Tweet
Released by: Fox
Released on: October 2, 2012.
Director: Various
Cast: Dylan McDermott, Jessica Lange, Connie Britton, Taissa Farmiga, Evan Peters
Year: 2012
Purchase From Amazon
The Series:
Created and produced by Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk (the same guys who created Glee for Fox!), American Horror Story debuted on F/X on October 5, 2011. With the first season finished and the second about to begin, Fox has released the inaugural twelve episode storyline on DVD and Blu-ray.
The series follows the story of the Harmon family - Ben (Dylan McDermott), his wife Vivien (Connie Britton) and their teenage daughter Violet (Taissa Farmiga) - as they move across the country from Boston and relocate to a beautiful old home in Los Angeles. The family has recently had some problems in that Ben was caught red handed fooling around with Hayden (Kate Mara), one of his students, and Connie recently suffered from a miscarriage, and Ben is hoping that the change of scenery will do them good. He's also figuring on continuing his practice as a psychiatrist out of a home office - after all, the stately old home that they picked up at such a great price has got plenty of space.
At any rate, they move in and try to make themselves at home. Ben is intent on rekindling his trouble marriage with Vivien, who slowly but surely starts to warm up to him. She's even intrigued when he hops into bed one night decked out in the pleather masked bondage suit that the two former gay owners appear to have left behind. Those tenents were murdered, however - hence the reason the house was such a steal. In fact, a lot of people appear to have been murdered in the house and most of them are still hanging around in one form or another. It's this reason that the girl who lives next door, a teenager with Down's Syndrome named Addy (Jamie Brewer), keeps coming into the house unannounced and without permission. This habit inevitably introduces the Harmon's to her mother, Constance Langdon (Jessica Lange). Further connecting the Harmon's to the Langdon's is the fact that Ben's first new patient is her son, Tate Langdon (Evan Peters), a trouble teenager who soon hits it off with Violet much to Ben's dismay.
As the lives of the Harmon's and the Langdon's start to intertwine the past residents of the house all start to play more unusual roles in their respective lives. Others will a role in all of this include a man disfigured with burn injuries named Larry Harvey (Denis O'Hare) and the maid who seems to have come with the house, Moira - seen by Ben as a gorgeous nymphomaniac (Alexandra Breckenridge) and everyone else as an older woman with a bad eye (Frances Conroy). When Vivien turns out to be pregnant, things really start to get strange…
This first season of American Horror Story starts off very strongly. We're introduced to the Harmon's and get to know the three of them but as we do, bits and pieces about the horrifying past of their new home are revealed to us. This keeps things interesting right from the start, giving us the best of both worlds - solid character development and some welcome visceral thrills in the form of some strong horror, violence, and yes, kinky sex (at least by semi-mainstream cable TV standards). Once you past the half way point, however, things start to feel very rushed, as it the writers were trying to cram in as many ghosts and spooky situations with little regard for pacing or structure. The end result is a series that ends with not a bang, though not quite a whimper… but more or a thud.
What does the show have going for it? Lots, really. The sets are excellent, the production values are great and the series makes very good (and creative use of music) throughout, be it fairly standard classical and instrumental pieces to industrial style grinding to more whimsical bits depending on the mood of the series. The mood, however, can and does change very erratically - sometimes to very effective (though pitch black) comic relief, other times to less effective drama, other times finding something in between. Regardless the series is beautifully shot and the cinematography makes very good use of shadows throughout, particularly when the action takes place in the basement of the house.
Really though, what saves the series are the performances. Dylan McDermott, wanting to distance himself from the role he held on The Practice, is pretty convincing here. His character truly cares for his wife and daughter and wants to 'heal' his family, but he struggles to not think with his little head. McDermott plays the part well - he's handsome enough that we can see why the ladies in the show would want him, but he gives his character enough visible inner turmoil that we can and do feel for the guy. Connie Britton is decent but not quite as good, she tends to make the same 'scared face' during the more macabre scenes but she does succeed in the more traditionally dramatic scenes. Taissa Farmiga and particularly Evan Peters are also strong here, they've convincing as the two young lovebirds, obviously damned from the start but not without some optimism. Of course, this unravels pretty quickly but they manage to stay in character. The real scene stealer, however, is Jessica Lange who quite rightly won an Emmy for her work on the series. As Candace Langdon she's everything a great TV character can be - sympathetic and conniving, dishonest but heartbreaking, tender and loving and simultaneously capable of great evil. No matter how many curves the wacky script throws at Lange, she handles them all like a consummate professional and her work here, more than any other quality, is what makes the show worth watching through to the end (it's not a surprise, in hindsight, that she will take the lead in the series' second season).
Video/Audio/Extras:
The series was broadcast in 1.78.1 widescreen and that's how it is presented on Blu-ray in a pretty nice looking collection of AVC encoded 1080p high definition transfers. The series was shot on 35mm film, not on digital video, so some film grain is present but there isn't anything in the way of actual print damage to note. Colors generally look quite nice here and though anytime the action switches to the basement things get dark, shadow detail remains probably about as good as the series creators want it to be. Black levels are not quite reference quality but generally very strong and detail and texture are both quite nice. Some mild compression artifacts can pop up here and there but there are no issues with edge enhancement or noise reduction. All in all, the series looks very good here.
The English language DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio tracks that accompany each and every one of the twelve episodes that make up the complete first season are pretty impressive. The more subdued scenes showcase crystal clear dialogue and nice, relaxed atmosphere while the more chaotic moments use the rear channels really well to heighten tension and build atmosphere. The score sounds excellent here and your subwoofer will definitely kick at you a few times, delivering stronger and more impressive bass response than most TV releases do. As you'd expect, there are no problems with hiss or distortion and the levels stay balanced properly throughout the show. No problems here at all, the lossless tracks are great. Optional subtitles are provided in English SDH, French and Spanish.
The extras start off with a commentary track that comes courtesy of series' co-creator Ryan Murphy who speaks over the pilot episode and does a pretty good job of explaining who did what on the series and where a lot of the ideas came from. He expresses admiration for the work of the cast and crew on the show and offers up quite a bit of decent information about how all of this came to be in the first place.
From there, we move on to a few featurettes, the first of which is The Murder House: Presented By Eternal Darkness Tours of Hollywood, a seven minute faux-tour like the ones we see happening out in front of the house in the show itself. It's amusing enough but nothing of any actual substance. Considerably more interesting is the twenty-five minute long Behind The Fright: The Making Of American Horror Story, which is a very good collection of interviews with the key cast and crew members who discuss the characters, the plot structures, the show's odd mix of sex and violence, it's visual style and more. Overture to Horror: Creating the Title Sequence is a nine minute piece in which composers Cesar Davila-Irizarry and Charlie Clouser (of Nine Inch Nails fame) sit down with the man who created the show's title sequence, Kyle Cooper, to talk about how and why the show's striking opening credits sequence came to be. Last but not least is the fifteen minute Out of the Shadows: Meet The House Ghosts, which is a collection of interviews with the cast members who play the ghosts in the series. Menus and chapter stops are included for each disc, and you can watch the episodes on their own or in 'series mode' (which just plays one after the other until the series finishes - it makes marathon viewing sessions a little easier, as you don't have to reach for the remote as often!).
The Final Word:
The first season of American Horror Story is too inconsistent and scattered to really succeed the way it initially seems it is going to. The show is very well acted and Jessica Lange deserves every ounce of praise she's received for her work here but by the time the finale has come around the story has thrown in everything but the kitchen sink with seemingly very little thought as to why. The series has its moments and season two shows promise, however - and Fox's Blu-ray set is very nicely put together with a collection of good extra features and some very impressive audio and video.
Click on the images below for full sized Blu-ray screen caps!
