Why Does Freak Show Get So Much Hate?

[Barbados 1,004]

Only good episodes was with Lily Rabe and Angela Bassett and whats her name, Elsa's daughter thing that was deformed

[PaperIz 7,261]

It was beautiful, but boring. Sort of aimless.

[LastNight 4,146]

I like Freak Show a lot. Amazingly acted, beautifully shot and some great ideas/horror moments. It is true that the overall storyline is lacking, there was no suspense or tension like you got with Murder House and Asylum but I do think that the episodes were individually excellent. I like that they did something different with this season, it's the beauty of AHS to be able to try something different and then switch it up again the next year. I think Dandy and his Mother, Elsa's back story, Bette and Dot, Twisty's story and Pepper's story were all excellent. I actually think the Pepper episode is one of the best (if not the best) that AHS has ever delivered: it is amazing. It's also the season where the links to previous seasons begin to become clear and I love that.

I think Elsa's back story was incredible to watch, both visually and also from a story point of view. It had one of the most uncomfortable, scary, grotesque and shocking horror moments from all the seasons in it (I won't write it down in case people haven't seen). I also think this season was a triumph in terms of acting. What they achieved CGI wise with Sarah's character was massively impressive and her performance is a master class in acting. One thing about this show is that if the story lines ever falter, the cast save it with superb acting. It's not my favourite season, but it certainly has an awful lot going for it. 

[MANiCURE1295 8,673]

I like Freak Show a lot. Amazingly acted, beautifully shot and some great ideas/horror moments. It is true that the overall storyline is lacking, there was no suspense or tension like you got with Murder House and Asylum but I do think that the episodes were individually excellent. I like that they did something different with this season, it's the beauty of AHS to be able to try something different and then switch it up again the next year. I think Dandy and his Mother, Elsa's back story, Bette and Dot, Twisty's story and Pepper's story were all excellent. I actually think the Pepper episode is one of the best (if not the best) that AHS has ever delivered: it is amazing. It's also the season where the links to previous seasons begin to become clear and I love that.

I think Elsa's back story was incredible to watch, both visually and also from a story point of view. It had one of the most uncomfortable, scary, grotesque and shocking horror moments from all the seasons in it (I won't write it down in case people haven't seen). I also think this season was a triumph in terms of acting. What they achieved CGI wise with Sarah's character was massively impressive and her performance is a master class in acting. One thing about this show is that if the story lines ever falter, the cast save it with superb acting. It's not my favourite season, but it certainly has an awful lot going for it. 

[Kayla 7,595]

Honestly, none of the seasons are deserving of hate, there's too many quality ingredients for any of them to be labelled "bad".

 

But where Murder House and Asylum were consistent and engaging and narratively satisfying, Coven and Freak Show fell short due to a lack of focus and too many elements and characters being poorly handled, especially in the second half of both seasons. And because FS began SO scary and distinctive, it made the downfall more disappointing.

There was no central storyline that tied everything together. If someone asked me what it is about, I literally would not be able to sum it up (e.g coven had the central storyline of the next supreme) - with that freakshow too many individual story lines that just made it explode at the end. It's almost like the writers forgot that it's a 13 episode story and just said "oh well" 

if there was perhaps 2 seasons of freakshow I think they may have been able to properly develop all the characters/story lines without having to just kill them off when they run out of things to do. 

In saying that, the filming/cinematography is quite beautiful but it's really just lazy writing that ruined it. 

These two posts hit the nail right on the head. I think a central storyline would have really helped. Both FS and Coven also set up a lot for the characters but didn't use them to their greatest potential, imo. 

 

I like Freak Show a lot. Amazingly acted, beautifully shot and some great ideas/horror moments. It is true that the overall storyline is lacking, there was no suspense or tension like you got with Murder House and Asylum but I do think that the episodes were individually excellent. I like that they did something different with this season, it's the beauty of AHS to be able to try something different and then switch it up again the next year. I think Dandy and his Mother, Elsa's back story, Bette and Dot, Twisty's story and Pepper's story were all excellent. I actually think the Pepper episode is one of the best (if not the best) that AHS has ever delivered: it is amazing. It's also the season where the links to previous seasons begin to become clear and I love that.

I think Elsa's back story was incredible to watch, both visually and also from a story point of view. It had one of the most uncomfortable, scary, grotesque and shocking horror moments from all the seasons in it (I won't write it down in case people haven't seen). I also think this season was a triumph in terms of acting. What they achieved CGI wise with Sarah's character was massively impressive and her performance is a master class in acting. One thing about this show is that if the story lines ever falter, the cast save it with superb acting. It's not my favourite season, but it certainly has an awful lot going for it. 

Also a great post.  There were many redeeming qualities to the season, and you did a great job of highlighting them all. 

[judxs 762]

it's a lot more artistic than the other seasons and we all know the majority of the GP don't understand art and can't appreciate it.
i study film and tv at uni and the cinematography was INSANE throughout the whole season. absolutely breathtaking.

[HausAlly 799]

the writing tbh like coven it switched the plot around a lot and was a little confusing for me at times, but thats just the way Ryan murphy's shows always come out (i used to be a huge fan of glee and follow that **** it was exactly the same) so i still enjoyed the season because i knew that was gonna happen, but asylum surprised me the most in terms of plot thats why its my favourite

[badgalriri 1,124]

it was boring. didn't really have a point besides them all wanting to be singers apparently. it was just terribly pretentious and dumb. I had high hopes for it. Wasn't really horror. It was a mess.

[BornSimon 4,748]

Aimless is the word. It didn't go anywhere. I enjoyed it but I've been a fan of the show since day 1 and Freakshow has nothing on the first two seasons. Even Coven was better, although still not amazing. I have VERY high hopes for Hotel.

[MJHolland 12,723]

Because it was the worst season 

[Chic 20,830]

as someone who watched each season as they aired, my biggest issue with freakshow was i completely lost that suspension of disbelief while watching it. Asylum was a ****show WHILE watching it until the end when it all came together. Coven was the same way it meandered but still had a throughline, Freakshow was aimless! whatg was the general plot of it? i dare you to tell me.... was it elsa's journey to stardom? was it Dandys decension into madness? was it about anything to do with the concept of being in a freakshow? no....it was weak. 

I'm pretty sure the plot of Freakshow was "the death of the Freakshow". Watching the freaks live their lives and perform while less and less people show up, and as this art becomes passé, as these people continue to be discriminated against, they suffer the detriments of their lifestyle while it's instigated by the people around them.

But of course, all AHS seasons really just have to do with Evan Peter's ass, so...

[Slade 2,591]

It was boring imo and didn't have as interesting a storyline as the first three seasons.

And I was over it as soon as they killed of that scary ass clown. He was terrifying, and they could've done so much more with him.

[MikeGoneGaga 86]

it's a lot more artistic than the other seasons and we all know the majority of the GP don't understand art and can't appreciate it.
i study film and tv at uni and the cinematography was INSANE throughout the whole season. absolutely breathtaking.

I don't think art had anything to do with why people don't like it. There were a lot of things thrown in there as conventions without a context for it. I think it left people with more questions than answers (but not in a goodway) and was too close to life to be intriguing, or engrossing for that matter.

From the standpoint of the technical elements of the show, it was by far the best. However, all the pretty angles, CGI, and character quantities in the world cannot and will not translate to fixing pacing, development, or focus.

[gagaisitalian 3,573]

It was messy and had too many side-plots going on. It wasn't centralized enough like the first few seasons. I honestly had to quit watching it because it was just a mess. And they killed off the clown, which was the most interesting, freaky part of the show.

The reason that the first two seasons are my favorite is because the plot mainly took place inside of the structure where they were telling the story. Everything creepy and important that happened in Murder House happened in the house. And everything creepy and important that happened in Asylum happened in the Asylum.

Coven sort of showed the downward spiral of AHS as a whole (not that it's anywhere near done) but it began to show that maybe Ryan was running out of ideas and had to go to extremes to put something "shocking" into the shows. Coven wasn't terribly bad about this, but Freakshow was.

For example, in Asylum, anytime a patient got electro-shock therapy, I was significantly freaked out. That's all it took. But in Coven, they had to have some half bull, half human finger-banging Queenie to bring some sort of "wtf" factor.

I have a lot of faith in Hotel though. Because a hotel should be a big enough infrastructure to create some creepy sh*t. Plus, if Ryan Murphy is following the story of H. H. Holmes, he won't have to come up with many ideas on his own. 

[Nicole 1,809]

it's a lot more artistic than the other seasons and we all know the majority of the GP don't understand art and can't appreciate it.
i study film and tv at uni and the cinematography was INSANE throughout the whole season. absolutely breathtaking.

I agree with you that it was by far the most artistic season and most beautiful in that sense, but I have to disagree that the reason a lot of people don't like it is because they don't understand/appreciate art. Most people would agree that it was by far the most beautiful season in a cinematography sense and can appreciate that, but it doesn't make up for poor writing and poor management of time/characters/storylines. That's what viewers want - good storylines, good characters and a good timeline of both together. I love art, but I would throw away the artistic element of this season in a second if it meant that the writing was better.