The best season of AHS, Asylum masterfully showcases horror TV at peak potential by perfect setting for the criminally insane, lifetime-cast of flawless performances, sadistic psychological horror, & game-changing modern anthology structure. 9.3/10.
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Plot Synopsis: Seet in 1964, American Horror Story: Asylum takes us into a Church-run haven for the criminally insane, ruled with an iron fist by Sister Jude, a nun with a troubled past.
*Possible spoilers ahead*
Review: The best season of AHS, Asylum masterfully showcases what modern horror TV can be at peak level. An absolutely sensational location setting apt for the criminally insane is filled by flawless performances by a once-in-a-lifetime TV cast from power-steeped masterpiece career-role by Jessica Lange to ill-fated reporter Paulson horrifically trapped and made insane against her will to Cromwell’s chilling Dr. Thermosin’s experimentation to the satanic show-stealing temptatory Lily Rabe’s Sister Eunice to a wildly-improved Dylan McDermott given his own incredible exposition through a sanity-testing abductory B-plot. Sadistic psychological/physical horror arcs masterfully genre-crossing in balanced and juxtaposed ways from exorcisms to mad scientists to sci-fi abductions to monster creatures to serial killers in Bloody Face adorn this stylistically-wowing series riddled with ’60’s nostalgia through painstaking set/costume design & period authenticity, tons of carefully-crafted homages to genre history in Easter Eggs taken from every possible theme/overlap season-long , human touches and an intricate web of deceit and lies as surgically-weaved as its macabre, and game-changing anthological decision making each season a completely-different storyline with a recurring cast and writers getting to flex in new roles each year to showcase their talent as still the greatest way to do a TV series. Besides a questionable Bloody Face design & one ~jarring alienic B-plot for McDermott in contrast to its religion/old-world realism-centric main one, AHS: Asylum is one of the greatest seasons of horror TV ever made.
Official CLC Score: 9.3/10
