Not since "Lost" has there been a show that needs discussion as much as this one. I'm pretty sure there's at least one person around who'd also like to discuss this. I'm not even really a horror movie type person, but this show is so well done (acting, writing, direction -- all superb), the subject matter is almost irrelevant. But not quite.

Some Emmys better be handed out for this one. Particularly to Evan Peters as Tate. His scene at the dinner table with Constance and Pre-burned Larry was particularly brilliant acting. And Dylan McDermott is amazing with his constantly bleak, red-rimmed eyes (I'm dying to know how he does that -- does he cry for an hour before every shot? Is it makeup?) ~ his utter misery is so real, it's almost hard to believe Dylan McDermott is probably happy and laughing when he goes home at night. Jessica Lange is, unsurprisingly, fabulous.

Connie Britton, on the other hand, has always been one of those actresses that inexplicably gets on my nerves. (Connie! Please! Cut your hair!) Okay, maybe not so inexplicably. Maybe I'll like her better as a ghost.

My favorite TV episodes of all time are ones that make me gasp out loud in surprise. (Monica's in bed with Chandler! on "Friends", Janice shoots Richie at the dinner table! on "The Sopranos") This show already gave me one of those moments ~ when Hayden walked out the back door and Larry whacked her with the shovel, I about fell out of my chair. I did not see that one coming!

And I've noticed this show has an "I did not see that one coming!" in almost every episode. Addy's dead! Violet's dead! Vivien's dead!

Question: If the doctor's wife's ghost has a gaping head wound, and Larry's kids' ghosts are all burned, shouldn't Constance's boyfriend's ghost be cut in half?

Travis is (was) gorgeous! The last episode really shocked me...Tate showing Violet what she should have known. I've been on the edge of my seat for weeks, thinking he would MAKE her be his forever, and it had already happened!

Tate is one of those 'also played' actors that became the show. I agree with you about Vivien's hair, but I didn't know she was dead!

I can't imagine how they decide which ghosts will look alive, and which will be shown the way they looked at their death. Love this show!

I had read some theories on the internet a week or so before the "Violet's dead" episode, speculating that Violet was dead. I felt a little slow reading that, as it had never occurred to me that she might be. For that matter, it never occurred to me that Tate was dead either, despite the fact that he seemed to appear in the house whenever he wanted ~ so maybe I am a bit slow! Although I might have been thrown off by the fact that Addy kept appearing in the house, too, and she definitely wasn't dead. Yet.

I found it a little odd that Violet would run screaming for her father that Tate was trying to kill her, but then moments later would agree to crawl into a dark, scary place with him.

I certainly don't want to spoil anything to folks reading this thread. I have accidentally gotten "spoiled" twice this season (once on this show, once on "The Walking Dead") by reading perfectly innocent internet material ~ like the main page of Google News, and I don't like to be spoiled as I like surprises. I wish they would at least make it so you have to click the link to get spoiled, but, no, it was right there in the article summary: "Yes, Violet is dead".

I guess the good thing about this show is, just because they kill your character off doesn't mean you're off the show!

Who in their right mind (dead or alive) would stop in that house for more than 5 minutes.Constance creeps me out,there's something about the way she looks and speaks that's unnerving.

Here Piggy Pig Pig

It's good that Violet liked the house from the start...now she's stuck there forever. I'm just thankful to see something on T.V. that's original and isn't a remake of a show that wasn't that good to begin with, Charlie's Angels anyone? Or how about when they take a show from the BBC and think they have to "Americanize" it? The Office, Top Gear, and Being Human. Although, I will say that Starz did a good job with Torchwood: Miracle Day.

Well? Last night's episode ranked right up there as (definitely) one of the weirdest Christmas episodes ever aired in ANY December on ANY network on either side of Hell. Yet, as only "American Horror Story" seems able to do on a regular basis ... they pulled off all the ghoulish Norman Rockwell moments(?) with standard skill. I can't get enough of this show, I tell you it almost alarms me how fascinating I find it. I won't risk any spoilers about the episode but I think it is entirely safe to say that, wherever he is, Tennessee Williams is mighty proud of Jessica Lange. Even in this horrific setting she is the epitome of Blanche DuBois, some seventy years after he wrote her down (getting hauled out of New Orleans in a strait-jacket, and so forth). I love Williams's stuff, I loved "A Streetcar Named Desire" best of all his work, and I (for one) am in seventh heaven watching Jessica reprise her version of Blanche here. Constance is, in my opinion, Krazy Glue in spiked heels. She's holding this whole mess of circumstances together, and it's so campy as to be irresistable! Hide the scissors, eh? I was reading a recap this morning and just had to laugh when I read this:Really. Only "AHS" could provide such observations. And it gives us about fifty such observations each week. It's a very smartly put-together show, that's clear ... but more than that? It's deadly funny, frame by frame. As Violet said [rather fittingly] on Wednesday night --- "You know what they say! Cold hands, warm heart ..." And that last scene, all the occupants of that house gathered around the Christmas tree? All that was missing was Jimmy Stewart running into the room with a hatchet in his head, one recently purchased at the hardware store just down the road in Bedford Falls! All that aside, though, I have to note that these ghosts (whatever the stage in their transitions happens to be, no less) certainly know how to tidy up a possessed residence, and one often besieged by any number of violent events happening in it. Quite presentable in there, don't you think? Nicely polished floors, cupboards made less sticky after a hearty vinegar scrubbing, etc. Heck, the place just sparkles! And these dead folks absolutely erect AND present a mighty fetching holiday tree, too, I noticed. My plaguing question when this series began, and was done so well at the gate, was how they could possibly keep it going year after year, maintaining the watercooler moments and keeping the plot map (<--- and there really seems to be one of those, since even the most minor bit in, say, Episode 2 seems to become a major hint as to what will be happening in, say, Episode 7) in some sort of order. I still wonder about that ... but I'm not going to sweat it. Season One, even if they never measure up to it as things go, was completely worth it.

A couple o' things I'd like to know, however:
- Just where is Constance's husband, who I assume was Tate's Daddy? She dispatched him in the house, and he DID show up once since, so he's hanging around in there somewhere, yes? Maybe they can't show him much, since he died with his pants wrapped around his ankles and wearing his (mighty white --- Constance must have used bleach very skillfully when laundering underwear?) shorts. Must be a hindrance to mobility when it comes to dodging/terrorizing humans, the positioning of those trousers? Dunno.
- Tate said last night that he killed more than just a handful of students during his school rampage in 1994. I think he might have said thirty, or so? So where's the other 25 that didn't show up to air their grievances in his direction on Halloween night, then?

Oh ... and Starfish ~ you asked about Constance's boyfriend and his postmortem condition (why isn't he in pieces?). I think he was 'only' stabbed to death and the chopping up of his parts came AFTER expiration. So when he died he was intact, just boasting a few well-placed punctures in the gut? Maybe? Wounds easily hidden under a tasteful shirt, and all that .

Best line I heard last night (and there were several excellent ones) came from one-eyed Moira, soon after calmly snipping at Vivian to get her own tea (which was pretty noteworthy/hysterical, in a disrespectful chain-of-command ghost-y kind of way). "I could have been a good mother ... if I hadn't been such a tramp." Oh, man. This stuff is priceless! It must be an actor's dream, delivering lines like that .

Now you've gone and got me all interested in this show,
which i've never even heard of before i read these comments.
Now that Dexter is all over for the season,I'm all in the mood
for a show like this. Weird is Good!

Her husband wasn't necessary for the Harmons' journey. Larry's wife, when she appears to him the basement, says she never appeared before because "he wasn't ready". Constance's ex-husband was never needed I suppose. Probably didn't want to deal with her after the murder.




I believe he said fifteen. Perhaps the others weren't driven by a group of spirits? The five killed in the library were killed together, as a unit, and they haunt together; they're never in scenes separated from one another. Perhaps they're fueling each others' agony from beyond the grave.





Agreed. I'm particularly interested in Ryan Murphy's plans for season two. I love the anthology style and think that the horror genre is perfectly suited to the changes he wishes to make.
I, for one, will stay with this show for the long haul-- there's nothing like it.

My favourite lines, as usual, came from Marcy, their realtor, who's disturbingly racist and almost always tasteless.

American Horror Story can be crude, naughty, and frustrating (too many “it was just their imagination” scenes)… and I got completely addicted to it.
-I figured out that Violet was dead only when she tried to run out of the house and couldn’t, so I didn’t catch on.
-I thought that maybe the last episode of the season would portray/reveal Constance as THE big, bad villain we never suspected.
-I also thought that, after Violet burned the previous owner’s ring, it needed to be someone ALIVE who had to say those words in order to band a spirit from the house forever. I thought that maybe Ben would be the one to do it, but alas…
-I also had a question, why doesn’t the younger version of Moira, the red-headed maid, have that clouded eye? And why has she aged? Nobody else has.
I really got into the show, and I hope Season 2 doesn’t disappoint!

I believe Moira was shot in the eye, so her younger version wouldn't look that way.

This is one of my favorite shows. Now that the whole family (except 'baby 2'and maybe the horrible three year old baby 1) is stuck in the house, I'm seeing how it can go on and on...:)

I've been reading opinions on the internet, and folks seems to be of varying ones about the idea of this becoming an anthology, instead of continuing with the house and the Harmons. Mainly, it seems to be that fans now feel invested in these characters, only to be told their story is over. It's not unlike when a favorite show gets canceled. American Horror Story will be back, but the story and the characters will not.

While the Harmon family got a nice little wrapped-up "happy" ending, Tate and Hayden's characters (arguably the most interesting of the bunch) had miles and miles left to go on them, and it's sad to see them abandoned. Not to mention the anti-Christ child.

There's a great deal of speculation about what next season will be about. The producer said that the "Birth" episode, if watched frame-by-frame, contains a clue ~ and apparently folks have done this without finding the answer, although a multitude of theories abound. (Including some theories that he only said that to get everyone to buy the DVD so they could watch frame-by-frame.) I, for one, don't care to speculate about next season yet. I haven't even gotten over this season yet, and reportedly we will not see next season until October.

A lot of speculation, also, about which actors will return to play new characters next season. Many, many calls for the glorious Evan Peters make him the most mentioned on the fans' wish lists. (The folks who don't want Evan Peters to return seem to be having difficulty separating the actor from his character.) Jessica Lange is probably the second most-mentioned. Surprisingly(?), I've seen more requests/hopes for Connie Britton than for Dylan McDermott. (I think Connie Britton may be one of the least likely to return, since she just adopted a new baby.)

Hit the submit button by accident, but I meant to ask: What were everyone's favorite moments of the season? And what were your least favorite?

-I really liked the part when Moira was turned away again by Ben and she walked away from him as her older self, saying something to the effect that he was finally starting to see things as they were.
- I liked the final episode when everyone bonded together to drive out that family. My sisters were freaking out about everything but I cried “It’s okay, they’re just trying to scare them!”
-It was a very sweet part, when Violet was crying because her mom had just died… then the camera spun and there Vivien was, putting a comforting arm around her shoulders.
-I liked in the final episode when it explained why men kept putting their hands on that stove. Something was FINALLY explained!
-Some parts were frustrating, like the Piggy, Piggy episode when the guy kept closing the shower curtains- was that part of the urban myth? I didn’t like that he kept imagining it; it was a waste of time for the show.
-I don’t like what was mentioned here earlier- everything’s going to be different next season? So is it going to just be some new family experiencing everything all over again? Isn’t that a waste of time?
-And, yes, StarfishTwo, I agree with you… Connie Britton needed to find herself a hairtie.

Just saw this from People Magazine:

American Horror Story fans, rejoice: Jessica Lange is returning for season two.

But she's not reprising her role of the delightfully spooky Constance Langdon. Instead, the actress (who won a Golden Globe and a SAG award for the part) will play an entirely new role, EW.com reports.

"We have designed the second season of American Horror Story completely around her character," says creator Ryan Murphy. "This will really be the Jessica Lange show so I'm very excited about it."

And the role will be a definite departure from Constance. The creators are working up "this amazing new opposite of the Constance character for her," says Murphy. "She has a lot of ideas, and has a lot of input into her character."

Lange, 62, won't be the only AHS cast member returning for season two in the fall (production resumes in late July). Murphy also reveals that he's signed on three more actors from season one, and that the new season will be set on the east coast – but he wouldn't part with any further details.

Also saw this with more info on the returnees:

Entertainment Weekly