American Horror Story: Chapter Eight
November 3, 2016 6:53 AM - Season 6, Episode 8 - Subscribe

Lee, Audrey and Monet work to escape the Polks, and Shelby and Dominic work to escape the house. One group has more success than the other.
posted by yellowbinder (7 comments total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
Uggggh torture porn. All these years after Hostel and it still hasn't gone away. I was definitely trying to distract myself on my phone during many of those scenes. I was a bit disturbed by the racial element too, while I mentioned last week that Ryan Murphy does right by his actresses, but it was distressing to here Lee and Monet repeatedly referred to as "it." I know one of the Polk's explicitly says "If you ain't Polk you ain't people" but I don't believe I heard Audrey referred to as "it," only Lee and Monet.

How good is Adina Porter though? She brings such resolve and gravitas to her roles. There's strength, there's a steely matronly protective vibe of herself and those she cares for. I had only seen her previously on True Blood, and even there in a mostly unsympathetic character she commanded respect. Her repeatedly failing acts to engender sympathy made the torture porn almost manageable.

Audrey was fantastic tonight too, with all her silly acting talk (Shelby would never kill herself she's too self centred, I played her for six months I know her better than I know myself) and with finally breaking through the shock to be a support for Lee.

I'm not sure where I landed with Gooding's Dominic. He was just so unaffected even to the end. I think most of that was character work though, I honestly haven't seen enough of his performances to know how good he is in general. I will lean on the side of charity here and say he did a great job of playing a self centred dick of an actor.
posted by yellowbinder at 7:03 AM on November 3, 2016 [3 favorites]


Agree about the torture porn.... I almost turned it off. It seemed like they suddenly got lazy with this episode. I've really enjoyed the story and set up and live/reality show twist.... but this bored me. Big meh...
posted by pearlybob at 8:07 AM on November 3, 2016


Yeah yellowbinder, I agree. I'd have been a hysterical, crying mess if I were Lee, but Adina Porter plays her as supernaturally strong and single-minded. God, that was horrific to watch though!

If you love her I kind of recommend watching The 100, because she's great in that as well. A true warrior and leader throughout. (You should know, though, that it's pretty graphic and violent in some scenes as well.)

I think the torture porn part was super-chatty to show that living people may care about talking through acts of murder/horror to convince themselves that what they're doing is warranted (or simply to buy time while trying to survive it) vs. the supernatural elements killing off characters, which were more like "sneak up silently and kill you without commentary" based on how the real Butcher, Elemental Witch and Pigman attacked their victims.

Agnes delivered a bunch of self-aggrandizing monologues throughout her killing spree and the Polks were pretty similar, so maybe that's the point? I could've done with that being condensed into 3 minutes or less and been much happier, though! Hard pass for a re-watch of any Polk scenes this season, for sure.

So, both fake and real Shelby bashed in some heads and killed people. Do we think Cuba Gooding Jr. is going to get smeared on the floor somewhere in the finale, too? Or spirited away by the Elemental Witch, perhaps? He wants to be the villain so bad! LOL at him lighting up when Shelby said Dominic was a good actor, perfect "selfish asshole" reveal in an otherwise tense moment.
posted by Unicorn on the cob at 11:34 AM on November 3, 2016 [1 favorite]


I'm a pretty hardened horror fan so torture porn doesn't really bother me ALL that much. I did find the talking more annoying than the torture. I was like "Who are you? Dr. Evil? GET ON WITH IT ALREADY." It felt more like a filler episode trying to cover the lack of action with torture so viewers would FEEL like more happened then really did. And honestly, this season has thrown away far too many episodes to waste any more.

Still there were some fantastic moments in there. All of Audrey's acting babbling, like Dominic being such a good scene partner. I was giggling. But I also think that some of the horror of this season-the blending of fiction and fact. That the line is now so blurred that actors lose themselves in their characters, but that you also have "reality" as entertainment. I'm not sure what I'm trying to say but there's something interesting there.

And yes Adina Porter is wonderful in this. (I also only know her as Tara's mother from True Blood.) Still, GO BACK TO THE TRAILER? I really do hate it when characters do not act like genre savvy. Even her reasoning that the tape would be used against them really isn't that strong. Well not strong enough for ME to go back to that trailer.
posted by miss-lapin at 7:42 PM on November 3, 2016


Oh one thing I really liked was that Shelby's character in My Roanoke Nightmare was hobbled but as someone pointed out real life Shelby did not appear to have any issue walking. Odd little irony then that her ankle was smashed by the chandelier. I was hoping for more insight on that but I guess it's unlikely now that she's offed.
posted by yellowbinder at 10:02 PM on November 3, 2016


I want to know what the hell Wes Bentley's character is there for. I figure Sidney hired him to be scary. And is Monet dead? Is she going to come back?

I currently think Audrey is going to die, and I think either Monet or Lee will make it.
posted by Elementary Penguin at 7:58 PM on November 4, 2016


Even her reasoning that the tape would be used against them really isn't that strong.

Lee's stated reasoning probably shouldn't be strong enough to convince Audrey. But unbeknownst to Audrey, Lee did confess to the murder of her husband on the tape. So Lee going back does make sense. The only thing Lee has left to care about in the world is her daughter, and Lee knows that going to prison for murder would mean being separated from her again, maybe forever. Audrey, on the other hand, has no real reason to go back; even if the tapes destroyed her career, which doesn't seem too likely, Audrey doesn't seem so single-mindedly devoted to her own fame that she would risk life and limb over it.
posted by kittens for breakfast at 10:39 PM on November 4, 2016


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