Here we are, finally at the end of an atrocious season of AHS that I may never recover from. It sounds like Melanie is right there with me……with a bottle of wine. We did our best with what we had. Thank you for reading this whole season. Melanie and I also did a podcast in which we discussed this season of AHS as well as Stranger Things. We go off topic a lot, but there are some gems in there. Please give it a listen.
Are You Not Kentertained Episode #086
I really want to thank Melanie for being a trooper all season long and also to Cece and Teddy who did try, but didn’t make it through the whole season. It happens, but everybody’s hard work is sincerely appreciated. All comments in bold are written by Kent.
- If Ally and Speed Wagon were both working against the Cult, why weren’t they privy to that info rather than working against each other?
Melanie: I think they were working for different departments. Also, people undercover won’t know who else is undercover, so as to not blow their cover.
Kent: I can’t recall, maybe they were working for different departments. This all seems sloppy as hell no matter how you look at it, and for Ally to just get away with killing him seems absolutely absurd.
- Was Gloria (Prison CO) part of Ally’s cult or just a meaningless pawn to provide misdirection throughout this episode?
Melanie: I think she was a horny lady. (That’s what I am hoping for as well.)
Kent: Meaningless pawn to throw one last misdirection at us. The way that it should have gone was Kai actually killed Ally. That’s how you do it and do some sweet 10 minute wrap up showing Oz taking over when he gets older, still believing that Kai was his father.
- Is it realistic that Kai built up that kind of following that quickly in prison?
Melanie: Totally, based on watching other prison shows and this season of AHS. But in reality, no. (And now I regret my answer. I’m not changing it though.)
Kent: Having never been in prison and only basing my knowledge off of totally fictional and unrealistic TV shows and films, I honestly don’t know. I assume that he would have had to take on the head white guy and Kai doesn’t strike me as tough, but he is a good manipulator. I’m going to say this is plausible and probably regret it.
- Were you disappointed in Oz’s lack of role the second half of the season?
Melanie: I know he was Kent’s spirit animal, so for that reason yes. (Oz did speak to me as a character, so yeah, absolutely good call on the spirit animal. Better than an elephant.)
Kent: YES! That was the one character that offered hope in the end and I have been saying this for weeks that I hoped for Oz to take over or have a bigger role. Nope, gotta give Sarah Paulson more screen time. That lady doesn’t get enough.
- Why didn’t Adina Porter make the main intro video for credits? She was a MAJOR part of this, yet lesser roles got their names in the opening.
Melanie: Was she considered a guest star? Maybe that is why.
Kent: No clue. She was arguably the 3rd most important role in the whole thing. Certainly more important than Harrison and Meadow, and I would argue more than Ivy. WInter probably was 3rd, so Beverley would be 4th. Oh and yet Dr Rudy Vincent gets in the video and may have been shined by Speed Wagon and Oz. Think about that. Adina did a great job this season and has won me over.
- Do you think it was lazy to not tie more past seasons into this one?
Melanie: Lana Winters and Twisty were the only ones I saw. Lame, like this season. (That moment when Melanie realized that there was a wine tie in to this season….oh it’s a treat.)
Kent: Obviously. The best that they could offer was Twisty, a Lana Winters reference, a bottle of Freakshow wine, and writing Pig on the door. They apparently cut out a scene in this last episode during the raid, Ally lights her cigarette with a match from Hotel Cortez, but it got cut. Just like the balls from this show were cut.
- Are you sick of Sarah Paulson’s characters seemingly lasting until the end, and often triumphing?
Melanie: Yes
Kent: Yeah, I absolutely am. Honestly, I don’t usually like her characters in AHS. She’s a talented actress and all, but she should eat some losses. Yeah, she got killed at the end of Roanoke, but even then she was in damn near every episode. At least Evan took a back seat last season. He’s a better talent, in my opinion, just sayin. Maybe it’s his role sthat I like more, but I really didn’t care much for him in 2, 3, 4, and 6, but I still think he’s the better talent.
- Was Oz’s elephant supposed to symbolize Ivy?
Melanie: Sure?
Kent: As soon as I saw it, I recalled Ivy with the elephant mask and made the connection. I assume that was intended, but maybe not. Which means that Twisty represented…….who? Seriously, if Ivy was repesented by the elephant, might there be more symbolism that Twisty the killer clown represented Ally? She was a killer after all, and had the clown phobia. I like my theory, even if it isn’t accurate.
- How lame was that ending?
Melanie: The whole season was lame, so why stop and make the ending awesome? I said the only way to make it awesome was to make it the final episode of Murder House. (You bring up a good point. Honestly, what the hell would we have done if the final episode was really good? It would be truly confusing.)
Kent: Oh my my my my MY, was that a lame ass ending. First of all, if you insist upon going down this path, the end scene should have been showing the women in a meeting to get a broader understanding of who was involved. That would have made more of an impact. Secondly, she doesn’t look good with a cloak. She just doesn’t. It was the worng color. A deep purple or a blood red would have been better.
Bonus 9 Deuce
- Nobody liked this season. If you think about it, how many seasons did you truly like and would happily re-watch and which ones?
Melanie: I liked at least parts of all of them. I am tempted to go back and watch to remind myself how much. (That is one of my winter goals, once I get passed all of the ridiculous promises that I have made.)
Kent: So I had this conversation earlier today and the reality is that I have enjoyed Murder House, Coven, and Hotel. The rest I have more negative things to say than positives. That’s a terrible ratio. The odd numbered season theory unraveled on me big time this year. As much as I disliked this season, I think I may actually hate it more in a couple of years with hindsight. That’s no good.
- This show is seemingly missing a lot of things like sex appeal, big stars, logic, ghosts, likable characters. If you could pick one aspect of the show for them to improve upon next season, what would it be?
Melanie: Bring Gaga back!!! Seriously, a more interesting premise…something supernatural or just plain weird. (Supernatural seems like an easy route that all but guarantees some likes. I see no issue with that.)
Kent: I also had this conversation with Kelly today. In her opinion, the sex appeal is missing and sex and horror mix so very well. Let’s face it, a lot of chicks love that combination and if you provide enough man ass and some sexy story line, you can keep your female demographic. On top of that, maybe you try to bring back your straight male demographic. We deserve hot chicks. Not the garbage that we keep getting. We deserve hot chicks and seeing their bare asses. The Chiller channel shows bare female ass so I know that it’s doable! This would help. But sex appeal isn’t my answer, but I wanted to acknowledge her point. My answer is better characters. They don’t have to necessarily be likable, but you need a few of them to attach yourself to. The past 2 seasons has been tough to latch on to many characters. Kathy Bates was a fail safe and she’s gone. This season, Oz and Beverley were my 2 favorites along with Gary Longstreet because Chaz entertains me. Still, that’s a shitty selection if you think about it. Ally and Ivy were irritable, Winter had way too many ups and downs like a crazy chick, Kai was so outlandish that it had it’s moments but the stupidity factor hurt a bit. Meadow was beloved by me but never got enough screen time. Just a hot mess. SO please, give us some characters that we can love, like Liz Taylor.
Were you Kentertained by this week’s episode?
Melanie: I was Kentertained with the fact it is over. (PRAISE whatever entity that you celebrate when glorious things like Cult ending happens.)
Kent: No, I most certainly was not. I knew it was going to be bad as soon as I got a message from Steff asking me what the fuck she just saw. SO yeah. This was brutal.
Final Thoughts on the Cult season and anything else that you want to get off your chest before we go away for another 9 months.
Melanie: This season made me incredible sad. I felt isolated from my regular AHS peeps, with the exception of Kent, who decided it was not worth their time or who didn’t keep up with the episodes. I continued watching with hopes it would get better. It didn’t. Will I watch AHS in the future? Yes. Will I have to drink a lot of wine to get through each episode? I hope not. (I also experienced a dramatic drop in friends who watched, and it sucks when you don’t have multiple people to hurl insults with.)
Kent: Worst season ever? I think it probably was, but I really would have to binge watch all 7 seasons to not live in the moment of week to week, but to watch the story unravel. I think this will be the worst due to characters and too much politics. If the cult hadn’t been rooted in politics, this season could have won me over. I’m actually incredibly happy to not have to do this blog for another 9 months. I do love getting the opinions of Melanie and sometimes other people, but the reality is that it’s tough to consistently write about something that you don’t like or have passion for and I have honestly lost my passion for this franchise. It’s not fun anymore. Look at how many people passed on the blog or stopped before we ended. I started with 5 people who instantly bailed after the first episode and 2 more that bailed towards the end. I don’t blame them. The fact that Melanie has to make wine jokes (maybe not jokes) to get through this is very telling. I can tell you that listening to her this year talk about the show vs last year was such a difference. Last year, there was passion and excitement and a willingness to get through it. This year, it felt like hopelessness and it sucked to be a part of it. For all of the insults that I throw at Ryan Murphy, the dude is a fucking brilliant writer, but this was just bad all around and I hope that he recognizes that and strives to get back to things that worked well. Start by getting a better cast. It doesn’t have to be familiar, but it has to be good. Then make sure to have elements of horror. That means scary shit, Asians crawling around on ceilings like last year, that shit was cool as fuck. No more politics. No more bullshit. Give us blood, sex, violence, but most importantly, tell us a great story.
All the pictures used in this blog are for review purposes. They are the property of:
- Brad Falchuk Teley-Vision
- Ryan Murphy Productions
- 20th Century Fox Television (in association with)
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