Murphy and Co.? This season has worked itself into a woefully boring rut.

To say that this season of ‘American Horror Story’ is spiraling out of control would suggest that there’s an abundance of action or that Murphy has piled on too much of his wacky plotting—that’s simply not the case, particularly in the last two weeks, which have been increasingly melodramatic. ‘AHS’ has never been a subtle series, nor does it typically employ restraint in a manner that resembles anything rational or traditional. That’s part of the charm, for better (Chloe Sevigny all mutated and crawling across a playground) and occasionally for worse (aliens). I keep going back to ‘Asylum’ as a reference point because it’s the series at its best, thematically, narratively, visually, and yes, it even managed to occasionally find moments of subtlety—but it was the Ryan Murphy version of subtlety, and that was totally OK.

“Test of Strength” finds the series, for the second week in a row, restraining itself in a manner that is far too normal for what this series is and what we’ve come to expect—especially for a season that’s focusing on a freak show, and has characters like Dandy, a Bret Easton Ellis sociopathic prototype, or Denis O’Hare’s Stanley, who’s a totally delightful nutjob just waiting to happen (especially if his past characters on this series are any indication). Restraint—at least not in the way normal human beings know the word—is not in Ryan Murphy’s vocabulary, and yet here we are, watching a f—king soap opera.

There is, however, blossoming potential in the creeping, old Hollywood horror of Dot and Bette’s return from Dandy’s candy-coated manor to Elsa’s Cabinet of Curiosities, where Bette has become a fame-hungry egomaniac, convinced that she is the next Eve Arden. The twins make financial demands, and Bette dyes her hair blonde and acts like a diva, and the show begins to once again insinuate the sisterly terror. With Dot secreting notes to Elsa and making plans to meet with the surgeon in Chicago who separated the Brodie twins, we get the show’s first signs of artistic life since perhaps the ‘Edward Mordrake’ double feature, with a splitscreen correspondence that places either Dot or Elsa as romantic black and white floating heads—an homage to an era that gave birth to Lange, and a world in which Dot and Elsa will never thrive.

While Lange gives her jaw a rest and doesn’t chew on the scenery much this week (not that all that chewing is a bad thing), Dell and Jimmy pick up the slack when Jimmy promises to kick Dell out for attacking Amazon Eve. Of course Dell won’t admit that Stanley has a gun pointed at his balls, and instead gets his son wasted and finally admits that yes, he’s Jimmy’s father, just before he almost murders the kid. This is the part on the soap opera where the violins would crescendo, the cameras would cut back and forth to close-ups on their watery eyes, and we’d cut to commercial just as Dell admits his parentage. Instead, the two hug and stumble off drunkenly into the morning, and Dell murders Ma Petit.

Kathy Bates once again delivers one hell of a monologue this week through her beard slightly more tolerable accent (or am I just used to it now?), as she tells Jimmy that they can’t rely on the world or the police or anyone else to right the wrongs done by people like Dell, or to enact justice, especially when it comes to outsiders like them. It’s especially painful for Ethel after learning of her doctor’s suicide, and Bates delivers the monologue with such moving sincerity. She always manages to find the utmost, deepest humanity in these very particular characters and bizarre moments. You kind of just throw your hands up like, yeah, she did it again. She got me.

It takes most of the episode and sitting through a ridiculous amount of wheel-turning drama before “Test of Strength” builds momentum to anything resembling good: Dot and Bette’s conflict of interest and Sarah Paulson’s captivating performance as not one, but both women evolve is something special and unsettling, and I hope I’m not foolish to believe it’s building to something truly wicked. On the other hand, Dell’s murder of Ma Petit wasn’t the gasp-worthy moment that I think the show was aiming for, given that his introduction in the first episode was outright villainous and the backpedaling to try and give him depth ever since hasn’t entirely worked. But seeing a tiny, dead Ma Petit in a jar in a museum finally raises the stakes just enough to promise that maybe ‘Freak Show’ is finally ready to stop spinning its wheels and get back into gear.

Additional Thoughts:

This week, Jimmy sings Nirvana’s “Come As You Are,” and ‘Freak Show’ has officially gone too far with this music thing. I was on board with Jessica Lange singing David Bowie in 1952. I was even OK with Lana Del Rey and Fiona Apple. But angst-ridden Evan Peters abruptly singing Nirvana is just too much and too on the nose. We started the season with Mica Levi’s score from ‘Under the Skin,’ and we’ve now moved on to these obvious, jarring, pretty mainstream songs. Get it together, ‘AHS.’
Hey, remember when Gabourey Sidibe was on this show?
I kind of want Dell and Stanley to hook up, though.
Do we think Stanley and Dandy are going to team up to try and murder everyone? Probably.
Amazon Eve is a queen. Do not mess with Amazon Eve.
Oh, and I guess we should talk about Nurse Penny, whose dad had her face tattooed and her tongue forked so she could be a real freak. What a cool, thoughtful dad. That was as close as this episode got to be being bonkers. I guess.

Read More: American Horror Story: Freak Show Review: "Test of Strength" | http://screencrush.com/american-horror-story-freak-show-review-test-of-strength/?trackback=tsmclip

SisterNightroad

12-05-2014, 08:05 AM

‘American Horror Story: Freak Show’ Review: “Blood Bath”
Britt Hayes | a day ago

There is a figurative line, somewhere on television, between tedious melodrama and soap opera theatrics, and yet another line exists over which you can cross into the blissful, Lynchian territory of self-awareness and not-quite-rightness. In that surreal place, soapy theatrics and camp are embraced satirically and knowingly because this is a place that looks like somewhere you know but feels like an unsettling dream. I don’t think ‘American Horror Story’ is on the same level as David Lynch, but I’m starting to convince (delude) myself into thinking that maybe after tonight’s “Blood Bath,” it’s striving for the same tonal quality.

Or maybe I’m high. I don’t know. Sometimes after watching an episode of ‘Freak Show’ lately, I just want to fill in these reviews with: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Much of the first half of “Blood Bath” serves to remind us that things haven’t changed much since we took last week off for the holiday—this is a little disappointing in the sense that so much of these recent episodes have been nothing more than slow-moving drama, with Ryan Murphy and Co. abnormally restraining themselves. Or maybe we’ve just gotten so used to the much-ness of ‘American Horror Story’ that the antics of ‘Freak Show’ seem terribly basic. One of the things that the series hasn’t forgotten how to do well is give its leading women some fierce monologues and duets to sink their teeth into, and tonight sets the stage for one such scene between Jessica Lange’s Elsa and Kathy Bates’ Ethel.

With the latter accusing the former of killing Ma Petite and waving a gun around with every intent to off them both, we knew one of those women wasn’t walking out of the tent alive—and we knew Elsa (or better yet, Lange) wasn’t biting it so soon, especially not with that desperate hunger for fame yet to be sated. Again, what’s most irksome about this season is the repetitive nature: Lange is once again the fierce, complex matriarchal figure whose ethics are little more than posturing, and who will sacrifice others to save herself. We’ve seen her play this character in every version of this show, and whether she’s in a nun’s habit or wearing a little black dress (default setting), her type is the same. That’s not to say that Lange doesn’t play the hell out of that type and get us to somehow empathize with these deeply flawed characters, but it’s all become so expected.

Elsa and Ethel’s showdown breathes life into a limp first half hour, aided in part by Finn Wittrock’s continued Patrick Bateman-esque take on Dandy Mott. But even the stuff going on at the Mott Mansion reads more like shenanigans than actual horror, no matter how hard Dandy is trying to intimidate his mother into killing Regina before she can alert the cops to her mother’s disappearance.

There’s something about the tone later in the episode that approaches this genuine level of self-aware satire, where it knows it’s being melodramatic and soapy, but that maybe that’s kind of the point? Perhaps we’ve been approaching this season all wrong. Perhaps we’re watching it incorrectly, waiting for some over-the-top, absurd horror that will never come because that’s what this show has trained us to want, like the audience members who attend Elsa’s Cabinet of Curiosities, waiting for the Freak Show to begin. Maybe the horror is of a more human nature, and perhaps this soap opera version of the show is as it was meant to be—and it’s supposed to be amusing instead of serious. Maybe Ryan Murphy spent some time watching ‘Twin Peaks’ and the tone of this season is just another reference on the giant pile of references in the Big Ryan Murphy Bonkers Blender.

Or maybe I am really deluding myself. Maybe I am trying to make this season something better than it actually is or will ever be. What happens is that, later in the episode, the dialogue is so thick with that serious melodrama, while the scenes are so ridiculous: Penny and the ‘Freak Show’ ladies kidnap her father with the intent to tar and feather, mutilate, and murder him, but Penny lets him go after a big speech from Esmerelda—cut short by Desiree with our social commentary of the week, calling Esmerelda out on her white girl privilege. All of this while Lee Tergesen sits covered in fake tar and feathers. Then there’s Elsa’s newest recruit, Ima, a very large woman rescued from a weight loss institution. Elsa suggests that Ima is more than just a way to help save the show from the loss of two of its players, but that she had Jimmy’s needs in mind; he can snuggle up to Ima’s bosom and it’ll feel just like Ethel’s … and then he actually does it. And of course there’s Dandy and Gloria, two characters who could probably actually support my thesis/delusion about Ryan Murphy striving for some Lynchian tonal quality.

Dandy kills one of the best parts of this entire series far too early, and then proceeds to bathe in her blood like a gender-bent Elizabeth Bathory, which is probably a metaphor for something to do with how much I hate what just happened here.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Additional Thoughts:

Hey, Gabourey Sidibe is actually on this show after all.
‘AHS’ has this structural/narrative rule which insists that one or more main characters must sit a week out every few episodes. I wasn’t distracted by the absence of the Tattler twins, and only reminded myself that they were gone near the end of the episode, but I’m trying to recall if they employed this tactic in previous seasons. Is this perhaps Murphy and Co.’s way of trying to avoid their old habit of overstuffing each episode? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?
RIP Gloria Mott. Frances Conroy, you are a treasure. I assume she’ll be back next season, which some fans have already speculated is about aliens/Tilda Swintons.
Finn Wittrock’s butt, ladies and gentlemen.
This may have been the episode that gave me Stockholm Syndrome. I don’t know. We’ll see next week.

Read More: 'American Horror Story: Freak Show' Review: "Blood Bath" | http://screencrush.com/american-horror-story-freak-show-review-blood-bath/?trackback=tsmclip

SisterNightroad

12-05-2014, 08:10 AM

The 39 Most Disturbing Moments on American Horror Story
By Dan Reilly

From the first minutes of Murder House through the latest episode of Freak Show, American Horror Story is responsible for countless nightmares thanks to its weekly doses of disturbing moments. Co-creators Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk (and their writers) consistently outdo themselves when it comes to grisly killings, brutal sex scenes, and creepy characters, campily intermingling supernatural tropes with terrors that are grounded in reality. Here are AHS's craziest, most distressing scenes. (Spoilers follow, obviously.)

39. Lana Revisits Briarcliff (Asylum)
Lana's (Sarah Paulson) exposé on the her former home sees her go back to the horribly understaffed asylum with a camera crew. Their footage — lo-fi, grainy film stock — underscores the creepy, sad images of feces-covered inmates living in almost total darkness. The footage is a veritable remake of Geraldo Rivera's Peabody-winning report about a Staten Island hospital, Willowbrook: The Last Great Disgrace, which can be partially seen in the disturbing documentary Cropsey.

38. The Robot Spider (Asylum)
As if losing your wife to an alien abduction and then getting committed to an asylum for murders you didn't commit wasn't bad enough, Kit Walker (Evan Peters) is forced to undergo the experiments of Dr. Arthur Arden (James Cromwell), the Nazi who helps run Briarcliff Mental Institution. Poking around Kip's neck, the demented doc discovers a microchip that suddenly sprouts six legs and tries to scurry away. What's even creepier is that we never find out what this little E.T. robot is after.

37. A Smart Meal (Murder House)
Vivien Harmon (Connie Britton) is so concerned for her unborn child that she'll do anything to make sure it arrives healthy — including eat brains, as suggested by housekeeper Moira (Frances Conroy). Watching Vivien push through her plate of raw, bloody brain is one of series' more gag-worthy moments.

36. Sad Strokes (Murder House)
Early in the series pilot, recently unfaithful husband Ben Harmon (Dylan McDermott) decides to wax his carrot while looking out his bedroom window, only to break down in tears over his past dalliances. He then spots Larry (Denis O'Hare), a man with horrible burn scars, standing on his lawn and watching.

35. Delphine LaLaurie's Singing Head (Coven)
After getting decapitated, immortal slave-torturer Delphine LaLaurie (Kathy Bates) is forced by Queenie (Gabourey Sidibe) to watch Roots. With her head plopped atop a tray table, LaLaurie pleads, "Not that jungle music!" Then, resigned to her fate, starts singing the 19th-century southern anthem "Dixie" to drown out the TV. It'd be funnier if it weren't for the pieces of LaLaurie's roughly severed neck that move along to her wails.

34. Cordelia and the Shears (Coven)
First Cordelia Foxx (Sarah Paulson) gets blinded with acid, then gets new eyes thanks to the unwilling donations of two other witches. While blind, she develops a powerful ability to "see" the past, though the transplants somehow take it away. When a potion fails to bring back her second sight, she heads to the school shed and stabs her eyes out with garden shears. Simple and effective.

33. Jimmy Darling's Side Gig (Freak Show)
Born with the fused-digit condition known as syndactyly, Jimmy Darling (Peters) has hands that resemble long claws. When not at the circus, the "Lobster Boy" makes a few extra bucks working parties for unsatisfied housewives with his natural gift. Leaving little to the imagination, the showrunners decided to show Jimmy shoving his malformed hand up a customer's skirt, then smiling broadly as she cries out with pleasure.

32. Night Drive (Asylum)
Any fan of Lost knows that the appearance of William Mapother, the actor who played murderous Other Ethan Rom, is a bad omen. On AHS, Mapother played a motorist who rescues Lana, only to start ranting against his unfaithful wife and women in general. The relief of Lana's safety quickly gives way to fright and the driver shoots himself in the head, wrecking the car and landing Lana back in Briarcliff.

31. The Death of Marie Laveau (Coven)
The feud between Marie Laveau (Angela Bassett) and LaLaurie eventually ends with the voodoo priestess getting hacked up by the socialite and her still-alive head being buried apart from the rest of her body. She eventually dies, as she's unable to fulfill one of those standard "make a human sacrifice once a year in order to remain immortal" contracts with the devilish spirit Papa Legba (Lance Reddick).

30. Delphine's Skin-care Regimen (Coven)
Delphine tries to remain youthful-looking with a nightly makeup ritual of blood that includes, at one point, the blood of her husband's illegitimate son.

29. Luke's Mom (Coven)
The attractive, sweet neighbor-boy is made all the more endearing when he makes it obvious that he'd rather spend time with Nan (Jamie Brewer), the kind witch with Down syndrome, over actress Madison Montgomery (Emma Roberts). His devout Christian mom Joan (Patti LuPone), however, declares him sinful inside and out for associating with the coven, and tries to cleanse his soul with a bleach enema. After Luke is smothered by his dear mother, Nan gets the ultimate revenge, using mind control to force Joan to drink her own bleach and die.

28. Kyle's Mom's (Coven)
As if it's not screwed-up enough that frat bro Kyle (Peters) got torn apart in a bus crash, then brought back to life in piecemeal Frankenstein fashion, AHS had to make it even more revolting by revealing that Kyle's mom had been sexually abusing him. Then they turn the screw even farther by showing her doing it again with his undead body. It's almost a relief to have this story line end with Kyle bludgeoning her to death with a trophy.

27. The Raspers (Asylum)
Arden's woods-dwelling experiments gone wrong are first glimpsed feeding on human body parts, then they start coming out of their hiding spaces to show off their deformities and flesh-devouring skills.

26. A Particular Taste (Asylum)
Both Thredsons – father Oliver (Zachary Quinto) and son Johnny (McDermott) — commit some horrible acts throughout Asylum. Their share plenty of dysfunctions, so we'll say that their thirst for breast milk from, respectively, Lana and a prostitute, is the least freaky of the bunch. Honorable mention goes to the scene where the elder Thredson kisses a corpse that reminds him of his mother while he's a medical student.

25. Spalding's Tongue (Coven)
Loyal Robichaux School servant Spalding (O'Hare) is mute. In flashbacks, it's revealed that the longtime butler removed his tongue so he wouldn't be forced to the truth about a murder committed by his beloved, coven Supreme Fiona Goode (Jessica Lange). The sight of his bottom-to-top straight-razor slicing is thankfully brief.

24. The Undead Threesome (Coven)
In the AHS universe, even dead teens have hormones and questionable decision-making skills. Here, resurrected Madison and pieced-together Kyle have found a mutual attraction. Zoe, still reeling from the fact that she kills people by having sex with them, is shocked to interrupt her undead pals getting busy. But rather than run away, she readily joins in the fun when Madison points out that her killer lady-parts don't matter when her partners are already kaput.

23. The Deathly Blow Job (Murder House)
Undead maid Moira doesn't want the Harmons to sell their haunted house, so she seduces real-estate agent Joe Escandarian, bringing him down to the basement for a bit of naughty fun. But, of course, things take a turn for the worse when, while going down on him, Moira bites Joe's penis off, blood covering her chin as he realizes what happened to him. Then Larry and neighbor Constance (Lange) strangle him to death.

22. Killer Santa (Asylum)
In one night, Leigh Emerson (Ian McShane) kills 18 people while dressed as a psychotic St. Nick. Of course, he gets a chance to tack on a few more victims in Briarcliff, caning and attempting to rape Sister Jude (Lange), then crucifying the asylum's head priest, Monsignor Howard (Joseph Fiennes), before escaping and murdering seven nuns. Murphy and Falchuk love taking iconic images and messing with them.

21. Sexy Freaks (Freak Show)
While trying to save her dying freak circus, Elsa Mars (Lange) sneaks her way into a hospital to meet conjoined twins Bette and Dot Tattler (Paulson) by kidnapping a candy striper. When the young nurse sobers up, she confronts Elsa and threatens to blow the whistle on the plot, only to find out that it was all much more harrowing than she realized — in the form of a movie that depicts her taking place in a freak orgy. Even after you're used to the freaks' abnormalities, the drugged-out look on the nurse's face as the freaks wait their turn is one of the new season's most chilling moments.

20. Sex As Death (Coven)
If only Zoe (Taissa Farmiga) knew she was a witch with particular powers, she might not have killed boyfriend Charlie with her witch vagina. Seeing Charlie bleed all over the place inspired millions of people to think, Well, at least my first time wasn't that bad.

19. The Secret Son (Murder House)
Children's toys are always a guaranteed way to scare viewers, and AHS used that to full advantage with the unseen ghost's fondness for playing with a rubber ball in the darkest ares of the Harmon house. It's even more disturbing once you first get your glimpse of the tragically deformed spirit and learn he was Constance's son Beau, chained in the attic and smothered by Larry.

18. Lana's Therapy (Asylum)
The 1964 setting of Asylum adds in the element of homosexuality being a punishable crime. During her incarceration, Lana willingly undergoes aversion therapy to try to "cure" her lesbianism. The unflinching scene involves her vomiting while looking at a nude photo of her now-murdered ex-girlfriend and masturbating while touching a nude male inmate, only to throw up again.

17. The Ultrasound (Murder House)
Vivien gets a big warning sign after she realizes her baby is developing far too rapidly and a technician faints during the ultrasound. Later, the hysterical tech says she saw the antichrist in Vivien's womb. Like in Rosemary's Baby, the film it is referencing, the unborn devil's features are left up to the viewer's imagination.

16. Spalding's Dolls (Coven)
A tongueless old man having formal tea parties with dozens of dolls is one thing, but AHS ramped up the oddness when it showed Spalding adding the corpse of Madison to his collection. It only gets worse when we see him trying to remove her from a box, only to have her arm come loose from her rotten body.

15. The Massacre (Murder House)
From Columbine on, school shootings have been an all-too-regular American occurrence. Yet even given our familiarity with these tragedies (or perhaps because there have been so many), the rampage of Harmon neighbor Tate (Peters) is excruciating to watch. Tate dons skeleton makeup and kills 15 people, picking off his classmates before escaping to his home and getting killed by police.

14. The Frat House (Coven)
You don't show a frat party these days unless there's going to be some form of sexual violence. With those expectations in mind, the tension builds and builds as it becomes apparent that some of the bros are planning to take advantage of movie-star Madison. At every moment, viewers hope she'll be able to use her powers to figure out what they have in store or hold them off, or that Zoe will somehow come to the rescue, but the help arrives too late. Some frat brothers rape Madison while others look on and film it with their phones. For a show that can be full of supernatural nonsense, this most real and common nightmare is one of the most disturbing of all.

13. A Bloody Honeymoon (Asylum)
It's obvious something terrible is going to happen to Adam Levine and his new bride as they break into the supposedly haunted ruins of Briarcliff in the opening scenes of Asylum. And so it does — Levine's arm gets ripped off, and their honeymoon goes south. The greatest shock arrives at the first glimpse of serial killer Bloody Face — who is so named because he wears a mask made up of his victims' skin and teeth. Even Leatherface might get a little queasy at this knockoff.

12. The Minotaur Sex Scene (Coven)
Somehow, between his death in the 1800s and the present, Bastien goes from slave wearing a bull's head to an actual minotaur, kept alive by Marie. So when he comes to the Academy to murder Delphine, Queenie decides that the best solution to the problem is to seduce the beast. The flaw in the logic becomes apparent soon into their rough tryst when the minotaur somehow rips Queenie's stomach open, almost killing her.

11. Lana's Coat-Hanger Abortion (Asylum)
When you're pregnant with the baby of a serial-killer rapist and the only people you can turn to are unsympathetic nuns, you might take extreme measures. Lana attempts to terminate her pregnancy with a coat hanger, and blood pours out onto the floor in one of the starkest abortion scenes to ever appear on TV.

10. Violet Discovers the Truth (Murder House)
No matter how tired you are of Sixth Sense–style "they were dead the whole time!" plot twists, finding out that Violet had, in fact, killed herself was still a shocker in the first season. The reveal was even better — the audience and Violet get confirmation of her fate when she sees her own bug-ridden corpse hidden in the house's crawlspace.

9. Delphine's Attic of Horrors (Coven)
A bunch of legends surround the real-life Madame LaLaurie, but really, it was discovered that she had tortured her slaves, supposedly mutilating some of them in her attic. The fictional version features all sorts of torture cages and iron restraints, but the minotaur scene is probably the most wretched. After finding one of her daughters with the slave Bastien, LaLaurie beats him, chains him in the attic, and places a hollowed-out bull's head on top of his.

8. Elsa's Past (Freak Show)
Prior to the second part of Freak Show's Halloween episode, all we really knew about Elsa was that she is a German woman, missing the bottom halves of her legs, who desperately wants to be a star performer. But then we learned about how she originally got a taste of the spotlight — as the biggest attraction at an anything-goes sex club in 1932 Weimar. Rather than fornicate with her clients, she was actually a top-billed dominatrix whose methods of humiliation and torture included making a German soldier act like a schnauzer and, when he needed to use the bathroom, sit on a toilet with spikes in the seat. Her act became so popular that she attracted an audience to watch her inflict this suffering, and some of those fans gave her one ghastly star moment — as the focus of a snuff film, where she was drugged and had her legs cut off by a chainsaw.

7. Necrophile (Asylum)
At long last, Dr. Thredson's secrets are exposed, and he'll be going to jail or the electric chair, but he has one more sick surprise for Lana: the fate of her girlfriend Wendy's body. He reveals he burned it, but not before using it for some sexual practice. The writers could have left it there, but then they had to go and show Thredson trying to do the deed with the corpse, only succeeding after he turned her over to avoid seeing her lifeless face. It's a classic AHS move: start with a ****ed-up situation, and take at least two steps further.

6. The Poker (Murder House)
Donning the Rubber Man suit, Tate murders gay couple Chad and Patrick, drowning the former in an apple-bobbing bin and beating the latter to the brink of death before sodomizing him with a fireplace poker, hook and all. Out of all the unnecessary acts of violence on AHS, this one takes the cake.

5. Schoolyard Shocker (Asylum)
Nymphomaniac Shelley (Chloë Sevigny) becomes the most gruesome of Arden's test subjects after he attempts to rape her but can't due to his deformed penis. He amputates her legs and gives her injections that rapidly turn her into a Rasper, but it's how she's discovered that is truly twisted. Sister Mary dumps her in an elementary schoolyard, where a little girl finds her trying to crawl up some stairs.

4. The Infantata (Murder House)
The basement creature was scary enough before we knew what it was — a baby that was dismembered by an angry beau in retaliation for an abortion that his doctor father performed on a young woman. The doc goes crazy with guilt and tries to rebuild his son, Thaddeus, from all the parts, which were mailed back to their house in jars, and the heart of another fetus.

3. The Clown (Freak Show)
Twisty (John Carroll Lynch) is one of the most disturbing characters we've seen on AHS. There are a few seconds where you think that, just maybe, he won't hurt that couple in the first episode. Then he bashes them with his bowling pins and stabs the boyfriend on their picnic blanket, a scene reminiscent of the unflinching lakeside murder in Zodiac. (Which also starred Lynch.) If Twisty's backstory didn't invoke some sympathy and have a sort-of happy ending, the scene where he talks to Edward Mordrake (Wes Bentley) through the remnants of the mouth he destroyed with a self-inflicted shotgun blast would be even more nightmarish.

2. The Rubber Man and Vivien (Murder House)
The original promos for American Horror Story made the Rubber Man look like some sort of insect ghost who just happened wear a latex BDSM outfit. It didn't quite pan out that way, and the scene where the Rubber Man comes into Vivien's room pretending to be Ben, and rapes her is the series' first "Whoa, they are really going there, aren't they?" moment. At that point, you have no idea if he's a ghost or just a perv living in the attic, but you know for sure that AHS is going to take you on one ****ed-up ride.

1. Thresdon's Horror Home (Asylum)
Throughout Asylum, there was always a sense that something had to be wrong with Dr. Thredson. It all becomes clear when he helps Lana escape from Briarcliff and brings her back to his home. As Lana notices a lampshade made out of what appears to be human skin and a candy bowl that resembles a piece of skull, it slowly dawns on her and the audience that Thredson is none other than Bloodyface. She discovers his "hobby" room and falls through a trapdoor into his basement, where the dead body of her girlfriend Wendy is laying on the floor. Of all the moments in three-plus seasons on AHS, every one in that basement — the rape, the breastfeeding, the skins — you want to block out of your memory.

http://www.vulture.com/2014/11/american-horror-story-most-shocking-disturbing-weirdest-creepy-scenes.html

The discovery of Violet's body should have been higher, for the rest I can agree.

SisterNightroad

12-12-2014, 06:28 AM

‘American Horror Story: Freak Show’ Review: “Tupperware Party Massacre”
Britt Hayes | a day ago

FX
Great news, everyone: The horror and darkness have creeped back into ‘American Horror Story’ at last. And while the continuing narrative of Jimmy the Hero vs. Dandy the Villain doesn’t quite manage to be something greater than the sum of its parts, the ‘Freak Show’ delivers the first solid episode in weeks. The ghosts of the past invade the present with a surreal quality that echoes the way Jimmy’s brain is clouded by alcohol, or the way Dell—through misery and frustrating uncertainty—writes and rewrites his intended suicide letter. But it’s Dandy and Stanley who bring the real discomfort and unease to “Tupperware Party Massacre.”

Perhaps it’s no coincidence that the week that ‘American Horror Story’ delivers the first unsettling and decent episode in weeks is the same week in which Jessica Lange takes her turn sitting out for most of the runtime. Lange’s presence still hangs around the periphery of every scene, even in her absence; she is the overbearing adopted mother of this show, after all. But no matter how much Elsa views herself as the maternal figure at the head of this makeshift family unit, she cannot replace Ethel for Jimmy, or Ma Petite for the whole camp.

The first few minutes of “Tupperware Party Massacre” evoke a very particular sort of reaction: that mixture of nervousness and discomfort that lends itself to baffled and uneasy laughter. I am speaking, of course, of Jimmy’s relationship with Ima, the show’s newest attraction. Jimmy makes Freud’s case in a matter of seconds, lustily feeding his new maternal figure and, lost in his boozy downward spiral of resentment and grief, having sex with her in a shed. If this show is building a narrative of hero vs. villain, this is the arc in which our hero resigns himself to misery after the loss of a loved one, punishing himself for that which is and was beyond his control.

The ghost of Kathy Bates’ Ethel appears to both Jimmy and Dell—for the former, she’s the voice of his own disappointment, the voice of reason he stifles with the bottle; for the latter, she’s the voice of condemnation and self-hatred, the voice Dell hears in his head which pushes him over the edge into a suicide attempt. And the truth is, when you have Kathy Bates, you don’t toss her away so easily. But the way Ethel is incorporated into the episode is both haunting and insightful: to a son, the voice of a beloved parent will forever be their internal voice of disappointment, and to a former husband, the voice of his ex-wife will always be the one that nags inside his head.

The pacing and plotting of tonight’s episode are more in line with the ‘American Horror Story’ we know and love: so many plot developments, so many unsettling moments, and so many totally bonkers developments. But perhaps the most poignant development of all is Bette and Dot’s decision to abstain from the surgery that would separate them, a decision that was Dot’s and Dot’s alone. The twins have a nice intimate moment with each other, and we see the strings of co-dependency that tie them together more tightly than any physical connection ever could. And although she’s rebuffed by Jimmy, I think Dot’s going to be OK, having finally realized that removing Bette would split her in two both literally and figuratively.

Perhaps the only misstep of the evening had to do with Gabourey Sidibe’s Regina, who slips in and out of the picture to interact with Dandy when it’s convenient. Where does Regina go while Dandy is out murdering people? Is she just sitting in one of the Mott mansion’s many rooms, clutching her purse nervously until she hears Dandy doing something strange? They didn’t have the Internet or cell phones back then, so maybe she was biding her time with a jigsaw puzzle. Who knows. What’s frustrating is how casually the show dispenses with Regina. It’s a missed opportunity to create some conflict to hinder Dandy. And here I thought Regina would be a stronger, no-nonsense character like her mother—she certainly was the first couple of times she appeared, but where did that version of Regina go? She was likely frightened off by the overbearing music during her confrontation with Dandy.

Regina issues aside, both Dandy and Stanley give tonight’s episode the horrific boost it needs. From Dandy’s titular “Tupperware Party Massacre” in which he creates a giant blood bath in a suburban pool, to Stanley’s general unpleasantness, this episode had plenty of cringe-worthy moments. Finn Wittrock is more imposing and unsettling when he turns on his confidence and charm; he is the insidious tendencies of white male privilege personified. And the scene between Stanley and Dell probably gave us the most terrifying moment of the episode, with Stanley using his unnaturally large penis to intimidate and mock Dell. Those slapping sounds were more upsetting than any amount of bloodshed.

And while tonight provided more disquieting and cringe-inducing moments than the last few weeks have offered, there was still plenty of melodrama, particularly from Jimmy’s drunken corner. But “Tupperware Party Massacre” managed to solidly blend together the drama with the horror, wisely allowing Sarah Paulson and Kathy Bates do most of the dramatic heavy-lifting, which in turn gave us moments that were intimate and meaningful—a nice contrast to Jessica Lange’s scenery-chewing (which is still always fantastic, by the way).

Additional Thoughts:

“You’re nothing. You could be a pillow, a donut, a sock.”—Esmerelda delivers the best diss of the week.
“I AM THE LAW!” Finn Wittrock just quoted ‘Judge Dredd’ while standing naked in front of a bathtub full of blood. Did this show just peak?
I love how baffled ghost Ethel is by the notion of Tupperware, like anyone would want to keep uneaten food.
As much as this episode prospered without Lange, I’ll be happy to have her back (presumably) in the next episode.
Stanley is so weird and creepy and hilarious. Please let Denis O’Hare do more things.

Read More: ‘American Horror Story’ Review: “Tupperware Party Massacre” | http://screencrush.com/american-horror-story-freak-show-review-tupperware-party-massacre/?trackback=tsmclip

SisterNightroad

12-12-2014, 07:52 AM

7 Times ‘American Horror Story’ Had The Best Butts On Television
Warning: Butts ahead.
by kat rosenfield 17 hours ago

Of all the freaky goodness to grace this season of “American Horror Story,” there’s one bit of freakiness that stands out more prominently than most. You might even say it (ahem) really sets the curve when it comes to what makes the show extra special.

We are, of course, talking about Dandy Mott’s butt.

In a banner year for appreciation of a nicely-rounded pair of buttocks, the petulant villain of “American Horror Story: Freak Show” is the latest character to show off a derriere extraordinaire. But this isn’t the first time our favorite horror show gave its audience an excellent rear view. Below, we round up all the best butts ever to feature in the series.

The Viking butt
Before Dandy Mott ever dropped his drawers, we were treated to this appetizer butt belonging to the nameless boy toy who shared a hotel room with Stanley.

The asylum butt
There was a full moon rising on the Season 2 premiere of “American Horror Story,” as Evan Peters’ butt made the first of many, many appearances.

The maid’s butt
You’ve gotta hand it to AHS for skewing objectification in a decidedly non-conventional direction. Consider: In a roundup of the best butts on the show, only one lady makes the list. And while her butt is definitely fabulous, she’s the least naked of all the entries.

Frankenbutt
Evan Peters is back, and buttier than ever, as a naked reanimated corpse having a tantrum in a trailer.

Bloody Face Butt
The way the light embraced the curves of Zachary Quinto’s butt was quite literally the only watchable thing about this scene.

A fine and Dandy butt
We’ve already mentioned the golden globes of Dandy Mott, but it wouldn’t be fair to talk about them without including some photographic evidence to support the conversation.

Dylan McDerm-butt
And finally, this is one time when “American Horror Story” most definitely didn’t save the best for last. In its very first season, viewers were treated to multiple full rear shots of Dylan McDermott… although we could have done without the one where he was naked, crying, and masturbating onto a baby changing table.

http://www.mtv.com/news/2023608/american-horror-story-butts/

SisterNightroad

12-13-2014, 08:03 AM

'AHS: Freak Show's' Sarah Paulson on Changes for Bette and Dot, Odds of Surviving

The only member of the returning cast to survive all seasons of the FX anthology horror drama (at least so far) discusses the new challenges of, and what's to come on, Freak Show and beyond

[Editor's note: This interview was conducted before Paulson was cast in Murphy's American Crime Story.]

On FX's American Horror Story, no one is safe — no one, it seems, but Sarah Paulson, who thus far has somehow managed to come out of the first three seasons (and at least half of its fourth) alive if not unscathed.
It's no small feat, and it hasn't gone unnoticed by Paulson, who told The Hollywood Reporter that she feels "very lucky" to have been allowed to take on such challenging and often polar opposite roles season after season. An actor who always tries "to find where the gravity lives, more than where the fun lives," Paulson has played a psychic, an unjustly institutionalized reporter, a witch and now conjoined twins on the anthology from Glee's Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk.
"That's the place I feel the most alive as an actor: When I'm having to push myself to go toward something that isn't comfortable for me or something that I don't have a tremendous amount of experience [with]. It's an opportunity to do better work," Paulson said.
THR caught up with Paulson to preview what's ahead for her characters, their odds of survival and more.

You've developed such an important relationship with Murphy over the years. Have you begun asking him to write in specific story or character challenges for you to tackle?
In the beginning I was just so glad to be there and so grateful for the opportunity. In the beginning [in Murder House], I had a part that was sort of ancillary to the story in Billie Dean Howard, and I liked playing her, but it wasn't a central figure to the show. So, by the time I came in as a regular in season two, I immediately came out of the gate with the greatest part I ever had in my life. So, there was not much for me to ask for or hope for or wish for; I felt like every time I got a script I just went, 'I cannot believe I get to do this!' That character was really the greatest gift that Ryan has ever given me, and he's given me a lot of gifts.
When season three came around, it didn't occur to me to say anything that I was hoping or wanting because I had had season two, and I thought, 'Well, there's no way I'm not going to have good stuff in season three!' I think I felt a part of the show in a real way, and I was sure he was going to throw something to me that was going to be challenging and exciting. Then when it came to Freak Show, Ryan had talked to me in the middle to end of season three and said, 'I want you to play conjoined twins next year, and I don't know how we're going to do it, but it's what you're going to do!' [He] wanted me to start reading about it and start thinking about it, and at first I thought I [wasn't] going to invest my time thinking about playing conjoined twins because I know what happens in that writers' room, and Ryan gets bursts of ideas, and they all come up with things, and stories sometimes take sharp left turns. And so, I thought, 'Until I know they're in the room writing, and [FX topper] John Landgraf knows what the season is, and everyone's been told what it is, and this is really happening, I'm not going to start working on it.' Because I didn't want to be disappointed, and I didn't want to have gotten really deep into some research only to find out that now I'm playing Twisty the Clown!
When I really knew it was happening for sure, the only thing that I requested from Ryan was that I wanted them to be from the South. That was the first and only time I've ever said to him, 'Can it be this?' And he said, 'Yeah, I love that; that's great.'

Why was that specific trait so important to you?
I liked the idea of them living in a place that was quite rural and away from a bustling town or a place they could be hidden. And of course there are small towns all over the country that are not in the south, but that is where my people are from: my grandmother's from Alabama, and my father's from the south, and I was born in Tampa, Fla. I felt [like] if I was going to play something so far from myself in terms of playing a person who had another head with two distinct personalities, I wanted something that was going to ground me and make me feel immediately connected to it, and I think the only thing I could come up with was a voice that I thought would be recognizable to me.

Playing two distinct personalities who are conjoined can limit some of the physicality they can express. How did you adjust to that extra challenge with the roles of Bette and Dot on Freak Show?
It's a real credit to Ryan and the writers on our show that the girls are really clearly marked on the page. I could really tell who they were in that first episode very clearly. I remembered thinking that I wanted Bette to have still have a sense of innocence and a sense of wonderment, and I wanted Dot to be much more cynical and have her way of dealing with the circumstances to kind of shut down [while] Bette was still a person who had hope and dreams and could live in her fantasy life. Within that process, Bette just kind of had a more open face, and Dot had more of a scowl, drawn-in, pulled face. Energetically there's something different coming out of both of them.
The physical world of everything is the girls wear different headbands; I wear a wedge that goes under my arm depending whomever I'm playing. It's to remind me that there's somebody else there because very early on when we were starting, and we were doing all of these fittings and trying to figure out how we were going to do all this, I said, 'What I'm afraid of is that when I'm not wearing the animatronic that's used for high and wide shots, I'm not going to feel the weight of having something attached to me.' And so I came up with this idea to have something that goes under my armpit that gives me a sense of width and spatially I can remember that there is another person there.

Your characters on the previous two seasons (Lana on Asylum and Cordelia on Coven) were really the heroines of the shows. How do you feel Bette and Dot fit into such a role?
I do think they are the heart of the show in the sense that from the very beginning [of Freak Show, the story] was through their eyes in learning about Elsa's [Jessica Lange] Cabinet of Curiosities. It is through them that we entered the world, and so I think it is through them that the audience can hold some of the story. I almost imagine them as one heroine as opposed to just one of them having a distinct title that way. Something happens in [the Dec. 10 episode, "Tupperware Party Massacre"] that changes the course for them in terms of them maybe having a little bit more of a sense of togetherness. I know that sounds funny considering they're very much physically together all of the time, but they've been very much at odds. And something happens that I think draws them to more of a common purpose.

What kind of changes do the events of "Tupperware Party Massacre" cause in Bette and Dot?
I'm used to having them be at such odds with one another and wanting such incredibly different things and seeing the world differently. Let's just put it this way: they start to see the world in a similar way. And that was a new thing. Dot's voice changes. My way into Dot really involved a darkness and almost a forehead that was just tight, and some of that has changed. Bette's voice is much higher and so open and sweet; to me, that isn't a problem [now] because Bette doesn't have to change. It's Dot who goes through something — who has something happen internally for her. And that was a very strange phenomenon that happened with me where I thought, 'I do not know how to do this anymore.' And it took me a minute, and I kept asking for more takes because I was finding my voice. And then I thought, 'Maybe that's OK because when a person changes — when a person has some kind of internal shift and maybe some part of the way they moved through the world was a self-protective way, and that starts to crack a little bit, and they start to come into their own in a different way, maybe all of that tightness in her voice did relax a little bit.' Something about her sound could be different. I think from a performance level and a psychological level, it's sort of a profound way of thinking about it.

The story has diverged from Bette and Dot as performers in Elsa's show. Does that mean you won't have any more musical numbers this season?
I am not doing any more musical numbers this season. Of all of the things I've done on American Horror Story, that might be one of the most horrifying for me personally. I'm not a singer. I've been told by many members of my family for many years that I'm not. So, when Ryan said I was going to do this, I was so petrified. And the good news is that Jessica has an excellent vocal teacher. She can put out an album at this point with all the songs that she's done, not just on American Horror Story, but in movies, too. This guy named Bob Garrett who's incredible music teacher, he really specializes in helping actors who don't sing, sing. He came to New Orleans and was working with Jessica and was working with me every day. He charted — he literally was writing things down with little bubbles or dots ascending or descending depending on where the notes were supposed to go. He stood with me in the recording booth. I worked my ass off. It was the scariest thing, and I've done a lot of **** on this show! It's very vulnerable to sing — especially if you've been told you can't do it! The last thing you want is to do it on national television, let alone have it released on iTunes. The thought of it kept me up at night!

You also have a distinct honor on American Horror Story as the sole survivor of each season. Can the streak continue?
I have hope that they will survive the season only because I love them so much, and the idea of having to film something like that is quite terrifying to me, actually. Call it method, call it what you want, but there's no way when I'm doing these things to not imagine that they're real and true. Otherwise I don't know how to do it; I don't know how to play it unless I really put myself into that reality. So the idea that I would have to do that, it's hard for me to even talk about; it makes my throat close up; it makes me upset! But this is American Horror Story, and people have to die. It's not a world in which anyone is ever safe. Do I like that so far I'm the only actor in the history of American Horror Story to survive every season? Yes, I do. Is that going to last? I really don't know. I like the title, though — believe me!

Have you begun thinking about what's next for you after Freak Show? Would you be up for season five of American Horror Story or perhaps Murphy's other upcoming FX anthology American Crime Story?
My focus will always be on American Horror Story for as long as he'll have me. I have never felt so completely seen by another director or producer or person before in terms of his willingness time and time again to give me something to do that I didn't even think I was capable of doing. I don't know why in the world I'd want to go elsewhere when I'm getting the best deal in town. I absolutely want to do season five; I hope he asks me to do it, but I haven't had those conversations yet. [But] I would also love to work with Ryan in a world that didn't involve me having two heads or gouged out eyes [Coven] or breastfeeding my 35-year-old son [Asylum]. This world is surreal, and we absolutely go places you could never go on other shows. I love that world, and I love playing that world because anything goes. We go pretty far and wide with things, and the show can support it [but] I would also love to work with him in a world where there [are] more boundaries. It would be very interesting to see what could happen there. I've been spoiled, to be quite frank. He's been very, very good to me, and I've been doing this long enough to know how rare it is to have someone look at you and go, 'I want you to do this, and I know you can.' Long ago, when he said, 'two heads,' I thought, 'Yeah, that's never going to happen,' but then I got that first episode, and I couldn't believe what I got to do with these two girls. It makes me quite emotional because I know how hard it is to find, and I've been very lucky.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/ahs-freak-shows-sarah-paulson-754755

SisterNightroad

12-14-2014, 09:51 AM

‘Scream Queens’ will be ‘American Horror Story’ as a Comedy
Jacqueline Sahagian
December 09, 2014

The creator behind FX’s popular horror anthology series American Horror Story and Fox’s comedy musical Glee is making a new horror anthology for Fox — this one a comedy called Scream Queens. Ryan Murphy has been such a successful showrunner for the network that Fox ordered Scream Queens straight-to-series without even knowing who the series’ stars were going to be back in October, but now we know which actresses landed the coveted female leads.What do you think?

Emma Roberts, who has been a part of American Horror Story‘s ensemble cast in its third and fourth seasons, will star alongside one of the most iconic scream queens of all time, Halloween‘s Jamie Lee Curtis, Deadline reports. As far as horror films go, Curtis has also been in Halloween II, Prom Night, The Fog, and Terror Train. Aside from the third and fourth seasons of American Horror Story, Roberts was also in Scream 4.What do you think?

At first it sounds like this will just be a repeat of American Horror Story, but instead of being a dark, twisted drama, Murphy has said he wants Scream Queens to be both true horror and comedy. In an anthology format like American Horror Story, each season of the show will have a different storyline and characters. “We hope to create a whole new genre – comedy-horror – and the idea is for every season to revolve around two female leads,” Murphy told Deadline when the show was picked up by Fox. The first season is set to take place at a college campus that is experiencing a rash of murders.What do you think?

Murphy got the full season order for the new show because he’s one of Fox’s most successful and trusted television creators. Glee and American Horror Story have been two of Fox’s most successful programs. Fox TV Group Chairmen Dana Walden and Gary Newman said when they gave the 15-episode order that, “We loved every element of the pitch for this show — the genre-bending concept, which blends true horror with big comedic moments; the diverse and unforgettable characters and reuniting the phenomenal creative team that delivered Glee,” per Deadline.

Read more: http://wallstcheatsheet.com/entertainment/scream-queens-will-be-american-horror-story-as-a-comedy.html/?a=viewall#ixzz3Lsr46khl

SisterNightroad

12-15-2014, 09:17 AM

‘American Crime Story’ Will Live Up to High Expectations
Jacqueline Sahagian
December 12, 2014

There’s been lots of big casting news from the world of Fox creative brainchild Ryan Murphy this week. After it was announced that Jamie Lee Curtis and Emma Roberts would star on the first season of Murphy’s new Fox horror-comedy hybrid, Scream Queens, news has now come out that Cuba Gooding Jr. has been tapped to star as O.J. Simpson on the first season of American Horror Story spinoff American Crime Story. He will appear on the show alongside AHS alum Sarah Paulson as the Simpson trial’s prosecutor, Marcia Clark, Deadline reports.

Like the highly successful American Horror Story, American Crime Story will have an anthology format. Crime Story will tell the story of a different true American crime each season, starting with the O.J. Simpson trial. The story will be based on the book The Run of His Life: The People vs. O.J. Simpson and will look at the case from the perspective of the lawyers working behind the scenes of the media and public eyes.

Paulson has been a fixture on American Horror Story from the beginning and has been nominated for Emmys for her work on the Asylum and Coven seasons. She’s currently playing a two-headed woman on the fourth season, Freak Show.

Gooding Jr. can currently be seen in Selma, the film about Martin Luther King Jr. and the civil rights marches in Selma, Alabama. After winning a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for Jerry Maguire in 1996, the actor never again reached the same critical success. Murphy has helped revive the careers of actresses Jessica Lange and Kathy Bates in a unique way with American Horror Story, and Gooding Jr. may be hoping for some similar TV magic.

Other crime anthology series, like True Detective and Fargo, have also been very successful recently, and added some career-making work to the résumés of movie stars like Matthew McConaughey, Woody Harrelson, and Billy Bob Thornton. Murphy has already shown that he knows how to work the anthology format over the course of multiple seasons, as well as coax award-winning performances from his actors.

The Simpson trial is a good place for American Crime Story to start. Given the attention the case received when under trial back in 1995, 20 years later is a good time to bring about a fresh perspective to the case. And given the racial undertones involved in the case, including the LAPD’s history with the African-American community, as well as the racial divide between how Americans interpreted the results of the case, going back to explore the O.J. Simpson trial is a timely subject given the recent issues surrounding Ferguson and police brutality.

“The O.J. case was as tragic as it was fascinating — it seemed like everyone had a stake in the outcome. It was really the beginning of the modern tabloid age,” Murphy said when the subject matter of the show’s first season was announced, per Deadline. Now that Murphy’s found his O.J., American Crime Story is shaping up to be one of the most anticipated shows of the coming year.

Read more: http://wallstcheatsheet.com/entertainment/american-crime-story-will-live-up-to-high-expectations.html/?a=viewall#ixzz3LyYyBP81

SisterNightroad

12-18-2014, 05:26 PM

‘American Horror Story: Freak Show’ Review: “Orphans”
Britt Hayes

For the second week in a row, ‘American Horror Story’ has delivered a pretty solid episode—it could be due in part to the increasingly smaller number of carnival performers combined with the show’s rotating system, which makes at least one cast member (or attraction, in the parlance of a sideshow) sit out each week in order to focus its narrative efforts elsewhere. And maybe “Orphans” works because it tells a story that’s genuinely sad, which accentuates the horror of the hour. And maybe I also think this episode is great because Lily Rabe reprises her role as Sister Mary Eunice, and she is a total queen.

Don’t get me wrong, there are things in this week’s ‘Freak Show’ that are a little sloppy, but overall “Orphans” is probably as close to riveting as this show can get without entirely pushing you to the edge of your seat. Jessica Lange’s opening soliloquy is beautifully restrained and thoughtful, as death and tragedy continue to be frequent visitors at Fraulein Elsa’s Cabinet of Curiosities. This week brings the death of Pepper’s mate, Salty, whose death occurs off-screen, leaving us to ponder if it was truly a natural death or if the insidious and greedy Stanley was the culprit.

Following the departure of Salty, we learn of Pepper’s history through second-hand stories and flashbacks as Elsa tells of how she came to adopt Pepper as her first performer, adding Ma Petite soon after to start their curious, makeshift family unit under the tent. Pepper’s mind may not be fully-developed, but she doesn’t lack maternal instincts or the desire for special companionship, so Elsa finds and adopts Salty, and it’s not long before Elsa is officiating an adorable wedding. This past Elsa is still an opportunist, but she’s much more kinder and loving and protective than the current Elsa, who has become quite the jaded narcissist.

This week mostly belongs to Pepper’s sad story, which is sidetracked occasionally by Desiree and Esmerelda, as the latter allows her emotions to get the best of her, botching a fake fortune-telling for Desiree and her new boyfriend. Ultimately, Esmerelda, caving under the weight of her guilt, comes clean and takes Desiree to the museum, where she can see why “Richard,” aka Stanley, has been hanging around. With only a few episodes left, we needed Esmerelda to break and tell someone what’s been going on—the carnival folk wouldn’t have figured it out on their own, and Elsa is so blinded by Richard’s false promises of fame that she’s willfully ignoring her responsibilities as a maternal figure.

Stanley pays Jimmy a visit with the promise of a star lawyer, but Jimmy doesn’t get much to do this week aside from some brooding and frustrated theatrics. Same for the Tattler twins, whose only appearance this week involves trying to hand Esmerelda their savings to get Jimmy out on bail.

“Orphans” proves that what this show needs isn’t restraint in the narrative sense, but restraint in the number of players. Too often this season it’s felt as though someone is spinning plates at the circus, with every plate representing a different narrative thread. At the same time, the tone has been largely soapy and melodramatic, which would be fine if there was some genuine horror in ‘American Horror Story’ this year. But since Edward Mordrake came and went and we lost Twisty the terrifying clown, the horror has been mostly explored via human nature and greed—not exactly the scary stuff you have in mind when watching this series.

Pepper’s story continues as Elsa drops her off with her estranged alcoholic sister, Alicia, and her husband. The time jumps ahead 10 years, to Alicia dropping Pepper off at the Briarcliff asylum from season 2. Alicia recounts the story of how Pepper came to live with her and how Pepper soon became a handful to our old friend, Sister Mary Eunice. Through flashbacks (in a flash-forward, no less), we watch what truly happened, contradicting Alicia’s voiceover. At the age of 50, Alicia finally had the baby with her husband that she always wanted. In her version, Pepper’s maternal instincts gave way to killer instincts, and she chopped off the baby’s ears and drowned him during a bath.

The truth is far more horrific: Alicia left Pepper to care for the baby while she stayed in bed, getting drunk day in and day out. She never formed a bond with her own child, and as she and her husband felt increasingly reckless and saddled with responsibilities they didn’t want, they plotted to kill the baby and blame it on Pepper—ridding themselves of two problems with one hideous motion.

Pepper’s story is genuinely heartbreaking, which is what makes it all the more tragic and horrific to watch. There’s real intensity and anxiety swirling around her scenes with the baby—all we knew from season 2 was that Pepper killed her sister’s child, but seeing the actual circumstances surrounding that death play out not only makes season 4 Pepper that much more empathetic, but it retroactively adds depth to the Pepper from season 2.

In her final moment at Briarcliff, Sister Mary Eunice (can I get an amen for Lily Rabe here) believes Pepper can be redeemed, and sets her to work in the library, sorting magazines and books. It’s there that Pepper glimpses Elsa’s face on the cover of TIME, heralding Elsa for her television program. But in the world of ‘American Horror Story,’ happy endings are frequently nothing more than comforting delusions.

Additional thoughts:

It was fantastic to see Lily Rabe appear in this episode, however brief, and it just reminds me once again that ‘Asylum’ is still the best season of the series. I will forever measure other seasons against it.
More guest stars this week: Malcolm Jamal Warner is back as Angus, Desiree’s boyfriend. Mare Friggin’ Winningham and Matthew Glave (you probably remember him best as Glenn Guglia in ‘The Wedding Singer’) show up as Pepper’s sister and her husband.
Speaking of guest stars, I would like to see more of Celia Weston. Can we get her into season 5 as a regular? Maybe she can hang out with Frances Conroy and they can say quirky things while looking very fashionable.
That was a nice moment between Dell and Desiree, but it feels like this show is consistently trying to paint him as more complex and pitiful than he actually is.
Also sitting this week out: Dandy. Last week he quoted ‘Judge Dredd’ while standing naked next to a bathtub full of blood, and where do you really go from there?
It’s probably safe to assume that Jimmy still has his hands and Stanley didn’t actually chop them off.

Read More: 'American Horror Story: Freak Show' Review: "Orphans" | http://screencrush.com/american-horror-story-freak-show-review-orphans/?trackback=tsmclip

SisterNightroad

12-19-2014, 08:35 AM

About American Horror Story's Devastating and Shocking Pepper Episode...

Michele K. Short/FX
When you're done crying thanks to Naomi Grossman's wonderful—albeit heartbreaking—performance as Pepper on tonight's American Horror Story: Freak Show, we'll be here to help you say goodbye. And to cry with you.
Yes, Pepper has left the Freak Show. In tonight's episode, Pepper lost her husband. Before that, her surrogate baby, Ma Petite (Jyoti Amge), was killed. Things weren't going her way. Over the course of this episode, we learned how Elsa Mars (Jessica Lange) found Pepper and really took care of her all these years by bringing Ma Petite in, finding Pepper a husband in Salty (Christopher Neiman) and helping care for her broken heart when everything fell apart.
With Hollywood calling (or so she thought), Elsa decided the best thing would be to reunite Pepper with her sister (Mare Winningham). If you've seen American Horror Story: Asylum, you know that doesn't work out well. But it's even worse than we imagined as Pepper was framed for the mutilation and murder of her nephew and sent to Briarcliff. It's there she met Sister Mary Eunice (Lily Rabe) and will live out her final days. It was the end of the road for Pepper.

"This particular episode took me by such surprise. Because up until now it's been the ‘quick shot to Pepper making the idiotic face,'" Grossman tells E! News. "It's not just a quick shot, it's a long, extended close-up upon long, extended close-up of a single tear falling down Pepper's face, it's something I had never done before, honestly. I had done it on stage…I knew I could do this, I've done it, but not for a while. I've been stacking chairs and painting nails for about five months now and so to all of a sudden be endowed with this awesome opportunity was a lot. And like I said, coming from my own background of sketch comedy, the Groundlings, shows on stage, I'm prepared, but I'm not like Jessica in that I don't get to fall to my knees in a crying fit day after day after day. This is my first time."

Do you have a specific favorite part about Pepper?
I love that she's been given such a full life. The fact that I've gotten to sing, dance, dress down Dr. Arden and now I get to cry on cue—that's pretty major, especially for a little pinhead, who for all I knew was some glorified extra role when I first went out for it. I love the creativity that she's inspired. I'm looking at this wall I have in my place—I practically need to move because I need more wall space. I've got paintings and ceramics, Pepper shakers and Pepper cookies, Pepper magnets, and Pepper magnets. You name it! I've got a Pepper pumpkin. That's really something. These Horror fans are in a league onto themselves.

What will you miss most about Pepper?
Oh my gosh…She was so much fun to play. Like I said, just the range, being able to go from having a temper tantrum with Angela Bassett—throwing things at Angela Bassett, that was really gratifying—to tearing up and saying goodbye to Elsa. I mean, just the dramatic, emotional latitude I was given was awesome. Yeah, I'm really spoiled after that. I love being big characters like this, being able to totally transform myself and not just with the makeup, but physically being able to take on a whole new posture and take on a whole new face. I really look up to actors who totally transform themselves, like the Lon Chaneys of the world...I'm not interested in being one of those actors who—like, so many actors, they're just always themselves. It's so and so being just the same over and over. That doesn't interest me. Obviously, Pepper is unique. I'm not going to play Pepper again unless lightning strikes a third time. I'm going to miss the little girl.

You mentioned the scene with Angela Bassett. You also had some big moments with Jessica Lange and you held your own. What was that like?
I would say, especially with Jessica, when she says like ‘We've been together a long time,' it's true. I've been with her now two years longer than I thought I was going to be. This character has been my life for a little while here. Saying goodbye to Elsa was also saying goodbye to [Jessica] and saying goodbye to Pepper and saying goodbye to, well, hopefully not American Horror Story, but potentially, and saying goodbye to New Orleans, which is a new love of my life. So that was a really poignant time for me. I remember reading the episode for the first time and being so jumbled up in so many ways, saying ‘Oh my god. This is it!' I was so sad for Pepper, but I was also so sad for me! What does this mean? It means I'm going home is what it means, or at least to Briarcliff and that's good. All this time I thought that being alive was my job security, but little did I know that this was going to be the end, short on some flashback or something like that, which you never really know with American Horror Story. We do know that they didn't have Skype back in the 60s so I can't beam in from Briarcliff.

What do you think about all the shows being connected? Do you have your own theories?
Not at all. I have no idea. I almost wonder if the creators have any idea either. On one level I feel like [Ryan Murphy's] figured out the world. He knows everything, like Santa Claus, he knows when you're sleeping, he knows when you're a wake, but at the same time, the fandom is so engaged to the point where I feel like if I were him, I'd be Googling the show, I'd be reading the message boards, I'd be reading the Facebook posts and picking the theories I liked because the fans are writing it for him. Whether or not he's using it or not, but man they're creative and they're good…

Will you be back next season?
I don't know. I'd like to. You've seen the episode, I haven't. I like to think that maybe this secured my place in the AHS club there, but I have gotten no word….

http://it.eonline.com/news/607022/about-american-horror-story-s-devastating-and-shocking-pepper-episode

SisterNightroad

12-19-2014, 03:19 PM

Lily Rabe talks her return to 'American Horror Story' -- exclusive
By Tim Stack on Dec 18, 2014

[SPOILER ALERT IF YOU HAVEN’T SEEN THE LATEST INSTALLMENT OF AMERICAN HORROR STORY: FREAK SHOW.]

The most recent episode of FX’s American Horror Story: Freak Show marked a homecoming of sorts for Lily Rabe. The actress, who appeared on all three previous installments of AHS but is now shooting her ABC thriller The Whispers, returned to play her Asylum character, Sister Mary Eunice. The kind nun was seen dealing with Pepper (Naomi Grossman), after she was sent to Briarcliff by her malicious sister (Mare Winningham). Though it was a brief appearance, it was also a marked difference from the demon-possessed woman last seen in Asylum.
EW talked exclusively to Rabe about returning to AHS and fan theories about further connections.

EW: How did this all come about?
LILY RABE: Basically I got a message that they had written Mary Eunice back into this season and we were gonna do everything to work it out, and they did. We were able to shoot on a Saturday. It’s such an incredible thing. I’ve had that experience time and time again with Ryan [Murphy] and with the show, where with most things it would be impossible to work something out, and they find a way. He really moves mountains.

Are you still shooting The Whispers now?
I am. I’m almost done, though. I’m sort of imminently done. We’re shooting our last episode. I wrap on Friday.

That show is filming in Vancouver. Was that the biggest obstacle in getting this done?
Yeah, just juggling the schedules and the location. There’s no direct flight. But it all worked out. It was that wonderful feeling of “oh, I’m home!” It felt like it hadn’t been very long. So much of the crew, I’ve worked with them for the last 3 years. It was a great day. And working with Mare was amazing. I’ve known Mare or she’s known me since I could barely walk. We go way, way, way back. We were both kind of emotional actually, playing that scene opposite each other because we just have this wonderful long history—but we had never acted together. We just knew each other personally. It was so wonderful because I respect her so much as an actress, and I love her so much as a human. So leave it to American Hororr Story to make that little dream come true.

How was it getting back in the habit? Did Sister Mary come back immediately?
I have to say it was really amazing putting that habit back on. [Laughs] Paulson texted me and said, “Text me the second that’s on!” [Laughs] All three of the women I’ve been lucky to play on that show, they don’t go far. They are wild and specific creations born out of Ryan’s brain. But they’re all still right near by, and I still do think about them all the time. So no, she didn’t feel far away at all. That habit was the same one. Lou, the costume designer, was like, “It’s the one! The one you wore all the time!” So that was pretty great.

I found it nice, too, to see Mary in a great place after Asylum ended so darkly for her.
Yes! It was sooo nice. We were talking about this on the day. It was on the third episode that she was possessed. It happened really fast. But she has that wonderful daffiness that I loved getting to play. I loved that it was the pre-possession, that original Mary Eunice. Pre-Jude, even. She doesn’t even know Jude yet. That whole relationship, of course, is probably the most formative relationship of her life, and that hasn’t even happened. So she’s this clean slate. Because Jude isn’t there yet. She’s trying her hand at trying to have a little bit of authority, and she’s not the best at it. But she’s trying and I respect her for that. [Laughs]

This is the first time the show has ever tied seasons together. Did it feel special shooting it?
Yes, it really did. It was kind of amazing because I got to see the Freak Show set on the set that I had been on for Coven, and see where my shack had been turned into Jessica’s incredible tent. Then they built a little bit of Briarcliff. It was so great to have it there. It felt very magical. But I didn’t see this coming, and it was so clever. To have this be the way that it all started to tie together, it’s so great.

There’s been all these theories about how the seasons are now connected. Your character in season one, Nora, shares the same last name, Montgomery, as Emma Roberts’ Madison in Coven. Were you aware of that?
I remember having that conversation when we were shooting Coven and saying, “Oh, it’s the same last name.” I didn’t have a theory or anything but I do remember noticing. Who knows? It’s amazing if they continue to be interwoven.

Your scenes are only with Mare and Naomi, but could you see anyone else?
I got to see Paulson. Like the minute I got to my hotel, she came over. But we weren’t on set together. I flew in the night before, and then we shot ’til like 4. Then I went straight to the airport. But I got to see a lot of the crew, which is so wonderful! That was pretty great.

Have you kept up with Freak Show this season?
I’m a couple episodes behind, but it’s incredible.

Do you have a favorite freak?
I love Evan so much this season. He’s such an incredible actor, and this character, I’m really obsessed with his performance. And Jessica is just off the charts. And Paulson is so amazing. Everyone is incredible, and it’s so beautiful. It’s so much fun to look at.

Would you come back and appear in season five of AHS?
As I’ve always said, being a part of American Horror Story and working for Ryan is something I hope to be lucky enough to continue for the rest of my life. It’s one of the great, great joys that I have. So absolutely, I hope for all those things to be possible.

http://insidetv.ew.com/2014/12/18/lily-rabe-american-horror-story-freak-show/

SisterNightroad

12-20-2014, 06:22 AM

'American Horror Story's' Angela Bassett: Desiree Is Fighting for the Disenfranchised
by Danielle Turchiano

The 'Freak Show' star talks with THR about what to expect when the FX anthology returns for its final few episodes in 2015

[Warning: This story contains spoilers from the "Orphans" episode of American Horror Story: Freak Show.]

'American Horror Story' Books Neil Patrick Harris, David Burtka; Lily Rabe Sets Return
After Angela Bassett battled literal and figurative demons as Voodoo Queen Marie Laveau during American Horror Story: Coven, the actress has spent the better part of Freak Show taking on a more physical and sexual role as Desiree Dupree. Bassett's three-breasted woman rolled into Jupiter, Fla., on the arm of the strongman Dell (Michael Chiklis), and while Desiree is just as strong a woman as Marie, she has a very different approach to doing things to match her different outlook on life, love and the cast of characters that surround her.
During Wednesday's midseason finale, "Orphans," Emma Roberts' Maggie called Desiree the "toughest woman [she] knows." But though Desiree "knows bull****" when she hears it and isn't afraid to call it out, she is not without her more sensitive side, too. Recently having learned she is a hermaphrodite and can actually have surgery to "correct" the things about her body that made her fit in with the freak show crowd, Desiree has been on a tear for a relationship and more traditional 1950s definition of womanhood. Will her quest be derailed by what she has learned about some of her fellow freaks?
The Hollywood Reporter caught up with Bassett to discuss what's ahead for her character in the final few episodes of the season now that some of the freak show's biggest secrets have been revealed.

The audience, and Desiree, learned more about the truth behind what makes her the three-breasted woman a few episodes back. Were those details part of the character pitch at the start of the season, or did you also learn about them later?
I didn't know about the twist at all until I got the script for the week. All [showrunner] Ryan [Murphy] told me was that he had something great planned for me … and that was enough for me because the writers are magnificent and the things they give us to do are always exciting. Without a doubt at some point, when I read their scripts, I'm going to [scream] or laugh or clutch the pearls or something!

When such a truth is revealed about a character, does that change your approach to portrayal?
I wouldn't say it changed a great deal. Desiree is that woman who wanted a normal life … like everyone else does, really. And she imagined those things for herself [either way].

Her chances of that happy homemaker life are much greater with Angus (Malcolm Jamal Warner) than Dell (Michael Chiklis), though.
[Dell and Desiree have] been together for years, and she hoped to the very end that they'd be able to have a real family. she found out what his truth is. But I think there's a part in Desiree that's a childlike hope that hasn't died off in her. At the beginning of any love affair, I think you hope for the best and you imagine the best, and you leave that door open. So it's a door that's open, but we'll have to see if they walk through it.

[B]Earlier in the season you mentioned Desiree was driven by a "deep sense of shame." What is driving her now, especially after all she has learned about Stanley (Denis O'Hare) and Maggie?
She's found people who care for her, who have accepted her, who see her for who she is and don't put anything else on it. We all are special, all are different, all are unique and that's where she's found herself. And when she finds that person who fights for her and fights for the underdog, I think she's found that side of herself [too]. She stands up to Dell when it goes a bit too far and when her back's up against the wall. That's what's happening, in terms of life-and-death issues and life and death realities. Her back is against the wall, and she's coming out fighting for those who have loved her and fought for her and protected her. She's fighting for the weakest of the disenfranchised.

Maggie called Desiree "the toughest woman" she knows and later teamed with her in a way to show her the truth about what Stanley is doing. Where does Desiree — and that relationship — go from here?
I think someone in Desiree's situation —someone who is on the outside looking in — is always very aware of the situation. Everyone bears watching. You want to be accepting of everyone's good nature, but because she's lived on the opposite side of the tracks, or the outside, you really are aware and you watch and you take note of folks' ill natures. Maggie seems perfect, so I think she bears watching. All she has are her words, and she can make her mouth say anything. You still have to watch and see, and I think that's the standing she has with her.

Desiree also got to exhibit her maternal side when it came to Pepper (Naomi Grossman). Will that instinct play out with other characters?
That maternal desire has always been a part of her and been very real for Desiree, and it's the hope that burns in her, so I think there's always an opportunity to express that. And I think she's hoping that it will manifest itself in some real, lasting way.

Where have you felt the strongest personal connection to Desiree?
These individuals come from various backgrounds and places and origins and are so different from one another and yet so the same in that they want to love, and they want to take care of each other, and they want to be validated, and they just want to be seen — they just want the opportunity to be seen. So I think I felt the strongest about that in what will be the last episode — the final episode.

Now that she knows so many secrets, can Desiree possibly survive the season?
Well, you never know where the greatest harm is, do you? You never know! The darkness of a man's heart — you never know what's lurking around the corner or who's the darkest, really. But I think she has a great chance at survival. She's been at it a long time — well, they all have; they've all had to fight their entire lives, but I think she has a good chance, good instincts. I hope she will! They killed me last season, and I'd like a little bit of love this season!

American Horror Story: Freak Show returns to FX in January.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/american-horror-storys-angela-bassett-758701

SisterNightroad

12-28-2014, 11:22 AM

45 ‘American Horror Story’ Characters Ranked In Order Of Absolute Evilness
Did we miss anyone?
by kat rosenfield 12/24/2014

After putting together the list below, one thing became abundantly clear: “American Horror Story” is quite possibly the most evil show on television. Ever since the inaugural “American Horror Story: Murder House,” the show has been a repository for the deranged, depraved, and morally derelict, with almost nobody in its cast who could be described as a straight-up good person.

But what happens when you try to objectively rank every single major AHS character on an all-time Megalist of Evil, starting with the purest and most innocent, and ending with the baddest baddie of all? Can it even be done?! Well, we tried. And we’re kicking it off with…

Pepper
Pure, buck-toothed, unibrowed innocence: Pepper is our number one “American Horror Story” good guy.

Adelaide “Addie” Langdon
Poor Addie wasn’t evil in the least; she just wanted to be a pretty girl.

Misty Day
A Stevie Nicks-loving hippie witch who used her gifts to resurrect fuzzy-wuzzy little animals, Misty Day had a heart so pure, she wasn’t just good, but too good for this world.

Vivien Harmon
Not evil, just naive — for thinking that her chump of a husband was ever going to stop being a chump. Poor Viv.

Shachath
Most of the residents of “Asylum” are no angels, but this one is! Literally! Although she racks up quite the body count as she kisses/kills her way through the season, she also exists outside the concept of karma as we know it, so we’re sticking her close to the bottom.

Queenie
Not only did Queen come through for her sister-witches in a major way, taking a bullet to defeat their bounty hunter, but she forced Delphine LaLaurie’s disembodied head to watch a civil rights documentary in the hopes of making her less racist… which makes her one of the good guys, if a bit overly hopeful.

Kit Walker
Of all Evan Peters’ roles on AHS, poor Kit was the only one we can reasonably put in the pure, innocent victim category.

Violet Harmon
Sweet Violet might have fallen in love with a murderer, but she wouldn’t hurt a fly. (Instead, she ended up getting consumed by them.)

Ethel Darling
Ethel might not have been the greatest mom, or the most sober one, but she had a big heart… and a beautiful beard.

Bette and Dot Tattler
One is a schemer; the other, a dreamer. But despite having at least one murder under their mutual belt — and despite Dot’s not-so-secret desire to be liberated from her other half, no matter the consequences to Bette — the twins have lately shown that they’re pretty decent girls.

Desiree Dupree
She’s not evil, but she’s also not afraid to take the balls of anyone who hurts her freak family.

Myrtle Snow
The fabulous Myrtle does indulge in a little eyeball-scooping vengeance toward the end of “Coven,” but considering that it’s in retaliation for being burned at the stake, it’s hard to see her bad acts as anything but righteous justice.

Cordelia Foxx
She’s more than just good; she’s goddamn Supreme. Plus, she put out her own eyes for the good of the coven, so an extra ten points for martyrdom.

Zoe Benson
On the one hand, Zoe is guilty of using her killer vagina to murder a guy in a hospital. On the other hand, he did kind of have it coming.

Jimmy Darling
Good at heart, but man, is Jimmy full of resentment. Plus, he’s a total jerk when he’s drunk.

Nan
We’re not sure where to put Nan. On one hand, she was never as conniving as some of the other witches in the coven; on the other, after taking a dark turn and committing a horrific (if well-deserved) murder, Nan was ultimately killed as a sacrifice and left arm-in-arm with Papa Legba, which means she’s basically a devil’s minion now.

Kyle Spencer
Kyle had the decency to be horrified at his frat brothers gang-raping Madison Montgomery. But then again, this couldn’t have been his first inkling that they were not exactly awesome dudes, and yet he was spending time with them anyway — which makes Kyle a good guy, yes, but perhaps not the best guy.

Moira O’Hara
She’s one of the more sympathetic ghosts haunting the Murder House… but she was also a shameless homewrecker (not to mention a sh–ty maid!)

Lana Winters
The ambitious Lana is one of those marvelously morally ambiguous characters in which AHS seems to specialize; she’s not a bad person, exactly, but she’s too opportunistic and grasping to be among the innocents.

Spalding
The silent servant of “Coven” was primarily into chinoiserie and dolls, but his secondary penchant for playing with dead bodies puts him over the line into Naughtyland.

Sister Jude
The least evil of Jessica Lange’s characters, the pompous and strident Jude at least had a conscience — and a late-in-life redemption as a surrogate grandma to Kit’s kids.

Chad Warwick
Although he’s responsible for his own fair share of mercilessly tormenting the Harmons, Chad’s motivations are human enough that we can also feel kind of sorry for him.

Sister Mary Eunice McKee
This poor nun was really and truly just trying to do good works in a bad, bad world… until halfway through Season 2 when she was literally possessed by the devil. So, we’ll split the difference and put her right in the middle of the list.

Maggie Esmerelda
The bad: She’s a shameless scam artist who agreed to help Stanley in his mission to kill basically the entire cast of “Freak Show.” The better: In recent episodes, she seems to be wavering in the direction of remorse and redemption.

Monsignor Timothy Howard
The Monsignor was unsympathetic, power-hungry, and corrupt — which are bad things for anyone to be, but in a priest, they’re especially noxious.

The Axeman
We would have counted the serial killing Axeman among “Coven”‘s hell-bound bad guys, but since he ends up in his own personal heaven with Fiona at the end of the season, perhaps AHS knows something about the quality of his character that we don’t.

Larry Harvey
Everything he did, he did for love… but man, he did some really bad stuff.

Papa Legba
As an evil spirit, enabling bad deeds is part of his job description. So, evil! But also profoundly less evil than the characters who are evil by choice.

Elsa Mars
She’s a grasping, jealous has-been who’s done craven things in the name of fame — but her affection for her peculiar “children” and her great Bowie covers save her from being higher up on this list.

Dell Toledo
Dell might have a complicated, closeted backstory to contend with, but he’s also the monster who smothered Ma Petite to death, and for that, he cannot be forgiven.

Dr. Ben Harmon
Murderer, schmuck, and crying masturbator! Ben Harmon would top our list of evil “American Horror Story” characters, if he weren’t also so completely pathetic.

Twisty the Clown
Edward Mordrake said it best: “I have met many a craven killer, many a sniveling coward in my time, but every one of them could admit the blackness in their own hearts when the hour came. You have caused the demon to weep.”

Gloria Mott
In addition to having given birth to the spoiled rotten villain of “Freak Show,” Gloria’s insistence that her son was just a misunderstood sweetie totally crossed the line between obtuse and evil.

Madison Montgomery
Spoiled, mean, remorseless, and miserable despite having so many privileges: Madison Montgomery is the same evil breed as Dandy Mott, only less delusionally deranged.

Billie Dean Howard
We didn’t see much of Billie in “Murder House,” but as a friend of Constance Langdon, she’s evil by association.

Johnny Morgan
It’s not Johnny’s fault that he’s the son of a psychotic serial killer, but it is his fault that he didn’t find a healthier way to cope than hunting down and trying to kill his own mother.

Tate Langdon
Despite the big, sweaty crush we had (and continue to have) on Tate, it cannot be denied that he was a pretty bad guy, really.

Constance Langdon
The only thing good about this scheming, sniping murderess and manipulator was her capacity for amazing zingers.

Stanley
The avaricious Stanley’s entire plot arc has centered on trying to murder the freaks of “Freakshow” so that he can display their bodies for personal gain, which makes him pretty damn evil.

Dandy Mott
A portrait of whiteboy entitlement taken to its most extreme logical conclusion, Dandy’s corruption is all the more offensive for being completely freaking unnecessary. He could have had a very nice life without killing anyone, but noooooo.

Dr. Oliver “Bloody Face” Thredson
Not just evil through and through, but also responsible for one of the few “American Horror Story” scenes that was so gross as to be unwatchable.

Marie Laveau
What is Marie Laveau doing so high up on this list? Consider: Every year, by agreement, she has to offer a human baby as a sacrifice to Papa Legba. Marie Laveau is over 300 years old. Do the math. That’s a lot of dead babies.

Dr. Arthur Arden
This man was a Nazi. A NAZI. That is all.

Fiona Goode
Fiona was so bad that when she tried to make a business deal with the voodoo devil, it turned out she didn’t even have a soul to sell.

Delphine LaLaurie
This unapologetic serial murderess and virulent racist not only tormented and tortured her slaves, but she’s one of the few “American Horror Story” characters who’s based on a real person. Congratulations, Delphine: On a list of dozens morally corrupt jerks, you are our number one gal.

http://www.mtv.com/news/2007463/american-horror-story-evil-ranked/

P.S.: Wait a minute, where are Charles and Nora Montgomery?

MikeInNV

12-28-2014, 11:28 AM

45 ‘American Horror Story’ Characters Ranked In Order Of Absolute Evilness
Did we miss anyone?
by kat rosenfield 12/24/2014

After putting together the list below, one thing became abundantly clear: “American Horror Story” is quite possibly the most evil show on television. Ever since the inaugural “American Horror Story: Murder House,” the show has been a repository for the deranged, depraved, and morally derelict, with almost nobody in its cast who could be described as a straight-up good person.

But what happens when you try to objectively rank every single major AHS character on an all-time Megalist of Evil, starting with the purest and most innocent, and ending with the baddest baddie of all? Can it even be done?! Well, we tried. And we’re kicking it off with…

Pepper
Pure, buck-toothed, unibrowed innocence: Pepper is our number one “American Horror Story” good guy.

Adelaide “Addie” Langdon
Poor Addie wasn’t evil in the least; she just wanted to be a pretty girl.

Misty Day
A Stevie Knicks-loving hippie witch who used her gifts to resurrect fuzzy-wuzzy little animals, Misty Day had a heart so pure, she wasn’t just good, but too good for this world.

Vivien Harmon
Not evil, just naive — for thinking that her chump of a husband was ever going to stop being a chump. Poor Viv.

Shachath
Most of the residents of “Asylum” are no angels, but this one is! Literally! Although she racks up quite the body count as she kisses/kills her way through the season, she also exists outside the concept of karma as we know it, so we’re sticking her close to the bottom.

Queenie
Not only did Queen come through for her sister-witches in a major way, taking a bullet to defeat their bounty hunter, but she forced Delphine LaLaurie’s disembodied head to watch a civil rights documentary in the hopes of making her less racist… which makes her one of the good guys, if a bit overly hopeful.

Kit Walker
Of all Evan Peters’ roles on AHS, poor Kit was the only one we can reasonably put in the pure, innocent victim category.

Violet Harmon
Sweet Violet might have fallen in love with a murderer, but she wouldn’t hurt a fly. (Instead, she ended up getting consumed by them.)

Ethel Darling
Ethel might not have been the greatest mom, or the most sober one, but she had a big heart… and a beautiful beard.

Bette and Dot Tattler
One is a schemer; the other, a dreamer. But despite having at least one murder under their mutual belt — and despite Dot’s not-so-secret desire to be liberated from her other half, no matter the consequences to Bette — the twins have lately shown that they’re pretty decent girls.

Desiree Dupree
She’s not evil, but she’s also not afraid to take the balls of anyone who hurts her freak family.

Myrtle Snow
The fabulous Myrtle does indulge in a little eyeball-scooping vengeance toward the end of “Coven,” but considering that it’s in retaliation for being burned at the stake, it’s hard to see her bad acts as anything but righteous justice.

Cordelia Foxx
She’s more than just good; she’s goddamn Supreme. Plus, she put out her own eyes for the good of the coven, so an extra ten points for martyrdom.

Zoe Benson
On the one hand, Zoe is guilty of using her killer vagina to murder a guy in a hospital. On the other hand, he did kind of have it coming.

Jimmy Darling
Good at heart, but man, is Jimmy full of resentment. Plus, he’s a total jerk when he’s drunk.

Nan
We’re not sure where to put Nan. On one hand, she was never as conniving as some of the other witches in the coven; on the other, after taking a dark turn and committing a horrific (if well-deserved) murder, Nan was ultimately killed as a sacrifice and left arm-in-arm with Papa Legba, which means she’s basically a devil’s minion now.

Kyle Spencer
Kyle had the decency to be horrified at his frat brothers gang-raping Madison Montgomery. But then again, this couldn’t have been his first inkling that they were not exactly awesome dudes, and yet he was spending time with them anyway — which makes Kyle a good guy, yes, but perhaps not the best guy.

Moira O’Hara
She’s one of the more sympathetic ghosts haunting the Murder House… but she was also a shameless homewrecker (not to mention a sh–ty maid!)

Lana Winters
The ambitious Lana is one of those marvelously morally ambiguous characters in which AHS seems to specialize; she’s not a bad person, exactly, but she’s too opportunistic and grasping to be among the innocents.

Spalding
The silent servant of “Coven” was primarily into chinoiserie and dolls, but his secondary penchant for playing with dead bodies puts him over the line into Naughtyland.

Sister Jude
The least evil of Jessica Lange’s characters, the pompous and strident Jude at least had a conscience — and a late-in-life redemption as a surrogate grandma to Kit’s kids.

Chad Warwick
Although he’s responsible for his own fair share of mercilessly tormenting the Harmons, Chad’s motivations are human enough that we can also feel kind of sorry for him.

Sister Mary Eunice McKee
This poor nun was really and truly just trying to do good works in a bad, bad world… until halfway through Season 2 when she was literally possessed by the devil. So, we’ll split the difference and put her right in the middle of the list.

Maggie Esmerelda
The bad: She’s a shameless scam artist who agreed to help Stanley in his mission to kill basically the entire cast of “Freak Show.” The better: In recent episodes, she seems to be wavering in the direction of remorse and redemption.

Monsignor Timothy Howard
The Monsignor was unsympathetic, power-hungry, and corrupt — which are bad things for anyone to be, but in a priest, they’re especially noxious.

The Axeman
We would have counted the serial killing Axeman among “Coven”‘s hell-bound bad guys, but since he ends up in his own personal heaven with Fiona at the end of the season, perhaps AHS knows something about the quality of his character that we don’t.

Larry Harvey
Everything he did, he did for love… but man, he did some really bad stuff.

Papa Legba
As an evil spirit, enabling bad deeds is part of his job description. So, evil! But also profoundly less evil than the characters who are evil by choice.

Elsa Mars
She’s a grasping, jealous has-been who’s done craven things in the name of fame — but her affection for her peculiar “children” and her great Bowie covers save her from being higher up on this list.

Dell Toledo
Dell might have a complicated, closeted backstory to contend with, but he’s also the monster who smothered Ma Petite to death, and for that, he cannot be forgiven.

Dr. Ben Harmon
Murderer, schmuck, and crying masturbator! Ben Harmon would top our list of evil “American Horror Story” characters, if he weren’t also so completely pathetic.

Twisty the Clown
Edward Mordrake said it best: “I have met many a craven killer, many a sniveling coward in my time, but every one of them could admit the blackness in their own hearts when the hour came. You have caused the demon to weep.”

Gloria Mott
In addition to having given birth to the spoiled rotten villain of “Freak Show,” Gloria’s insistence that her son was just a misunderstood sweetie totally crossed the line between obtuse and evil.

Madison Montgomery
Spoiled, mean, remorseless, and miserable despite having so many privileges: Madison Montgomery is the same evil breed as Dandy Mott, only less delusionally deranged.

Billie Dean Howard
We didn’t see much of Billie in “Murder House,” but as a friend of Constance Langdon, she’s evil by association.

Johnny Morgan
It’s not Johnny’s fault that he’s the son of a psychotic serial killer, but it is his fault that he didn’t find a healthier way to cope than hunting down and trying to kill his own mother.

Tate Langdon
Despite the big, sweaty crush we had (and continue to have) on Tate, it cannot be denied that he was a pretty bad guy, really.

Constance Langdon
The only thing good about this scheming, sniping murderess and manipulator was her capacity for amazing zingers.

Stanley
The avaricious Stanley’s entire plot arc has centered on trying to murder the freaks of “Freakshow” so that he can display their bodies for personal gain, which makes him pretty damn evil.

Dandy Mott
A portrait of whiteboy entitlement taken to its most extreme logical conclusion, Dandy’s corruption is all the more offensive for being completely freaking unnecessary. He could have had a very nice life without killing anyone, but noooooo.

Dr. Oliver “Bloody Face” Thredson
Not just evil through and through, but also responsible for one of the few “American Horror Story” scenes that was so gross as to be unwatchable.

Marie Laveau
What is Marie Laveau doing so high up on this list? Consider: Every year, by agreement, she has to offer a human baby as a sacrifice to Papa Legba. Marie Laveau is over 300 years old. Do the math. That’s a lot of dead babies.

Dr. Arthur Arden
This man was a Nazi. A NAZI. That is all.

Fiona Goode
Fiona was so bad that when she tried to make a business deal with the voodoo devil, it turned out she didn’t even have a soul to sell.

Delphine LaLaurie
This unapologetic serial murderess and virulent racist not only tormented and tortured her slaves, but she’s one of the few “American Horror Story” characters who’s based on a real person. Congratulations, Delphine: On a list of dozens morally corrupt jerks, you are our number one gal.

http://www.mtv.com/news/2007463/american-horror-story-evil-ranked/

Stevie Knicks?

SisterNightroad

12-28-2014, 11:34 AM

Stevie Knicks?
http://forums.windowscentral.com/attachments/general-microsoft-news-discussion/51147d1386113299t-michael-scott-laugh.jpg

SisterNightroad

12-29-2014, 06:32 AM

Denis O'Hare's character plays a dangerous game in 'American Horror Story: Freak Show'
BY BILL HARRIS

Denis O'Hare came up with a perfect way to describe his character in American Horror Story: Freak Show.

“(Stanley) is the billiard ball that scatters the other balls,” O'Hare said.

Those balls would be wise to roll as far away as possible.

American Horror Show: Freak Show has been airing Wednesday nights on FX Canada and FX in the U.S. The season will pick up post-holiday on Jan. 7, with a total of three episodes remaining.

This is the fourth season of American Horror Story, with each season telling a different tale, in a different time and place. But creator Ryan Murphy was quoted recently saying that all the seasons are connected in some way.

Coincidentally, about a month before Murphy's comments, I wrote these words in early October: “I've always had a dream about American Horror Story, that somehow, however long this series runs, all the stories will link together at the end, even in a really vague or loose or existential way.” Well, I got my wish.

“It didn't surprise me, because (Murphy) is an awfully clever guy,” O'Hare said. “I know they put a lot of thinking into the resonances. The biggest, obvious resonance this year was Pepper (played by Naomi Grossman) being in both Asylum (the second season) and in our (current) season. But there are actually two other ones coming up that are very, very strong resonances which are fascinating.

“The biggest challenge, of course, is the setting. If you set it too far in the past you make it difficult to make connections. With Asylum (the second season, set in the early 1960s) and Freak Show (set in the early 1950s) being only 10 years (apart), it made that a lot easier. But I’m just as excited as you are to see what (Murphy) will do.”

O'Hare has had roles in three of the four seasons of American Horror Story thus far. He was the burn-damaged Larry in season one. He was creepy butler Spalding in season three. And now he's playing Stanley, the cold businessman and wannabe social climber who is preying on the vulnerable performers at a “freak show” near Jupiter, Fla., in 1952.

“All three of those characters are yearning for some way of transcending their life,” O'Hare said. “It was most obvious in the case of Larry, who was wanting to escape the hell that he was bound in by his actions and by the consequences of his actions, his wife and kids being burned up in a fire. What Larry wanted was release.

“I loved Spalding. He was such an unusual character and a great technical challenge. Spalding was actually not that sweet. I joked with (Murphy), I said, 'I think Spalding’s ultimate dream is to become a doll.' I thought, wouldn’t it be cool if at the end we saw Spalding on the shelves and he finally had achieved his dream.

“For Stanley, oddly enough, we have those glimpses of him at the morbidity museum while they’re doing a toast, and he’s sort of assuming he’s going to be feted, he’s going to be the one who is called out for recognition. He wants to be accepted into larger culture. What Stanley wants is to be respected.”

Of course, the path to “respect” that Stanley has chosen is a gruesomely murderous one. Initially Maggie, played by Emma Roberts, was Stanley's partner in crime, but even she has experienced a crisis of conscience.

“(Stanley) really is the instigator,” O'Hare said. “He’s the engine of the season, because what he’s doing is setting everything into motion, with his attempts to co-opt, murder, corral and change, weaving this spell around different people.”

As Denis O'Hare accurately put it, Stanley is the billiard ball that scatters the other balls. It brings new meaning to the billiard term, “Break.”

http://www.torontosun.com/2014/12/23/denis-ohares-character-plays-a-dangerous-game-in-american-horror-story-freak-show

SisterNightroad

12-30-2014, 07:02 AM

'American Horror Story' season 4 episode 11 returns Jan. 7: Neil Patrick Harris to frighten fans with spooky magic
Shiena Bernardino 22 December 2014

FX
Screengrabbed from the AHS: Freakshow trailer
The freaks might be in hiatus from giving "American Horror Story: Freak Show" fans more nightmares during the coming holidays, but it does not mean that they are not preparing something big once the season returns next year.

The official synopsis for the midseason opener of "AHS: Freak Show" reads:

"Elsa prepares for her move to Hollywood. The Twins grow enamored with a traveling salesman. Dell plots Jimmy's escape from police custody."

In episode 11, a beloved actor will join the cast for added frightening scenes in the series as the traveling salesman/creepy magician.

The world first knew him as the teenage doctor in "Doogie Howser, M.D." and loved him for portraying the awesome role of Barney Stinson in the TV comedy "How I Met Your Mother." But this time, Neil Patrick Harris will terrify fans as a spooky magician in FX's horror anthology series.

The Tony Award-winning actor, who is also a self-confessed fan of the horror series, will finally get what he wished for by landing a role in "AHS." He will portray the role of Chester, Elsa Mars' (Jessica Lange) successor in managing the Jupiter, Florida carnival, and the newest apple of the eye of the Tattler twins Bette and Dot (Sarah Paulson). He will be introduced in the midseason premier episode titled "Magical Thinking," and his character will last until episode 12.

Chester's involvement in the lives of the Tattler twins may not be good news, since he claims that his extra spooky ventriloquist dummy is the one that "relaxes him." Incidentally, that dummy looks very much like the returning "AHS" star Jamie Brewer, who will also return to the show on the same episode.

This is not the first time that Harris will work with "AHS" series creators Brad Falchuk and Ryan Murphy. The 41-year-old actor also appeared in a "Glee" episode, which is also created by the duo.

"American Horror Story: Freak Show" will return on Jan. 7.

Read more: http://www.christiantoday.com/article/american.horror.story.season.4.episode.11.spoilers.neil.patrick.harris.frights.fans.with.spooky.magi c/44664.htm#ixzz3NNjKarVj

SisterNightroad

12-31-2014, 07:02 AM

‘American Horror Story: Freak Show’ spoilers: First details on ‘Show Stoppers’

Freak Show -Want to see how “American Horror Story: Freak Show” is going to be closing things off early next year? While we cannot tell you just yet anything about the big series finale, there is something else right now we can share: Some of the first hints on “Show Stoppers,” the penultimate episode of the series that is coming on the air Wednesday, January 14.

We wouldn’t say that there are any major spoilers in the synopsis below, at least other than that some of the following characters make it to at least this episode alive:

“Dandy gives the Twins troubling information about Chester. Maggie vows to prove her loyalty to Jimmy. The Freaks enforce their harsh code of justice.”

Chester may be the character played on the show by Neil Patrick Harris; we know that he is appearing near the end of the episode, and will be a traveling salesman who may not be everything that he is cracked up to be.

As for the rest, it’s mostly nice to see that Dandy is making it at least this far in the season, given that we prefer to have one fairly-consistent Big Bad character throughout, and not just someone who pops up for a while, only to go away like Twisty the Clown did. We are still feeling a little bit of the burn that comes from that one.

As for how this entire “Horror Story” finishes up, who knows what Ryan Murphy and company have in store? We do expect a few deaths, but hopefully at least some of these characters can figure out a way to be happy moving forward.

Want to know some further news right now related to “American Horror Story”? Then be sure to visit the link here right now! Also, you can sign up to grab some additional TV scoop on everything we cover courtesy of our CarterMatt Newsletter. (Photo: FX.)

http://cartermatt.com/144422/american-horror-story-freak-show-spoilers-first-details-show-stoppers/

SisterNightroad

01-01-2015, 03:57 PM

Finn Wittrock on Playing Dandy in American Horror Story and Getting Rail-Thin for Unbroken
By E. Alex Jung

Finn Wittrock is having a good fall. After stepping into Ryan Murphy’s orbit in a devastating death scene as Albert, Bruce Niles's (Taylor Kitsch's) boyfriend on The Normal Heart, he’s in two high-profile roles: first as the sociopathic brat Dandy in American Horror Story, and then as U.S. soldier Francis “Mac” McNamara in Angelina Jolie’s World War II epic Unbroken. Wittrock, looking ruddy and freshly shaven, sat down with Vulture for an interview in the Mandarin Oriental Hotel during Unbroken’s press junket. We talked about working with Jolie, comparing rib bones with Matt Bomer, and where Dandy stacks up in the American Horror Story universe.

Unbroken is the story of Louis Zamperini, a World War II veteran who, among other things, survived 47 days at sea and torture in a Japanese POW camp. He died earlier this year at the age of 97. Did you get to meet him?
I did get to meet him. It was amazing. [Angelina Jolie] got to show him a cut of it in the hospital, I believe, on her laptop a few days before [he died]. But in typical Louis fashion, they gave him one week to live and he lived eight more. How is that possible? I got to meet him, and we talked about Mac, and it becomes a whole new world of real when you're not just playing someone that a writer made up off the top of their heads. When someone tells you, "This guy died in front of me, I saw him starve to death," it becomes a whole new level of responsibility for you to pull off.

What did Louis tell you about Mac?
He told me that he was always after stimulus. He was always eating desserts, always off drinking and smoking and chasing women. He was eternally a child. Louis had to be paternal towards him. If he would criticize him at all, Mac would crumble. So he had to take care of him.

How do you see your character Mac fitting into that story?
I've been thinking about how Louis has a continual inner resilience in him, that he's somehow able to keep standing up every time he gets knocked down, again, again, and again. He somehow finds this mental persistence and tenacity. You need Mac in the story to contrast that, to show that once your mind goes to despair and you're convinced you're going to die, your body follows. It really is mind over matter. He and Louis and Phil all had the same lack of food and the same amount of exposure to the elements and everything else, and one guy's body just couldn't make it because his mind unraveled.

Were the conditions difficult for you?
We were mostly on water, so that was difficult. We were so thin, our body fat was very low, so I'd get cold very quickly. The storm scene, they were just throwing water on us, and I was literally shivering. I have to say the crew did a really good job of taking care of us. We all knew we were going to some dark places, and I didn't have to touch the prison camp, thank God. I got to stay on the raft.

How much weight did you have to lose?
I secretly felt like Mac had to be the worst off, so I pushed myself. I think I lost like over 35 [pounds].

Do you literally just have to starve yourself to look like you're starving?
Before the nutritionist came on, before I met him, I was basically just starving myself. I was just pushing through: a lot of black coffee. I'd eat something but would keep the calories really, really low every day. And then when he came on, he gave us a much more healthy, conscientious regimen, which basically is just protein and vegetables.
Because we did the second half of the raft first, we did [the part from] day 18 emaciation first. I got to go away right before the holidays and eat myself silly and, you know, come back to the beginning. When your job is to gain weight, it's a lot more fun.

I bet the holidays were awesome.
Yeah, last year's Christmas was probably the best Christmas since I was 5, I would say.

You’ve had some brutal death scenes in your career already.
Yeah, what is that? What is that about? Why do they all want to torture and kill me so badly?

Any tips on how to die well?
That's one thing: I die well. It's like anything. It's scary, you know, to actually think of that, that thing that's gonna happen to all of us. You just try to put yourself there. Anyone can relate to it. It's universal. It's going to happen to all of us. But as soon as you do, it's not hard to imagine what it's going to be like.

Your death scene in The Normal Heart was just brutal.
I don’t know if you can tell in that that I'm skinner, but I did the airplane scene right after I finished the raft scenes in New York.

Oh, so you didn't have to go gain and lose weight again.
No, amazingly, the timing worked out so I was already thin. I just stayed thin a little longer than I wanted to.

I know that Matt Bomer also had to lose a ton of weight. Did you compare notes?
Well, I saw him when we were both low. He was lower at that point. By the time I had gotten there, I gained a little bit. He was at his lowest. We compared ribs.

Like how many you could visibly see?
Yeah, and we compared what we were doing. We were doing different things. He was on a broth diet. I was just like, I'm not doing that. I need some fish, at least.

Angelina was on The Daily Show recently, and she said that she was really unsure of herself. Did it seem like that?
I didn't see an inch of that. She always has such grace in everything that she does. I knew that it was a big undertaking for her. I knew that there was pressure on her from the studio but also from herself. Because as sprawling and huge as this story is, it's a personal film for her because her relationship with Louis was really sincere and it was a real friendship. There was a lot riding on it, for sure. She was our fearless leader.

It looked like you all were really chowing down on some of that fish. How did it taste?
It tasted like fish. [Laughs.] Everyone's like, It's like sushi! And it's like, No. Sushi has a lot more done to it after the fish is dead. There are scales and bones. And at that point in shooting, we had to replicate our facial hair, so we had fake facial hair, so we were passing [the fish] to each other and seeing this little artificial — that's actually yak hair — on top of it and it's like, Oh, it's my close-up, I can't back out now. I gotta dig in!
I think the shark liver was a piece of prosciutto, which was good. And that was when we were hungry, so we were really happy that day. The things you take for granted.

Mac seemed especially into eating.
He has a childish impulse which makes him eat the chocolate out of a sort of panic. And that sort of seals their doom in a way. And that guilt unravels him. Lack of faith. I say more lack of hope. Some of us just aren't built with that inner resistance, that inner fight. We all want to think we'd be Louis in that situation. I think Mac is actually maybe a little more common.

I'm pretty sure I'd be Mac.
That chocolate is mine!

Speaking of people who are eternally children ...
There is that connection. Good segue!

Thank you!
Dandy.

You're looking quite dandy.
This is a very dandy suit. He would have a vest, though, and a bow tie, probably.

Or an ascot.
Definitely an ascot.

It's funny because Twisty was sort of a red herring in American Horror Story: Freak Show. I assume when you first got the script ...
Yeah, I didn't know.

That Dandy would evolve to become the real villain.
Yeah, I think you're diverted by the clown. And John Carroll Lynch was so good in it, and the design of the clown was so scary and terrifying. I think that they wisely realized that it's better to keep it short and have the clown be the scariest clown you've ever seen and then move on, you know? And, yes, Dandy revered the clown, he puts him on a pedestal, he wants to be him, and then he basically becomes him. I mean, he becomes his own version of him. He's still Dandy. I think he inhabits the clown's spirit and that liberates him to do all the nefarious things that he does.

In the last scene where you're bathing in your mom’s [Frances Conroy’s] blood.
Yes. Yes? Like you do.

I was really sad that she died.
Dandy was, too. I think he just knew she had to go. One of them had to go.

How do you think Dandy stacks up in the American Horror Story universe?
He's definitely in the top three, right? But I can never think of him as a villain. I can never think of him as evil. I just have to keep getting under his skin. But he realizes that his purpose in life is to kill. It doesn't get more dangerous than that. Because I actually found that the killing is not out of hatred. He kind of likes the people that he kills. He wanted to be a performer, and somehow that's transformed into murder, so he thinks of it as a performance, like he's fulfilling his destiny.

That's a good way to think about it. Were any of the murders hard to shoot?
Well, it was hard to be covered in blood in my underwear. Because it was very sticky. But at least I got to cut off Matt Bomer's arm. It was sad to see Patti go. I will say that.
She's pretty awesome.

There are some who think of Dandy as a repressed gay man. What’s your take?
No, no, definitely not. He just likes girls with two heads, you know? One head's never enough.

http://www.vulture.com/2014/12/finn-wittrock-unbroken-american-horror-story-interview.html

SisterNightroad

01-02-2015, 08:21 AM

American Horror Story Freakshow: Neil Patrick Harris Impresses Critics As He Plays New Circus Owner; Will Lea Michele Make A Suprise Appearance On The Finale?

American Horror Story: Freakshow is nearing its final episode, and fans cannot get more excited and sad at the same time.

Recently, Neil Patrick Harris made his appearance on the hit TV show, and his portrayal of Chester had critics impressed. Chester is the new owner of the circus who happens to be a magician himself. He seems to have a thing for both Bette and Dot as he is seen kissing one of them and telling the other she is beautiful.

As previously reported, Patrick Harris is confirmed to guest on the show, along with his husband David Burtka during the final two episodes.

According to IGN: "Harris will appear in the final two episodes of the season as a 'chameleon salesman', according to TVLine. Burtka (who had a recurring role on HIMYM as the Lily-obsessed Scooter) is set to join Harris in the season finale and will have a 'sexy storyline' with Elsa Mars (played by Jessica Lange)."

As previously reported under American Horror Story Freakshow Latest News, Lea Michele is rumored to be included in the cast.

The broadway singer's interest in joining the cast for the Horror TV series has definitely been made clear by herself, stating in an interview with Ellen Degeneres, that she would love to keep working with Ryan Murphy, creator of the AHS series and executive producer of "Glee", in which Lea stars in.

"[I would star in a 'Glee' spinoff], unless he wants to put me in 'American Horror Story," Lea told Ellen. "I know what the theme is for next year, and I'm in. So, if he'll have me ... at least, maybe for one episode. Let's start that campaign."

Fans remain hopeful that the rumors of Michele getting casted for the fourth season of the horror series will indeed come true, as it is not unusual for the creator, Ryan Murphy to cast actors and actresses whom he has worked with in the past.

Check back for more American Horror Story Freakshow Latest News.

http://www.youthhealthmag.com/articles/6274/20141231/american-horror-story-freakshow.htm

SisterNightroad

01-03-2015, 07:10 AM

‘American Horror Story’ Season 4 Spoilers: Neil Patrick Harris Teases Gory Ending For ‘Freak Show’ Character On Twitter
By Megan Schaefer

Neil Patrick Harris (pictured with his husband David Burtka, right) teased on Twitter his thoughts on his Season 4 "American Horror Story" appearance. Reuters
“American Horror Story” is about to become legen -- wait for it -- dary! According to reports, “How I Met Your Mother” star Neil Patrick Harris has officially finished filming his final Season 4 scene for “Freak Show.” And it looks like Harris’ last appearance on the gruesome FX series has left him feeling a little, well, grossed out.

“Just filming my last scene for ‘American Horror Story,’” the 41-year-old actor recently tweeted to his 12 million followers. “I need to take a shower. Wash off all this horror.”

Does that mean fans of the terrifying miniseries should anticipate Harris to meet a dreadful – and dare we say messy – demise? Considering the fact that the bloody death of Matt Bomer’s character Andy is still sending chills up our spines, we can only imagine what gory ending Ryan Murphy, co-creator of “AHS,” has in store for Harris.

In October, it was revealed that Harris, 41, would be appearing in two episodes of the show’s fourth season. The Wrap elaborated, explaining that viewers should anticipate Harris to make his “AHS” debut in episode 11, “Magical Thinking,” and return in episode 12, “Show Stoppers,” as a chameleon salesman.

“He had very specific ideas for what he wanted to do, and I had very specific ideas, so we’re working on melding those,” Murphy told TVLine of Harris' role. “He’s awesome. He’s obviously one of our great entertainers, and I’d love to see him and Jessica Lange [Elsa Mars] go at it in a really cool, fun way. Neil seems to be intrigued by that notion.”

But it looks like someone else will be snagging screen time with Lange in a “sexy storyline” TVLine teased. According to their report, Harris’ husband, David Burtka, 39, will also be making a guest appearance on “Freak Show,” acting alongside Lange’s character in the season finale of the show’s fourth installment.

Catch Harris' debut role in "American Horror Story: Freak Show," Wednesday, Jan. 7, at 10 p.m. EST on FX.

http://www.ibtimes.com/american-horror-story-season-4-spoilers-neil-patrick-harris-teases-gory-ending-freak-1759923

SisterNightroad

01-03-2015, 07:17 AM

American Horror Story: Freak Show Pics: Neil Patrick Harris Has Magic Touch
By Michael Ausiello / January 2 2015

Neil Patrick Harris is set to work his magic on American Horror Story: Freak Show on Wednesday (10/9c, FX), and we have an exclusive first look at his master illusionist Chester at work.

The following pics appear innocent enough: The dapper Chester, AKA the new owner of Elsa’s Freak Show, is on stage preparing to execute one of his signature tricks. However, as eerily foreshadowed in the episode’s trailer, Chester’s performances tend to build toward a bloody climax.
Check out the images below, and then hit the comments with your thoughts/predictions on NPH’s Freaky, two-episode stint.
First Look: Neil Patrick Harris Gets FREAKy

http://36.media.tumblr.com/d8a7bdf468d7b045693f0490f09a81e6/tumblr_nhkdnfJTwB1tcxkqzo3_500.jpg https://41.media.tumblr.com/5573cdfb3eb091ec94b007687a4070af/tumblr_nhl3bpyizx1qcbk34o1_500.png

http://www.tribumagazine.net/images/FOTOS/ojodepez/barba/neilahs/ahs_112414_0500.jpg

SisterNightroad

01-09-2015, 08:09 AM

EXCLUSIVE: Sarah Paulson Gets Very Involved With Neil Patrick Harris on 'AHS'
by Leanne Aguilera 12:08 PM PST, January 07, 2015

FX
The amazing Sarah Paulson is one of the few recurring actors to appear in all four seasons of American Horror Story. In Freak Show, the show’s fourth season currently airing Wednesdays on FX, Paulson has let creator Ryan Murphy push her to new limits with her role as conjoined twins, Bette and Dot Tattler.

The role has not only required a physical transformation involving a fake head (“When I have that animatronic head on, I can't even bend down to put my socks on”), but it also commands extra emotional depth to give both sisters distinct personalities.

Bette and Dot have certainly been the most challenging roles yet, but that’s part of the appeal and why the 40-year-old actress returns each year. “[Ryan] knew there would be a lot of work, so I think he was just giving me a gift, like the way he tends to do,” Paulson tells ETonline. “It's like Christmas morning every day at the Sarah Paulson household when it comes to Ryan Murphy.”

Ahead of the series return -- which features the addition of Neil Patrick Harris as Chester the Illusionist -- Paulson opens up to ETonline about her transformation for the part, working alongside her new co-star, and what would happen if all her AHS characters were in one room.

ETonline: How much detail goes into filming your scenes?

Sarah Paulson: Oh Leanne, if you had enough time in the day I would tell you everything but you would probably fall asleep before I finished. I think, according to what Ryan told me if I understand correctly, there are upwards of twenty-two people working on every single shot that there is of me in this show. hey have to do the visual effects and all of that happens in post. When we're actually shooting it, it's also incredibly time-consuming...But I’m only wearing the animatronic head when we have a big wide shot. The animatronic head looks just like me, she opens her eyes, opens her mouth and has my teeth in it.

How terrifying was it when you first put that Sarah Paulson twin head on?

It was actually really scary. Although, when I first put it on I was very excited about it because it meant I wasn’t going to have to use as much of my imagination to imagine something that was almost unimaginable. And I found myself getting very nervous every time I had to take it off. We used more visual effects work because it was very hard for me to imagine, physically what it was like to have another person there and to remember when to look at her and just all the intricacies that go into having them deal with one another. I'm right-handed, not left-handed, but Bette is a left-handed person and it was just all kinds of details that go in to make it look as authentic as possible and it's a pretty time consuming process that involves everyone.

The subtle nuances that you give individually to Bette and Dot are incredible. Why do you think Ryan Murphy tasked you with these particular characters this season?

The biggest thing is that [Ryan] knows I like a challenge. He knows that I tend to feel most alive as an actor when I'm stumped and I don’t know how to figure something out and so you couldn’t give me more of something that would be a head-scratcher than this one. At first it was challenging to try to figure out how to do all this, and like you said, which I appreciate you saying, the nuances and the subtle differences between the two of them because on the one hand they are different beings, but on the other hand they are twins. They had the same mother and father. They have similar ways of being just by virtue of the fact that like any twin that you meet, typically they share certain way of communicating with each other. I wanted there to be differences but also similarities so that you don’t forget that not only are they attached to one another but that they are sisters, twin girls. All those little nuances are very important to try and figure out.

Looking ahead to tonight’s episode, what can you tease for Bette and Dot's journey with guest star Neil Patrick Harris?

My characters are very involved with Neil Patrick Harris' character. It's pretty amazing, believe me, I'm such a fan of his that it was really amazing. I work with some incredibly great actors but they're old news to me at this point. [Laughs] It's become part of my world at work to be with this incredible caliber of actors, so when somebody calls and they said all of your scene will be with Neil, I was just like, "What?!" I got so excited because I'm such an enormous fan. So I felt pretty cool, but all I can say is there's a Neil Patrick Harris twin story that I think is very interesting and really about Bette and Dot coming into their own as women.

How great was it seeing Neil bringing his own magical talents to the show?

It was pretty incredible and he is so brilliant at it, and I think that's another wonderful thing about Ryan. He's very smart and if he knows that you have a particular talent that lends itself to the show, he is going to ask you to call upon it. That means the show is only going to benefit from Neil Patrick Harris doing magic that he can actually do versus asking him to do something that he can't do. Really, while we're talking about Neil Patrick Harris, is there anything that he can't do? You could ask him to do anything and I'm sure he'd be like, "Oh, I actually have a degree in that." There's nothing he can't do.

http://www.etonline.com/tv/155942_sarah_paulson_gets_very_involved_with_neil_patrick_harris_on_american_horror_story/

SisterNightroad

01-09-2015, 04:14 PM

‘American Horror Story: Freak Show’ Review: “Magical Thinking”
Britt Hayes | 2 days ago

FX
We’ve had a nice three-week break from ‘American Horror Story,’ which has given us plenty of time to maybe forget some of the show’s shortcomings and perhaps look forward to rejoining the ‘Freak Show.’ Ryan Murphy’s absurd horror series returns with an all-new episode featuring some very special guest stars, including Neil Patrick Harris and his creepy little puppet friend.

The passage of time does a funny thing: the more that time has passed, the more that things become condensed in your mind. Last month I could write 800 words on all the problems with ‘American Horror Story’ in its fourth season, but now I find myself able to reduce my thoughts and feelings about this season down to a few sentences. It’s mostly: Jessica Lange is playing the same character she plays in every season; the series has no unifying purpose, nothing to bring these characters together or unify its many half-cooked plots; the premiere episode was so strong, and the show has been struggling to measure up to it, like a drug addict chasing that first high; and finally, does Ryan Murphy have attention deficit disorder? Maybe!

“Magical Thinking” does manage to combine elements both melodramatic and unsettling with the arrival of Neil Patrick Harris as Chester, a traveling salesman and aspiring magician who believes his wooden ventriloquist’s dummy Margaret is a real person. Margaret is voiced by Jamie Brewer from the ‘Murder House’ and ‘Coven’ seasons, and she’s a real delight to have back on the show, especially in such a creepy capacity. We’ve seen Brewer hint at this combination of adorable and sinister in her final appearances on ‘Coven,’ so Margaret seems like a really great fit. She also gets to play Chester’s imagined personification of the doll.

This week Murphy and Co. begin setting up the remaining two episodes of the season, which involves some convenient plotting. Elsa hires Chester as a bookkeeper, allowing him to perform as a warm-up act, which leads to her discovery that the mentally unstable war veteran has a bit of cash to spare, so she sells her Cabinet of Curiosities to him with the promise that he won’t disturb the existing lineup. Elsa is now free to traipse off to Los Angeles and become a big, bright and beautiful star, leaving this struggling past of squandered hopes and dreams in the dust where it belongs.

Meanwhile, we discover that Jimmy allowed Stanley to amputate his hands, although he was under the impression he’d only be losing one in exchange for the money needed to get a lawyer and get out of jail. This gives us more nice bonding moments between Jimmy and Dell, and Michael Chiklis has clearly been taking pages from Kathy Bates’ actor handbook—he’s fighting really hard and almost succeeding at getting us to sympathize with his very unsympathetic character. It brings to mind Bates’ performance in ‘Coven,’ in which she somehow managed to elicit something resembling sympathetic pity from viewers while playing one of the most vile racists in history. There were moments where you could briefly forget what that woman had done to people. It’s an insane acting ability that only someone like Bates possesses, but those who have seen ‘The Shield’ (myself included) were already aware that Chiklis is able to operate on that same dramatic level. He almost sells it, too, until that unavoidably ridiculous comment about being a 50 year-old man who’s feeding his son for the first time, while Evan Peters’ Jimmy gazes up at him with helpless little toddler eyes.

Jimmy and Dell’s talk of buying the show from Elsa signals pretty early on in “Magical Thinking” that Dell probably won’t make it out of this episode alive. And he doesn’t because someone conveniently delivers Ma Petite’s Body-in-a-Jar to Elsa, and Desiree begins adding a whole bunch of stuff up—she could deal with the macho BS, she could deal with his repressed homosexuality and his volatile temper, but murder is too far for the woman who almost gleefully murdered Penny’s dad. But before Desiree has the chance to off him, Elsa does it for her.

As for the Tattler twins, they’re busy trying to lose their virginity to Chester, which opens a whole can of crazy worms regarding his past. It’s through his interactions with Dot and Bette (and Dandy’s discovery of their tryst) that we learn of his sad and twisted history: he was a soldier who went off to war with his friend, and while they were away, their wives began a relationship together. His pal died, but Chester lived to return home to his wife and her lover, who are both more than happy to torture Chester by having sex in front of him—even for ‘AHS,’ this is kind of absurd.

Harris really personifies the tone Ryan Murphy is striving for—he’s disturbing and disturbed but sort of wonderfully deranged and off-kilter. A few episodes back I wondered if the melodrama on this series was intended to be satirical, and when Harris steps in, you get the impression that that’s definitely the case. This is less obvious with Jessica Lange’s performance, which I almost wish would go full ‘Mommie Dearest’ at this point. Harris also provides us with this week’s one truly horrific moment, when he walks in on Brewer’s “Margaret” repeatedly hacking at his wife and her lover with an axe, in a manner that unnervingly lacks enthusiasm. She turns to talk to Chester, but she never stops the insistent chopping motion that strikes the bloody bodies over and over with these awful, dull thuds. Gruesome stuff.

With only two episodes left, I find myself a little more than worried. Tonight’s episode conveniently ties up some loose ends or at least begins to pick up those ends with every intention of tying them soon, but there feels like there’s still so much left that’s going to get crammed into two hours of television. Penultimate episodes of ‘AHS’ have always been far more engaging and enjoyable than the season finales—those hours which are mostly just made up of characters making some sense of their lives after the chaos.

Additional Thoughts:

Dandy is really jealous of Chester and mercilessly taunts him, making the aspiring magician recede further into his insanity and insecurity. At the end of the episode, we have no clue where “Margaret” has gone, but I guess I’m just happy that Harris is sticking around for at least one more week. I just wish Murphy could have snagged him sooner because this character feels like he should have been around for a lot longer.
You know, when I start thinking of plot holes in ‘AHS,’ that can’t be a good thing—like, why didn’t Elsa just go over to the Mott mansion and sell the circus to Dandy? She knows he’s loaded and has an interest in the twins, and it doesn’t seem like she’s aware of his psychopathic tendencies at all. Hell, she sold the show to Chester and she’s pretty aware of his instability.
I’m sorry, but I still really like Dandy and his great Patrick Bateman-esque performance.
It was Emma Roberts’ turn to sit an episode out, but does anyone really care besides Jimmy?
I feel like Angela Bassett is being totally wasted.

Read More: 'American Horror Story: Freak Show' Review: Magical Thinking | http://screencrush.com/american-horror-story-freak-show-review-magical-thinking/?trackback=tsmclip

SisterNightroad

01-10-2015, 11:20 AM

John Travolta Is Coming To The ‘American Horror Story’ Spin-Off And We’re Freaking Out
Welcome back, buddy.
by shaunna murphy 1/7/2015

“American Horror Story” and “Glee” creator Ryan Murphy has always been great at casting, but nothing quite compares to John Travolta breaking his three-decade TV hiatus for the latest “AHS” spin-off, “American Crime Story.”

FX announced via release on Wednesday (January 7) that Travolta would play O.J. Simpson’s defense attorney Robert Shapiro in “Crime Story,” an anthology that will focus on the famous trial for its first season. He’ll also nab a producer credit, and will join a cast that includes “AHS” favorite Sarah Paulson as prosecutor Marcia Clark, “Friends” alum David Schwimmer as Robert Kardashian, and Cuba Gooding Jr. as Simpson himself.

Per the network, the season will focus on “the chaotic behind-the-scenes dealings and maneuvering on both sides of the court, and how a combination of prosecution overconfidence, defense shrewdness, and the LAPD’s history with the city’s African-American community gave a jury what it needed: reasonable doubt,” so Travolta will undoubtedly have a whole lot to do.

His last television stint was his 1975-1979 role on “Welcome Back Kotter,” so like… Welcome Back, Travolta?

http://www.mtv.com/news/2042215/john-travolta-american-crime-story/

SisterNightroad

01-11-2015, 06:46 AM

'AHS: Freak Show': Who's the latest freak to die? [Spoiler] talks the major twist -- exclusive
By Tim Stack on Jan 8, 2015 at 2:01AM

[SPOILER ALERT: This post discusses plot details of the Jan. 7 episode of American Horror Story: Freak Show.]

It wasn’t such a Happy New Year for a lot of the freaks on American Horror Story. Jimmy (Evan Peters) discovered that Stanley (Denis O’Hare) had sold his hands. Elsa (Jessica) found out the sad fate of Ma Petite. But the fella who had the worst batch of luck was definitely Michael Chiklis’ Dell: the strongman was shot dead by Elsa after he confessed to Ma Petite’s murder. EW talked exclusively to Chiklis about the twist and whether he’d return to AHS for the fifth season.

EW: Did you know Dell would die from the start?
MICHAEL CHIKLIS: Well they had indicated he would probably die pretty miserably. [Laughs] And I was totally down with that especially with some of the miserable stuff he does. There’s kind of no coming back from that and that’s okay. It is American Horror Story—it’s not American Fun Time Play Time. So it just seemed appropriate and spot-on and in keeping with the nasty.

What was it like filming your death scene? You at least got to go out with Jessica Lange and Angela Bassett with you.
Yeah, here are two iconic women who I love, and I adore both of them. They were incredible to me. I just can’t say enough about how lovely they were to me, the entire cast. When you come into a cast in their fourth season and they’re really successful, it can go a lot of different ways, and they could not have been more supportive and welcoming and lovely, and I consider all of them friends now and we’re maintaining our friendship and staying in touch.
That said, I thought it was incredibly apropos that I die in her hands with Angela there. At least there’s some level of redemption for the character that he essentially really truly heartfelt confesses his sin and then dies for it just like that. Just when you may feel a pang for this poor tortured guy and boom he’s dead. That’s where Ryan is just a full-on genius when it comes to writing drama. He paints in big strokes a lot of the time, but their universals, very visceral, primal emotions and urges and feelings that everyone can relate to at some level. I just think it’s the key to his success not just in this show but why he’s able to do shows so vastly different as Glee and Nip/Tuck. He’s something.

Ethel died but we’ve seen her in fantasy scenes. Will we see Dell anymore?
I’m not at liberty to tell you that. There’s always a chance on that show. But I can’t speak to the stuff ahead of it.

Was the Ma Petite murder hard to film? Was that her you were actually squeezing or like a doll?
No, it was her. Terrifying. So upsetting. First of all, I’m still trying to get my daughters to talk to me again. They’ve just stopped speaking to me. My youngest who’s almost 16 her reaction to it was so intense and so visceral. “No daddy no! I can’t believe you did that!” I’m like, “Honey, remember, let’s differentiate.” It was very very impactful to her.
I have to say it was one of the most upsetting scenes hands down I’ve ever done in my entire career and I’ve done some really upsetting scenes. But just the way it happens with coming and offering her a dress. Ugggghhhh. And then I give her a hug. I’m glad I sold it but I didn’t squeeze her at all to lift the curtain if you will. It was incredibly upsetting and she was getting such a kick out of how I was upset. She was laughing at me. Like, in between takes she was smiling at me and laughing at me because she thought it was all too cool to believe.

I remember him telling me that he lured you with the idea that you’d play something you’ve never played before, and a closeted gay man with a hermaphrodite wife is certainly a new role.
He told me none of that. He said, “Listen, I want you to play something you’ve never played before and you’re going to be playing a strongman whose freak if you will is internal and it’s an internal struggle and it’s indicative of the time being the early ’50s in America.”
I really didn’t have any inkling that that was where he was going but as soon as I read my first episode with my hermaphrodite wife and my first catchy line being “the happiest man on Earth” I just went “Oh okay. Here’s where we’re going.” But then it took turns that I did not expect. What I loved that they were really deeply emotional. One thing I refused to do and I thought was personally appropriate was I refused to play into any clichés. I made this guy as real and as three-dimensional as I could. I love the scene I have with Matt . It was a beautiful scene. They had allotted an entire day for us to shoot it and we were done before lunch. He’s really so good. We just clicked and it just happened. We just hugged each other and we were all in tears and we left and it was great. Just a wonderful day at work.

[B]One of my favorite moments is when Dell and Jimmy get drunk. That relationship was just so great.
Again, another aspect of the character I absolutely loved. Then, of course, I do these horrible things. He does have a weakness in character. Going back to Evan, I had instant rapport. He’s all about the work and really doing a good job. It was a weird night. We thought my youngest daughter was having an emergency appendectomy. It turned out she had the stomach flu but she was doubled over so badly they almost put her into surgery. But she was in L.A. and I was in New Orleans and I was freaking out. We were in the middle of shooting this scene and he was wonderful during that. We were doing this incredibly emotionally charged stuff and in the midst of all of it he sends a video message to my daughter saying, “Don’t lose your appendix tonight, please.” It was so cute. So awesome.

I love that your daughters are American Horror Story superfans.
They both are. But all the girls in my daughters class—these 15-, 16-, 17-year-old girls—they react to Evan like he’s a Beatle back in the day. They cry. He’s got that thing, that it thing. Sure he’s gorgeous and talented and all that but he’s got this other thing that connects to them emotionally. That’s rare when you see that. He’s got that thing.

This was your first season of AHS—how was it?
I had a phenomenal time. I had a great time and there were some hardships for sure. First of all, New Orleans, as much as I love it, I do not love it in the summer. It’s just so humid and I was wearing wool pants. It was brutal in terms of that. Also if you make a horror movie, it’s two months, five months at the most. But to stay in that space for five or six months, it does start to prey on you. It didn’t get to me at first but then after awhile, especially after I started to do the darker stuff, I had to sort of leave it behind me. I watched a lot of comedy.

I bet! I think I asked Paulson about that during Asylum.
By the way, funnest person ever! She is the best! Phenomenally talented actress but quality human. She broke up all the tension for me. I felt bad for her this year from a technical standpoint. From the Fantastic Four, I know about really oppressive costuming and so I was able to help her in that way and make her laugh when she had that second skull on her shoulder all day.

Would you do a season five?
Absolutely. I’d be lying if I said I wouldn’t. I will say that I don’t know that’s going to happen. I don’t know if they’re interested in that happening. In all candor, I don’t know what’s going to happen at this moment. But would I go back there again and play with those people? In a heartbeat.

http://insidetv.ew.com/2015/01/08/ahs-freak-show-latest-death/

SisterNightroad

01-12-2015, 06:11 AM

'AHS: Freak Show' Post-Mortem: Kathy Bates talks the latest shocking twist!
By Tim Stack on Dec 3, 2014 at 11:01PM

[SPOILER ALERT IF YOU HAVEN’T SEEN THE LATEST EPISODE OF AMERICAN HORROR STORY: FREAK SHOW!!!]

It’s been a couple weeks since we’ve had a new episode of American Horror Story: Freak Show and boy did it return with a vengeance! Not one but two major characters—Kathy Bates’ Ethel Darling and Frances Conroy’s Gloria Mott—were killed off in shocking form. Unlike last year’s Coven where death could be reversed via magic, Freak Show‘s goodbyes appear to be more permanent. Murphy told EW at the beginning of Freak Show‘s run, “This season, once you die, you’re dead.” EW talked to Bates about saying goodbye to Ethel and whether she’s really gone for good.
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: When did you find out Ethel was going to be killed?
KATHY BATES: You know I can’t remember at all!! I think it must have been before I read it! I can’t honestly say. I remember reading the script and going, “Okay well I’m getting killed.” But I mean American Horror Story you can never tell when you appear again.

Were you bummed?
A little bit. I wasn’t devastated or anything. But I always prefer working. [Laughs] So when you’re waiting and not knowing when you might appear next, you can’t go on and do anything else at the moment. You’re on hold. I’m much better when I’m working so that’s what hit me more than anything was, “Oh my gosh—what am I going to do now?!”

So is there a possibility then that Ethel might pop up again in flashbacks?
Well this is American Horror Story so anything can happen! [Laughs] That’s all I can say about that.

I found it amusing that you ended up with your head off again.
I know! When I read that I thought “Okay, is she going to come back holding her head?”

Was the scene where you’re in the car dead and Denis O’Hare and Jessica Lange are talking over you weird to film?
At first, Denis was a little energetic about wrapping the chains around my neck. And I said, “Can we leave one less chain, one less loop?!” And Jessica and I are always laughing about what happens to our characters and everything. It’s just bizarre. It all makes us laugh.

Speaking of, you and Jessica have that incredible scene where Ethel confronts Elsa. What was that like to shoot?
Oh God it was difficult because of the way it was written. We both had very long monologues to one another. We really worked hard at trying to make that scene natural. [Co-creator] Brad Falchuk really wanted it to be a battle of the titans.

Madame LaLaurie was so villainous. And Ethel is the complete opposite—so tragic and kind. What’s it been like playing such a 180?
They’re obviously two very very different characters. Madame has a lot of swagger. Ethel has her own quiet strength. It’s been a pleasure, it’s been a challenge to try and create a woman who has suffered all of her life, who has suffered all of her life, and yet who has maintained her dignity, certainly within the world of the freaks.

You’ve had many different scenes with different actors than you did last year, like Evan.
I love working with Evan and I’m loving his part this year. He had a very difficult part last year where he didn’t speak. This was a wonderful part with him and I loved working with him and loved that he was my son. I thnk he’s one of these actors that’s really is up and coming and it’s been a real honor to work with him.

Ethel’s Baltimore accent really ignited a twitter firestorm. Were you shocked by how much attention it got?
I was surprised. Ryan wrote me a very encouraging email saying it was great that people were talking about it and he encouraged me to keep on doing what I was doing. The funniest remark I got was a man told me he had a friend who had friends from Baltimore. This guy asked his two friends from Baltimore what they thought about my accent and they said, “What accent?” [Laughs] It was good publicity for the show. I didn’t intend for it to be that way but it was good.

Will you miss the beard? How long of a process is that?
In the beginning, we hard our work cut out for us. We were trying different kinds of glues. We wanted to make it so the make up people didn’t have to work on it too much during the day when I was shooting. So we went through a different group of glues and a different group of shapings of what actually went on my face to try and give my face as much mobility as possible. But then we got it down to 3 pieces and really great glue and it goes on in about 20 minutes! It’s a lot of fun to have a beard like that. Gabby [Sidibe] saw me for the first time when she came back to do the show and she said, “I like it! It’s the new black!” [Laughs]

I know you and Gabby are so fond of each other but you didn’t have any scenes together this year.
I know—I missed it. But when she was in town, we went out for dinner. I just love her. I love her to pieces. She’s just a unique woman and I’m crazy about her. Whenever we get the chance, we get together. We’re keepin’ it going.

Would you want to do another year of American Horror Story? Is there hope for Kathy Bates to be in season five?
Well of course there is. I love Ryan. I love working with him and for him. One thing I didn’t get a chance to say in my Emmy speech is that after Harry’s Law and then I had gotten sick with breast cancer, I was really in the dumps. I was really like, “I’ll never work again. I’m too old. Blah blah blah.” Lo and behold, I get this amazing call from Ryan to come in and meet with him. He created these wonderful parts for me to play and I’ll be forever in his debt for that. He’s rejuvenated my career in a way that I have a young audience now and that’s fabulous! So why wouldn’t I want to come back for more of that?

http://insidetv.ew.com/2014/12/03/ahs-freak-show-kathy-bates/

SisterNightroad

01-13-2015, 01:22 PM

SisterNightroad

01-16-2015, 10:14 AM

American Horror Story: Freak Show’ Review: “Show Stoppers”
Britt Hayes | a day ago

FX
For four seasons now, without fail, the penultimate episode of ‘American Horror Story’ has always delivered. Tonight’s episode of ‘Freak Show’ is no different, except in that it stumbles perhaps more than the others, the dark humor and melodrama wrestling with the horror in ways that can be a little jarring—and not in a great way. But “Show Stoppers” does feature at least a couple of show-stopping numbers, and it’s the kind of stuff that our old pal Dr. Hans Gruber’s dreams are made of.

Yes, Dr. Hans Gruber (or his younger self, anyway) returns to ‘AHS,’ giving us yet another connection to the previous seasons—although it does seem as though ‘Freak Show’ is more directly tied to ‘Asylum’ than anything else. And like ‘Asylum’ and that twisted Dr. Gruber, “Show Stoppers” really leans into the more grisly moments…starting with Stanley, who sits down to what he believes to be a celebratory dinner, after which everyone will watch ‘Freaks’ and bid Elsa farewell to Hollywood. But their plot synopsis of ‘Freaks’ is rather telling (and maybe a little too on-the-nose), and after Elsa throws some knives at him, the rest of the performers take after Stanley with knives and sharp objects of their own.

That early scene cuts away before anything truly gruesome happens to Stanley, but the stage has already been set for an intense episode, in which Danny Huston once again graces us with his presence as Massimo arrives to give Jimmy some new hands. It’s through Massimo’s recounting of how he was separated from Elsa, the love of his life, that the disturbing Nazi Dr. Gruber reenters the picture. Huston and Jessica Lange’s scene together is powerful stuff, however brief, and their performances really complement each other much like they did in ‘Coven.’

But the real show-stopping stuff is delivered via Chester, whose happiness with the twins is making Marjorie very upset—so upset, that Chester agrees to take care of the Tattler sisters to please her. It seems strange that Dot doesn’t pick up on Chester’s mental problems when she was so quick to pin Dandy for the depraved weirdo that he is. But love is willfully blind, or something. And after Dandy tips them off and sows some doubts, Dot and Bette exit stage left, and it’s Esmerelda/Lucy who ends up as part of Chester’s latest trick, sawed in half in the most sickening display. The scene is dripping with the kind of dread and intensity that’s become a little too rare on ‘AHS,’ but definitely proves that Ryan Murphy & Co. are still capable of producing actual horror.

It’s episodes like this that make the majority of the season feel more frustrating, but also renew hope for the future. Nothing has quite measured up to the promise of the premiere, but “Show Stoppers” comes close. Chester’s perverse and violent story arc is so demented and horrific, and its effectiveness is largely due to Neil Patrick Harris’ excellent grasp of the material. But the way he really nails the tone also serves to highlight the ways in which so much of this season has struggled to find that perfect balance that he achieved in just two episodes.

Immediately after Chester’s unnerving display, Desiree scoffs dismissively, declaring that they’ll steal Lucy’s jewelry and “bury the bitch.” All that’s missing is an over-exaggerated snap of the fingers. The problem is that Desiree’s comments aren’t funny—not because what she’s saying is offensive, but because after the deafening silence and shock of Lucy’s death, the show is trying to punctuate the moment with some dark humor and it just feels like such an obvious way to do that. It doesn’t work.

Regardless of the few stumbling blocks in this episode—like the unnecessary flashback to Jimmy’s teen years, which is only unnecessary because it’s so awkwardly tacked on—”Show Stoppers” goes out riding a high, with Dot and Bette rescuing Elsa from murder at the hands of her own, and Dandy’s (predictable) arrival as their new owner. I guess it sort of makes sense for Elsa to pass the baton to Dandy, since he’s also capable of the sort of emotional remove needed to do what’s necessary for the survival of the show, even if that means killing someone. And maybe we’re meant to understand that now that Dandy has what he really wanted, he’ll stop butchering people and bathing in their blood—all that Patrick Bateman murder stuff was actually, appropriately a Bret Easton Ellis-esque metaphor for privilege and petulance…or something. I guess.

But the episode does end on a high note, with Elsa off to follow her dreams with $10k in her pocket, and the revelation that Stanley has been sickeningly—and literally—cut down to size as the show’s new Meep. And then there’s Jimmy, who, when given the chance to start a new life with new, normal-ish hands, refuses; instead, he has Massimo craft him a pair of wooden flippers. Jimmy can get rid of his deformity, but he’ll never get rid of where he comes from, what he’s experienced because of his birthright, and the way it’s shaped him as a man; those flippers represent not just Jimmy and his mother and his father, but his entire makeshift family and all the hurt and shame they’ve endured. To refuse them would be to refuse life itself.

Or, you know, something.

Additional Thoughts:

OK, so if everyone found out that Chester murdered Lucy right after it happened, how did Dot and Bette remain oblivious to the screaming and the commotion? I mean, someone is going to tell them, right? Next week, on ‘AHS’: Dandy and Dot and Bette make amends, I bet.
One of the other issues with this episode, which I neglected to mention above, is the opening, which gleefully skips over the whole thing where everyone finds out about Stanley and plots to kill him. It’s very abrupt, almost as if we’re missing an episode. But that’s been the nature of penultimate episodes on ‘AHS’—it’s like Ryan Murphy & Co. spend so much time meandering and playing with their myriad plot threads, setting three down just to pick five up, and always indecisive about which to follow, that they’ve distracted themselves from the endgame. I don’t believe for a second that they’ve got an entire season plotted out and planned before they begin. No way.
$10 says we see more ‘Asylum’ stuff next week.
Dandy likes lemonade with a paper straw, please and thank you.

Read More: ‘American Horror Story: Freak Show’ Review: “Show Stoppers” | http://screencrush.com/american-horror-story-review-show-stoppers/?trackback=tsmclip

SisterNightroad

01-16-2015, 10:19 AM

Poll: Who's Going to Die in the Finale of 'American Horror Story: Freak Show?'
Nobody's safe in Jupiter, FL.
By Joey Skladany on January 15, 2015

The freaks are dropping like the buzzing flies of the Everglades on American Horror Story: Freak Show.

While it may appear that all of the remaining characters are likely to succumb to murder at the hands of their own, some arguably have a better chance of survival than others. But what will determine their fate? Willpower? Physical strength? A lack of enemies? The show, as it has proven, can go in a million different directions.

We obviously know Elsa has escaped the madness of Florida for the sights and sounds of Hollywood. Pepper's episode reveals that the fame-obsessed fräulein goes on to create a name for herself in television. But what about the once "precious monsters" she has left behind to fend for themselves? What does Ryan Murphy have up his sleeve? Will the freaks combine forces and start anew, or will they all end up killing each other under Dandy's management?

Vote in our poll below and be sure to sound off in the comments!

http://www.zimbio.com/Beyond+the+Tube/articles/RUVDHW3zd_M/Poll+Going+Die+Finale+American+Horror+Story

SisterNightroad

01-17-2015, 07:43 AM

On the 'American Horror Story: Freak Show' set with Sarah Paulson and Bette and Dot Tattler

The team that turns Sarah Paulson into "American Horror Story: Freak Show's" Bette and Dot Tattler — two-headed conjoined twins — were assembled in front of a bank of video monitors in the billiards room of a Metairie mansion. New Orleans-area shooting for the FX anthology drama's season, which concludes with episodes at 9 p.m. Wednesday (Jan. 14) and Jan. 21, was nearing its December production wrap. Paulson was in the nearby dining room with other cast members (IDs for which would spoil the series finale, so, "You're welcome"), painstakingly shooting a key scene.

For all of the early takes of the scene, as the cameras worked their way around the table to capture performances by the other characters, Paulson acted with her voice, or rather voices.

Then the time came to make Bette and Dot. The process included individual two-camera takes of Paulson acting the scene as each sister. Then an animatronic facsimile of a Tattler-girl head was attached first to one of Paulson's shoulders, then the other. The "puppet" head, as it's known to the production, was obscured in the shot by a table candle while Paulson acted beside it. Finally, a portable green-screen background was brought in to shoot Paulson's lines again, with two additional cameras in the room. Some of the footage would later be processed by special-effects artists in three different cities.

Capturing the scene took hours, with all of the actors working it for one another off-camera, again and again.

Creating Bette and Dot required a remarkable ensemble performance, with Justin Ball (visual-effects supervisor), Michael Goi (director of photography), a team of makeup artists led by Eryn Krueger Mekash, and Bradley Buecker (the episode's director) playing supporting roles.

At the center of it was Paulson, whose most intense, technically precise acting work — two characters interacting with the other players and each other in absentia, again and again — came at the end of the shot sequence. (Following a break, shooting would continue late into the night for the crew and some of the actors on interior sets on a soundstage across town.)

After the final "cut" for her scene, Paulson, a four-season member of the "AHS" ensemble who a day earlier was announced as Marcia Clark opposite Cuba Gooding Jr. in the upcoming "American Crime Story: The People v. O.J. Simpson," talked about the process of creating Bette and Dot, and the time, then fast approaching, when she'd have to say goodbye to them.

"I haven't really had time to reflect on it, but I can't wait for Christmas when I'm done and I'm able to reflect on it, and I hope it's not too late to say goodbye to all the things I loved about playing them," Paulson said. "I think of them as one, even though they're completely different creatures. They are twins. There is shared experience for them, even though they have different likes and dislikes in clothing and food and people. But they are born of the same people.

"It's a funny thing," she continued. "I almost think of them as shadow selves. I'll miss them both terribly because they are two sides of the same coin, and one completes the other. And that's sort of the beautiful thing about it."

Creating Bette and Dot appears seamless once it's on-screen. The reality of the process is so technically complicated, though — all the different camera angles, the animatronic head, the green screen — Paulson's distinct performances as each sister are more than doubly impressive.

"I think you happen to be catching me at a time when we're at the end of the road," she said. "There's almost something in my body, like a muscle memory, that takes care of a lot of the technical aspects of it. I can tell if my head is not in the right place. I know what to ask Justin, who's in charge of all of our VFX, so I don't have to wait to be told. I can get in front of it a little bit.

"Some times more than others, it's very helpful when the scene itself informs the emotional story going on internally."

The dramatic scene the cast had just shot "didn't require much in terms pretending," she said.

"Sometimes I play these girls — because there is so much going on in a technical respect — I am forced to go right into the essence of who they are, because I don't have time to figure out little moments," she said. "It's almost because we don't have time, my brain can get out of the way and I can lead with my heart. I think it helps the emotional part of it."

Seeing Bette and Dot assembled on-screen for the first time "was very weird and kind of jarring," Paulson said. "It was probably less strange for me to watch than for other people, because I knew every single moment that we were doing — like when I had the puppet on.

"I thought it was really seamlessly executed. At the beginning of this, nobody really knew how we were going to pull it off, so I think it's a small miracle."

It hasn't been announced where "American Horror Story," already renewed for season five, will shoot next. So "Freak Show's" wrap could've conclude a two-plus-years period of work in New Orleans for Paulson, dating back to her role in Steve McQueen's "12 Years a Slave" through "American Horror Story: Coven" and "Freak Show."

"It's a hard thing when you go on location, but sometimes you only go for a month at a time or six weeks at a time," she said. "I've been here for six months now two years and a row, and it almost feels like a second home.

"Something about the energy of the city, it either works for you or it doesn't, and for me it really does. I love the people. I just love shooting here. It's going to be bizarre to say goodbye.

"If you bump into somebody on the street in New York you don't know, you're likely to get, 'Sorry, pardon me,' or a different look or a kind of a nasty look or just a look in general. Here, not only do they say they're sorry, but they let you know where they were born and where their kids are going to school. It's a wonderful thing that the small contact that you make with a person, big things can come from it. You learn a lot about the person standing behind you in the grocery store.

"People feel open-hearted here, and generally interested in other people. Sometimes in Los Angeles or New York or other big, bustling cities — particularly where there's a level of narcissism that surpasses other places — I do think you live in a bubble. In Los Angeles particularly, you go from your house to a car and your car to wherever you're going, and you're kind of insulated. This is not like that. You're on the street here and there's a kind of genuine interest in other people that I think you don't find other places, and it's inspiring."

http://www.nola.com/tv/index.ssf/2015/01/on_the_american_horror_story_f.html

SisterNightroad

01-18-2015, 06:58 AM

‘American Horror Story: Freak Show’ finale spoilers: ‘Curtain Call’ features Jessica Lange, Finn Wittrock, a bow
January 15, 2015

This season of “American Horror Story” has definitely brought a big top’s amount of craziness. We’ve seen deaths, romance, the greatly disturbing, and more things than we can really hope to mention within the span of this article. Yet, all shows do need to drop the curtain at some point, and we are going to see this particular series do just that come Wednesday night with “Curtain Call.” The story for Elsa Mars, Dandy Mott, and more will seemingly be at an end.

Want to get some basic details right away in terms of what to expect? Then our suggestion first and foremost is simple: Take a look at the short synopsis. It may not be that revealing, but it is definitely better than nothing:

“The Freaks rebel against new management. Dandy prepares for his debut performance. Elsa arrives in Tinseltown.”

What is interesting going into this is that we do know a few little things already about what the future holds, at least in that “Orphans” showed us that Elsa does eventually manage to make it as a star on the West Coast. (It’s too bad that Pepper doesn’t have a better ending to go along with it.)

Also, in this episode be sure to be on the lookout for a large variety of clues. We know that the show is in the process already of planning what they want to do next season, and they will probably manage to surprise quite a few of you.

What do you want to see on the “American Horror Story: Freak Show” finale? Share some of your thoughts, hopes, and more with a comment! Also, click here for some further news (including a review for tonight’s “Show Stoppers”), and head over here to get some further TV updates on all we cover via our CarterMatt Newsletter. (Photo: FX.)

http://cartermatt.com/148199/american-horror-story-freak-show-finale-spoilers-curtain-call-features-jessica-lange-finn-wittrock-bow/

SisterNightroad

01-19-2015, 05:45 AM

Joe Manganiello, Lea Michele, Ariana Grande to Star in Scream Queens
BY LYNETTE RICE

Joe Manganiello will star in a new American Horror Story-like drama for Fox about a college campus that is rocked by a series of murders.

The new series, called Scream Queens, is from Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk, Ian Brennan and Dante Di Loreto – the executive producers of American Horror Story and Glee – and comes with an all-star cast. Lea Michele will jump from the series finale of Glee into the new show. Joining her will be Abigail Breslin (Little Miss Sunshine), Keke Palmer (Akeela and the Bee), and Ariana Grande, who will guest-star in a recurring role.

Jamie Lee Curtis (Halloween) and Emma Roberts (American Horror Story: Freak Show) were previously announced in starring roles in the limited series.

Production on the series will begin in the spring and will premiere in the fall on Fox.

http://www.people.com/article/joe-manganiello-lea-michele-scream-queens-fox-ariana-grande

SisterNightroad

01-20-2015, 02:33 PM

‘American Horror Story’ Season 4 Spoilers: ‘Freak Show’ Finale Photos Released; Check Out 2 Images From Episode 13
By Amanda Remling @AmandaTVScoop on January 19 2015 1:18 PM

http://www.dreadcentral.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/AHS_413_389_copy_hires1-1024x683.jpg

Elsa Mars (Jessica Lange) is smiling in this image from the "American Horror Story: Freak Show" finale ... but that doesn't mean she'll get her happy ending in Hollywood.

The end is near for “American Horror Story” fans. Although the FX miniseries will be returning for a fifth season in October, the Season 4 installment, “Freak Show,” wraps up Wednesday.

The network released two images from the finale, giving viewers their first look at what’s to come in episode 13, “Curtain Call.” Although the photos only feature Elsa Mars (Jessica Lange), fans can speculate about the deadly drama that lies ahead.

When we left off, Elsa was forced to flee her beloved freak show a little early. The former ringleader and owner had sold the show to a man named Chester (Neil Patrick Harris) in order to move forward with her plans to become a star in Hollywood. But shortly after selling the show, Elsa learned that her “agent,” Stanley (Denis O’Hare), was actually a con artist. Before Elsa had a chance to consider her options, Dot and Bette (Sarah Paulson) warned her that she had to leave immediately or risk getting killed – or worse – by the rest of the troupe. Elsa initially didn’t believe the twins, but fled the grounds after realizing that “her monsters” knew she had killed Ethel (Kathy Bates). In a surprise move, Elsa sold the freak show anew to Dandy (Finn Wittrock), the rich lunatic responsible for killing countless of innocent people, and drove off to Hollywood with the cash.

http://cs625123.vk.me/v625123707/149f5/OgguyaxAGfA.jpg

Elsa (Jessica Lange) appears to be shocked by something in this promo photo from the "American Horror Story: Freak Show" finale. FX
The synopsis for the “Freak Show” finale simply teases that the freaks will “rebel against new management.” But it doesn’t sound like Dandy will care about his unhappy performers because he’ll be preparing for his “debut performance.” And while things spiral out of control in Jupiter, Florida, Elsa will arrive in Tinseltown.

Will Elsa find success in Hollywood? Although episode 10 appeared to give away the “American Horror Story” ending by placing Elsa on the cover of Time magazine, the promo video for the finale doesn’t make it seem like she’ll get everything she hoped for.

“What kind of a place is this?” Elsa demands in the trailer for “Curtain Call.”

“Hollywood,” a woman responds.

Elsa appears happy in one promo photo, and a little surprised in the second one. Will Elsa’s dreams get crushed? Will she realize she made a big mistake? “American Horror Story” fans will find out when episode 13, the “Freak Show” finale, airs on FX on Wednesday, Jan. 21, at 10 p.m. EST.

http://www.ibtimes.com/american-horror-story-season-4-spoilers-freak-show-finale-photos-released-check-out-2-1787704

SisterNightroad

01-21-2015, 10:08 AM

Playing 'American Horror Story: Freak Show's' Dandy Mott has been 'a special time' for Finn Wittrock
By Dave Walker, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune
on January 19, 2015 at 5:00 PM

Of all the faces in the cast of outcast characters in "American Horror Story: Freak Show," the New Orleans-shot anthology drama headed for its season finale at 9 p.m. Wednesday (Jan. 21) on FX, Dandy Mott may be the prettiest. Also the scariest, not counting Twisty the clown, to whom Dandy became a kind of protégé.

Twisty was just one of many weird chapters for Dandy. It would've been a breakout role for Finn Wittrock, the Juilliard-trained actor who portrays him, if 2014 hadn't been a breaking-out-all-over year for him. A veteran of Broadway and "All My Children," Wittrock also had roles during 2014 in the HBO movie "The Normal Heart" (directed by Ryan Murphy, co-creator of "Horror Story") and the feature "Unbroken."

Here's an edited Q&A with Wittrock, interviewed in December while he was shooting the "Freak Show" season finale on location in Metairie.

Q: You're nearing the end of the season. Have you had a chance to reflect on your "American Horror Story" experience?

A: It's like you're kind of in the thick of it until it's over. It's definitely been a life-changer for me, I think, just in terms of how popular it's been. Also because it's been a character that I've gotten to really stretch for. I don't know who else (but Murphy) would've given me the chance to stretch like this. So, yeah, I'm very thankful for it. It's a crazy, chaotic whirlwind while you're in it. It's been a very special time.

What was it like to join this ensemble of actors?

It's sort of intimidating at first. Before you get here you're like -- first of all, they're all such legends in their own right, and they've also been together for three years. But I was very welcomed. They brought me here with open arms. There was no hazing ritual.

From the beginning, I've honestly felt like the writing has been very inspired, and especially for Dandy. Every week I've been given a new spectrum of colors to reveal about myself and to explore. And so, I've never felt – which I think is a danger of doing TV in general -- stuck in a pattern. I've never felt stagnant. I've always felt like I've been challenged and I've been pushing the boundaries of the preconception that I've made of the character up to that point.

Do you draw on references beyond the scripts for character?

Usually I do, but this has been very much out of my own imagination, and Ryan's. At first I looked at children. That was my biggest source of inspiration, just watching children. My mom worked with babies, babies with autism and stuff, and so we talked about the infant mentality, and what if that mentality just never really matured emotionally, but intellectually it did. Kind of like a baby that just never really grew up. 'Anything that isn't pleasing to me is not doing its job in existence.'

It's always me, me, me -- which is actually an infant mentality. As innocent as they are, they're also all ego. That's kind of what I keep referring to when I need to get re-inspired with Dandy

What kind of reactions do you get from civilians now? You're out-and-about here. All you guys are.

Every now and then, someone will be like, "I hate you!" And it's like, "Oh. I don't even know you. You might, but you don't really know that." But generally it's been very positive and very cool. Like, people were me for Halloween. That was kind of trippy.

It's funny how different reactions are in the different places you go. New Orleans people are very effusive, very open. 'Can I take a picture? I love you're work. It's so great.' In L.A., it's a little more like they'll kind of sneak a picture of you. And in New York, you'll see them look at you and know you, but they're way too cool to ever come up. Which is OK. It's like you get to be more anonymous in New York. I still get it, but in general it's been very cool, very positive.

Had you spent much time in New Orleans before coming here to work?

When I was at Juilliard we came here for one week for an outreach thing. It was two or three years after Katrina. We did some planting trees at schools, some very basic community-outreach stuff. We also brought arts to the after-school program. We also had a lot of fun. But it was like a week, a whirlwind trip, so I never really spent real time here before.

You participated in recovery work. That's a big thing to people who live here. Thanks for doing that.

It felt like a very small contribution, but we did what we could for a moment in time. We had dancers and musicians and actors and they all worked with the kids and made this great performance at the end of the week with the kids. It felt impactful in a small way.

That long after the storm, you could really see the damage to the city from the flood.

That was really surprising. We went to the 9th Ward and one house was just perfectly built, and right next to it was demolition, destruction.

Have you enjoyed the time that you spent here this time?

Yeah, I've had a great time. Too good of a time. It can be dangerous how much fun you can have here. I've been really welcomed. It's such a unique place. I don't know any other city that is prideful about itself, in a great way.

Have you thought about another season of the show? Has there been any conversation with Ryan?

There has honestly been no conversation about it. I've just been trying to make it through this. If I do something else, the great thing about the show is I can do something completely and utterly different, which is what I want to do if I did it again. There's a bunch of rumors about what it's going to be, and then that rumor's dispelled. Whatever that idea was, that's not the idea any more. We won't really know until whenever.

You'd be open to the idea of returning.

I'd be open to the idea, for sure.

http://www.nola.com/tv/index.ssf/2015/01/playing_american_horror_story.html

SisterNightroad

01-21-2015, 03:55 PM

Horror Story Eyes a 'Huge Reinvention' — Will Jessica Lange Be a Part of It?
By Matt Webb Mitovich / January 18 2015, 11:51 AM PST

FX’s fifth American Horror Story will be “very different,” FX Networks CEO John Landgraf told TVLine Sunday at the Television Critics Association winter press tour.

Pressed to reveal the theme to follow Freak Show (which finales on Wednesday), Landgraf deferred, “I know what it is, but I can’t [say]. I have to let [series boss] Ryan [Murphy] do his thing on that. But it’s very different.”
Landgraf went on to say of the franchise, “One of the things I love so much about that is that it can be radically, radically reinvented in terms of tone, setting, period, characters, cast.” And along those lines, “I think there’s going to be an unusually large reinvention in between Book 4 and Book 5 relative to, say, between Book 3 [Coven] and 4 [Freak Show].
The only Season 5 clue Landgraf perhaps let slip was when asked about the show returning to the present day (as it thus far has done with odd-numbered seasons). “That’s my hope, yeah,” he answered.

As for Emmy and Golden Globe winner Jessica Lange being a part of the next cycle — a while ago, she hinted in an interview that Freak Show would be her swan song — Landgraf has no information, explaining, “Ryan is really, really independent in how he makes these shows and what he does. So I know the setting, I know something about the characters and something about the tone and the time period, but I don’t actually know the cast yet.”
(With reporting by Vlada Gelman)

http://tvline.com/2015/01/18/american-horror-story-season-5-jessica-lange/

SisterNightroad

01-22-2015, 10:29 AM

‘American Horror Story: Freak Show’ Interview: Kathy Bates On Ethel’s Heartbreaking Journey
January 21, 2015 American Horror Story, Interviews

The incomparable Kathy Bates brought humanity and grace to American Horror Story: Freak Show this season in the role of the bearded lady Ethel. While Ethel met an untimely demise at the hands of her best friend earlier in the season, like many who die in the American Horror Story world, Bates’ Ethel might just reappear in time for the season finale this Wednesday, January 21st at 10PM ET/PT on FX.

Even if Ethel’s heartbreaking swan song has already been sung, the character left a lasting mark on Bates. TV Equals joined in a conference call with Bates shortly after Ethel made her bloody exit and the actress discussed why she keeps coming back to American Horror Story, what made Ethel so special and more.

How Ryan Murphy Rejuvenated Bates’ Career

After NBC cancelled Bates’ ratings winner Harry’s Law due to it drawing an audience that was considered too old, she was diagnosed with breast cancer and found herself at a low point in her life. It was not until American Horror Story creator Ryan Murphy offered her the role of Delphine LaLaurie in AHS: Coven that Bates found joy in her career once more.

“I credit Ryan for not only rejuvenating my career, but rejuvenating my spirit,” Bates said. Delphine was a layered, vicious character Bates could sink her teeth into while also allowing her to surround herself with other amazing actresses like Jessica Lange and Angela Bassett. Meanwhile Bates’ Freak Show character, Ethel’s spirit has been even more complex. For these reasons, Bates would not hesitate to return for a third installment of FX’s anthology series.

“I think Ryan really appreciates older actresses,” Bates said. “He’s rejuvenated our careers, and he’s put us in front of the public at our best. We have a younger fan base now, and that’s all the reasons why I would come back. It’s a wonderful opportunity, and I can’t wait to hear what the next part he might propose would be.”

On Ethel and Her Untimely Demise

In Ethel, Bates found a character she could relate to her. Bates noted she emphasized with Ethel’s “authenticity and her strength, her struggle.” Bates' one wish for the character is that she might have went out in the world dressed as a man just once to experience the world in a way that would not have left her feeling as if she were an outsider. Sadly, Ethel lived and died in the Freak Show.

As for Ethel’s death at the hands of her close friend, Elsa (Lange), Bates noted it was a “bittersweet” end. Upon reading it in the script Bates’ revealed: “I thought, okay, there it is in black and white. I thought, well, it’s been a good run and we’ll see what happens next; you never know with American Horror Story.”

Bates’ On That Epic Final Scene

Ethel and Elsa’s final scene together (at least for now) was as gothic and grandiose as anything American Horror Story has ever done before. Bates reflected on shooting the scene with Lange and how it was evocative of Greek theater.

“When we got the script, and we actually had a couple of meetings with the director on it to talk about the scene itself and how we were going to approach it because on the page it looks like Greek theater; it’s one monologue after another monologue after another monologue. With these kinds of arguments, in real life, it would be people talking over each other and all of that kind of stuff. It wasn’t constructed like that, so we couldn’t approach it from that direction. We did a lot of talking about what was going on in the character’s minds and where they were coming from and would this be enough to — I know one concern from Jessica was, would this be enough for her to turn around and kill Ethel.”

For Bates, the end result was akin to watching "two Greek gods fighting.” If that is the end of Bates’ Freak Show journey, fans must admit the actress went out in an unforgettable way, and there is always next season and a new character on the horizon as long as Murphy continues finding inspiration in the indomitable Ms. Bates.

American Horror Story: Freak Show’s finale airs Wednesday, January 21st at 10pm ET/PT on FX.

http://www.tvequals.com/2015/01/21/american-horror-story-freak-show-interview-kathy-bates-ethel/

SisterNightroad

01-23-2015, 06:26 AM

Jessica Lange Has Officially Peaced Out Of ‘American Horror Story’
BY STACEY RITZEN • 01.22.15

https://uproxx.files.wordpress.com/2015/01/jessica-lange.jpg

So, about that “reinvention” Ryan Murphy is planning for season five of American Horror Story. Being that every season has in some way revolved around Jessica Lange’s scenery-chewing characters, one would assume that any American Horror Story NOT involving Ms. Lange would have to be drastically different. And it looks like that’s going to be the case, because Jessica Lange did, in fact, take her final bow last night.

Ryan Murphy ✔ @MrRPMurphy
Thank you Jessica...for everything. Always.
5:42 AM - 22 Jan 2015

Of course, it’s not a complete surprise that this would be Jessica Lange’s final season, as she said so much in an EW interview back in November of 2013. However Ryan Murphy later later claimed that there was a possibility of her waffling, and he was doing everything he could to convince her to stay. YOU SHOULD HAVE TRIED HARDER.

I’ll have the recap of the finale up a bit later, but this certainly lends a new poignancy to the final scene of American Horror Story: Freak Show.

http://uproxx.com/tv/2015/01/jessica-lange-has-officially-peaced-out-of-american-horror-story/

SisterNightroad

01-23-2015, 04:44 PM

‘American Horror Story: Freak Show’ Finale Review: “Curtain Call”
Britt Hayes | 2 days ago

FX
And with that, the curtain falls on another season of ‘American Horror Story,’ as ‘Freak Show’ does its best to come full circle and remember that it had established some plot threads that it should probably tie up. “Curtain Call” is filled with inevitable moments punctuated by maudlin theatrics, which should seem appropriate given the context of the fourth season—but with how much ‘Freak Show’ has meandered aimlessly from plot to plot, delivering half-baked ideas and even lesser-baked themes, very little of tonight’s season finale feels worth the journey.

Jessica Lange has previously mentioned that perhaps she won’t return to ‘American Horror Story’ after season 4. And recently, at the TCAs, FX execs revealed that the fifth season may very well feature “an unusually large reinvention” of the series. It seems even the folks at FX are aware of the show’s creative issues. And it’s not that Ryan Murphy doesn’t have some vibrant and interesting ideas, using common pieces of horror as a jumping off point for some wild stuff—but the problem has always been with the inconsistencies, the lack of thematic cohesion, and what feels like a serious case of ADD behind the scenes. Each episode establishes more new plot threads while dropping others, and never clings firmly to any one narrative element for more than two episodes, max. With Murphy going into production on the first season of his new anthology, ‘American Crime Story,’ it makes sense that the already scattered and barely-focused ‘American Horror Story’ will continue to suffer.

But maybe removing Jessica Lange (as fabulous and ferocious as she is) and reinventing the series is what’s needed to escape this redundant cycle. Much of this season fails to resonate on a thematic, emotional, or visceral level, although Kathy Bates gave us some touching moments and there were occasionally sickening twists. Now that we’ve reached the end, it’s hard to remember characters like Pepper even existed, or those delightful Edward Mordrake episodes.

“Curtain Call” does its best to make us remember why we liked the promise of this season in the first place, but even with an additional David Bowie performance from Elsa, it’s hardly inspiring. We’ve seen her do this act one too many times. We know the song and dance. We know where this is going.

Of course Dandy snaps and murders almost everyone at the Cabinet of Curiosities. And of course, after leaving with Dandy and marrying him, Dot and Bette poison him at dinner—as if they could possibly stay with a monster. Desiree lives and marries Malcolm Jamal Warner’s character, and has the relatively normal life and children she always wanted. Dot and Bette marry Jimmy and they begin their own family, although this pairing (or threesome) feels like the result of these characters having no other options. And then ding dong, Dandy’s dead in a manner which should be terrifying and theatrical, but instead feels banal.

What began as a story that was building to a showdown between the superhero Jimmy and the super villain Dandy, ended appropriately for ‘AHS’ in that the finale only has a passing interest in revisiting this idea before wholly dismissing it and going with a zany murder-revenge plot.

And as for Elsa, she gets her show. She gets a husband (Neil Patrick Harris’ husband, to be exact). And she gets the fame she always wanted. It’s too bad that the finale is preoccupied with ideas that are way too basic for the elaborate stage on which they’re presented: fame has a price; you always lose what you give away; and the sins of your past will come back to haunt you, like a series of 8mm sex tapes you made in Berlin—this is a sadly clumsy reflection of similar circumstances in the real world, where the public feels entitled to own its performers, simultaneously objectifying them and holding them up to the most impossible standards. This is the way Elsa treated her darling Curiosities, and what goes around comes around, I suppose.

The final 20 minutes are terribly overwrought and, like much of the proceeding hour, fail to make an impression. Elsa loses everything in almost comically melodramatic fashion—the freaks are dead, Massimo is dying and can’t take her away from her hellish life of fame, and notorious gossip columnist Hedda Hopper has found Elsa’s old 8mm tapes from Berlin. Elsa has nothing, but when you’ve been to the top and back down to the bottom, where else is there to go?

And so we get a visit from Edward Mordrake (and Twisty! Those were the days), reminding us of a time when this show was actually effective and still intriguing, only to abruptly remind us of how it’s no longer either of those things.

I’m not sure if we’re meant to read the ending as tragic or strangely uplifting—it seems as though Elsa’s been rewarded for her selfishness and now resides in her own version of heaven with all of her old carnival pals and Ethel telling her that famous people don’t receive punishment. Or maybe being surrounded by all those hearts she broke and lives she stole and doomed to death is her punishment. And maybe she’s just too narcissistic to understand it, or too grateful to see them again that she doesn’t care.

And that’s what I mean: there’s no clear thematic message or idea. There’s no cohesion. Nothing about this season has made much sense, but in the most banal way possible.

The first two seasons of ‘AHS’ remain the best, as is the case with most of Ryan Murphy’s enterprises. Perhaps with next season’s promised “reinvention,” we’ll get at least of a hint of a show that delivers on the promise of its season premiere.

Additional Thoughts:

Of all the people at the circus, I thought Eve would be the one to really give it to Dandy, and she comes real close.
Speaking of Dandy, he remains the MVP of this season (Bates, Bassett, and Lange aside).
Do you think Dandy put Stanley out of his misery?
I will see you all next season because I clearly am too dumb to stay away from this series.

Read More: 'American Horror Story: Freak Show' Review: "Curtain Call" | http://screencrush.com/american-horror-story-freak-show-finale-review-curtain-call/?trackback=tsmclip

SisterNightroad

01-24-2015, 08:20 AM

‘American Horror Story’ Season 4 Spoilers: 13 Questions We Have After The ‘Freak Show’ Finale
By Amanda Remling @AmandaTVScoop on January 22 2015 9:33 AM

We've got a lot of questions after the "American Horror Story: Freak Show" finale ...
“American Horror Story: Freak Show” came to a bloody end on Wednesday. The fourth installment of the FX miniseries concluded with a frightening massacre and a special ending for the star of it all – Elsa Mars (Jessica Lange). The writers did their best to wrap up story lines and tie everything up with a nice bow, however we still have some questions after the “Freak Show” finale:

1. Did Chester get arrested? Chester (Neil Patrick Harris) turned himself into the police in the episode prior to the finale. He confessed to killing someone and asked for the chair … but handed the police his doll. Did he get locked up in the crazy house?

2. What happened to mutant Stanley? Dandy (Finn Wittrock) went on a shooting spree and murdered almost everyone at the freak show. However, “American Horror Story” fans didn’t see mutant Stanley with a bullet in his head.

3. What did Dandy do with his mom’s body? The finale brought viewers back to the Mott household, and it was in much better shape than when we last left it. Dandy had previously sewn a second head onto his mom’s body and hung her up to play with. Gloria’s (Frances Conroy) body was noticeably missing when Dandy wed Bette and Dot (Sarah Paulson) in his play room.

4. What did they do with Dandy’s body? Dandy drowned in the Houdini tank thanks to Desiree (Angela Bassett), Jimmy (Evan Peters) and the twins. But what happened to his body? It’s unclear if they just left him in the water to rot, or if they threw him in a shallow grave.

5. Whatever happened to that police officer who Dandy was paying? One of the Jupiter police officers was getting paid off by Dandy. Did he go looking for the psychotic rich boy? Or just shrug when he went missing.

6. Did Desiree get her surgery? The “American Horror Story: Freak Show” finale ended with Desiree and her husband, the traveling salesman she met while on stage, watching their two children run down the street. She got her happy ending – but does she still have her “dingaling” and three breasts?

7. How does the Bette, Dot And Jimmy relationship work? Jimmy was seemingly in a relationship with Dot … but what about Bette (Sarah Paulson)? The conjoined twin looked like she was just along for the ride while her sister got to have a loving relationship with Jimmy. The catch is that the twins were pregnant. Whose baby is it? Do the share mothering it? We have so many questions …

8. What do Bette, Dot and Jimmy do for a living now? Bette, Dot and Jimmy no longer have the freak show to rely on for money. Did Bette and Dot get Dandy’s money after they married him? Or did all of them get new jobs to support themselves?

9. Is Jimmy still wanted for the Tupperware party murder? “American Horror Story” fans can’t forget that Jimmy was wanted for murder. He was broken out of jail and forced to hide in a barn. Did the police stop looking for him? Did he change his name? Is he cleared of the murder charges?

10. Who buried the freaks in a mass grave? At the end of the finale Elsa learned that her beloved monsters had been buried in a mass grave. Who put them there? Either Desiree, Jimmy and the twins dumped their friends in the ground or the Jupiter police department did.

11. What happened to Dell Toledo in the afterlife? Elsa was reunited with all her loved ones after her visit from Edward Mordrake (Wes Bentley) – Ethel (Kathy Bates), Ma Petite (Jyoti Amge), Paul (Mat Fraser) and more. One person noticeably missing was Del Toledo (Michael Chiklis). Del did kill Ma Petite, which could be why he wasn’t with everybody. However, it’s important to remember that Elsa was responsible for Ethel’s death.

12. What happened to Maggie in the afterlife? Like Del, Maggie (Emma Roberts) was missing from the afterlife freak show.

13. Who are the freaks performing for? Do the freaks perform for the same crowd every night in the afterlife? And is the crowd dead like them? So many questions …

http://www.ibtimes.com/american-horror-story-season-4-spoilers-13-questions-we-have-after-freak-show-finale-1791378

SisterNightroad

01-25-2015, 08:44 AM

Here Are The Clues Behind 'American Horror Story' Season 5
By Erin Whitney

We're just barely into the fourth season of "American Horror Story," but fans are eagerly trying to figure out what will happen next season.

(Spoiler alert if you don't want to know even the mildest speculation about Season 5.)

Ryan Murphy has said in multiple interviews that clues regarding the fifth season are scattered throughout the first few episodes of "Freak Show." In his most recent interview with Entertainment Weekly, Murphy confirmed a major clue that has since set off a whole slew of theories. In Episode 4, "Edward Mordrake (Part 2)," a cop hands Emma Roberts' Maggie a coffee cup with a top hat printed on it. "That is a big season five clue!" Murphy told EW of the top hat. "It’s an arcane clue, but it’s very purposeful, and it illuminates something that you’ll be like, 'Oh! You dirty [bastard]!'"

http://big.assets.huffingtonpost.com/emma_tophat_ahs.gif

Avid fans on Reddit have since discovered two other appearances of the same top hat this season. The first two are in Episode 2 when a close-up shows the hat on two coffee cups held by the assistant at the local toy store.

http://big.assets.huffingtonpost.com/toystore_tophat_ahs.gif

The second time the hat pops up is in the diner scene when Evan Peters' Jimmy takes the "freaks" out to eat. The top hat can be seen on the front of the restaurant menus -- it seems that all of the coffee cups are coming from what looks to be The Top Hat Diner. Let's also not forget that Edward Mordrake wears a top hat.

http://big.assets.huffingtonpost.com/tophat_diner_menu.gif

Redditor ace_VXIII posted a fan theory on the series' subreddit last week that seems to be the most convincing one yet. This one proposes that the top hat may signify Operation Top Hat, a "local field exercise" that occurred in Alabama in 1953, one year after the events of "Freak Show." The operation involved the United States Army Chemical Corps testing biological and chemical weapons, mustard gas, and nerve gas for decontamination. However, the experiment was never submitted to the Secretary of the Army for approval and those involved in the tests were supposedly not informed of the circumstances. This sounds like creepy, secretive "AHS" material if you ask us.

http://i.huffpost.com/gen/2241350/thumbs/o-MORDRAKE-570.jpg

The theory suggests that if the top hats do relate to the 1953 operation, Season 5 could deal with human experimentation in addition to government conspiracies and extraterrestrials, which has also been a popular fan theory. The nuclear testing suggestion has also been supported on Reddit when users noticed the mushroom clouds behind Jimmy earlier this season and connected them to Area 51 and Mercury, Nevada, where there was nuclear testing beginning in the '50s. These theories then spurred a "Hills Have Eyes" theory about such experiments leading to mutants. Could all of these be connected in some way, and most specifically, could they relate to Pepper? Let's not forget that Pepper was abducted by aliens in Season 2, and Murphy has said that all the seasons are connected.

Many of the fan theories related to Area 51 and aliens have used (supposed) clues from "Freak Show" to predict that Season 5 will take place in space -- there's Elsa Mars' surname, the fact that she sang Bowie's "Life On Mars," and other various space-related imagery. But Murphy has outright denied those claims, saying the next season is "land-bound and takes place in the United States." Before Murphy revealed the top hat clue, he previously said all the fan theories he'd read online were wrong. We wonder what he thinks of the Operation Top Hat one.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/11/04/american-horror-story-season-5_n_6096760.html

SisterNightroad

01-26-2015, 08:45 AM

‘American Horror Story’ Season 5 Theories: Potential New Clue From The ‘Freak Show’ Finale
By Megan Schaefer on January 22 2015

http://s1.ibtimes.com/sites/www.ibtimes.com/files/styles/v2_article_large/public/2015/01/22/american-horror-story-season-5-clues.jpg
The Season 4 finale of "American Horror Story: Freak Show" may have teased a new Season 5 clue. (Pictured: Jessica Lange as Elsa Mars.)

“Freak Show” may be over but the excitement regarding Season 5 of “American Horror Story” has only just begun! During the final episode of Season 4, series creator Ryan Murphy made sure to tease fans with some subtle clues about what they could potentially expect in the fifth installment.

During the finale Murphy may have tipped his hat – or should we say Top Hat? – to the next season of “AHS” when Massimo (Danny Huston) made his appearance. It was 1960 and Elsa (Jessica Lange) had finally become the big Hollywood star she always wanted to be. However, despite having the career of her dreams, a hunky husband and a pair of adorable cocker spaniels, she still wasn’t satisfied.

Elsa’s insatiable hunger for love worsened when Massimo visited his beloved in her Hollywood pad. He explained that since they last saw each other at the freak show camp (Elsa called upon Massimo to make new hands for Jimmy [Evan Peters]), he had been working in construction, putting his artistic abilities to the test as he created fake building in Nevada so that the government could blow them up with atomic bombs. (Cue the eyebrow raise.)

Our suspicions on Massimo’s past having something to do with Season 5 grew when he revealed that he couldn’t run away with Elsa because he had a lung and bone disease that would kill him within the month. So, does this mean Massimo suffered radiation poisoning from the bombs? If so, that would go hand-in-hand with some Season 5 theories that have been circulating. The theories suggest that the next installment may have something to do with operation Top Hat, “a local field exercise” conducted by the United States Army chemical corps in 1953 that used human subjects in the radiological testing.

If one was to research Nevada Test Site, they would uncover that the bombs tested in Nevada and Utah during the 1950’s were speculated to have caused an increase in cancers (including leukemia, lymphoma, thyroid, breast, melanoma, bone, brain and more) among residents who were in close enough in range to have experienced the fallout downwind from the testing sights. According to Ratical.org, residents of the nearby towns reported that they noticed an “oddly metallic sort of taste in the air,” which was thought to be an effect from the atomic bomb testing.

During the 2015 Television Critics Association winter press tour, FX Networks CEO John Landgraf teased to TVLine that fans should anticipate Season 5 of “AHS” to be “very different.”

“One of the things I love so much about that is that it can be radically, radically reinvented in terms of tone, setting, period, characters, cast,” Landgraf revealed. “I think there’s going to be an unusually large reinvention in between Book 4 and Book 5 relative to, say, between Book 3 [‘Coven’] and 4 [‘Freak Show’].”

The Networks CEO then dished an interesting Season 5 spoiler, teasing that “AHS” may return to telling their chilling story in the present. “That’s my hope, yeah,” he said of Season 5’s timeline occurring in 2015. This led us to theorize that instead of Season 5 reenacting the terrible events that went down in 1950, perhaps viewers would get to see how the atomic bomb testing had effected and shaped the lives of those who endured the bombing.

http://www.ibtimes.com/american-horror-story-season-5-theories-potential-new-clue-freak-show-finale-1791462

SisterNightroad

01-27-2015, 06:23 AM

http://www1.pictures.zimbio.com/mp/000mIMdqC5Qx.jpg

http://www.zimbio.com/quiz/pV1rzAUNHGA/American+Horror+Story+Freak+Show+Character

I'm very proud of my result:
http://www3.pictures.zimbio.com/mp/pwT2iPXe6Mul.jpg

SisterNightroad

01-28-2015, 06:41 AM

Ranking 25 Of The Best 'American Horror Story' Characters Ever

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"American Horror Story" gives us the chance to watch a cast of actors reinvent themselves each season with some of the most terrifying, ass-kicking and cunning characters on television. But free of good and evil, or amount of screen time, who were the most well-written characters in the "AHS" universe? The ones who kept us on the edge of our seats, continually surprised us, and brought some of the most unnerving, charismatic and powerful storylines to life onscreen?

HuffPost Entertainment editors Erin Whitney and Ryan Kristobak ranked the top 25 characters, and no, not everyone is included, only the best of the best. (Obviously, spoilers lie ahead for the entire series.)

25. Queenie (Gabourey Sidibe) -- "Coven"

24. Derek (Eric Stonestreet) -- "Murder House"
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23. Chester Creb (Neil Patrick Harris) -- "Freak Show"

22. Paul the Illustrated Seal (Mat Fraser) -- "Freak Show"
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21. Nan (Jamie Brewer) -- "Coven"

20. Edward Mordrake (Wes Bentley) -- "Freak Show"
http://i.huffpost.com/gen/2528878/thumbs/o-EDWARD-MORDRAKE-570.jpg

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/01/25/american-horror-story-characters_n_6519520.html?ncid=tweetlnkushpmg00000067

SisterNightroad

01-28-2015, 06:48 AM

Ranking 25 Of The Best 'American Horror Story' Characters Ever

19. Marie Laveau (Angela Bassett) -- "Coven"

18. Fiona Goode (Jessica Lange) -- "Coven"
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17. Johnny Morgan (Dylan McDermott) -- "Asylum"

16. Ma Petite (Jyoti Amge) -- "Freak Show"
http://i.huffpost.com/gen/2528928/thumbs/s-MA-PETIT-large640.jpg

15. Stevie Nicks (Stevie Nicks) -- "Coven"
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Shawls on shawls on shawls. --Ryan Kristobak

14. Sister Jude (Lange) -- "Asylum"
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Jessica Lange’s Sister Jude is the merciless foundation of Briarcliff Manor, the intolerable do-gooder who we find out is only torturing others to atone for her own past sins. While Lange’s other “AHS” characters have an unwavering strength and confidence about them, Judy Martin is her most human, a woman who is cracked at her core only to be broken down entirely. While Lange’s fierce, insult spewing is a trademark to her characters, it's the ultimate innocence of Sister Jude that makes her Lange's most lovable by the end of “Asylum.” --Erin Whitney

13. Charlotte Brown/Anne Frank (Franka Potente) -- "Asylum"
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Charlotte Brown’s time in “Asylum” was brief, but her fleeting presence was one the first jolts that let us know that this season was going to be exceptional. Through both of her episodes, the struggle to determine whether she really “is” Anne Frank is a tough tug-of-war, ending with a clue that propels the ultimate truth behind Dr. Arden. --RK

12. Moira O’Hara (Alexandra Breckenridge/Frances Conroy) -- "Murder House"
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Existing in a dual-dual state -- she is young and old, she is with the living and with the deceased -- Moira is like the glue that holds the Murder House together. While she shows compassion to Vivien, she also bites off Joe Escandarian’s penis, and that’s just crazy. --RK

11. Dr. Arden/Hans Gruper (James Cromwell) -- "Asylum"
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Dr. Arthur Arden, what a sicko. The former Nazi war criminal, formerly known as Hans Gruper, had a nasty past in Auschwitz (if you believe the Charlotte Brown story), but he became even more horrible when “Freak Show” revealed he was the one responsible for removing Elsa Mars’ legs. --Erin Whitney

10. Delphine LaLaurie (Kathy Bates) -- "Coven"
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Delphine LaLaurie is almost inarguably the most sadistic, want-to-watch-you-die-so-bad character in all of “AHS.” Yet, somehow, during her distantly affectionate moments with Queenie, or when her severed head is just sitting on that resting tray, you almost wish she could finally achieve death (albeit a most painful, deserving one). --RK

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/01/25/american-horror-story-characters_n_6519520.html?ncid=tweetlnkushpmg00000067

SisterNightroad

01-28-2015, 06:55 AM

Ranking 25 Of The Best 'American Horror Story' Characters Ever

9. Myrtle Snow (Conroy) -- "Coven"
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Myrtle Effing Snow, ladies and gentleman. “Coven” may have been overflowing with unfinished sub-plots and nonsensical side tours, but there was always the quick-witted, red-headed queen of fashion. Whose last words are a French fashion house and who can scoop out eye balls like it’s their job? Don’t be a hater, dear. --EW

8. Twisty (John Carroll Lynch) -- "Freak Show"
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It takes a lot to go from “most terrifying clown of all time,” to the character that deserves all of the audience’s sympathy. Manic and absolutely unpredictable, Twisty’s mere presence is enough to send shivers down the most rigid of spines; give him a knife, and it’s probably best just to turn the TV off. --RK

7. Dandy Mott (Finn Wittrock) -- "Freak Show"
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Whether you were a fan of “Freak Show” or got bored by the end, Dandy was still one of the most wickedly entertaining characters of the season. He brought a puerile essence to the psychopathic killer trope “AHS” has employed each season, and emanated it completely, from his curled bangs to his pigeon-toed walk. --EW

6. Tate Langdon (Evan Peters) -- "Murder House"
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One of the strongest aspects of “American Horror Story” is its delicate balance of horror and humanity, its ability to showcase the ugliest, most depraved depths of characters whom we learn to love and accept for their flaws. This was Tate Langdon: everyone’s favorite misunderstood rebel with a big heart. Sure, he was essentially a bad guy, but the fantastic writing behind his character was that by the time we discovered the truth, we felt like we could actually understand him. --EW

5. Pepper (Naomi Grossman) -- "Asylum" / "Freak Show"
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Seriously, what isn’t there to love about Pepper? Wrongfully committed for a crime, Pepper is nothing but a silent knight of good intentions, and after she is abducted by aliens (awesome), she proves that she is capable of standing up against even the evil men that surround her. --RK

4. Constance Langdon (Lange) -- "Murder House"
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Like most of Jessica Lange’s characters throughout “AHS,” it is difficult to determine the true nature of Constance throughout the season. On one end, she is rude, duplicitous and has no problem killing. On the other, she loves her children very much, has suffered greatly and does help out the Harmon’s here and there. However, what truly elevates Constance is her endless stream of insults that often fly over the heads of those they are directed at. --RK

3. Dr. Oliver Thredson (Zachary Quinto) -- "Asylum"
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There’s a surplus of psychotic murderers in “AHS,” but none as sickeningly disturbed, sociopathic and efficiently pristine as Dr. Oliver Thredson, aka the original Bloody Face. With his mix of charm and good looks, it was impossible for any character or viewer not to fall for Thredson’s facade, but even after his true identity was revealed he remained the most captivating presence on screen. If anything, it’s also a testament to how badly Murphy needs to bring Zachary Quinto back. --EW

2. Sister Mary Eunice (Lily Rabe) -- "Asylum" / "Freak Show"
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The transformation of Sister Mary Eunice is easily the most exciting of the series so far. From the timid, subservient, but kind-hearted bystander, to the sexual, impenetrable possessed murderer, she became one of the most intriguing characters in a season that seemed like it would be rather static for her. We’ll never forget the moment she calmly let out, “I’m the devil.” --RK

1. Lana Winters (Sarah Paulson) -- "Asylum"
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Selecting the number one, very best “American Horror Story” character ever is no easy task, and one we debated for quite some time. But when it really comes down to it, Lana Banana is the best hero, the most admirable survivor, and the most deeply human in Ryan Murphy’s twisted universe. Lana went into Briarcliff with a mission and while every imaginable horror (some we honestly can’t even rewatch) impeded her, she triumphed and lived to tell the tale. She’s tough, but she’s no cookie. --EW

BONUS: Infantata
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The real hero.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/01/25/american-horror-story-characters_n_6519520.html?ncid=tweetlnkushpmg00000067

SisterNightroad

01-29-2015, 09:03 AM

'American Horror Story' Season 5 Spoilers & News: Series Returns To Modern Day; Cast Member Sarah Paulson, BFF Amanda Peet Grab Each Other's Behind
BY Craig Harrison | Jan 26, 2015 11:44 PM EST

"American Horror Story" Season 5 spoilers reveal that the timeline will return to present day America as cast member Sarah Paulson and BFF Amanda Peet were snapped grabbing each other's behinds.

Gossip On This speculated that Sarah Paulson will likely return for fifth season since Ryan Murphy is a big fan of the actress.
However, Sarah Paulson also bagged a major role in "American Crime Story" as prosecutor Marcia Clark in the O.J. Simpson case would possibly limit her responsibilities for "American Horror Story".
"We all know Evan Peters is coming back," it said. "because if Jessica Lange leaves and Sarah Paulson is left with a reduced role, Season 5 will finally give Peters his chance to shine. As for his real life fiancée Emma Roberts, she most likely will not be returning for AHS Season 5".
FX president John Landgraf teased "American Horror Story" Season 5 news and spoilers to TVLine as he said that it will depart drastically from "Freak Show.
"One of the things I love so much about that is that it can be radically, radically reinvented in terms of tone, setting, period, characters, cast," he said. "I think there's going to be an unusually large reinvention in between Book 4 and Book 5 relative to, say, between Book 3 [Coven] and 4 [Freak Show]."
Meanwhile, The Business Bitch Twitter account shared a clip of Amanda Peet grabbing a handful of Sarah Paulson's behind. When the "American Horror Story" actress noticed the camera, she returned the favor and also tapped her BFF's behind.
Sarah Paulson told E! News that Amanda Peet "looks really good. And if you don't tune in, you're not going to see the world's greatest tits."
"American Horror Story" Season 5 actress Sarah Paulson was referring to Amanda Peet's HBO show "Togetherness." "They're really good tits," she continued. "The nipples are not huge, which I think is great...great abs, and anyone who can wear tight white jeans on television is winning...The world should get ready!"

http://www.kdramastars.com/articles/70822/20150126/american-horror-story-season-5-spoilers-news-sarah-paulson.htm

SisterNightroad

01-30-2015, 06:30 AM

‘American Horror Story’ Has Become Its Own Worst Enemy
By Shane Barnes on Jan 21, 2015 12:20pm

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Tonight, the fourth season of American Horror Story, subtitled Freak Show, will come to an end. It will probably be a sexy, gruesome, jaw-dropping end, and, like the show’s third season (Coven) finale, it will surely attempt to shock its millions of viewers into forgetting just how awful the preceding season was. Because, for all of the franchise’s season-to-season and week-to-week inconsistencies, American Horror Story always ends well and with a high body count. Perhaps its the series’ ability to stick its landing that has blinded co-creators Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk to the fact that the very things that allowed for the show’s terrific first season — the freedom of the anthology format, access to high-caliber talent, and near-complete creative control — are the very same things that have led to the show’s astoundingly fast descent into the pits.

In 2011, when FX announced that it had signed Nip/Tuck and Glee creator Ryan Murphy to produce an anthology horror series, folks were skeptical. The idea was good — a legitimately scary show, with a rotating cast and setting — but Murphy was a hard sell. His shows, while popular, were plagued with inconsistencies and tended to favor style over substance.

The first season’s casting assuaged a lot of those fears. Dylan McDermott, Connie Britton, and, perhaps most exciting of all, Jessica Lange were attached. That season, which has been posthumously subtitled Murder House, was met largely with rapturous applause. In 2011, it felt fresh. Lange was amazing in it. The story was OK. Zachary Quinto showed up. Evan Peters played a Kurt Cobain proxy who shot up a high school. A lot of people died. Season over. Lange won a Golden Globe. The show was a hit.

When the time came to make Season 2’s Asylum, the producers went all out. They released more than a dozen teasers in advance of the premiere. And when Asylum did premiere, viewers — all 3.5 million of them — were greeted with an amped-up stylistic approach and cinematic flourishes that would be impressive for a contemporary horror film. And the story? The writers shoved everything they could fit into the Briarcliff Asylum setting: murderous, possessed nuns; sadistic Nazi surgeons; a killer Santa Claus (played beautifully by Ian McShane); a half-baked plot involving aliens and abduction; Adam Levine and Chloë Sevigny, briefly; and a brilliant musical number by Lange.

Asylum was divisive because of its stew-like plotting, but it is the series’ highlight. Murder House succeeded because it told the story of a singular place. Asylum succeeded because it had one setting to anchor it, but it also had single-episode satellite plots. And while those plots didn’t necessarily advance the lives of our main characters (Lange, again in the role of a once-great and beautiful woman who was at turns both nasty and compassionate, and Sarah Paulson, playing a journalist investigating the death of her wife at the hands of Briarcliff), they didn’t detract from them, and they gave Briarcliff some flavor.

It would seem only fair to discuss Season 3’s Coven in detail, but, more than even Freak Show, it was a mess. It was set at Miss Robichaux’s Academy, a kind of majestic Hogwarts for descendants of the Witches of Salem. Like all seasons of the show, the idea was good. The execution? Merely the same: Lange as the queen bitch of the witches who is fighting to stay relevant; Paulson as an underdog trying to do good; Evan Peters as a goodhearted dead person; Emma Roberts as top mean girl; Jamie Brewer as the lovable, threatening outcast; Dennis O’Hare as a boring weirdo; Frances Conroy as some wonderfully eccentric, largely unimportant minor character. Kathy Bates, Angela Bassett, Gabourey Sidibe, Patti Lupone, and Danny Huston joined the cast. Oh, and toward the end of the season Stevie Nicks showed up as a witch, which must have helped people forget just how boring the episodes had been up to that point. Because, a year later, Freak Show premiered to an FX record-shattering 6.17 million viewers.

To the credit of all of us who watched it, Freak Show looked promising. The lead-up marketing campaign was brilliant, and stylistically intriguing. And the cast was just as great, but bigger: Lange, Roberts, Bassett, Peters, Conroy, Bates, O’Hare, Sidibe, Paulson, and Brewer all returned. Michael Chiklis, Finn Witrock, Matt Bomer, Neil Patrick Harris, Grace Gummer, Patti LaBelle, and a whole slew of other minor players joined the cast. That seems like an absurdly long list of names to have to mention here, and it is. But it’s also an absurdly long list of actors to cram into 13 episodes of television.

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It didn’t take long for Freak Show to fall into the same traps as Coven. Sure, stylistically it was amazing, and, before he was killed off, Twisty the Clown — arguably the series’ scariest character — was a zeitgeist moment. But Lange’s character, Fräulein Elsa, was the same egomaniacal has-been Lange has played for four years now. Her Cabinet of Curiosities — the titular freak show — was full of color, but, after a few weeks, it also became evident that it was full of unlikable stock characters. And if Coven’s witches-vs.-voodoo shtick was heavy-handedly racist, then, by god, Freak Show’s message of civil rights was, for the few episodes the writers remembered it, so blatant that the characters themselves actually spoke of it.

Beyond that, Freak Show exacerbated American Horror Story‘s tendency to stop developing any given character after establishing one defining trait. (Lange: vindictive; Paulson: doe-eyed — with two heads!; Peters: the golden boy; Chiklis: the wounded, closeted tough guy; etc.). Then there’s the overreliance on Lange’s musical performances as early ratings draws, and the inexplicable disappearance of these performances halfway through the season.

It’s as if the writers (and, admittedly, the viewers) thought that we all only wanted the big stuff. But it turns out that, without strong central characters, a bunch of deaths becomes nothing more than a bunch of deaths. And so we get a string of gorier and gorier set pieces with little to anchor them. We have two-episode arcs devoted to minor characters (Wes Bentley as an evil Halloween ghost, Neil Patrick Harris as an insane puppeteer). How are we supposed to care about anyone when the focus changes every week, and the characters change every year? The writers have copied the structure of an ensemble show like Orange Is the New Black, but they’ve forgotten that they don’t have the benefit of past seasons to ground the show when each week brings forth a new, ultimately expendable character. And then comes the end, when everyone dies and we all have a terrible ever after.

So what should the show do? The easy answer is to pare down the cast. Find a setting that anchors the show beyond a gimmick. Write characters that serve as more than shock value. For ****’s sake, give the talented leading women something interesting to do. And, no, that doesn’t mean giving them two heads.

http://flavorwire.com/500169/american-horror-story-has-become-its-own-worst-enemy

SisterNightroad

01-31-2015, 05:53 AM

What The Hell Went Wrong With This Season Of American Horror Story?

Last week, American Horror Story wrapped up its season-long freak show storyline. But today, we're still stuck here, thinking "what the hell happened" to this series? Here are our thoughts on the entire season, and the lackluster finale in particular. Spoilers ahead...

1) "You'll Never Be A Freak" Vs. "You're The Biggest Freak"

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Perhaps this was where the series lost me the most: the message. American Horror Story has no problem trotting out a taboo message or idea, but Freak Show seemed to be juggling too many ideas all at once. And the message became even more confusing in the end, when characters started contradicting each other about the meaning of the word "freak."

When Dandy finally inherits his dream of owning the Freak Show, thus getting the chance to perform on stage, Paul loses it and tells the villain off: "You're boring, and we don't do boring. We're freaks you'll never be one of us." This causes Dandy to lose his **** and murder (just about) everyone (more on that later). After Dandy's murder spree, he's later apprehended by the surviving freaks, who want revenge. And as they encase Dandy in a glass coffin (similar to the previous containers that held Ma Petite and Salty) Desiree tells Dandy "You may look like a motion pictures dreamboat, but you're the biggest freak of all."

So Dandy is the biggest freak of all, but he's also boring and not a freak? This is what you leave the series on? After many episodes of pushing hard on interesting themes — like the family of outsiders, the things people will do when looking for acceptance, and the variety of ways our society treats those deemed to be "freaks" — the audience was left scratching their heads.

What was the point? Don't be a murderous dick? Seeing Dandy in a big glass box was thrilling, if not full circle-like (granted, we didn't necessarily need to be told that this was what they were doing by a character, but whatever). But we already saw the "freak" treatment play out, after Stanley was hobbled and dressed as Meep. An homage to Tod Browning's Freaks (which the audience was also informed of, after the characters told Stanley the plot of said film). Honestly the biggest takeaway (for me) was, "Maybe be better at running a circus and have more realistic expectations about ticket sales." Or "Don't be a dick."

2) **** It, Just Kill Everyone

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The failing of the freak show message was doubly lost when Dandy decided to murder everyone. The best part of this show wasn't the big-name celebrities, it was the new actors that made up the cast of freaks. Eve (Erika Ervin), Paul (Mat Fraser), Ma Petite (Jyoti Amge) and the others were truly the heart and soul of this series. Every time one the freaks got his or her own plot line or backstory, you could guarantee it would be 1,000 times more interesting than anything else we had seen. To execute each cast-member in such a odd way felt like a waste of these absolutely fantastic actors. They deserved better than this, and the audience did as well.

For months we fretted over Paul's beautiful face, and Ma Petite's horrific ending — hell, the Pepper side story was possibly the most heartbreaking plot in the entire series. But for reasons I cannot comprehend, we left our lovely new friends in a pile of bodies in front of the stage. Why even bother trying to get us to connect with these wonderful characters, if the show was going to kill them all off as carelessly as an introduction to a Law & Order episode? There was no fear, no sadness, no horror. Just Dandy with a gun, putting bullets in the heads of your favorite freaks. The end. Perhaps he had to kill all these people just to set up his own freak show ending, but honestly the ends did not justify the means.

Also this isn't the first time American Horror Story decided to kill off almost the entire cast, so it's not even new! We already did the whole "everyone is dead" thing in the Murder House finale.

3) When The Side Characters Are Better Than The Actual Story

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What was the main plot of American Horror Story: Freak Show? Elsa wanted to be famous? The Freaks wanted to just carve out a little world for themselves under the spotlight? A clown is killing all the townspeople? A traveling salesman is killing freaks and selling them off? Dick fingers? There were a lot of different plot lines being juggled in Freak Show. None of which I really responded to. At least not in the same way we responded to the characters and their trials in Asylum, Coven or Murder House. So many plates were spinning in the air, it was hard to nail down a character to cheer for or really even hate.

However I will give a lot of love to the cameo characters that appeared. Edward Mordrake provided a weird, supernatural twist to the series that also revealed backloads of backstory for our favorite freaks. Chester the murderous magician was great fun to watch. Even Andy the 1950s gay barfly carried with him a bit of baggage we wanted to explore. But the clown and Dandy's plight (no matter how wonderfully Finn Wittrock acted, and he is really a spectacular talent) couldn't hold our attention. They were almost too sporadic and psychopathic to connect with, it's not fun to watch a little kid smash bugs for no reason. And it's not fun to watch someone kill random characters because they're having an adult tantrum. I wanted more from these villains.

4) Jessica Lange's Swan Song

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Sadly, this was Jessica Lange's final American Horror Story. And even though I would gladly hand over everything I own to this amazing star, I think it's probably good that Lange is done with AHS. At some point during the finale, Massimo Dolcefino (Danny Huston) wanders in. Elsa is now famous but miserable — because whatever, you can't always get what you want, or something. I was immediately excited to see the actor Huston because for some reason, I thought he was the totally terrible murder ghost from Coven. Which is not possible, but I didn't care, because I knew they loved each other. Granted Elsa and Massimo are totally different characters... but really, are they? Are they really different characters, or does this show (and me) just like to watch Danny Huston and Jessica Lange kiss and flirt with each other?

There was nothing new about this, there was nothing different besides the two characters being nicer to one another, the plot was lost in a whirl of Huston soft talking and Lange acting mad and drunk and lost. Same **** different day. Highly watchable, really fun ****, but the same. Yeah, it's time for some new people.

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But We Still Love You, AHS

Even though Freak Show was all but unwatchable in the end, we still love this show. Why?

The devil is in the details in this astoundingly and consistently gorgeous series.
The costumes (mostly the hats of Coven)
AHS excels and finding and showcasing new talent. Finn Wittrock is going to be a big, fat star very very soon.
Sarah Paulson is the greatest living actor on the planet, and I would follow her into a fire.
At one point in the finale, AHS married Dandy to the two-headed twins and the guests were a bunch of stuffed animals. And just like that, we're back in. Because this is a weird as hell show — and only AHS can pull **** like that and get away with it.
Just be better next season, OK?

http://io9.com/what-the-hell-went-wrong-with-this-season-of-american-h-1682034793

SisterNightroad

02-01-2015, 09:50 AM

Nick Jonas Boards Fox's Ryan Murphy Comedy 'Scream Queens' (Exclusive)
Joining a cast that includes Lea Michele, Abigail Breslin and Ariana Grande.

In casting sure to make young fans scream with delight, Fox's horror comedy anthology Scream Queens is adding a Jonas brother to its ranks.

Nick Jonas has booked a recurring role on the Fox series from Glee and American Horror Story masterminds Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk, The Hollywood Reporter has learned.

The 15-episode, hourlong comedy will premiere in fall 2015, with season one set on a college campus that's rocked by a series of murders. New settings and storylines will be featured in subsequent seasons of the anthology series; production will begin in the spring. Plot details — including who Jonas will play — are being kept under wraps.

Jonas, currently a regular on DirecTV's MMA drama Kingdom, joins a cast that includes series regulars Joe Manganiello (True Blood), Lea Michele (Glee), Keke Palmer (Akeelah and the Bee), Abigail Breslin (Little Miss Sunshine), Emma Roberts (American Horror Story) and horror icon Jamie Lee Curtis (True Lies). Ariana Grande will guest-star in a recurring role. Plot details are being kept under wraps.

For Jonas, the role comes months after he released his self-titled solo debut that spawned the double-platinum single "Jealous," as well as new single "Chains." He'll next join Iggy Azalea on her Great Escape tour in the spring.

The series hails from 20th Century Fox Television, where Murphy and Glee/American Horror Story co-creator Falchuk are under rich overall deals. Glee's Murphy, Falchuk and Ian Brennan created Scream Queens and will exec produce alongside Dante Di Loreto.

Jonas is repped by CAA and Schreck Rose.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/nick-jonas-boards-foxs-ryan-767413

SisterNightroad

02-02-2015, 11:25 AM

11 Ways The 'American Horror Story' Seasons Are All Connected
By Erin Whitney & Jan Diehm
Posted: 01/27/2015 8:28 am EST Updated: 01/27/2015 10:59 am EST

Season 4 of "American Horror Story" came to a close last week, and beyond ranking the best characters and waiting for Ryan Murphy to announce the Season 5 theme, we've investigated all the connections between the four seasons.

From "Murder House" to "Freak Show," Murphy has slipped in a handful of possible clues -- repeated character names to continual references to cities and states. Murphy already revealed that all four seasons of the series are connected, so we've done the dirty work for you to figure out the many ways that could be possible:

(Major spoiler alert for all four seasons of "American Horror Story.")

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Ryan Murphy does not seem like a man to meddle with coincidence or to accidentally reuse surnames. Thus, we can only assume that Dr. Charles Montgomery, the famed "surgeon to the stars" from Season 1, has some connection to Emma Roberts' Madison Montgomery in Season 3. Charles moved to Los Angeles with his wife Nora (Lily Rabe) in 1922 in "Murder House" and we meet Madison in present-day 2013 in "Coven." Could they be relatives?

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The state of Massachusetts somehow finds a way to pop up in every season of "AHS." In Season 1, the Harmon family moves to L.A. from Boston (and Ben also visits Boston briefly). Briarcliff Manor in "Asylum" was built in Massachusetts in 1908 as a tuberculosis ward, and then taken over by the Catholic church in 1962. Season 3 flashes back to the Salem witch trials, and Queenie mentions she's a descendant of Tituba. In Season 4, we get a flashback to Elsa working at a Boston circus in 1936, and Pepper also goes to live with her sister Rita in Sudbury, Massachusetts in 1952.

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Remember that Los Angeles detective from Season 1 who visited Ben multiple times about his missing patient? Remember his name? It was Det. Jack Colquitt, played by Geoffrey Rivas. If you were paying close attention during "Freak Show," you probably noticed that the detective who investigates Elsa and her "freaks" about the missing police officer (and who throws Jimmy in jail) was also named Det. Jack Colquitt. Although he was played by a different actor: P.J. Marshall the second time around. Maybe he travelled in time to 2013, or maybe the "Asylum" aliens are behind this? Who knows.

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Murphy said all the seasons were connected and he delivered, finally revealing Pepper's origin story. We first met Naomi Grossman's beloved character in 1964 at Briarcliff, but "Freak Show" told Pepper's history as an orphan taken in by Elsa Mars. Season 4 revealed that after Pepper had gone to live with her sister and brother-in-law, the two conspired against her, murdering their own baby and framing Pepper for it. Flash forward to 1962 when Pepper is brought to Briarcliff, meets a pre-Satanic Sister Mary Eunice, and sees Elsa on an old cover of LIFE magazine. Seasons connected, BAM!

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This is second major connection between "AHS" seasons that we know for sure. The penultimate episode of "Freak Show" revealed that the "Asylum" physician Dr. Arthur Arden, neé Hans Gruper, was the same German who surgically removed Elsa's legs in 1932. (James Cromwell's son, John Cromwell, played the young Hans in Season 2, as well as Season 4.) It only makes sense that the same sadistic doctor to chainsaw off Elsa's legs would come to the U.S. to experiment on patients, and then removed Shelley's legs in 1964.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/01/27/american-horror-story-connections_n_6546822.html?utm_hp_ref=american-horror-story

SisterNightroad

02-02-2015, 11:30 AM

11 Ways The 'American Horror Story' Seasons Are All Connected

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While your typical crazy killers may not seem like much of a connection on the surface, Murphy has created such a fascinating array of deranged murders that we can't help but wonder if any of these guys are related (or at least if they heard of each other in their respective eras). First, there was Tate Langdon, the misunderstood teenager who killed 15 of his classmates in 1994 in "Murder House." Season 2 was filled with a lineage of serial killers beginning with the original Blood Face (aka Oliver Thredson) and his son Johnny Morgan, as well as the modern-day copy cat. "Asylum" also had Leigh Emerson, the Santa Claus murderer who killed 18 people in the Christmas Spree Killings of 1962. Then Season 4 gave us two of the most terrifying murders in "AHS" history: Twisty the Clown and the purely psychotic Dandy Mott, who (similar to Tate's killing spree), shot and killed almost the entire "Freak Show" troupe in the finale.

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It's no news to fans that "AHS" is littered with mommy issues, from Constance's relationship with her children in "Murder House" to the disturbing mommy-son trauma in "Asylum." But kids also always end up murdering their moms. In Season 3, Evan Peters' Kyle killed his sexually abusive mom, and in Season 4, Bette stabbed her mother while Dandy later killed (and then bathed in the blood of) his mother Gloria. Does this hint at something else (or has Murphy run out of ideas)?

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Obviously murder is a recurring theme in the anthology series, but there's something interesting about women murdering their husbands, usually over infidelity. First there was Constance, who shot and killed her husband in 1983 for sleeping with Moira the housekeeper. Then later in the season, it's revealed that Nora Montgomery shot and killed her husband Charles, before taking her own life. In "Coven" there was also Patti Lupone's Joan, who killed her husband for cheating by filling his car with bees. We doubt this theme is long from over.

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Los Angeles is another city that pops up again and again in multiple seasons. It's the main location for the events of "Murder House," it's where Madison Montgomery hails from in "Coven" (she is sent to Miss Robichaux’s Academy after killing her director in Hollywood), and it's of course where Elsa Mars finally gains fame in "Freak Show."

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Florida is another state that has piqued fans interest. It's where "Freak Show" takes place, while in "Murder House," Vivien Harmon mentions she has family in Florida. One fan theory from Redditor tinyshroom is that the doctor who Desiree visits in Season 4 (the one who allegedly kills himself) may be a distant relative of Vivien's, especially since the doctor's daughter mentions she is from Boston.

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Last, but not least is the one true "American Horror Story" survivor. Sarah Paulson has lived till the end of each season and her characters always have some sort of relation to television. In Season 1, Billie Dean Howard alluded to her upcoming Lifetime TV special (can we please see this as a spin-off one day?). In Season 2, Lana Winters told her survival tale in a live TV interview in 2012. In Season 3, Cordelia was revealed as the Supreme and discussed witchcraft in a local news interview. And in "Freak Show," Bette and Dot survived and watched Elsa Mars' Halloween special live on TV (before quickly shutting it off). Here's a pitch idea: give Paulson her own reality show in Season 5.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/01/27/american-horror-story-connections_n_6546822.html?utm_hp_ref=american-horror-story

SisterNightroad

02-03-2015, 09:25 AM

15 American Horror Story Quotes that Would Make Perfect Tattoos...
by Chloe Henry
"I agree with Lana Winters, Lies are like scars on your soul; they do destroy you."

There are many, many quotes in each season of American Horror Story; but here are a few of the ones I'd have printed onto my skin...

1. Normal People Scare Me.

Well seriously, anyone who watches American Horror Story can't be completely normal, right?

http://imageserver.moviepilot.com/15-american-horror-story-quotes-that-would-make-perfect-tattoos-google-images-8e75c2dc-5463-4d95-8d9a-324ae0d36cb8.webp

2. All Monsters Are Human.

One of the most iconic quotes in American Horror Story's history.

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3. Lies are like scars on your soul, they destroy you.

The quote itself is so deep, I could almost drown.

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4. Life is too short for so much sorrow.

I can't disagree with it, very true.

http://imageserver.moviepilot.com/15-american-horror-story-quotes-that-would-make-perfect-tattoos-google-images-2af5e4cd-5c79-4388-8f3b-6b91a8046574.gif

5. If you look in the face of evil, evil's gonna look right back at you.

How could anyone forget the last lines of season 2?

http://imageserver.moviepilot.com/15-american-horror-story-quotes-that-would-make-perfect-tattoos-google-images-e5a8363e-65b8-4b67-9fb5-0d70600c4fb3.gif

6. Wir sind alle freaks.

A great possible tattoo for anyone who loves Freak Show, or the German language.

7. Don't be a hater, dear.

Perfect quote for anyone who does have haters.

http://imageserver.moviepilot.com/15-american-horror-story-quotes-that-would-make-perfect-tattoos-google-images-06bb5842-d186-4fe8-a4c7-9f1cf9311965.gif

8. Surprise, Bit*h.

Do you enjoy surprising people you dislike? Then this quote is a perfect tattoo for you.

http://imageserver.moviepilot.com/15-american-horror-story-quotes-that-would-make-perfect-tattoos-google-images-0c5b32e9-be83-442f-9b66-b8c6414c7f2b.gif

9. I'm a psychopath?

For anyone who loves Tate, or actually thinks they are a psychopath ( or has ever been called one.)

http://imageserver.moviepilot.com/15-american-horror-story-quotes-that-would-make-perfect-tattoos-google-images-49b2076c-f885-402d-a5dd-df7d6e54f50e.gif

10. Balenciaga!

Perfect for anyone who loves fashion...

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11. From blood and pain come perfection.

Basically, the quote for anyone who understands what it's like to get a tattoo done.

12. I'm tough, but I'm no cookie.

One of Ms Winter's best quotes from season 2; I'd certainly get a tattoo of this.

13. I have long stopped asking why the mad do mad things.

Great tattoo for any sane person.

14. You don't know me.

What most teenagers think. About a billion times...

http://imageserver.moviepilot.com/15-american-horror-story-quotes-that-would-make-perfect-tattoos-google-images-a91d294b-cc6d-4574-8165-32cf2afcdf1c.gif

15. One thing about the dead is they've got nothing to lose.

Not a popular quote, but certainly one of my favorites. Because once you've lost your life, what is there actually left to lose? Not much.

So what do you think, would you get one of these as a tattoo?

http://moviepilot.com/posts/2015/01/26/15-american-horror-story-quotes-that-would-make-perfect-tattoos-2625677?lt_source=external,manual,manual

SisterNightroad

02-04-2015, 07:44 AM

9 Things You Never Noticed About the 'American Horror Story' Pilot
KELLY SCHREMPH

One of the main things that’s differentiated American Horror Story from its fellow TV competitors (other than its uncanny ability to give you nightmares for weeks on end) is the fact that each season tells an entirely different story. It didn’t matter if you never got around to watching Seasons 1 or 2 — you could jump right into Season 3 without feeling behind in the slightest. That is, until Ryan Murphy revealed that all AHS seasons are connected. Suddenly, first-time watchers started feeling out of the loop, while diehard fans found themselves rethinking everything they thought they knew about the Horror-verse, myself included. So, feeling inspired, I decided to start back at the very beginning and realized there are quite a few things you probably missed while watching the American Horror Story pilot for the first time.

Can you even remember back that far? We were so young. So innocent. Completely unaware of the ultimate trauma Murphy would eventually impart on our psyche. Sure, we only have a mere four seasons under our belt thus far, but for some reason, re-watching the pilot made me feel as old as Murder House itself. I mean, we’ve seen things, you guys. We’re a lot wiser since we first walked across that Harmon family threshold, and with it brings a whole new perspective on the entire season. So without further ado, here are all the things you may have missed from the AHS pilot the first time around.

The Twin Pregnancy Was Totally Foreshadowed

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I mean, the twins look as though they are literally coming out of Vivien right here. So not only did this just look super creepy, but it also hinted at a huge plot device that would become very prominent over the course of the season. That Ryan Murphy certainly is a sneaky one.

You’ve Definitely Been in Murder House Before

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Any Buffy fans out there? If so, then you may have thought to yourself that Murder House looked awfully familiar. That’s because it was featured as a frat house in the supernatural series’ Halloween episode “Fear, Itself” during its fourth season (see above). Anyone else super bummed that we didn’t see any Buffy-esque ghosts roaming the halls throughout the entire season? Seriously, not cool, you guys.

Stanley Wasn’t the Only One Who Liked Putting People in Glass Jars

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Ugh, I can’t even. (R.I.P. Ma Petite forever.) But as some of you may recall, at the beginning of the pilot episode, the Freddy Krueger-like twins go around wrecking havoc on the house (youths!) and eventually make their way down to the basement where they discover a bunch of different body parts found in glass jars courtesy of the house’s original owner, Dr. Montgomery. I’ll spare you the images since most of them look as though they belong to a baby, but you get the idea. It was pretty gruesome and almost make Stanley’s vicious antics on Freak Show look docile. Almost.

Asylum Hints Were Already Being Dropped

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Oh Tate, you have no idea.

The Harmons Loved Hats

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http://media.giphy.com/media/3xz2BWKWhsklEyxySc/giphy.gif

Heck, they might even be wearing the same hat. Either way, though, I appreciate the style choice. Way to up the cool factor, you guys!

Tate’s Whistle Reveals A Lot About His Backstory

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The eerie tune was written by Bernard Hermann (Psycho) and can originally be found in the 1968 British film Twisted Nerve, which centers around a disturbed young man who is a killer, has an obsessive mother as well as a sibling with Down’s syndrome, and becomes fixated on a teenage girl who wants to save him. Sound familiar? That’s basically Tate summed up in a nutshell. If we had recognized the whistle before (which also made an appearance in Kill Bill) then we may have put it together sooner that Tate was Constance’s son.

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Like they say, the more you know!

Jessica Lange Was Everything

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Don’t get me wrong, the Harmons are cool and all, but re-watching the pilot made one thought clearer than ever: Constance Langdon stole the show.

Vivien Might Be Color Blind

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Since I knew that Rubber Man sex scene was coming, I made sure to pay extra close attention to Ben and (SPOILER) Tate’s similarities/differences to see if there was any way Vivien would’ve been able to tell them apart. And it turns out there was one very distinguishing factor: their eye color. While Evan Peters has dark brown eyes, Dylan McDermott has bright blue. And since she was looking right into Tate’s eyes while they were doing ya know, I found it all the more surprising that Vivien didn’t immediately pick up on the difference. I mean, she definitely knows her husband’s eye color at this point in their marriage, right? Which makes me wonder if Vivien could possibly be color blind. Just some food for thought.

Where the Heck Was Sarah Paulson?!

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I knew she had a much smaller part in Murder House, but now that I’ve gotten so used to seeing her as a prominent cast member, the series felt incomplete without her there.

http://www.bustle.com/articles/60720-9-things-you-never-noticed-about-the-american-horror-story-pilot

SisterNightroad

02-06-2015, 08:32 AM

AMC’s ‘Halt & Catch Fire’ Adds James Cromwell
by Dominic Patten
February 2, 2015 12:11pm

https://pmcdeadline2.files.wordpress.com/2015/02/james-cromwell.jpg

EXCLUSIVE: There’s about to be a new major player on the 1980s set series about the early days of the computer industry. Having played Presidents, fictional and real, a Nazi war criminal, royalty and a pig farmer, James Cromwell is now joining Season 2 of Halt And Catch Fire I’ve learned.

In a major recurring role, the Oscar nominee and Emmy winner will play Jacob Wheeler on the Christopher Cantwell and Christopher C. Rogers created AMC series. A self made Texas millionaire and energy company CEO, Cromwell’s Wheeler is looking to expand his corporate reach. That expansion brings him both close alliance and in conflict with the ever ambitious Joe MacMillan, played by Lee Pace.

No stranger to TV, Cromwell was on Six Feet Under for several seasons and won an Emmy in 2013 for his Dr. Arthur Arden role on FX’s American Horror Story: Asylum. More recently the Babe actor has appeared on Betrayal and TNT’s Murder In The First.

http://deadline.com/2015/02/halt-catch-fire-james-cromwell-amc-james-dumont-lee-pace-1201364862

SisterNightroad

02-08-2015, 09:26 AM

9 Things You Didn't Know About American Horror Story

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SisterNightroad

02-12-2015, 10:40 AM

American Horror Story Season 5 News: Will The Next Season Have A Main Character?
Feb 09, 2015 02:44 PM EST | By Donyae

With Jessica Lange (probably) gone from the cast of American Horror Story that leaves a huge gap in the lineup for "main character" to be filled. The next season might not have one at all however.

There are rumors that point to a possibility of Kathy Bates stepping forward or even a brand new character altogether. However, producers have come forward that the new season would be very different from the last.
One of the changes that we may see is more of a lack of a main character. The past two seasons have really pushed towards a central storyline for the show. Producers have been hinting that they'll be returning to a more anthology like presentation as we saw in the first season.

This would mean that there would in a way be no main character. There would only be focus given to certain players within their story arc.
This seems far more likely than repeating the mistakes of last season where we watched a show titled Freak Show only to focus on whether or not Elsa Mars was going to make it to Hollywood. No more of that please.
Lack of a main character would allow the creators to explore many different stories and bring back that horror story vibe that has been slowly lost over the last few seasons. Without a centralized main character it's much easier to tell many stories at once because you're not obligated to spend tons of screen time on one.

http://www.gamenguide.com/articles/20254/20150209/american-horror-story-season-5-news-will-the-next-season-have-a-main-character.htm

SisterNightroad

02-13-2015, 07:12 AM

American Crime Story (What We Know About The American Horror Story Spinoff)!!!
by Matt Rose ⋅ Posted on February 10th, 2015 at 2:20pm

http://imageserver.moviepilot.com/american-crime-story-what-we-know-about-the-american-horror-story-spinoff-american-crime-story.webp

Announced as an 10 episodic mini series coming to FX, made by a certain team we know and love for bringing us American Horror Story. That's right Ryan Murphy and co are back to bring us a new anthology series called American Crime Story. American Crime Story is aimed to tackle the biggest crimes of history and we are getting stuck into one of the most known cases of all time and that being the O.J. Simpsons Case. Let's now head on over to meet our cast and who exactly are they playing.

http://imageserver.moviepilot.com/american-crime-story-what-we-know-about-the-american-horror-story-spinoff-cuba-gooding-jr.webp

The main star of the show portraying O.J. Simpson.

http://img6.cache.netease.com/photo/0026/2013-09-24/99IG19I94CJ80026.jpg

The only currently known actress coming over from American Horror Story will be portraying Marcia Clark, the head prosecutor of O.J. Simpson case.

http://imageserver.moviepilot.com/american-crime-story-what-we-know-about-the-american-horror-story-spinoff-john-travolta.webp

Mr Travolta is serving as one of the producers of the show and will be portraying Robert Shapiro, he was part of the defense team which successfully defended O.J. Simpson.

http://imageserver.moviepilot.com/american-crime-story-what-we-know-about-the-american-horror-story-spinoff-david-schwimmer.webp

As Robert Kardashian, the defense attorney and friend of O.J. Simpsons. A little different from friends eh?

http://imageserver.moviepilot.com/american-crime-story-what-we-know-about-the-american-horror-story-spinoff-courtney-b-vance.webp

American Lawyer Johnnie Cochran, he was a lead in the role of the defense of O.J. during his trial.

Series 1 is called O.J. vs the people and will debut on FX on the 5th March and Ryan Murphy's main series American Horror story will return this October.

http://moviepilot.com/posts/2015/02/10/american-crime-story-what-we-know-about-the-american-horror-story-spinoff-2680030?lt_source=external,manual,manual

SisterNightroad

02-14-2015, 05:50 AM

‘Scream Queens': Skyler Samuels Cast as Series Regular

https://pmcvariety.files.wordpress.com/2015/02/skyler-samuels.jpg

FEBRUARY 11, 2015 | 02:00PM PTElizabeth Wagmeister

“Scream Queens” has added actress Skyler Samuels to its ensemble cast as a series regular, Variety has learned.

Samuels joins previously announced stars Lea Michele, Joe Manganiello, Abigail Breslin and Keke Palmer. Nick Jonas and Ariana Grande are set for guest roles.

Samuels had a recurring role on Ryan Murphy’s “American Horror Story: Freak Show,” playing Bonnie, and she starred as the title character in ABC Family’s “The Nine Lives of Chloe King.” She’ll also appear in the upcoming film “The Duff.”

The Fox comedy-horror anthology series hails from 20th Century Fox TV and Ryan Murphy Television. Murphy will exec produce with “Glee’s” Brad Falchuk, Ian Brennan and Dante Di Loreto.

Samuels is repped by UTA, Brillstein Entertainment Partners and Hansen Jacobson.

http://variety.com/2015/tv/news/scream-queens-skyler-samuels-fox-cast-1201431383/

SisterNightroad

02-15-2015, 07:07 AM

Freaks Come Out for ‘American Horror Story’ Make-up Demo
February 5, 2015by Make-Up Artist magazine staff

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Things got a little twisted at Cinema Makeup School on Jan. 26. That’s when Eryn Krueger Mekash and Mike Mekash, the husband-and-wife make-up team working on AMC’s American Horror Story, did a live make-up demo of the show’s Twisty the Clown make-up.

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Lee Joyner of Cinema Makeup School in final make-up as American Horror Story: Freak Show‘s Twisty the Clown. Photo courtesy of Cinema Makeup School

CMS Director of Admissions Lee Joyner served as the pair’s model as they recreated the character, played by John Carroll Lynch in American Horror Story: Freak Show. CMS Chief Academic Officer Michael Spatola emceed the event, which was open to the students, graduates and the public and drew more than 100 viewers; latecomers were ushered into two overflow rooms to watch the demo on video feeds.

The artists answered audience questions as they applied the make-up, and told stories about their work on the show while they explained the application step by step. After the presentation, Mike Mekash noted some of the challenges the pair faced in applying the make-up for the show, including shooting in New Orleans.

“The humidity in New Orleans is about 90 percent,” he said. “Just walking out of the trailer out to set, you just start sweating. We had to come up with a make-up that you could just sweat through.”

But, he said, the actor kept the mood light, telling funny stories in the make-up chair, and, in true clown fashion, creating balloon animals.

The school plans to host other public make-up demos in 2015. For more information, go to cinemamakeup.com/events.

https://makeupmag.com/freaks-come-american-horror-story-make-demo/

SisterNightroad

02-16-2015, 02:54 PM

The 'Freak' American Horror Story Forgot: The True Story of the Tallest Man Who Ever Lived
by Jancy Richardson ⋅ Posted on February 10th, 2015 at 5:10pm

http://imageserver.moviepilot.com/screen-shot-2015-02-10-at-4-42-13-pm-the-freak-american-horror-story-forgot-the-true-story-of-the-tallest-man-who-ever-lived.webp

For a show about 'Freaks,' American Horror Story didn't have much room for the colossally tall, a staple of the real life sideshows of old.

Sure, we have the gorgeous Amazon Eve (Erika Ervin) rocking a statuesque 6'8", but the only super-super-super tall person on the show was the guy in Edward Mordrake's ghostly crew:

http://imageserver.moviepilot.com/screen-shot-2015-02-10-at-3-01-48-pm-the-freak-american-horror-story-forgot-the-true-story-of-the-tallest-man-who-ever-lived.webp

He's played by this guy - George Bell, who also featured on AMC's reality program Freakshow. He's 7'8" and held the record for tallest man in America for three years.

http://imageserver.moviepilot.com/screen-shot-2015-02-10-at-4-22-08-pm-the-freak-american-horror-story-forgot-the-true-story-of-the-tallest-man-who-ever-lived.webp

However, all of these gentle giants are dwarfed in comparison with the tallest man who ever lived - Illinois native Robert Wadlow, who stands head and shoulders above the competition at 8'11".

Here's some footage of this remarkable man in 1935.

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Although Wadlow was regular-sized at birth, he soon shot up in height, outgrowing his 5'11" father at 7 and surpassing the 7 foot mark before he reached 12 years old.

http://imageserver.moviepilot.com/screen-shot-2015-02-10-at-4-24-50-pm-the-freak-american-horror-story-forgot-the-true-story-of-the-tallest-man-who-ever-lived.webp

He wore a US size 37AA shoe and was given his specially made footwear free of charge in exchange for promo work for the shoe company.

http://imageserver.moviepilot.com/screen-shot-2015-02-10-at-5-02-24-pm-the-freak-american-horror-story-forgot-the-true-story-of-the-tallest-man-who-ever-lived.webp

His extreme growth was caused by hyperplasia affecting his pituitary gland, flooding his body with hormones that boosted his growth. When he died - tragically young at only 22 - he was still growing.

http://imageserver.moviepilot.com/screen-shot-2015-02-10-at-2-49-10-pm-the-freak-american-horror-story-forgot-the-true-story-of-the-tallest-man-who-ever-lived.webp

A popular man who worked for Ringling Brothers Circus and gained fame for his incredible height and gentle manner, Robert Wadlow is immortalized in statues and record-breaking exhibitions all over the world.

http://imageserver.moviepilot.com/screen-shot-2015-02-10-at-5-07-57-pm-the-freak-american-horror-story-forgot-the-true-story-of-the-tallest-man-who-ever-lived.webp

Which incredible person from history do you think could have been amazing in American Horror Story: Freak Show?

http://moviepilot.com/posts/2015/02/10/the-freak-american-horror-story-forgot-the-true-story-of-the-tallest-man-who-ever-lived-2679341?lt_source=external,manual,manual

SisterNightroad

02-18-2015, 03:49 AM

‘The Last Of Us’ Movie Cast Rumors: ‘American Horror Story’ Star Dylan McDermott Willing To Take On Role Of Joel? Maisie Williams Says ‘Yes’ To Be Ellie
By Nate Mardukas | February 11, 2015 12:44 PM EST

With one of the hottest game in PlayStation, "The Last Of Us" reported to hit the big screen with a live adaptation, cast rumors now brews up as to who would play the lead roles of Joel and Ellie in theaters.
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Multiple sites report possible actors who could play the male protagonist in the survival story title.
For the role of Ellie, it is starting to look like "Game Of Thrones" star Maisie Williams would play the role (if the work has been offered to her). All fingers point to the "GoT" actress to take on the female protagonist role reportedly having the talent and the looks that could give justice to the character.
In a previous interview with Williams as reported by Game Spot, Arya Stark claimed that she is surely game for the role if ever the opportunity will come to her.
"So the way it was left is they want me to do it, and I want to do it," she said. "But there's no script, no director, and no anything else. So at this moment, it's looking like, 'Yes,' but it's still such early days. If they make it in 30 years, they can't have a 40-year-old Ellie. So at the moment, it's looking good, and I'd love to do it. Hell yeah."
The Joel role, meanwhile, has a lot of cast rumors and speculation as to who would play "The Last Of Us" part.
With no actors confirming or claiming the part like what Williams did, fans point fingers at numerous actors that would really be considered to have a huge resemblance with the male character in the game.
"Wolverine" star Hugh Jackman, "300" actor Gerard Butler and "American Horror Story" star Dylan McDermott has been the top three for fans.
Really close similarities physically can be seen on the three names mentioned above and with their acting experience and most of all close looks, they are obviously who the fans want.

http://www.kpopstarz.com/articles/173846/20150211/the-last-of-us-movie-cast-rumors.htm

SisterNightroad

02-19-2015, 10:06 AM

Jamie Brewer Is The First Model With Down Syndrome To Walk During New York Fashion Week
The Huffington Post | By Cavan Sieczkowski

Jamie Brewer has made history.

Brewer became the first model with Down syndrome to walk the runway during New York Fashion Week when she took part in Carrie Hammer's "Role Models Not Runway Models" campaign Thursday.

“Young girls and even young women … [see me] and say ‘hey, if she can do it so can I,’” Brewer, who appears in "American Horror Story" and is an activist for the Down syndrome community, told the "Today" show. “It’s a true inspiration being a role model for any young women to [encourage them] in being who they are and showing who they are.”

Brewer tweeted about the exciting experience and shared some backstage photos Thursday morning.

@MsJamieBrewer
Morning New York!!😃 A Great Day for a @carriehammer #RoleModelsNotRunwayModels Fashion Show!! #NYFashionWeek 👠👗👛
11:58 AM - 12 Feb 2015
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B9pWsDsIIAAWNq1.jpg
@MsJamieBrewer
Make-Up Time by @NYIBeauty for @carriehammer #RoleModelsNotRunwayModels #FashionShow #NYFashionWeek
2:08 PM - 12 Feb 2015
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B9pZjocIQAAs57x.jpg
@MsJamieBrewer
Hair Time Now by @NYIBeauty @carriehammer #RoleModelsNotRunwayModels #NYFashionWeek
2:21 PM - 12 Feb 2015

Hammer was thrilled to get to work with the actress.

"What I love about Jamie is that having Down Syndrome is so not a large part of her identity, she is first a famous actress, talented writer, beautiful woman, and [Intellectual and/or Developmental Disabilities] activist," Hammer told The Huffington Post in an email. "She's an inspiring lady!"

Other women set to walk in Hammer's show include Malala Fund co-founder Shiza Shahid and Black Girls Code founder Kimberly Bryant.

Hammer was featured in Forbes' 2015 30 Under 30 for her customizable fashion line. "Role Models Not Runway Models" had its first show at Fashion Week last year.

"I think it's expanding the definition of beauty from purely skin deep towards passion, purpose and accomplishments," she told HuffPost of the initiative. "I hope that women and young women see the Role Models who walked on my runway today and start looking up to [Role Models Not Runway Models]."

http://i.huffpost.com/gen/2607796/thumbs/o-JAMIE-BREWER-570.jpg

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/02/12/jamie-brewer-new-york-fashion-week_n_6670766.html?utm_hp_ref=american-horror-story

SisterNightroad

02-20-2015, 12:45 PM

Is THIS What Season 5 of American Horror Story Could be About?
by Allanah Faherty ⋅ Posted on February 13th, 2015 at 3:07pm

While us American Horror Story fans are still recovering from one hell of a Season 4 finale, we can now finally devote all our attention to the big mystery at hand: What exactly will Season 5 be about?

The theories have been flying thick and fast for the highly anticipated fifth season of the FX show, which is an anthology series, telling a completely new story with all new characters (well, some occasionally return) each season.

This season show creator Ryan Murphy dropped a huge bombshell a few months ago when he revealed that all seasons of the show are connected:

They’re all connected. They’re all very separate but there’s clues every season... There are purposeful connections, character connections, and similarities and things that connect that we’ll continue to connect moving forward.

Furthermore Murphy confirmed that a reoccurring motif in Season 4, the top hat, definitely had something to do with Season 5:

That is a big season five clue! It’s an arcane clue, but it’s very purposeful, and it illuminates something that you’ll be like, 'Oh! You dirty b******!'
http://imageserver.moviepilot.com/top-hat-clue-it-all-starts-with-a-hat-american-horror-story-season-5-plot-revealed-is-this-what-season-5-of-american-horror-story-could-be.gif
Maggie's coffee cup in Season 4, episode 4

So, without further ado I have assessed the evidence and, thanks to some very clever people on the internet, gathered what I believe to be the best theories for what Season 5 could possibly be about. Take a look and be sure to tell me your own theories in the comments:

1. Operation Top Hat and Extraterrestrials

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This theory is definitely the front runner, with thousands of people jumping on to support the idea that Season 5 will take place around Operation Top Hat, the secret U.S. Army exercise for the Chemical Corps, and also possibly around the theme of aliens and government cover ups in the 1950s.

There are a lot of clues pointing to this one in Season 4, Freak Show as Redditor ace_VXIII pointed out:

Jupiter: the name of the town in Freak Show, could reference the planet but also the the Roman God whose symbol was the eagle, much like the USA.
Mars: Elsa's surname in Freak Show. Also referencing space as well as the Roman God who was the God of War.
Rocket Ships: Seen in multiple places in the season from the Freak Show stage to toy stores, could it have something to do with space/UFOs or aliens?
Mushroom Clouds: There were posters seen behind Jimmy at a Tupperware party, could reference the ongoings of Operation Top Hat?
UFOs: At the same Tupperware party there is a chandelier that resembles a UFO.
Army and Military: Ethel talks about Jimmy always wanting to dress as a soldier for Halloween.
New Mexico: Ryan Murphy was scouting for locations in New Mexico before Freak Show, an area which is very connected with government conspiracies and military testings and also UFO crash landings.
Aliens: Pepper returned to our screens as a 'prequel' story to her time in Asylum. In Asylum Pepper was abducted by aliens and came back very differently than when she left. Could her inclusion in Season 4 be another clue for Season 5?

Ryan Murphy has ruled out an American Horror Story in Space, but that doesn't mean the space couldn't come to us, perhaps in the form of a UFO crash landing and a government cover up much like Area 51? The Operation Top Hat and Extraterrestrial theory is one that looks like quite solid!

2. Something to do with Lincoln, Nebraska

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After Murphy announced that some how the top hat had something to do with Season 5, there has been the idea that it somehow refers to the word Lincoln, due to one of the worlds most famous top hat wearers being former US President Abraham Lincoln. But could the clue go even further and actually mean Lincoln, Nebraska, a city nicknamed the 'star city'? Redditor DavidLovato seems to think so, here are his thoughts:

New Location: All four seasons of AHS have taken place in coastal areas, Season 5 will be radically different, why not in Nebraska which is far from coastal?
Cornfields: Nebraska is full of cornfields and what takes place in cornfields? Horror films of course! Children of the Corn, Signs and Jeepers Creepers.
Great Setting: As DavidLovato says Nebraska has a lot of space and not so many people, there are a lot of settings like camp grounds, or perhaps something to do with the Native American Otoe tribe who were very prominent in Nebraska.
Famous People from Lincoln: AHS often bases or draws inspiration from real people, famous people from Lincoln include; Nancy Andreasen (pioneer of Schizophrenia research), Charles Starkweather and Caril Fugate, (two teens who went on a statewide murder spree), John Ramsey (father of murdered pageant star JonBenet Ramsey), Brandon Teena (murdered transgender teen who was played by AHS star Chloe Sevigny in the film Boys Don't Cry)

3. Based on Magicians or Houdini

http://cinepop.com.br/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/americanhorror-harris.jpg

Of course, the first image that a top hat conjures for many people is a magician, perhaps that Season 5 will be set in New York during Houdini's era. Redditor megdonalds believes that Season 5 will revolved around magic, and laid down some pretty good arguments for her case:

Top Hats: the most obvious clue, seen numerous times
Carefully Chosen Words: Dell tell's Ethel's doctor that he has "magic fingers" while Maggie called Stanley a 'poof,' yes this referred to Stanley being gay, but could it also be referring to magicians disappearing in poof of smoke? Also in episode 5, Dandy takes Andy to the woods, he tells him to undress, count to three, and “see what kind of magic happens.”
NY Yankees Reference: Stanley tells Jimmy "it ain't Mickey Mantle." Mantle famously played for the New York Yankees, could the show be headed there?
Sawing Women in Half: Dandy and later Chester both performed some magic in Freak Show but could this just be a taster of what Season 5 will bring?
Fortune Teller Maggie: In Houdini's later years, he was obsessed with debunking spiritualists and psychics.

This theory is quite fun, though I admit it does seem the most unlikely seeing as the back half of Season 4 did have a slightly bigger focus on magic, especially with the arrival of Chester, though he was mainly a ventriloquist.

So there you have it, my top three theories for what Season 5 of American Horror Story could possibly bring us. Personally I really hope that it centers around Operation Top Hat and some alien conspiracies, i think it would be totally fun and completely in line with what AHS does best. What about you, do you agree with any of these ideas or not?

What theory do you like best? Tell me what you think Below!

http://moviepilot.com/posts/2015/02/13/is-this-what-season-5-of-american-horror-story-could-be-about-2690777?lt_source=external,manual,manual

SisterNightroad

02-21-2015, 08:30 AM

‘American Horror Story’ season 5: Could Evan Peters, Michael Chiklis, more be discussing new story soon?
February 11, 2015

American Horror Story -Over the past month or so, we have passed along one bit of information for those of you curious in the future of “American Horror Story“: You are probably going to get an update or two more at PaleyFest in March. This has been the major venue for big announcements each of the last two years. In 2014, this is where Michael Chiklis was introduced. Before that, it was Kathy Bates.

So what about the 2015 show? We’ve known for some time that this will take place in Los Angeles on Sunday, March 15, and the event confirmed today that so far, Kathy Bates, Sarah Paulson, Michael Chiklis, Evan Peters, Emma Roberts, Denis O’Hare, and Finn Wittrock will be in attendance. Executive producer Tim Minear is also confirmed. The big omissions here? Executive producer Ryan Murphy is one of them, as is series lead Jessica Lange and also Angela Bassett. While this list is not necessarily complete, we don’t expect Lange to show up. She hasn’t attended all of these in the past, and she may not even be on the show next season.

We can say right now that this panel is largely a reminder that while next season will probably be discussed, “American Horror Story: Freak Show” will be the main subject of conversation. Paulson and Roberts each have other projects coming in “American Crime Story” and “Scream Queens,” which are both new Murphy projects. We cannot imagine them being regulars on multiple shows at the same time. Meanwhile, we are hoping that everyone else listed here will be back, especially Wittrock. We consider him to be the breakout star of the season.

This new season will premiere on FX this fall, and we’ll have some further news soon.

http://cartermatt.com/152876/american-horror-story-season-5-evan-peters-michael-chiklis-discussing-new-story-soon/

SisterNightroad

02-22-2015, 08:33 AM

American Horror Story Genius Returns With New Brutal Show!
by Jancy Richardson ⋅ Posted on February 16th, 2015 at 6:08pm

With the last season of American Horror Story ending all too soon, I was beyond delighted to FINALLY get some footage of Ryan Murphy's new horror show, Scream Queens... even if it's only 12 seconds worth.

A few months ago I wrote about the potential of Murphy's upcoming project, but now we've got a teensy bit of video promo to take a look at. Check it out!

<iframe width="528" height="297" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/yJb0XQAUFLI" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Let's take a closer look...

Pearls, Pastels and a wry smile

http://spinoff.comicbookresources.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/scream-queens-570x318.jpg

An arched eyebrow and contemptuous gum blowing

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... until some psycho bursts her bubble

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Blooooooooooddddddddd!

http://www.zumbicast.com.br/wp-content/uploads/Captura-de-Tela-2015-02-16-%C3%A0s-23.03.46-578x280.png

TITLE. MIC DROP. OUT.

http://s4.stliq.com/c/l/1/13/32570771_primo-teaser-trailer-per-scream-queens-la-serie-comedy-horror-di-ryan-murphy-0.jpg

It's great to see that the high camp and shiny red gore of American Horror Story are being kept alive and well... Ryan Murphy describes the development process, and it sounds like everyone involved is enjoying themselves:

We are having a blast writing Scream Queens. We hope to create a whole new genre—comedy-horror—and the idea is for every season to revolve around two female leads. We've already begun a nationwide search for those women, as well as 10 other supporting roles.

Excellent - with so many strong roles up for grabs, I'm looking forward to meeting a new roster of fierce, fabulous lead actors - and, to be honest, if anyone manages to be even a fraction as glorious as Jessica Lange, Scream Queens will be wonderful...

Are you looking forward to Scream Queens?

http://moviepilot.com/posts/2015/02/16/american-horror-story-genius-returns-with-new-brutal-show-2700260?lt_source=external,manual,manual

SisterNightroad

02-23-2015, 06:41 AM

Zachary Quinto on 'The Chair,' 'The Slap,' and the Star He'll Never Work With Again
By Kimberly Potts
February 20, 2015 9:50 AM

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The two movies that sprung from The Chair — YouTube star Shane Dawson's Not Cool and writer Anna Martemucci's Hollidaysburg didn't set the box office on fire, but viewers and critics enjoyed Starz's making-of TV series, which gave two aspiring filmmakers the same script to revise and direct.

Controversy ensued. Dawson — who has millions of YouTube subscribers and a mass of crying, screaming teen fans — butted heads with anyone who offered constructive criticism. Though Dawson's raunchier film won the reality competition series, The Chair producer Zachary Quinto was so not cool with Not Cool that he took his name off of it as a producer. With The Chair hitting DVD this week, Quinto talks to Yahoo TV about the biggest mistake he thinks the series made, how he'll approach the competition if it goes forward for Season 2, and the future of his relationship with Dawson. The star of NBC's conversation-sparking drama The Slap also talks to us about that show's second episode, as well as his future with Heroes and American Horror Story.

The Chair ends up being a really nice primer on the movie business, especially the actual business of it. I binge-watched the series in two days, and it made that aspect of it more impactful.
I agree with that for sure. You realize that it's not… there's very little that glamorous about the process of making movies, especially independent movies. I think to be immersed in that reality, that perspective at the beginning, and then stay with it, it can be sometimes frustrating, sometimes uncomfortable, just the way making a movie can be. I think you're right. I think it's more of an accurate reflection of the experience if you're [watching] it that way.

What do you think ended up being the most successful aspect of the show?
The experiment worked as a series, as a documentary series. It just won a [Directors Guild of America] award for directing. I feel like the show itself works really well in terms of the examination of the process of a first-time filmmaker. The part of it that didn't work for me was the competition part. The lesson that I learned, and we all learned, was, how do you qualify what wins? One of the contestants has 13 million YouTube subscribers. The other one has maybe a couple thousand. There's an imbalance, and if you're going to say, "Let's let the audience decide," there needs to be more of a level playing field in that regard. You look at how many more people saw [Shane Dawson's] movie, but it was an inferior film to [runner-up Anna Martemucci's] film, and critically that was reflected in the way people responded to it.

If you're going to have a competition... there needs to be a panel of judges and people that are qualified to make determinations on the success or failure of each of the contestant's perspectives going through the process.

Do you think it even needed to have that element of competition?
No, I don't. But if having an element of competition makes it more interesting or appealing or viable as a television show, then let's structure it that way and let's have a level playing field where both of the participants are working with the same advantages and disadvantages in production. That was the whole conceit of putting them in this situation. They each got a script. They were able to do a rewrite of that script, and then, they had to shoot that movie that was a result of their work on the script with the same exact resources, schedule, budget, locations, and time. If you look at the competition aspect of it just by virtue of the fact that Shane has 13 million YouTube subscribers, that's not equal footing. That puts him at a clear advantage and when he made a film that was so infinitely and clearly to me not as good as the other one, then it's not fair.

You didn't like Shane's movie, and you weren't alone. But it was his movie, and he made the movie he wanted to make. The thing that was offensive about his response to criticism was the lazy defense that you just "didn't get it."
Yeah, exactly. That's a good point. I do think he really adopted a very lazy attitude toward the criticism and was able to call into question my taste or my artistic point of view or creative integrity on some level, which is ridiculous. The reality is, [Not Cool] is not a good movie. And on top of it not being good, it was offensive. I'm all for off-colored humor. I'm all for original voices that are designed to provoke, but there's nothing original or revelatory about the story or the way he shot it, and that was the thing that I took most umbrage with. If you're going to be distasteful, then at least be smart about it. Look, the reality is — and I'm sure Shane feels the same way I feel — I'm sure we'll never work together again, and that's fine. I wish him all of the best. He accomplished a dream of his, and no matter what you say about it, I had something to do with that, and I'm glad that I was able to give him the platform to find his voice. The unfortunate thing is the voice he found is one that I really never want to listen to. That's something that I have to be honest about, and that's part of the show.

Will you be involved if there's a second season?
We're talking about it now. I would certainly be involved. The schedule makes it difficult for me to be boots on the ground in the way that I would really want to be. I think my participation will probably have to be fleshed out, and we'll have to be really clear about what I'm able to commit to if there's a second season, but I think the main thing really would be the competition element of it. I think we [all] would choose the contestants or participants the next time around. Shane was brought on to the project by Chris Moore, and myself as producers were on board. We didn't really have a hand in getting him or meeting him or talking to him about what his goals were before we got involved. I would want to be much more involved in choosing both of the participants next time. We had a man and a woman this time; what would it be, how would it be different, if those participants' qualities or their experiences are different than just their gender differences? How could we further the experiment and make it more engaging the second time around? Those are the kinds of questions that we'll be asking if we get to that point.

Moving on to your current TV project, The Slap. We found out a lot more about your character, Harry, the man behind the titular slap, in Thursday's episode. I still feel like we're missing some backstory that sheds light on why Harry is who he is. Will that unfold before the series ends?
It's definitely something I created around the character, the backstory, and something that I spoke with [Jon Robin Baitz], our writer, about, but I don't know that it's anything that becomes explicitly clear. I think the bottom line is that Harry is a character that's really struggling against a lot of unresolved emotional trauma and grief and sadness and resentment attached to traumas that befell him as a child. I think he just never really integrated them or examined those feelings, and they therefore erupt from him in a way… his ego, his temper. I know what those things are and have set them into my portrayal of the character, but I don't know that you ever necessarily get a real, clear immersion into that, if that makes sense.

There are some powerful moments for Harry in the second episode, though, and even some moments where we can have sympathy for him. Like when he goes to apologize to Rosie and Gary. Gary might have been open to talking, but it's clear that Rosie not only doesn't want to talk, she wants to villainize him, humiliate him.
Yeah, the shift begins. From the first episode, it's very black and white. He slaps someone else's kid. That is completely unacceptable by any stretch of the imagination. But beyond that, you start to get into these grayer areas about, like, Rosie is a terrible mother by a lot of estimations… the way she's disciplining her child is really ineffective and lazy. After it happens, Harry can't believe that his family is not coming out to support him. The Greek tribal mentality kicks in, and he's just expecting to be surrounded by his family, and there are enough people that he loves and that love him saying to him, "You can't adopt this stance” that he lets Hector [Peter Sarsgaard] talk him into, this ill-fated apology. And the moment about that scene that is the most moving to me is when he actually berates his cousin that he loves so much because he says, "You don't understand. Nothing gets resolved by talking, what are you thinking? These people are unreasonable. They're irrational. They're out for blood. You cannot try to solve a problem without taking action, and this is what your problem is in the world."

Harry's really espousing this worldview that he believes in firmly, and even though it's misguided, you have to respect someone that is fueled by their conviction and their beliefs, even if their beliefs are far away from your own. That's something that I think this episode shows a little bit about with Harry. That there is this true love for his son, and that he's just got misappropriated ideas of what it means to be a man in the world. I think you start to see a little bit more of that in this episode, and then, the table shifts because Rosie won't let it die.

How much does it shift?
Rosie is the one that has to then deal with consequences. She's really provoking and dragging the situation out. She's saying, "You're going to pay for this," Harry's like, "Well, I can pay for this, by the way. Let me go and get this lawyer that you couldn't even begin to afford, and I'll pay for it, and I will drag you through the mud, and I will come after you, and I will do anything I can to clear my name," because he doesn't believe he deserves to be punished in the way that he is.

There is no black and white in this world. You might think she is the victim in the first episode, but by the time you get to the sixth or seventh episode, you realize that she's made some real big mistakes of her own, and she needs to pay for it.

Harry is unlikable a lot of the time. Given that, what attracted you to this role?
He's unlikable, but I like the complexity of him. I like the idea of it being my job to find some cavern of vulnerability and some way to soften his hard edges and bring some depth to him. The writing was great. The ensemble of actors that were coming together, obviously, is really great. I just feel like there's a lot at play. It shoots in New York. It was just that the timing was really right. I was just moving here to the city and had a job that would allow me to settle in to my new life here and still be able to work. That was a great appeal. And I thought they were interesting, maybe not the most attractive people, because Harry is not the only unlikable character in this show. I felt like it was a real representation of people, certainly in Brooklyn and New York that I have encountered and experienced. I like that idea, and I had a great time working on it. I'm sorry to see it end, but I think part of its appeal was that it was it was a finite amount of time, a finite commitment that we could all dive into and then go on to other things.

Is there any chance you've changed your mind about bringing Sylar back for Heroes: Reborn?
No, I won't be back. I spoke to Tim Kring about it a while back when they came up with the idea of revisiting that world, and he was incredibly supportive of my feeling that it was just time to move on to other stuff. That was such a definitive experience for me, and I'm grateful that I had it, but I'm interested in creative outlets that allow me to diversify and examine other parts of the psyche.

[B]What about American Horror Story? Any chance of seeing you in future seasons?
No, I don't think so. I haven't had any conversations with anybody about it, but I feel I had a likewise great experience there, and I'm interested in getting away from the genre stuff. I like the fact that Harry is the antagonist of [The Slap]. I've played a lot of antagonist and notable villains in my journey, but I'm willing and excited to, eager to move on from that and the genre world. I'm interested in other worlds. The Slap represented that for me. It's real people, real worlds, real issues, nothing heightened or stylized about the worlds in which these people live, and I like that.

Would you do a comedy?
I want to. I [guest-starred in] a couple episodes of Girls that will be airing in the next few weeks [March 1 and March 15]. That was a great experience, and yeah, I want to do more stuff like that. I'm constantly on the search.

The Chair is available on DVD from Anchor Bay Home Entertainment; The Slap airs Thursdays at 8 p.m. on NBC; Girls airs Sundays at 9 p.m. on HBO.

https://tv.yahoo.com/blogs/tv-news/zachary-quinto-the-slap-the-chair-161026642.html