American Horror Stories: Milkmaids

September 1, 2022 11:26 AM - Season 2, Episode 4

New England, 1757: A village devastated by smallpox finds an unlikely savior, and does not make her feel welcome.
posted by kittens for breakfast (1 comment total)

This episode, simply put, has its shit together: there's a focused story, solid characterization, good acting, and some nice (if busy) direction -- wow! It's not bad!

If there's one real problem, though, it's that there's at least four consecutive endings to the episode, when it really only needed one. Making Celeste the awful child's mother was a bit of a left field choice, and I'm not sure I understand the point of it, other than to try and generate some pathos when the kid killed her. Maybe these episodes are just too long; I found myself reflecting on the single season of the original Twilight Zone where CBS made Serling go an hour, and how few favorites came out of that stretch.
posted by kittens for breakfast at 11:35 AM on September 1, 2022