I’m going to start a drinking game based on “American Horror Story: Asylum.” It’s called Scarred for Life, and you drink every time you see something . . . yeah, you get it. Tonight’s chug moment: James Cromwell caressing his be-boxered junk. And, yes, I yelled “THAT’LL DO, PIG” to no one.
We got a lot of character backstory tonight, as is typical with the show’s modus operandi. Shelley gave a bizarre monologue detailing her reasons for internment, and I’m not sure if it was the writing or the retro-melodramatic delivery that resulted in me not caring about the character more. Dr. Arden’s disgust at Shelley was later contradicted, because of course he likes hookers, and of course he likes them to dress as nuns. Right? Dr. Arden’s date for this episode discovered a box of pictures that included hogtied women in habits (drink) and what I think was probably severed body parts.
Dr. Thresden joined us tonight, and it is apparent he will be the show’s moral barometer. I know the term is normally “compass,” but I feel that this character will be manipulated by the atmosphere rather than set the standard for good or evil while remaining well intentioned. He assisted in an exorcism tonight, which not only set a forward motion plot for the show as a whole when a demon jumped into Sister Mary Eunice, but showed us that Sister Jude used to be a red dressed harlot who killed a child while driving drunk one night (the shot of that kid? Drink).
I don’t watch AHS for social commentary or deep thinking. I watch this show because it’s just so damn pretty. The cinematography and lighting continue to be breathtaking. The introductory shots of Dr. Thresden were staged and lit as if to be filmed in black and white, and had they not had the muted tones of the asylum I would have been transported back to a 1960 propaganda film. A shot of Jude in prayer showed Jessica Lange as young and glowing. The overcasts in the asylum sets are glowing and saturated, and as contrast the shots of Dr. Arden in his home are mossy and muted. The show has style in spades.
Our present day honeymooners were only shown at the beginning of the episode, and poor Leo met a grizzly fate at the hands of Bloody Face. I’m still not seeing a tie in here, and I hope that by episode three it has more purpose. If the series ends with a character from season one as present day Bloody Face I will literally eat a shoe and also not watch season three.