American Horror Story: Freak Show Thoughts?- Page 3

[DAME]

Posted: 10/10/14 at 5:52pm

Thanks for pointing that out Miranda. That is a huge issue for such a big show. They need to do something about it.

[Lon Chaney]

Posted: 10/12/14 at 9:20am

I agree with the sound issues and I have fios. I had to watch it with subtitles so I could hear the dialogue and not be blown through the roof every time a commercial came on.

As for the show, I have a lot of high hopes for the season. It's a fantastic concept and cast. That being said, I didn't feel the first episode was the huge, immediate, sugar-rush I expected. I didn't see Coven, but I just finished Asylum on Netflix last week and that was spot-on and by far my favorite over Murder House (which I liked, but Asylum just blew it out of the water). For some reason, I had difficulty connecting to the characters, but that might just be the fact this is the first episode and they haven't gotten into anyone in depth yet. I guess I'm just not used to watching the seasons of American Horror Story one episode a week, as I usually binge watch them in four days or so...

Overall, I love the concept and Twisty The Clown really effed me up (and my sister was a clown for years in a youth circus, so I've been around my fair share of clowns). I just hope these characters can match the ones from Asylum. I'm sure they will and after watching those clips of what's coming, I have a lot of high hopes for it.

Also, does the anachronistic music have a point? I mean, Luhrmann's use of hip-hop and rap in Gatsby made sense (hip-hop being the jazz of our time), but returning to Kad's question, does anyone think it will serve a point later on?

Actually, if Jessica Lange is singing a cover of Lana Del Rey, I take back every bad thing I said about it.

[BobbyBubbi]

Posted: 10/12/14 at 1:54pm

DAME-

I was having sound issues as well. Honestly I could kill their sound designer. I mean I get they want to have all those creepy sounds at the forefront because it adds suspense, but hello, you lose the most important part, THE DIALOGUE!

There's a way to fix this, depending on your TV, with your TV remote, go to MENU>AUDIO> then change the SRS from 'surround' to 'standard.' Then, you're going to go into your 'equalizer settings' these are the different sound channels that operate on your TV. While the show is playing, (so you can get a feel for how YOU want it to sound) bring each channel up and down until you find which channel the dialogue is on, then CRANK IT. You can also bring all the other channels down to find a good balance.

You'll lose some of the dramatic "punch" if you will, of having some of those creepy ambient sounds and music at the forefront, but at least you'll be able to be able to understand what the actors are saying.

I think the "sound" issue you bring up though is a much bigger issue, I've been seeing a lot of actors on a lot of current TV shows MUMBLING. There's a lot of lazy speech going on that I would have gotten racked across the coals for in theatre school.

I applaud Lange for taking on her sometimes French, sometimes German, sometimes Austrian, sometimes not at all accent. It's VERY technical work and she's doing a good job.

Other than the sound issues, I really enjoyed the first episode. I can't wait to see Angela Bassett.

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 10/13/14 at 2:43pm

Just watched this last night and so glad to see people mentioning the sound issues. I was afraid there was a problem with my settings (I HATE reconfiguring my audio for different channels and shows).

It was quite the intriguing pilot and I'm hoping for a return to the creepy after a season of camp. And I really hope he doesn't do so much with introducing plot elements and then just abandoning them with no explanation. That was the only drawback to Asylum and though there was less of it in Coven, there were still those purposeless WTF moments (the Minotaur business).

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 10/13/14 at 2:48pm

I actually thought there was much more of that in Coven than in Asylum. Somehow, for me, Asylum managed to tie everything together.

[Alan Henry]

Posted: 10/13/14 at 2:50pm

I get the Canadian feed of FX and I don't have any of these weird sounds issues. What is wrong with the sound for you guys?

[doodlenyc]

Posted: 10/13/14 at 4:10pm

Definite sound issues here as well. I just watched it last night and really liked it, but wish I understood more during the scene in the diner...Jess was simply unintelligible.

[Fantod]

Posted: 10/14/14 at 11:51pm

Just watched it and that clown is probably the scariest that I've ever seen in any medium ever (including Pennywise) because his face is just horrifying. I also love the way that he just comes out in the daylight and starts murdering because in my opinion that is much scarier than in the dead of night because we always associate daylight with safety. Also horrifying was when the clown (I believe his name is Twisty) started making the balloon animal and then just went berserk. I also had issues with sound, so I just bought the episode on Amazon Instant and had no issues with it there (also on DirecTV)

[east side story]

Posted: 10/16/14 at 12:24am

Fantastic episode. Another episode down is one less chance Ryan Murphy has to p*uck the whole thing up.

[darreyl102]

Posted: 10/16/14 at 1:01am

PATTI LABELLE!!! The show just got 100% better to me with her presence- I LOVE that woman!!

[Fantod]

Posted: 10/16/14 at 1:26am

Fantastic episode again. Dandy and Twisty are so creepy together.

Updated On: 10/16/14 at 01:26 AM

[ray-andallthatjazz86]

Posted: 10/16/14 at 3:30am

This was one of the strongest episodes of the entire franchise, IMO. I'm not a huge fan of horror when people are just getting killed and massacred and whatnot; I'm more into mood horror, and I think this episode excelled at that. I liked the tension between Dandy and Twisty, and I liked that they decided to do something more interesting than just Twisty beating Dandy or one of the women at his place. I just loved the way everything was shot and the score was perfection.
The ensemble here feels much more cohesive than it has in the past. I care about all the story lines and there's no one I feel is irrelevant or extraneous to the proceedings. Great acting from all the ensemble once again. Great episode!

[Wynbish]

Posted: 10/16/14 at 10:03am

Call it a personal quibble, but I just can't get past having a mosh pit in 1952.

Other than that, I really enjoyed the episode. I find Dandy fascinating, and Finn is doing a great job at not making him too over-the-top.

Meep in the jail really got to me. The helplessness was just so much. I may have been the only one to not know this, but Ben Woolf, who played Meep, also was Frankenbaby in the first season.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 10/16/14 at 3:05pm

I know we're only two (three if you count the premiere as two) episodes in, but this season seems to have more internal logic than any of the other did, even with the anachronistic music (a choice I'm loving). It's also freaking terrifying. That music that accompanies most of the scenes goes far in giving me the willies, and every time that clown (he's called Twisty, I guess? Somehow I missed that) is on I just want to cry.

Updated On: 10/16/14 at 03:05 PM

[Fantod]

Posted: 10/16/14 at 3:10pm

Phyllis, Ryan Murphy said in an interview that his name is Twisty. Also on IMDB they reference the actor as playing Twisty the Clown

[Kad]

Posted: 10/16/14 at 3:11pm

So... is it going to be a thing this season that nobody seems to acknowledge that the ratty, blood-stained, horrifying clown is suspicious and scary? Is everyone that encounters him just... going to act like it's normal?

[Fantod]

Posted: 10/16/14 at 3:13pm

If you look at clowns from back in the '60's, they have that kind of look that Twisty has right now, though his is a bit more exaggerated. The only thing I can't figure out is how he doesn't stink horribly, but it is American Horror Story, not American Realistic Story

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 10/16/14 at 3:24pm

Well, the girl he kidnapped got the willies when she first saw him, but he disarmed her when he pulled out the flowers. I thought it was part of the joke that Frances Conroy and Dandy didn't notice what a mess the clown was, because they are clearly not quite on their rockers themselves.

[Fantod]

Posted: 10/16/14 at 3:27pm

Yes, that is why Dandy and his mom aren't even slightly freaked out by him, but the couple was only Miley creeped out, whereas if you were to see a clown like that nowadays, it wouldn't matter if you had a fear of clowns, you would sprint the other way.

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 10/16/14 at 3:59pm

I thought this episode was better than the season premiere. But the thing with the evil clown just wandering around, walking slow as molasses in the daylight and nobody sees him or is suspicious? And the mosh pit to the 90's song. That bugged me big time. There must have been a song from the 50's that would have worked in that scene, also.

And I have to say again that using that SAME music cue 400 times in every episode isn't scary. It's annoying.

But all in all, I guess it was decent.

[Alan Henry]

Posted: 10/16/14 at 4:07pm

So how long til Murphy has Paulson do "I will Never Leave You" from Sideshow?

[Kad]

Posted: 10/16/14 at 4:50pm

I sort of found Conroy and Wittrock to be in a totally different world than the rest of the show. Presumably that's intentional- but I thought they were inhabiting a late-80s Tim Burton film.

Updated On: 10/16/14 at 04:50 PM

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 10/16/14 at 5:01pm

I felt exactly the same way. I kept waiting for Patti Labelle to start cutting ice and making it snow in the living room.

[GuyfromGermany]

Posted: 10/16/14 at 5:46pm

Was I the only one who felt a teeny tiny bit sorry for Twisty when he brought that boy the roboter toy?
Or is just something severely wrong with me?

[JohnPopa]

Posted: 10/16/14 at 6:59pm

"Call it a personal quibble, but I just can't get past having a mosh pit in 1952."

Neither of the musical scenes have worked for me, I get that their not matching the period is intentional but I don't see what they accomplish as of yet.