What are you looking for when you turn on AHS: Hotel? Are you watching for Lady Gaga? The set design? The actors who challenge themselves with extreme roles?
There are very few payoffs at the end of an AHS installment. That is not to say that each week is not a master class in acting, design, costuming, makeup, etc. However, when you look back after the credits roll on episode 13 you’re more often than not left saying, “Wait, what was that? Whose story was I watching?”
At the close of Murder House an entire season unfolded organically from the past through the present and back again. The episodes were not trying to prove something, nor where they pushing characters out of sight and out of mind to make room for guest stars and twenty-something actor call sheets. The story of the Murder House was front and center the entire story and each episode of that installment made that clear.
Asylum started out promising, but by the time Lana Winters gave the finger out the car window in the finale, it was too late to bring viewers back in to pay attention to her arc. Instead, the installment relied on the audience’s ability to hold onto only her storyline buried in a sea of nuns, alien rapes, and a song and dance routine. If you blinked and missed a session between Lana and Dr. Thredson, her story felt incomplete. Similarly, if you followed Sister June’s tale, you were also left high and dry by episode 13.
Coven and Freak Show were truly ensemble pieces. Arguably Cordelia, Fiona, and Elsa all saw endings to their stories, but were they as complete and fulfilling as Twisty’s four-episode arc? Not really.
Related: Will AHS: Hotel suffer from overcasting? (Opinion)
As we enter AHS: Hotel‘s sixth episode we are starting to wonder — whose story will end and whose will fall flat? From the promotional stage, Hotel very much boasted a Countess heavy season. But the matriarch of the Hotel Cortez quickly fell into the shadows of Detective Lowe’s search for the Ten Commandment Killer and his downward spiral into madness. Then quickly the story shifted focus back to the war brewing between The Countess and Tristan versus Ramona and Donovan. Also added to the mix, Alexis’ new role as the Countess’ au pair for immortal children. Is the true hero of the story the daughter both Detective Lowe and his wife abandoned?
Perhaps the story goes back to Murder House in the way that the structure is the story. For an entire season one place, in this case the Hotel Cortez, draws in characters from all walks of life and refuses to let them go.
Without Jessica Lange this season, the pull to win viewers back for another go was to promise a line up that could not be missed. Matt Bomer and Finn Wittrock rarely have clothing on, Kathy Bates is severely underutilized thus far, and if you are not having sex with Lady Gaga, chances are your “most daring moment” has not happened yet. However, there is one break out character this season and that is Denis O’Hare’s Liz Taylor. While we do not expect a great deal more to be added to Liz Taylor’s story, at least AHS: Hotel provided the audience access to her story and why the Hotel Cortez means so much to her history and future.
For more on Liz Taylor, check out our recap: AHS: Hotel episode 5 recap: No one is a vampire
Whose story are you looking forward to seeing play out in AHS: Hotel? Let us know in our poll!
[socialpoll id=”2308026″]
Watch AHS: Hotel episode 6, “Room 33,” Wednesday, November 11 at 10:00 p.m. ET on FX.
We want to hear your thoughts on this topic!
Write a comment below or submit an article to Hypable.