AHS: Hotel

It isn't exactly a surprise to my readers that I am a huge fan of American Horror Story, combine this with the appearance of one of my favorite songwriters now turned actress, and you have a pretty good recipe.

The cast of this years season, titled Hotel, is filled out by new and returning actors, man-god Matt Bomer makes a reappearance, as do his perfectly chiselled cheekbones, as does Kathy Bates, playing his mother. AHS regulars Sarah Paulson and Angela Bassett are back and Finn Wittrock returns after his triumphant debut in Freak Show.

New to the cast is Max Greenfield, known mostly to viewers through his work on Fox sitcom New Girl, and Naomi Campbell appearing as part of her much touted return to acting, which started with appearances in Empire.

This season is much darker than previous seasons, and in some ways the show combines the campy visuals of seasons like Freak Show, and the cold metallic drama of seasons such as Coven or Asylum. 

Visually the show is a treat, the vast majority of the drama takes place in the Hotel Cortez, a hotel owned by the mysterious and deadly yet beautiful Countess. The hotel is a beautiful art deco masterpiece featuring a magnificent three storey lobby.

This season has gotten notably more mixed reviews than previous seasons, though the ratings have been better than ever. And in some ways I agree with the reviews, whereas with other seasons, I loved them at first, and my interest slowly trailed away, this being notably true of Freak Show. The first episode of Hotel successfully piqued my interest, whilst not really giving me any idea of what the show was about.

And if the first episodes seemed slapdash, its because they were, and deliberately so, this episode has unfurled like a jigsaw, throwing the pieces out onto the floor, and then slowly putting them together, and unfurling the story that way.

This is ultimately a very good strategy, because it forces the viewer to continue watching, it provides just enough information to grab us.

Finally the most important question, can Lady Gaga actually act, it was tough for most reviewers to comment on this given that she only had two lines in the first episode, but surprisingly the answer is yes, she really can, and what could possibly make this season better, is a lot more Gaga.

Hotel is definitely one of the better seasons of AHS, and it even rivals AHS's debut, Murder House, which is no mean feat.