I swear the more movies and shows Ryan Murphy produces the more apparent it is becoming that he is not exactly the daring or original creative powerhouse his reputation has made him out to be by the mainstream over the years. Perhaps maybe he was some years ago when he didn't have his hands on more than two or three projects at once, and the later seasons of Nip/Tuck were considered the low points of him creatively but alas the low points of Nip/Tuck where the shock value and forced agenda became so more prevalent over telling a good story would pop up in essentially more properties he'd have a hand in with American Horror Story being the one to suffer the most. The curse of the later seasons of Nip/Tuck have become exactly what the American Horror Story franchise is today - shock value, agenda, and sexual innuendo. The writing quality of American Horror Story, as with other recent Ryan Murphy productions, is so dire it seems that the idea to keep people hooked in is by bringing in very talented actors to try and elevate the material. With the likes of Kathy Bates, Sarah Paulson, Matt Bomer, Wes Bentley, Jessica Lange, Zachary Quinto, Dylan McDermott, Evan Peters, Taissa Farmiga, Connie Britton, Angela Bassett, Cody Fern, and Frances Conroy I suppose you can't blame the chef if the cake has much less flavor than the icing which looks so appealing - you've bought the cake by its face value alone, but you can't present oil as tea for so long - especially when you have much less talented performers like Billy Eichner, and Leslie Grossman bringing everything down( Eichner can't do drama to save his soul, Grossman is better suited for the bratty and snobby next door neighbor type). American Horror Stories is no different I am afraid, you would probably think shorter stories would allow for better effort, but I am afraid not. Everything in this two part premiere is predictable, the writing is just awful and even inconsistent, the shock value is easy to spot from a mile away and feels so forced it's like they want you to be disgusted and disturbed but without any substance other than presenting scary pictures. As far as the acting goes, Sierra McCormick is alright but her range is limited to presenting herself as ultra angry, ultra whiny, or ultra depressed. Matt Bomer is an excellent actor but isn't rewarded with anything of note here(so much for selling oil as tea Murphy). Gavin Creel is pretty talented both as an actor and as a singer - Drama? Yes. Comedy? Yes. Musical? Definitely. Horror? Uh...Sorry, I'm game for out of the box casting but it doesn't work well, at least here - the writing is pretty bad, as previously mentioned, nor is it directed particularly well either. Ryan Murphy should probably read some Clive Barker for better inspiration for this franchise or if he wants to continue to settle in this rabbit hole at least hire Rob Zombie to direct some episodes - then it would *really* go off the rails, but at least spectacularly and would get people talking more, although perhaps not in a "it deserves an Emmy!" sort of way...

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