AHS: Freak Show kicks off the second half of its fourth season next week, but will the episodes be able to resolve any stories set up in the first half?

The buzz surrounding AHS‘s model for the future of miniseries is not unwarranted. Each season begins with a fresh American horror, a semi-new cast, and a new setting that fall under one title. AHS jump-started the anthology series, (think True Detective and Fargo) but while the concept is strong, AHS‘s execution is another story.

Each season of AHS attracts an all-star cast and lures in viewers with cleverly crafted 11-second teasers and subtitles like, Coven, Asylum, and, their latest, Freak Show. Ryan Murphy and the team on AHS begin with a thirteen episode frame. Within that restraint, they have the opportunity to craft a compelling dramatic tale that absorbs the flavor and history of an American town, dragging out the dark secrets lurking there.

The cast can change, the tone can change, but the structure remains the same. While the narrowing down a premise may seem like an impossible task, Murder House and Coven came close with setting, while Asylum nearly accomplished applying the finely focused lens on a single character.

With so many ideas, it is no wonder the seasons can seem a bit overloaded. Much to their detriment, the writers continually place all of their chickens in one basket, losing the audience with an overwhelming amount of material to weed through. Lana Winters’ story arc in Aslyum could have worked wonders if the aliens never showed up, and Coven‘s ladies would still have found a way to bring down the New Orleans witch hunt without the intrusion of Stevie Nicks. But just like Elsa Mars, when the creators hear something they like, everything else is put at risk to accommodate the shiny new idea.

The Stars Collide:

Freak Show is AHS‘s biggest billed season thus far. The core cast (Bates, Lange, Conroy, Peters, Roberts, Bassett) is held in just as high regard as the new comers and guest stars to the show (Bomer, Harris, Burtka, Whittrock, Chiklis, Lynch). But where do you draw the line when it comes to making room for those special appearances? How many times can a role be described as career defining for an actor, but fail to elicit any response from an audience?

At the start of Freak Show, Jessica Lange’s final character for the series, Elsa Mars, was the most anticipated act to witness. However, as the current season drags on, Elsa’s ruthless ambition for fame and her compassion for the family she has built flip-flops from episode to episode, if mentioned at all. Elsa’s struggle for the spotlight parallels the trouble AHS has this season. There are simply too many stories competing to be told and the result is a collection of half explored tales that become lost for weeks at a time.

The most interesting and, perhaps, most compelling performance this season, comes from Finn Wittrock (Dandy Mott). In the introductory story arc of season 4, John Carroll Lynch and Finn Wittrock were, unarguably, the show’s scene stealers. Lynch’s silent misunderstood killer clown was pitched as the must-see villain on television, only to be killed off in the fourth episode of the series. Dandy’s transformation from insipid man-child to creepily calm murderer, quickly stepped in to fill the vacancy, but plateaued one episode later. The horror has not returned in the same way since.

Each character this season has been offered one, if not two or three, brief moments in the sun. But with over eight stories happening at once, the performances that are given, while fantastic, do not feel earned. Rather, the scripts tend to favor long emotional monologues dispersed between filler plot. There are other ways the episodes try to keep their stars relevant.

Kathy Bates subtly reminds viewers she is on her march to death with a grab of the stomach, so that Evan Peters and Michael Chiklis can have a chance to tell their tale. As for Angela Bassett, her character’s exploration of her new identity is put on hold since Robert’s and O’Hare’s story has been pushed aside for too long. The result leaves Bassett on the bench making a passing remark to remind viewers she will return, just not until space opens up.

Besides the main characters taking turns, a slew of guest stars wait in the wings for their grand entrance. The reports of how Neil Patrick Harris’ role came to be, comes off more as a means to get his name in the credits, rather than a way to advance the story. It seems a bit rushed to get a brand new character’s story woven into an already established arc by having NPH’s appearance take place in the final moments of the season.

Seeing as NPH and Murphy had a bit of back and forth about what his role would entail, it seems that there was plenty of wiggle room and no established story arc standing in their way. Murphy has also confirmed that John Carroll Lynch and Wes Bently will also reappear before the season’s end and Lily Rabe’s Sister Mary Eunice are on the docket to appear. Unless Murphy plans to kill 90% of the characters off by episode 12, is it possible that there is enough time to conclude the other narratives?

Less is More:

Ideas are the one component every installment of AHS does not lack. And, much to its detriment, it is the one aspect of the show that they refuse to cut. For better or worse, the first few episodes of the season set up anywhere from one to twelve main story lines. In more recent seasons, viewers are given the impression that the writers sat in a room and stuck post cards to a wall with every intriguing story line they might potentially pursue in a given season. Instead of making cuts, they tried to get them all to connect.

No one is going to love every incarnation of AHS, nor should they. With each new installment comes the chance to bring one story to life and push it to the limits within the confines of the season. But if the series hopes to captivate audiences each season, they are going to need to find a way to transfer some of the pomp and circumstance behind their clever marketing and work it into rectifying their midseason slump. Already, well before the season 4 finale, the speculation and talks of season 5 are more intriguing than news on the season currently in production.

AHS needs to find a way to make their series sustainable within their own parameters before they move on to crazy connections between the shows and writing up contracts with big name guest stars.

With only six episodes to go before the Freak Show becomes a series of the past, hopefully Murphy and company are working to bring a twist that will deliver a cohesive story to the screen.

Watch AHS: Freak Show return this week with episode 8, “Blood Bath,” Wednesday, December 3 at 10:00 p.m. ET on FX.