— Cᴏɴᴛᴇɴᴛ Iɴᴅᴇx —
a (short) review by the Crow.
Final Girl
SPOILER LEVELS at CONSIDERABLE
As you may be able to tell, we find ourselves in rather a pickle on The Corvid Review. Not only are we working to review some classic franchises, but we are also working to deliver a comprehensive explanation to all things Death Stranding. And yet, we find ourselves discussing American Horror Story: 1984 once again.
(Apologies in advance for the Death Stranding “episode”. There’s a lot more to talk about than I thought.)
I reiterate the fact that if you like it, it’s all fair by me; however, I find shows such as this to be the problem with television today. There seems to be no care for structure or writing. Plot threads are established on a whim and discarded with just as much care. Everything is about spectacle, no matter how hare-brained said spectacle is.
It’s a problem I’ve lamented during Star Trek: Discovery‘s run and one the Nutcracker faced during the latest season of Game of Thrones. There seems to be an epidemic of writers not having a true vision for the TV series they are working on. I championed The Lady in White as being the best I’d seen out of American Horror Story so far, but it feels very throwaway in the greater scheme of things.
There are moments in the episode which are enjoyable. Ramirez’s “fate”, as well as Margaret’s are handled with a certain quality. That’s where the good will ends. It was natural that Bobby Richter Jr (Finn Wittrock) be brought into the mix, and while the actor does a decent job, there isn’t much to like about his plot. It’s very by-the-numbers. He goes back to the camp, he ties up loose ends (more for the audience’s benefit than his own), and he narrowly avoids danger.
Brooke and Donna are both the final girl, and their scenes might as well be yawn-inducing. It’s a resolution, sure, but it also gives up the ghost I’ve been mentioning since I got half-way into the series. Apart from Benjamin Richter, this series suffers from a distinct lack of a protagonist.
The episode wants you to feel tension, but given the pointlessness of it all, I find there to be no point to the series. It fails to tell a complete story aside from the Richter family finding some semblance of normality, and it has spent far too much time throwing ideas in our face rather than telling an actual story.
I still have questions as to the nature of the hitch-hiker. Not only did he die far from the camp-grounds, but he is the only one who seems to be preserved at the moment of his death. If this is a situation where they’re setting up some tie in to a future series — as I’m now aware this series makes a habit of — I hope they make it interesting.
I couldn’t care less. I couldn’t care less one bit. Far as I’m concerned, this is the first time I’ve seen an American Horror Story series, and it will be the last.
— Crow out.
Final Ratings
THE CROW: 2/10
Here’s the official poster:
T H E _ C O R V I D _ R E V I E W 