American Horror Story: Freak Show Review: “Massacres and Matinees” (4×02)

As we make our way through the second hour of Freak Show, it becomes very clear (if it wasn't already) that this season is much more concerned with establishing atmosphere than it necessarily is with accelerating the plot (or even with having one in the first place). The plot beats are pretty basic, but it's the setting and the colorful cast that makes this particular version of the story one worth telling. In this early stage of the overall story, that kind of investment in world building can be invaluable.

That's not to say it works flawlessly here. The freak metaphor is a double-edged sword, and while a much more straightforward allegory helps streamline the season's themes and make them immediately coherent (as opposed to the scattered storytelling of Coven), depictions of “freaks” and outcasts is well-worn territory for this show and for Ryan Murphy in general. The kind of on-the-nose metaphor that's employed this season is genre-appropriate, but that doesn't stop some scenes from landing with a thud. Any time a character (usually Jimmy Darling) admonishes someone with a stern, “Don't call us freaks!”, the show feels like a fractured after school special. These are pat themes, addressed in a pat way.

Or rather they would be, except for the wild characters and the psychotic clown on the loose. Atmosphere is so important to the show right now because it's the one thing distinguishing it from the rest of the American Horror Story repertoire, as well as Murphy's work in general, and most other shows about oppressed minorities or angst-ridden teenagers. Director Alfonso Gomez-Rejon, a regular in the Murphy stable, pulls out all the stops to give this episode the creepy, unsettling edge it needs, especially since the story itself is, well, a little boring. The opening bit in the toy store is predictable, but the tracking shots and blocking provide tension, while the framing in the Mott's dining room accentuates Gloria and Dandy's truly bizarre dinner conversation.

That scene in particular is a showcase for the episode. It is supremely weird, but also instantly quotable. The Motts are odd people, and both Frances Conroy and Finn Wittrock make the most of the deeply strange material they're given. (“I am simply protecting your from a life of degradation and opprobrium!”) It's perhaps too obvious to do the bit where “the ‘normal' people are even weirder than the freaks”, but again, it's highly stylized enough here that, for now, it's working. Now, with the sudden revelation that Dandy is now a deputy murder clown? That development comes with zero explanation, and is not followed up on in this episode. That's the American Horror Story we all know and love (to hate).

The episode does make some moves in the larger story of the season, and introduces some much needed conflict within the camp, as well as without it. Michael Chiklis and Angela Bassett join the cast, as strong man Dell Toledo and his wife, Desiree Dupree, an intersex woman with three breasts. The pair of them inject instant conflict into the camp setting, as Dell begins giving orders and calling the shots with regards to Elsa's show. Jimmy's plan to frame him for murder is both poorly thought out by the character and poorly displayed by the show, and it ends in the murder of Meep in a group prison cell. In case this story wasn't clichéd enough already, Evan Peters ends the episode with a despairing yell into the night sky.

At the end of the day, too much of this is familiar, and in a show about “freaks,” it seems that everything should have a bit more verve and originality. Even Twisty the Clown is a standard, uninventive serial killer story, dressed up in (extremely creepy) clown clothes. Elsa's character has so far been cobbled together from various previous Jessica Lange characters, and her arc so far is identical to Fiona's in Coven, with hints of Sister Jude as well. Both scenes with Bette and Dot singing are ripped directly from the pages of Glee, especially the first, where Jimmy encourages Bette to sing, which might as well be a speech from Finn Hudson. Ditto Jimmy's trip to the diner with the rest of the freak show, which plays out only on the most superficial level. It's a horror standard to apply metaphor to the violent proceedings, but since this show so rarely does straight horror, instead straddling the line between horror and drama, it needs to inject a little more oomph into the storytelling to keep things engaging.

The same goes for the players. Even though there are a wide variety of characters, they so far are all very one-dimensional, with only Jimmy Darling showing any signs of depth (and since those depths appear to be mostly a quickness to violence inherited from his father, we'll see how that ends up affecting everyone else). The flash and panache of the show's circus setting will only carry it so far. I'm all for slow burn storytelling, and god knows Ryan Murphy could do with a little restraint, but at the same time, I can't help but feel this is moving more slowly than it needs to be.

Stray Observations:

– Of course, next week apparently the ghost of freak shows past is coming to haunt the circus or whatever, so who the hell knows.

– “Unless you got pony legs under those trousers or a double ding dong.” “No, but I do know the entire Cole Porter canon.”

– So Twisty is missing the lower half of his face, if you weren't creeped out enough. Related: Sure, Gloria Mott is not quite with the program most of the time, but how on earth does anyone really take a look at Twisty and think, “Oh, what a perfectly normal looking clown!”

– “Amuse me, clown!” See what I mean? Although maybe Dandy knows more than it seems at first.

– Bette and Dot singing “Criminal”? OK. I'm wondering if the musical numbers are going to be a weekly occurrence here.

– Apparently Kathy Bates is doing a Baltimore accent? She sounds like literally no person I have ever heard.