American Horror Story: Freak Show Review – “Monsters Among Us” (4×01)

“Monsters Among Us” begins with Dot’s arrival at Elsa’s camp, the American Horror Story signature Dutch tilt cleverly hiding Bette’s head from the viewer. We then double back almost immediately, to first the birth of the twins, and then to the hospital where they’re held following Dot’s murder of their caretaker, and Bette’s stabbing of Dot. (It’s admittedly hard to know which twin is responsible for which here, and Elsa adds salt to the wound, accusing Bette of allowing the murder to happen.) I’m not sure the doubling back is necessary, as the episode doesn’t truly pick up steam until we arrive at the camp once more, and the crucial reveal happens after that point anyway. But if American Horror Story would like to practice the virtue of patience this season, for once, I’m certainly not going to complain.

The episode may move slowly, but it also sets a tone for the entire season, something that last year’s “Bitchcraft” failed to do. There’s a very clear sense of place and purpose here already, and that can only be a good thing. Now, that doesn’t mean a flying space kangaroo won’t arrive in episode seven and turn the whole thing lopsided, but for now, it’s nice to see the story have some confidence, as well as competence, in its mission.

Just because the episode moves slowly doesn’t mean there isn’t a lot going on, of course. Even though we meet only a handful of the characters that have been teased over the past several months, there are still plenty of introductions to be made. Evan Peters plays Jimmy Darling, whose condition, ectrodactyly, gives him lobster claw-like hands. These apparently also make him extremely talented with the ladies, if you get my meaning. (My meaning is we meet him fingering some society girls at a Tupperware party.) Ryan Murphy has always been interested in sexual horror in addition to body horror and psychological horror, and we look to be in store for a healthy dose of all three this season. Granted, Coven teased a lot of these same themes, and that got us nowhere. But Freak Show takes a more simplified approach, at least to start, and that’s a good sign for the future of the show.

There is the typical undercurrent of “freaks as metaphor,” whether that metaphor is feminist, economic, racial—any minority or disadvantaged person might feel like a freak at one time or another. If everyone on Glee had a horrifying mutation, you’d have Freak Show, more or less, right on down to the requisite musical number. Jessica Lange’s performance of “Life on Mars” is not meant to be a showstopper; in fact, as Frances Conroy’s Gloria Mott points out, it’s the last, desperate wails of an old woman with a doomed act. But man, if the number doesn’t stop the episode in its tracks anyway. Like in Glee’s very best episodes, the song and the performance serve as a narrative shorthand that, maybe paradoxically, present the character much more openly and fully than any scripted conversation or contemplative silent shot could do. There is room in Freak Show for all manner of weird, unconventional storytelling (even if “TV musical number” is a dime a dozen lately), and there’s no reason not to embrace something if it works.

We also have a serial killer clown on the loose, by the way. Twisty the Clown might be the most disturbing thing this show has come up with yet, from a visual standpoint. It’s standard killer clown fare, but that doesn’t make Twisty’s first scene any less unnerving, as he slowly approaches the camera from a distance, doing the typical clown business, before letting loose and murdering the teenagers he’s come upon. His murder spree quickly incorporates kidnapping as well, and while there’s no sense just yet of what he wants to do with (or to) his captives, I’m unsettled enough to be sufficiently curious to find out.

I was admittedly skeptical following Coven, and so I’m happy to say that, so far, Freak Show is a vast improvement. Already the characters feel more real, with more potential to grow into the complex characters that Asylum featured. This season is also beautifully shot; the cinematography contributes essentially to the development of place, making Jupiter, FL feel like a lived-in, real place, with something sinister lurking just beneath the surface. The split-screen work has been done before on this show, but I still find it fairly imaginative to use it to highlight the differences in Bette and Dot’s literal perspectives, as well as their emotional ones (look at how Dot eyes up Jimmy, for instance). It is very, very like Ryan Murphy to rope everyone in with a tantalizing appetizer, before revealing that he forgot to put the main course in the oven.

It remains to be seen what will happen with the rest of Freak Show, but at least “Monsters Among Us” is reasonably paced and strongly atmospheric. Certainly, horror fans should be more satisfied this time around than they were with the increasingly campy Coven. But fans and connoisseurs of television drama will find something to appreciate here, too. For now.

Stray Observations

– Pepper returns, in a nod to Asylum. It makes enough sense to do as a sort of (very obvious) Easter egg, but the torrent of theories about a unified AHS universe really has to stop. I mean, seriously, does anyone really want to revisit Coven.

– The other “freak” we meet this week is Kathy Bates’ Ethel Darling, Jimmy’s mother and the show’s resident bearded lady. She doesn’t do much this week beyond act as a foil for the twins, but already Ethel emerges as a more fully-formed character than Delphine LaLaurie ever did. Ethel is a sort of den mother to everyone at Elsa Mars’ Cabinet of Curiosities, while Elsa is more their boss.

– Elsa is pretty similar to Judy Martin, with the whole, “washed up entertainment act” thing going on. I’ll be curious to see how Murphy and Lange work together to keep her from seeming too similar.

– Jimmy murders the policeman who comes to arrest Dot, which seems poised to inevitably bring even more law enforcement to the circus. That escalated quickly. Even so, I’m curious to see how that dovetails with Twisty the Clown’s killings.

– More on the sexual horror: Elsa basically kidnaps and drugs Penny the candy striper (played by Streep-spawn Grace Gummer), then shows her a tape of all the sexy times she got up to while high on opium. It’s, well, it’s really dark, and the first indication that Elsa may not be all she seems. (And she already seems like quite a lot.)

– The second indication that Elsa may not be all she seems is that, at the end of the episode, she removes her legs. Does anyone else know about this? How did she lose them? Certainly both questions will be raised in due time.