— Cᴏɴᴛᴇɴᴛ Iɴᴅᴇx —
a (short) review by the Crow.
Rest in Pieces
SPOILER LEVELS at CONSIDERABLE
This week on American Horror Story: 1984, we return to form. Last week’s episode, I gound to be rather good; something which I haven’t said about the other episodes so far. And in light of that, I assume you can already tell what my thoughts on this episode will be.
It’s not bad, per se, but there’s not much to like, either. Ramirez has been training while in prison, as he immediately gains the upper hand against Richter in their so-called “final confrontation” (according to last week’s preview). Following Richter’s “escape”, he teams up with Bruce — the (thumbless) murderous hitch-hiker from last week — to track Richter down. He does, but he only finds Richter’s corpse. Now armed with the knowledge that Richter is unstoppable while at Redwood, Ramirez intends to track down and kill Richter’s infant child. This sends Richter into panic-mode, but he’s interrupted by Margaret.
Margaret reveals her plan to murder every musician (just not Billy) at the camp, and turn the place into a “Mecca” for murder-enthusiasts. With Ramirez and Bruce on her side, she assumes this is a good plan. It might be, but it’s also one of the dumbest things I’ve heard. I’m not necessarily talking about dumb in the context of Margaret being dumb. It’s dumb in the sense of: this is what the writers are going with?
Brooke and Donna get a subplot which turns out to be filler, one which I find rather pointless to even talk about. It’s inconsequential save for one little character moment. This is a theme I find repeating itself in American Horror Story: the introduction of a subplot, only to have it discarded within moments. This happened with the “Daddy” arc in episode two, as well as with the Bobby/”Lady in White” arc from the last episode, as we’ll get to in a few moments. Considering this is exactly the sort of thing I complained so much about in Star Trek: Discovery, I find it highly aggravating that creators aren’t pulled up for these horrible examples of writing more often.
As far as Bobby is concerned, the episode pulls a Friday the 13th. This is something I’ve been expecting since the very first episode, but I didn’t expect it would be so literal. What happens in this episode might as well be a shot-for-shot recreation. And it’s just poor. The whole series is poorer for being little more than fanservice and references.
There are some funny moments, and some characters are slightly redeemed, but it all seems very non-point. The Richter storyline is uplifted by a margin, before being torn to shreds in the final scenes. It now seems that my questions regarding how Jonas the hitch-hiker died will go unanswered, too.
I’ll say it right now: the next episode had better blow the rest out of the water, or else, I’m likely to write the whole series off as a dumb, pandering, fanservice delivery platform. I didn’t have any real expectations heading in, but this show has fallen even further below zero. It honestly feels like a waste of time. Again: if you like it, that’s your choice, but it certainly isn’t mine. It truly is an American Comedy Story. And it’s not one that makes me laugh.
— Crow out.
Final Ratings
THE CROW: 3.5/10
Here’s the official poster:
T H E _ C O R V I D _ R E V I E W 