American Horror Story

American Horror Story is an anthology series created by Ryan Murphy, creator of Glee and Nip/Tuck. The series premiered in 2011 on the FX network, a premium cable network. The series is an anthology series, it retains the same cast, but features a different storyline, characters and setting.

The first season was retrospectively called Murder House. The series features a husband and wife who relocate to Los Angeles from Boston after he has an affair, with their daughter, things take a turn for the worst when it turns out their house is haunted with the ghosts of the hundreds who died there.

The second season is titled Asylum, and takes place in a spooky and atmospheric mental asylum run by nuns in 1964 in Massachusetts. The series features much of the same cast as the first, with some additions. The series features Jessica Lange in a pore prominent role than in series 1, as the sadistic and cruel Sister Jude, who runs the asylum.

Finally season 3 is titles Coven, and takes place around a school for witches in Louisianna, run by Cordelia Foxx, played by Sarah Paulson. The series is notable for the return of Tassa Farmigia and the introduction of Emma Roberts, both as witches.
The series is an anthology series, and this solves various problems. The first problem it solves is boredom, many tv series have been cancelled after a certain number of seasons, due to fans becoming bored of the characters, the plot arcs or becoming turned off due to the addition of certain characters. The

advantage of the anthology series is that it never becomes old, because it is like having a new series every year, but built on the back of the same brand, leaving room for artistic vision, without artists having to get their ideas continually validated by network chiefs.

The other problem that this gets around is attracting new viewers, many potential new viewers get put off by having to sift through multiple seasons of a show simply to understand what the hell is going on, American Horror Story does not have this issue, as every season is different, so viewers can watch the seasons in any order, or simply watch only one of the seasons.

AHS is also a lot of fun, the series is gory, scary and sexy. It features blood, sex and thrills, and is unafraid to be overtly provocative. The series manages to be an intelligent example of the horror genre, rather than simply an excuse for the writers to see their fantasies played out on screen. It is almost a shame that such a cinematographically rich series, has to be resigned to the small screen.