American Horror Story: My Roanoke Nightmare
November 16, 2016 8:04 PM - Season 6 (Full Season) - Subscribe
This year's American Horror Story has just wrapped. After a sprawling, poppy, disjointed Season 5, the show has tried some new tricks, cut down on episodes, and told a tighter story. Playing with reality and tabloid TV, Roanoke Nightmare follows a family that buys a house in rural North Carolina, the evil they uncover, and the media frenzy that follows.
I liked it a lot. My impression from both this, and from OJ last season, is that Murphy really, really hates the reality TV ecosystem that fed off of the OJ trial, and that he sets up to lampoon surrounding My Roanoke Nightmare. The Roanoke House is a nightmare. A deathtrap of blood, horror, and despair. But people with cameras are drawn to it like moths to a flame. Everyone seems to think that they can harness the monster for their own gains, and Sidney does (once), but otherwise it chews up every arrogant wannabe star that wanders into its orbit.
As the Vlogger girl says approaching the house, this is also a show about race, and about the deep seeded anger that white America has to the outside world. Starting with the colonists (who claim land that they stole is their rightful home), Mott's arrogance in making such a place his retreat from the world, up to the Polks and their incestuous family, and the corrupt local PD that keeps everything going through a pact of secrecy.
The finale was really great, because it was Murphy sneering at so many different genres: ghost hunting shows, prestige interviews, real crime recreations, courtroom TV, panel news programs, and (although it's elided and we don't get to see the colonists tearing into the police) live footage of a massacre or some other awful event on the local news. I feel like the horror isn't just the house, or what's inside, but rather the compound media eye that's constantly focused upon it, escalating it, and drawing more and more people into the carnage.
I think that because this is the angriest and most political the show has ever been, it's also the best storyline that they've ever put forth. That's been helped along by very good visual effects, great found footage direction, and genuinely horrific scenarios and production design.
I loved this season, and I hope that the next one keeps a lot of the same key decisions.
posted by codacorolla at 6:21 PM on November 17, 2016 [8 favorites]
As the Vlogger girl says approaching the house, this is also a show about race, and about the deep seeded anger that white America has to the outside world. Starting with the colonists (who claim land that they stole is their rightful home), Mott's arrogance in making such a place his retreat from the world, up to the Polks and their incestuous family, and the corrupt local PD that keeps everything going through a pact of secrecy.
The finale was really great, because it was Murphy sneering at so many different genres: ghost hunting shows, prestige interviews, real crime recreations, courtroom TV, panel news programs, and (although it's elided and we don't get to see the colonists tearing into the police) live footage of a massacre or some other awful event on the local news. I feel like the horror isn't just the house, or what's inside, but rather the compound media eye that's constantly focused upon it, escalating it, and drawing more and more people into the carnage.
I think that because this is the angriest and most political the show has ever been, it's also the best storyline that they've ever put forth. That's been helped along by very good visual effects, great found footage direction, and genuinely horrific scenarios and production design.
I loved this season, and I hope that the next one keeps a lot of the same key decisions.
posted by codacorolla at 6:21 PM on November 17, 2016 [8 favorites]
My feelings are mixed. I REALLY disliked the first five or six episodes. But I have to say I really liked the resolution and the return of Lana as well as the reference to the asylum. And Cricket returned! I wondered why he wasn't involved the reality show, but there he was!
I do have a question through regarding Lee and Flora. What exactly was stopping Lee from just taking her child? I get that physically picking her up and taking her would be difficult if the child struggled, it seemed odd she didn't at least try.I think her death is justified as the ultimate act of maternal love, but I'm surprised she didn't at least try to physically remove Flora from the danger.
posted by miss-lapin at 1:22 PM on December 2, 2016
I do have a question through regarding Lee and Flora. What exactly was stopping Lee from just taking her child? I get that physically picking her up and taking her would be difficult if the child struggled, it seemed odd she didn't at least try.I think her death is justified as the ultimate act of maternal love, but I'm surprised she didn't at least try to physically remove Flora from the danger.
posted by miss-lapin at 1:22 PM on December 2, 2016
Oh and one other thing-what about the elemental woman? We got everything tied up with a bow, but I didn't see her. I thought maybe we would see her reunited with her now deceased lover.
posted by miss-lapin at 1:24 PM on December 2, 2016
posted by miss-lapin at 1:24 PM on December 2, 2016
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posted by Elementary Penguin at 6:32 AM on November 17, 2016