Tags:
Television Show: American Horror Story: Season 7: Cult
Year: 2017
Creators: Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk
Starring: Sarah Paulson, Evan Peters and Cheyenne Jackson
Review:
This season of the show starts off on election night. We get two different perspectives on the outcome of it. There is a married couple of Sarah Paulson and Alison Pill. Paulson is triggered by the winning of Donald Trump that she starts to have a panic attack. Pill is also upset, but tries to keep her calm. She also harbors some feelings about the outcome. Paulson has a lot of irrational fears that she is trying to keep in line. One of the major ones is clowns.
On the other side, Evan Peters is ecstatic that Trump has won. He goes upstairs and blends up cheetos to tint his skin orange. His sister, Billie Lourd, isn’t as happy about the news. She was a liberal college student, who dropped out to support Hillary Clinton’s campaign. She has a close bond with her brother and they lock their pinkies together. When they do this, you have to tell the absolute truth. It is with this that he reveals a plan to her and she agrees to help him.
Paulson sees Cheyenne Jackson, who is a psychiatrist. He had helped her to get to a place where she could live a normal life. With the election though, she is really struggling. Paulson and Pill have a son, Cooper Dodson. He sneaks a Twisty the Clown comic book into his room. As he reads it, it comes to life with John Carroll Lynch reprising the role from Freak Show. Paulson ends up discovering the comic and goes into a panic.
When their neighbor, Tim Kang, is murdered, it makes it that much scarier for them. He was a councilman in their city. His position is up for an election with Peters running for it. Kang’s house is also rented out to new people almost immediately. This new couple is odd, Billy Eichner and Leslie Grossman. Paulson and Pill think they will fit in despite this. Colton Haynes is also the detective assigned to working the murder case.
As Paulson starts to see clowns and other weird things as well, this starts to strain the relationship with Pill. We see that Peters puts into motion a plan where Lourd becomes the nanny for the two women. It is also slowly revealed that Peters has a cult that he is using to help himself get elected. He is putting this town into fear in order to get ahead.
Who is all in this cult though? What is their ultimate plan? It is hard for Paulson to know who to trust and who not to trust. Can she pull it together before it is too late? What is possible in this new America?
Now I have to lead off stating that I love this show. The first season has still been the best for me and it is hard to top. What I feel happens every year is that it starts off great and then I’m hooked, but then by the end it just doesn’t live up to the expectations I have for it. For this season though, I really like how this plays out. This one hit a little bit too close home for the realism. I do think that something like this could happen, especially after the electing of Trump. Now I am not going to get too politic in this, but there is a lot of fear that out in the world and if someone as crazy as Peters’ character, they could capitalize on it. The layers of the story that are introduced are good in my opinion. I love when this show references other seasons or the past and incorporating them into the fabric of the story. This one does this with the woman who shot Andy Warhol, the Zodiac killer, Waco, Jim Jones and Charles Manson to just name a bit. The season does have its lulls story-wise and the ending was interesting. It is better than some the seasons, but I still feel this ends up in the middle of the pack.
One thing about this show that I will always say is that the acting is solid. I’m a huge Peters fan and I think this show really is driven by him. He plays this cult leader perfectly. Some of things he comes up with and has his followers do are depraved, but they agree without question. His charisma is perfect for it, even though he is insane. Paulson is also very good in this season. Her character is so weak in the beginning, but as it goes on, you really get the character growth needed for her. Lourd is also really good and there was just something about her. She is difficult to trust and I found her oddly attractive. Pill is interesting. She has a nice reveal that I enjoyed and didn’t see coming. The rest of the cast do a solid job in rounding out the season as well.
The other thing with this show is the effects. For being a show that is on television, it has superb practical effects that definitely look real. The blood is used in a realistic fashion and looks good as well. There are even dead bodies that have been in a place for awhile that look so real. The editing is pretty good for the most part. At times I really wish they wouldn’t have some of the filler episode, because it messes with the tension the show builds. I get some times these episodes build more of the back-story, but I think they are weak. The score of the show is also solid. It still has one of the creepiest theme songs. This season has a variation to be political and I liked it. The score selections seem to fit what the scene’s tone needs.
Now with that said, this season was pretty solid in my opinion. It isn’t the best, but it also isn’t the worst. I really enjoyed the realism of this season and how something like this could definitely happen. It also hits a little bit too close to home, but it is good to feel uncomfortable about it. It does have some back-story issues, but I love the references to previous seasons and true events. The acting is really good across the board. The effects were very well done. The editing has some issues, but that might be actually more of a story issue. The score for the show is also really good. I would end up having this show in the middle of the pack with other seasons, but definitely not the worst in my opinion. I’d recommend this season for sure, especially with in the world we live in today.
My Rating: 8 out of 10