Every Season of American Horror Story Ranked! (Murder House to AHS: 1984)

everyone has a different ranking when it comes to American Horror Story some prefer the early years and others the more recent seasons even we had our disagreements but that wasn't going to stop us now don't come into this video thinking that we're gonna go best season to worst season in seasons that you don't need to watch because we literally enjoy every season of AHS there hasn't been a real bad season here so don't go into it thinking that we're just gonna rank them like this season sucks in this season is great that's not what this video is but you keep asking for our Power Rankings so we're gonna give it to you alright Greg I'll kick us off with my personal rankings of each season starting at number 9 I have roanoke number 8 I have Colt number 7 apocalypse number 6 hotel number 5 1984 number 4 freakshow number 3 coven number 2 Murder House and number 1 my highest ranked is Asylum that's cute and all Ryan but here's what the list should really look like starting at number 9 I have Hotel number 8 apocalypse number 7 coven 6 freakshow 5 Roanoke for cult 3 Asylum 2 1984 and number 1 Murder House Wow Greg you're completely wrong again now in order to come to some sort of agreement Greg we decided to do some weighted voting basically each season would get a certain point based on how it was ranked in each of our lists so a top ranked season would get 9 points while a bottom ranked season would get 1 point and lo and behold we have the official power rankings for American Horror Story in addition to that we have to look into specific criteria for each season when ranking them from the plot the characters the good in the bad and the replay value and without further ado let's start at number 9 on our Power Rankings starting it off at number 9 is season 8 apocalypse with a total of 5 points now when it comes to apocalypse much of the story is basically a little bit of a crossover between multiple seasons right it's a little bit of Murder House a little bit coven and this continued continued kind of storyline of the Antichrist Michael Langdon who was teased at the end of a murder house so while at times it was kind of fun it also kind of leaned a little bit too heavy on fanservice throughout the season well you can also just call this coven part two that's hey I understand like the coven the witches are obviously very very popular and that was one of though yeah you know cool things to see in this season right as well as like the world building between the witches the warlocks the apocalyptic vibes of it end of the world type stories are always kind of fun and entertaining to follow and of course in the AHS world to see it happening is obviously a really fun watch but there were some things that kind of dragged the story out a little bit too far too far for me some of Michael Langdon as he was growing up was just a bit too much the Church of Satan kind of Isis was out there when he when he met Canaris robotics Jeff and mutt I mean that was kind of a little bit of a unnecessary part to the whole story I feel like there were some fun moments I don't want to say that wasn't it was completely a lackluster season no yeah this season was this season is pretty good it took a lot of detours more than any other season I can think of especially their flashbacks every episode for apocalypse seemed like it was just going to stay back in the past it kind of makes you wish that they just dropped the bombs the first episode like they did but they didn't have to spend so much time at the outpost and they got straight to Michael Langdon versus the witches and went from there and they didn't do that yeah that's a good point I think you make a really good point that like kind of how they weave the storyline back and forth back and forth it was a little bit confusing at times I will say I agree with you in terms of how the first episode started off the season it was a lot of fun you know just addressing the problem at the end of the season it was intense it was super intense a lot of tension leading up there was some hysterical moments throughout this season let's not get you and get anyone twisted here like this was a fun season there was a lot of cheesiness a lot of really good one-liners I mean Greg it brought us one of our favorite lines ever and this season brought us the return of Jessica Lange even if it was just for a small cameo as Constance Langdon it was still one of my favorite moments of the entire series and on top of that you had two great characters this season with Madison Montgomery and behold also this season gave us Kody fern I mean come on at this point I want Cody fern in every season going forward just from his portrayal of Michael Langdon as the Antichrist he was a great villain yeah he was a great addition to this season to the to the to the show obviously and hopefully he's gonna be in future seasons as well all we knew about Michael Langdon before this was you know he had a cute smile and he killed his babysitter at the end of Murder House but Cody fern did a fantastic job showing you know the anger the pain the the the turmoil within him and just how maniacal and sadistic and just crazy he was and and you know as he's turning into this the Antichrist that we see you know at the end of the season so great characters that they had throughout yeah I will say the return to Murder House like you said a little bit of fanservice I think overall though in terms of like originality points like it isn't that original compared to some of the other seasons of the show and I think that's why the main reason why we have it although it tied with our 8th placed ranking in fight with five points it kind of was just kind of like I said before a rehash of old ideas brought brought to you know a newer season yeah and the one thing again is the ending as well that final episode it really undercut the entire season with the going back in time that really heard everything and meant it was for nothing the whole thing was for nothing at the end yeah it's tough like time travel is always a very difficult thing to juggle for any type of show or movie right you know we have I feel like anything that we watch you you have kind of challenges about and problems with how they deal with time travel we're looking at you Avengers and game but you know they did the best they could but you're right I mean killing off the Antichrist with a Range Rover was ridiculous and I still love that I thought hey I actually like that they use the car and just ran his ass / I dig that but the fact I would have still chose to go with just time travel and wipe everything off the slate right and then none of it mattered I feel you on that and I well I do have you know problems with the Range Rover running over him to kill him I do like how Constance you know had the opportunity to kind of bring him back right into the murder house and show yeah - that was a very good scene and I thought thought that was effective now for this season when it comes to replay value more than anything it makes me want to actually go watch covenant Murder House more than I actually want to go back and watch you know all Apocalypse again which is why it's so low on the ranking at the moment what about you right yeah I agree that's that's you said it perfectly Greg you know we actually do agree right now because why would I want to watch this if it kind of just rehashed old things like the the season of Murder House the season of coven are much stronger in my opinion they're original stories and if I want to kind of bring those characters back into my life like I'm gonna go back and watch those ones instead of watching this one where it kind of just extended the story but it really didn't have a whole lot to say once you find out that none of it really matters you know time travel can erase it all and then there's no real stakes there's no real stakes there so replay value maybe I'll go back and watch return to Murder House to kind of get a little bit more insight on Constance Langdon what she was doing in the interim the years in between and how she raised the Antichrist that might be fun but overall and maybe the first episode just to see like the end of the world coming and and someone who rocks one or someone Brock's one-liners right [Music] besides that like III don't see myself coming back to the season very often moving on to number eight we look at season five hotel with a total of five points now I know what you're thinking this has five points so did apocalypse had five points but the reason why we scooted this up the ranking list is because it was an original story the season of hotel and it also had Lady gaga it's a fun season it deals with the haunted hotel you got this whole thing with vampires what else the virus serial killers serial killers the fashion and of course you have jamesemorrow chooses this AHS version of HH Holmes and I love them yeah I think that the setting does is really effective for American Horror Story here right a haunted hotel where you have a lot of characters coming and going you know the whole eerie vibe as you said like the look and the fashion and the you know the style that they had in the in this time period of not only what people were wearing but how like the hotel looked the Flair like I said before all these fun characters that were coming and going throughout the hotel and the people that would get stuck in the hotel because it you know obviously the spirits are kind of haunting the hotel itself so it was a good mixture of style I think it kind of relied a little too much on style and not as much on substance but it was a fun effective story right when you give like a homicide detective coming in there looking into the place what's going on and then you get this whole backstory on James March like he said who you know constructed the whole thing those flashbacks were really fun and you know all the murders that heat that took place there that he was doing just very very horrific gruesome stuff so overall a fun season a very dark season but also had like I said before Lady gaga lady gaga she helped it but there was just way way too much going on this season including the 10 commandments killings all of that kind of dragged it down just a little bit on our list but with that said there's still some great stuff here including it has one of the best performances in all of AHS with Dennis O'Hara's performance I mean come on for eternity no pity party in my bar especially when the guest of honor can't see that he's the luckiest man who ever checked into the hotel Cortez now when it comes to Sarah Paulsen's character hyperthermic sally we've got a little bit of her but we didn't get a full on Paulsen performance this time around there are like signs they are like oh man she's really just gonna roll with this character but it never really happens 100% agree with you more Sarah Paulsen's always always needed in these seasons she took kind of a step back and I also think that this season really it really hurt that they didn't have Jessica Lange this is the first season she had been in the four previous seasons of the show and then she you know retired from AHS until years later of course you know Gaga was great of course she got some a Golden Globe for it but it kind of felt like you mentioned this before to me that it kind of felt like one long music video almost like with the Flair and the style but like it's this story was kind of not there yeah Gaga or no Gaga even if you take her out of the equation it still felt like a long music video no matter would and that kind of really hurt the season for me style over substance I'll say this I think the most gruesome part and the hardest thing to watch in this whole season was the addiction Beaman you hopefully some of you guys agree with me on this one just like a tough watch it completely I don't think we needed him I don't don't think he needed him and in the whole side story with the vampires into vampire children it didn't really I don't think it was a completely effectively handled throughout the throughout the season of this show now you can say whatever you want about Tate Langdon and how evil he was which he was pretty damn evil we find out later on the season when Murder House but from there Evan Peters would go on to play the characters like kit Walker and when uh Jimmy darling and these hurt again these are like you know nicer characters so finally with hotel we get a full-on monster in the form of James Marsh so the performance is all over the place but I absolutely love it and that accent okay with it I was okay with the two but you're right this was kind of a different different Evan Peters than we saw in seasons past you know before I was a little bit more complicated character you know torn between good and evil still obviously did horrific things in in seasons prior but this season he kind of goes full into it and I wouldn't be surprised if this season kind of you know was one of the early seasons that took a toll on Evan Peters and caused him to kind of take a departure and a kind of a timeout for American Horror Story because it was pretty pretty gruesome and dark at times there yeah [Music] now Greg when it comes to replay value how do you feel about Hotel well guess what we're gonna be breaking that one down next I have a feeling this one's gonna bump up a little bit in our rankings the next time we do this because I can't wait to jump into it again for a second go that's a good point you know it's been years since we've watched this I'm speaking for myself I'd spend years since I watched the seasons so I think that a rewatch now it currently a newer Reebok watch will help kind of bring out some of the highlights and some of the performances that we really loved but at this point right now my mindset is that it was a little bit too much style over substance that we've talked about throughout this breakdown at number seven season six is Roanoke with six total points and the main thing that this season has going for it is the originality right the concept of the show within a show within a show within a show yeah yeah some cheesy reality show for my Roanoke nightmare to kick things off and then on top of that it just goes deeper and deeper and becomes a huge meta series for AHS they've never gone this far when it comes to anything meta but what that said it drew a lot of people away and it just split people apart here or there or there like they loved it or they hated it yeah I think it just at a certain point it just got maybe a little bit too complexed and convoluted to make a coherent story throughout start to finish maybe one or two less twists or less like layers upon the the reality show and within a show would have been easier but the the setting here I have to say was pretty effective I mean a haunted mansion a haunted land a callin a Roanoke colony that haunts the lands and comes out every Blood Moon and the butcher a very haunting character pretty damn scary one of the best seasons they've had when it deals to when it just feels with lore itself this is one of the best settings they've had I think next to freakshow and asylum but what that said yes some of the characters and where they go with the story it just it just gets a little goes a little too far for some people and it just drove them insane I understand that but I absolutely adore this season from beginning to end it's bonkers and also the cast is just great this season you got Gaga back at the role of what is it's kaha let's get mouseka haha is asylums good sketch I think and what that said yes it gets confusing because these characters are obviously playing a reenactment so Lady Gaga is not actually Skye and also Evan Peters who does a wonderful performance as Philippe Mott is he's not really fully mod as we find out he's Rory Monahan but with that said again these characters are great it looks like they're having a lot of fun this season too which is sometimes when you look at cold and the just what Evan Peters had to go through and that season compared to what he saw in this season it's it's night and day but at the same time he's still giving it his all you're right I think that the the reenactments kind of threw people off as because that's the same obviously the same actors that are playing later the actors in that go into the reality show so I think that that's kind of just what like what am i what's going on here like oh okay once you get the concept though I think it's really it makes sense it's just like layer upon layer upon layer of meta meta humor there and yeah but like I did like the reenactments I liked like showing the context of the Roanoke colony like that was someone like they're really really scary horror elements that worked really well yeah obviously Philly ma tying it in to the Mott family that we see in freakshow a fun little connection there overall a lot of good jump scares the piggy man was was horrific yeah and let's talk about those cannibals next door one of those was played by Francis Conroy good to have her in the season but you know just I don't know maybe a little bit too spot-on with the cannibals next door motif I don't know maybe maybe no no I loved it the the pain homage to anything from what okay The Hills Have Eyes and the Texas Chainsaw Massacre they had to do it if they're gonna put them out in the forest like that they gotta have something like that that's a good point I mean if you are in the woods basically and you're the own and you're newcomers into the woods into this new mansion and you're only neighbors are cannibals I mean that's pretty on point yeah and I just thought of like x-files home that episode whenever they brought them up and with that said we got some of the best kills in all of AHS this season there are some gnarly death scenes one scene involves philippe mok being impaled and literally set on fire which is one of the best I think kills they've had all season because it's just like one long shot from beginning to end and it's intense Greg do not mess with the butcher that's what happens when you mess with a butcher I also want to say that I think that they did a really good job with kind of the found footage aspect of the season it's not always really done well it's hard to kind of really get an effective found footage either film or TV show but they did a really good job with this I think it added to the kind of the horror elements the tense the tension and drama throughout the season so incorporating some found footage was really cool to do and also I think you know as Ryan Murphy's kind of commenting on reality television and kind of what it does to people and kind of you know the trends that we see reality TV shows popping up over and over again and kind of the insatiable appetite for the next new show the next new show that's up the stakes let's change it up you know having the layers upon Roanoke colony kind of reality TV shows that people would literally they little fiend to watch it was an effective effect of a storytelling device absolutely it's getting better with age just like cult this season it'll just go up on this list as we get farther and farther until whatever this reality yeah world we're living in one more aspect I had a little bit of problem with was kind of the ending how they just kind of tacked on this kind of epilogue of Lana winters has to now interview Lee Harris about the whole thing just to kind of like put another connection into this you know another age as a reference into the season I thought it was kind of just like added just just to add it and there's no real reason like we really didn't need that I think it could have been cut down a little bit that at the end of the season at the same time I think the right when it comes to the endings for every season every season finale for pretty much if you count out like let's say asylum in Murder House they've all it just it's just a race to get to the end and just pile it all together and just finish it off anyway you can throw a few more cameos if you can I'm fine with that but honestly the biggest problem this season was the marketing from the beginning not the ending itself I think right from the get-go they did this whole campaign where they were like it was like I think 10 to 20 ads where they're having people guess what the season was going to be there were no teasers or anything for the lead-up so fans of course have their own favorites you know aliens could be the witches again so of course this only led to disappointment one of those ads was the real one and it turned out to be just you know my Roanoke nightmare and the whole Roanoke colony so of course a bunch of fans are gonna be pissed off right from the get-go before you even finish the first episode and that has a lot to do with the fan outrage afterwards where they always say it's one of the worst seasons when it's not now having said all that I feel like with age and with a little bit of distance from this season I think it is a fun rewatch and I think you know now going back to it especially in a streaming era when you can just binge a lot of these episodes and I don't the wait week to week to watch it it's perfect yeah I might play a lot differently than when when it played the first time you watch this this season so I would say give it another shot and also attempt to tie in the idea of Roanoke which we you know heard back in Murder House really quickly remember Croatoan you know to finally get that little easter egg planted back in this season and a whole season kind of revolving that idea is a jumping-off point I think it was a fun fun overall idea and like we said it's original it was it was you got to give him a for effort you know it's not as easy to do to pull off and maybe it wasn't perfectly effective but they got pretty damn close yep please give this season another shot if you haven't especially in the streaming age we live in now with the pacing it's perfect perfect Greg I don't know if it's perfect but it's okay it's good it's good okay I'll back off perfect I'll just say it's pretty damn good there we agree number six on our list is season seven Colt with eight points this is the year AHS gets political we this is also our first season I think we did breaking it down at GameSpot so with that in mind we are first season we don't know how we feel about the season going in and then I find out oh it's gonna be a trump season oh and I'm just going no no no no and we kick off the season the first episode drops and it's pretty damn good and from there on out as the season got it got it gets cringy it's bloody it's really in your face but as the years go on this season just gets better and better yeah I think that you know a lot of people had you know preconceived ideas of what it might be about once they learned and maybe it was a little bit it was a little bit too close like a little too soon on some of the subject matter but the farther you get away from it and you watch this it is a strong season of of TV and it was a big departure from what we had previously seen on AHS right no no longer dealing no go supernatural not the ghosts or the haunted mansions or LANs or something like that you know it dealt with some real-world stuff some real world issues obviously extremely heightened dramatic drum and just kind of ridiculousness but it added some humor it was really dark at times extremely gruesome at times but you got to give them some props for kind of not shying away and not being scared to do this right to even have this conversation yeah no powers so ever and the villains didn't need them they are just as creepy and sinister as any other season on American Horror Story you didn't need the piggy man you don't need the rubber man you don't need a ha you don't need anyone like that when you have someone like KY Anderson who's one of the best villains we've ever had on this show and Evan Peterson this day I'm going to be like what happened Emmys what happened golden globes because he should have a few of them right now yeah he should have a few of I mean is right he should have a few of I mean it's like his bathroom somewhere right now from that season yeah yeah totally I mean I I think the reason why I was so scary and so horrifying and and it didn't need all that supernatural just because the anger that fueled a lot of the kind of society and the politics and in the environment but also how like our own fear can fuel all these other things and fuel someone to kind of take advantage of that and then get gained a power from it so it was a very real life like feeling to kind of have that and kind of put yourself in these characters shoes and how your own fear can kind of just catapult into this just just snowball effect and then till until it becomes like uncontrollable and just completely you know horrifying so I think they did a really good job if you if if you look back at this season once you get some distance from it from all the real world events and it's not let's touch on you know it was pretty crazy how this not only took the trumped and the politic stuff but also like remember one of the episodes was kind of delayed because of a real shooting that happened during entering the airing the airing of this show so it was like it was almost on a whole nother level of interpretation of the of the season itself in terms of like what was going on in our own climate in our own society that kind of really added another layer of like whoa this is too real now when we talk about the cast of season it's a great cast but really it's leading the way here is Evan Peters and Sarah Paulson this season more than any there really are just you got your two characters here the protagonist antagonism that's it and they go at it head-to-head and it's just really one of the most concise seasons we've had all in all the American Horror Story yeah and like you said with Evan Peters I mean he's playing like five or six roles of the season different cult leaders throughout like even more than that yeah I mean it's pretty crazy like the duty that kind of like how he's carrying the season and how good he is at every single performance he does this season and then Sarah Paulsen just as this traumatized person that you know has all these phobias and then you know flips a switch like late into the season and becomes like this conniving maniacal like you know power-hungry person herself and and basically turns Kai uses Kai's plan against him and then you know gets empowered by it and then you know lo and behold she starts her own thing at the very end I don't think this is the last time we're gonna see that character the way they ended that season makes me wonder if they're gonna come back around to this somehow some way in the future now I have to mention this Greg I think one of the worst moments of this season for you could have been the murderous clowns yeah I could have done without that but especially the scene where they're putting people in caskets and that was a bit much I agree with you I think they did a lot of the horror elements really well like kind of the the camera effects for like Tripta phobia and all these different things you know but um I will say one of the one of the things I had problems with was kind of that detoured the Valerie Solanas the whole story you know the origins of that and how they were gonna in the at least in the AHS universe they tied that whole group the scum is like the Zodiac killer which is completely ridiculous but in this universe at least it's it's true I thought that was completely unnecessary I I get how it ties in to the the female rage and empowerment towards the end of the season but I don't know we needed that whole episode that kind of it kind of was just like in the middle of a season just kind of like a detour that we didn't need to take possibly they tried I give them effort for trying there because they wanted to feel something that one more episodes really just that really punch this home but what that said I think the the still ended on a strong note here yeah I did end on a pretty strong note and I think that as we said as you mentioned throughout this that the replay value of this is higher than we once thought right because we're distanced from that time period in our lives and we're kind of more custom what's going on we're not out of we're not out no we're not out completely but like it's custom we are accustomed to what's kind of going on and I think maybe even as years progress we get farther away from this time it might become an easier watch than it was maybe at the time that it was kind of still fresh a little too fresh will too soon till be watching it but yeah IIIi my replay value is not as low as maybe it once was yeah well it's we'll get back to it at some point and at that point I bet it will crack the top five at number five season fours freak show with ten total points now Greg this is the most recent season of American Horror Story that you and I have watched and I would say overall that we pretty much enjoyed it I mean maybe a little bit too drawn out to 13 episodes but overall pretty damn good yeah I know they had a few detours to add a few more characters to you know wrap up a few other storylines so that's why they had 13 but with that said I was in I was fine with it I know you did not enjoy that whatsoever but I was happy to have Chester CREB along for the ride this season I'm sorry you had to bring you had to bring up Chester CREB didn't you yes um I think that I think that what was most affected of this season was the period setting in the 1950s in mainly in Florida to kind of show the the the kind of the house society was back then with you know the normal regular kind of society and then these group of freaks that were kind of treated completely horribly you know obviously a commentary on the social conditions back in the 1950s in America but I think they did a really good job with kind of showing that in that struggle the economic social struggle between the two and I think that a freakshow troupe is an excellent setting for a show like this clearly it really encompasses everything American Horror Story stands for and this is again a great send-off for Jessica Lange in her character who which again it was this was Jessica Lange's idea from the get-go or at least the setting and theme itself wonderful performance is all across the board I wish some of the characters final arcs were a little different especially Maggie with that said I feel like I can help with their playing and not just the fact that I you know it's Emma Roberts role and she's here every season we're gonna let her out with a bang here and just to have it in with her getting chopped in half and only for you know angela bassett to say like oh she had it coming steelo Jewelry buried a [ __ ] yeah I mean III think overall though to draw heavy inspiration from classic films like freaks and to have that as your kind of your jumping-off point and kind of just how the season starts I mean everything looks amazing in this the fashion the set design cinematography is great the cinematography and then let's talk about it right now the kind of the effects the visual effects and flares that they added to this yeah to pull off between the two head to twins conjoined twins for Sarah Paulson to play two roles basically if you if you know what it took to do that like resetting numerous shots to frame up both of those characters in the same shot with another character that's not easy stuff you know to make twisty the clown look incredibly gruesome and horrific and horrifying when he takes off his mask that was amazing I think this first episode of freakshow really is one of the strongest of the entire series mm-hmm well you know showing twisty on his you know beginning his terror you don't know what direction you're going you know you you have a killer clown on the loose you have a very shady business woman who wants to become a Hollywood star who has her own mysterious past who treats these this group of freaks kind of like her children but that also treats them like complete strangers and utter trash so yeah property and then you have all the different characters you have all the different characters that come in come and go trying to be like almost like leeches and trying to suck the blood and suck the money off of this group of people because they think they can take advantage of them so a really really good season a really good start as I said of freakshow and like you said before I mean you know was inspired by Jessica Lange's idea to have this type of season a freak show and what a performance that she gives throughout I'm not I'm not talking about the dramatic parts the maniacal parts but also like the musical performances I mean she's up on stage showcasing you know what we know that Jessica Lange can do so really fun to watch her kind of get this kind of goodbye a farewell but then we know she comes back years later for apocalypse and then we would also be treated with fin wit Raqqa is role as Andy mod which is incredible as well this again we told it this like Jack Nicholson Joker and a little bit of Patrick Bateman in American Psycho it's so good and then in my opinion the best title sequence came this season from Kyle Cooper it's just great with a little animatronics in there I loved it loved it and of course we can't forget about me only Grossman's performance that's pepper it's just a wonderful wonderful episode where we get this one small detour back to the asylum I love this beautiful from it's heartbreaking from beginning to end yeah that was a great you know you get that context in that connection see I like how they did this sort of kind of a little bit of fanservice but also like it was actually very very thoughtful and had some really good weight to it you know it brought us back to another season of the show to a character that we knew a little bit about didn't really know the whole story and then once you find out the whole story it's truly heartbreaking what happened to her and how she was treated and that whole that whole sequence that montage when salty you know passes away just heartbreaking stuff but I'm really well done and like you said Naomi Grossman doesn't have a lot of speaking parts as pepper but like now the emotion the emotion is there the physicality is there and it's very very good job and now I wasn't a fan of the contemporary music at the jump but going back and looking at all this from top to bottom I thought they did a great job and how they explained it yes this is obviously this isn't from the time period but we're using it to represent people and you actually created the music who were considered freaks of their time period at first maybe it does become a bit jarring and you're kind of like what this song wasn't even made until the 1970s or 80s well how are they how are she doing this it wasn't meant to be like a literal thing right it's not to be more of like what it signifies what it represents so I didn't have too much of a problem with it I think just the first watch it is jarring I think now that you and I have rewatched it recently we kind of we enjoyed it a little bit more than we certainly did the first time I will say one of the problems I did have as the season progressed is this like how many episodes we had how dawn and it kind of had a feeling that we had like a new villain every week and there wasn't like a one like yeah you know coherent direction it was like Stanley's bad it was like Elsa's bad it was like oh here comes Chester CREB here comes this it's like okay twisty the clown or you know here's more Drake you know it's like there's a lot of juggling around of who the focus should be on and who kind of whose story were invested in I understand why they did it but I just had a little bit of difficulty with that now when it comes to replay value yes I know there are 13 episodes there's a lot to go through here but at the same time there are so many little details that you missed the first go-around that I really recommend watching the season again it's so good it's very inspiring that's a good point and I think that some of the the real-life inspirations that this season was based on make it give it give it a lot of replay value as well but you're right like initially I had fond memories of when I watched it when it was airing originally and then going back you kind of noticed with with some years in-between you kind of notice smaller details that you didn't notice the first time you watched it maybe you're okay with kind of the musical performances that they performed nowadays as compared to when you first watched it and you're kind of just a kick the whole time kind of in awe of what Jessica Lange is doing and then oh yeah thanks as well Kathy Bates is incredible in this role Evan Peters is great and Sarah Paulsen just kind of literally doing double-duty in every scene that she has you know playing both characters of the twins and Michael Chiklis too he drops a great performance this season and then Denis O'Hare Roberts I mean come on list goes on and on angela bassett even her small role she gives some great one-liners speaking of the Maude family I think that what I will most remember from this season is dandy Mott like you said earlier Finn wit rock I mean what a what a surprise to have him kind of come into his own in this season what a performance just traumatized person filled with all this rage inside of him and then he kind of just explodes and takes out all of his pain and and sins on other people and just a very very complex and really well job I fin wit rock one of the most iconic performances I think in AHS has to be fin wit rock as dandy Mott what a sicko tell me how do they die number four season three's coven with ten total points now yes this season also matched freak show with ten total points but Greg you and I decided that because of the coven witches and these characters that we just absolutely adore they had to go up one more notch than freakshow yeah Cordelia good is one of my all-time favorite characters so we're gonna give this the notch out but it comes a coven we know everything about this this has one of the most rabid fan bases of all seasons of AHS nothing compares to coven when it comes to the fan base off the get-go with that said it's a great season it's fun it's extremely can't be we have some crazy performances in here too with Evan Peters as his zombie reanimated boyfriend and Kathy Bates gets to play this evil racist socialite I I can't get enough of it she's just so so evil it's great yeah I think I I think it comes down to just the characters that we enjoy watching so much and that's why it's it's it's here on our list and the setting itself to have it in New Orleans it is a lot of fun you can have that setting and with the witches down there obviously when you're dealing with all the powers that they have the supernatural hoodoo yeah and then you have the Voodoo you have the Voodoo on the other side of and then you find out about this kind of this long-standing battle between the Voodoo and then the witches the coven and you get some context in the backstory into how that all kind of went down and then you get like this current timeline of a power struggle right the end of someone's reign and how hard it is to kind of give up that power when you thought you have all the powers and you're you're the most powerful thing in the world well sometimes you're not you don't have the power to kind of keep it going forever and she has to kind of give up the reins on that and then you kind of find out who's kind of next in line yeah I think they did a really good job with the dynamics between mother-daughter between Sarah Paulsen's character Jessica Lange and then to get the other layer of Francis Conroy's mortal snow and how much of a motherly figure she is more so than Fiona ever was for Cordelia I'm just really heartbreaking touching and I think was really well done some things we didn't need maybe Delphine law lorries come like ridiculous racism and her severed head watching some TV seeing that Barack Obama's president that was kind of out of out of left field hey I like that scene I have to adore that scene the last yeah overall just I think that as we talk about replay value I mean if you if you love American Horror Story you need to you need to be up-to-date on the coven witches and this ties into you know apocalypse as well you want to be able to watch and know exactly what you know this season is all about so you know all the memes out there for coven you know you can you know why it's so popular you know how badass these women are and great roles across the board and maybe it took a little couple detours here and there but really really well done and one of the most despicable and horrific characters and Delphine mad at met em Delphine LaLaurie Kathy Bates I mean it's hard not to watch this season is go like wow they really went for it now at number three this is where the fun begins this is Season 9 1984 with 13 points Wow Greg what an upset 1984 at the number 3 spot ahead of coven I don't think either of us expected this but we tallied up the points and then that's what it is it'd be a little bit of recency bias as the most you know up to date season of American Horror Story from my poll I had it all the way up there because again it's a homage to send up to slasher film so I'm gonna really love this season I know the first half hey great solid all the way up to Red Dawn you could just leave it there and you don't have to have any more episodes going forward they continued and from that point going forward it looks like they're about to stumble but they managed to stick the landing in part because of Lily rape but overall this is a great season yeah and I think you're right you're spot-on with that about if you love slashers you're very of the 80s the nostalgia factor there like you're gonna be a fan of this season a lot of camping is a lot of cheesy lines and a lot of humor a lot of really really just ridiculous humor really good gore and just you know if if you're fond of all those movies that you grew up on and TV then this is a no-brainer for to be high on your list and you know it's very polarizing some people loved it some people didn't like it so much but it was a heck a lot of fun and yeah you're right it did kind of meander it a little bit off course a couple times there but overall a fun a fun watch and you know what it kind of stuck to the formula that works for American Horror Story on the themes of like the haunted lands the the blood curse stuck to this land and I wish it kind of leaned in more and more into that you know about I really did I loved the kind of the origins story of what happened decades prior and all that kind of stuff and you know the the the shady cover-up that that occurred and and and how you know mr. jingles Benjamin Richter was was you know blamed for all these horrible things but like he was more of a you know taken advantage of and framed obviously and then turned into a monster you know through it and when he was institutionalized I wish they had more of that I I what I didn't like I think is kind of when you kind of lost track of like the rules of yeah of where they are of the purgatory that they're in you know like if you just throw them over the edge then they're no longer stuck to the land if you kill them you know I mean like it kind of got a little bit weird and wanky at the end there but overall though you know fun to see a lot of the familiar faces that we've seen recently some of the best kills we've we've we've gotten and then I mean come on if you start off with an aerobics class like it's and with 80s music like it's gonna be a good time you know what I what I also really enjoyed about this season is that John Carroll Lynch an actor who you and I really admire and think it does really good work you know he also played obviously twisty the clown but this season you know you think that he's playing just some OneNote serial killer and kind of what drew him to this role was that he wanted to expand and show his range and and get a little bit more underneath the covers than just that kind of same you know cookie cutter serial killer on the loose and those episodes that were he got to kind of explore that the inner turmoil his character development it was I thought it was really effective you know and then one of the best parts of the season yeah and with that said to the only thing missing from this season honestly for me to keep this from fans being really upset if we happens number one or two because the point system was if one Denis O'Hare was in this season and two if there was a cameo from Evan Peters as Billy Idol if he sang rebel yell in the final episode you know damn well this would be my favorite season of all time that's the only thing that's keeping it from probably I'll give it I'll give that to you I'll give that to you we'll be so mad at us but it would again great season overall I can't complain about this I will say Greg one of the high points for us with some of the newcomers the new faces we saw this season like Angelica Ross her character was so fleshed out and her storyline with her heartbreaking story of her father brought in there as well I mean you couldn't trust the character from beginning to end and just the way it ended with her being the final girl I absolutely loved it yeah I thought I was really really well done I do have to bring up though the Richard Ramirez plot hole Greg because you know Ramirez has showed up in a chess before in a chess hotel this story it kind of sticks to some of Richard Ramirez actual the real the real true story of Richard Ramirez but there's a huge plot hole there if he exists in one moment in a chess hotel how the hell does he get stuck in here look the writers they're gonna make a joke about this I know it they're gonna make some pun or something about this in the future some note on it just to put it into Canon I think you and I maybe we care about a little bit too much another thing I had I was thinking about is is did this season even really need Richard Ramirez in it I mean do you mean you need to have that real-life figure in this season oh I don't think it did yeah Dylan McDermott character could have took over the role that they gave to Richard Ramirez his character right fine but I get the same time I love Zacchaeus oh I take him out of the equation here just didn't have to make him Richard Ramirez yeah I thought Zack was great as well I just think maybe the addition of the name Richard Ramirez into it just turned it into something unnecessary right hey yeah you could have told the story without the name drop of Richard Ramirez you know although it was kind of a fun little nod to who we've seen in this series before yes and it's the 80s and the time period they're thinking okay this is perfect we can add in return Ramirez and keep them in Canon until the season went on they're like okay what do we do here at the end how do we get him to the hotel yeah now when it comes to replay value it's eight es campur nostalgia you're gonna come back to this season over and over and over again all the way up to Red Dawn that is pure gold eighties Camp send up the slasher films from there on out gets a little the treks go a little crazy here but I think they stick the landing I think you're right though if you have like we said before the fondness for the 80s slasher flicks if you've watched some of those more recent ones you know some of those old old classics like you know that they're a lot of camp a lot of cheese you know it's a lot of gore maybe the acting is not like the best but it's still a fun time right yeah and this is this is a perfect kind of a double feature if you're if you were watching one of those they wanted to come over to one of these episodes I think with more time well we'll kind of look we'll look on it even more fun because of what they did with the era I don't think it needed to be called yeah this is nitpicking now AHS 1984 could it might call just camp red would call it camp red would because it yeah it kind of it was weird just like the year they chose and it kind of hops around a bunch of different years and it goes all over the place in the 80s and before that too so you know it's more of the story of camp redwood and I I like the idea of having like camp redwood the Roanoke you know the Murder House hotel Cortez all these real like you know we've talked about this before all these horribly haunted and you know maybe gateways gateways to hell or some sort of connection to the larger heaven versus hell battle in in the universe itself so obviously a fun little extension of the a chess universe at number two its season two of asylum with 16 total points now Greg I have to preface this by saying this was my number one pick my favorite season of American Horror Story I'm not saying that you cheated and like that or that you got your way and I didn't get my way but whatever I do feel however that the top two on our ranking Asylum in what's coming next it's pretty much the cream of the crop when it comes to American Horror Story that the season the series you know while it's enjoyable entertaining and we love every single season I feel like these two hit a level that we haven't seen quite yet correctly just the from the get-go of asylum the setting the the fact that it's actually in an asylum the tension and drama that builds how it was shot the the literal jump scares how scary it was but the jump scares as well throughout the course of this season and this look the feeling of you just feel like gross kind of the whole time when you're watching it but then also a really really well-done storytelling and character development as well yeah these two seasons are 1a and 1b honestly more than anything this season the writing is just from beginning to end incredible they don't miss they did not miss a single episode this season honestly and the only reason because of you know I guess we could say Murder House got number one because of the electoral college and a Supreme Court right here 5-4 vote came in for me and that's the only thing but again next year it's probably gonna be Asylum and there's something particularly scary about when we noticed Lana winters the investigative journalist going into the asylum trying to uncover some missmiss wrongs some things that have been doing you know I've been happening under there and then she becomes like the victim herself she becomes put in into institutionalized into the asylum itself it's one of those things where we see this trope and a lot of obviously movies and TV Stephen King Stephen King yeah and becoming becoming the patient when you're trying to help the patients in there you know it was just really well done about like kind of what the institutions have done can do to people in a you know turn turned them you should really just like kind of chew them up and spit them out and then you know completely just destroy them and sometimes the horrors aren't just you know down the hallway being experimented on or the Nazi doctor that's doing some horrible stuff but the horrors that can come from your own mind you know and what you know being stuck in an asylum in you know you know basically in a purgatory what it might do to you and what what your your mind might start playing tricks on on you and how and how that is a whole nother kind of spy Radek control and a whole different type of horror so I think it did really well on the you know the psychological horrors but also on the physical manifestation of a serial killer you know a horrible experimental Nazi doctor you know Satan himself the devil and the Angel of Death all these very good elements that make for a fantastic season yeah it drives right into our fears and mental illness and just the fact that you don't know who to trust you can't say one thing is some one person and think you can turn your back and think that they hey they're gonna take your word for it and then not lock you up for it but that said this leads us to Jessica Lane's performance a sister dude which I think it's her best I honestly I yeah this was her peak performance here just the toll of the character from her from beginning to end runs over a child joins the Catholic Church and all of a sudden things just start to happen outside of her control and just it just barrels out of control for her in her character which least this sad tragic end and then this rise to at the very end yeah such a great performance yeah it definitely was a rising I think this character more than any other character in this in the entire series of American Horror Story was the most beautifully written dan performed from start to finish you know she did some horrible things she she punished people she was a stern dictator inside there and then it then it the table's turned on her and it flipped and she had to kind of come to grips with what she's done in her past and and kind of get you know her taste of her own medicine and then you know she was redeemed by the end and she has a beautiful kind of send-off for her and her character here so just a fantastic I think like you said the best performer she's done in this series my favorite character Elsa Mars fun character but again we talk about like that ending and how she gets this great send-off for a character who was just miserable to everyone and horrible and almost as bad as anyone else in the show how she sold off the freaks and they give her this anywhere she goes to like her heaven or something because obviously they wanted to send a nice send-off for Jessica Wayne but when it comes to sister Jude the ending is just so bittersweet and perfect and Evan Peters played kit Walker I guess the most genuinely nice characters you can ever see an American Horror Story epic honestly I think of someone else again like I honestly want to know what's happening to kit Walker right now I want to know what happened to him those years when he got beamed up some you sometime we're gonna find out what happened I don't know if it's gonna be in the spin-off series or what but at some point we're gonna figure out what happens with the aliens which is the one thing that I think in my list why it's not in the top mm not the top spot right now is because of that alien storyline and how it just dropped off entirely I knew you were gonna bring this up Greg I absolutely knew it the aliens is the one kind of one hiccup I'd say in this whole season that we're completely unnecessary they did not need to include the aliens it would have been completely fine without that you have so many elements here working at the same time the supernatural the mental illness the the electroshock therapy that they're doing in there the serial killer of bloody bloody face you know you have all these things going on the aliens were kind of thrown in there and you're like kind of just like WTF what's going on my god did not did not necessarily need that and it's one of those things where now it's just kind of it's more of it's more like making us just question what does it mean like we've we've even even had to ask Ryan Murphy himself like Bulova will we hear more of the aliens are we ever gonna inquire and he does and he does not want them back he's cool with it would never see these aliens again yeah I know he's not he's not even that the biggest fan of it but see I do think that the alien theme is a fun like its own season type theme I think that alien abduction you know fire in the sky type vibes like that is a great American Horror Story type thing to do area 51 we've talked about it like that's a cool thing but then just like throwing a little nugget in the in between a completely different season I just think that it was kind of like unnecessary and of course when it comes to best moment you always have to start with the name game there was no other way yeah I agree I mean literally one of the best episodes one of the best sequences you know when she's in the asylum they turned on the meat the jukebox and they're all doing like there's there's swing dancing and all in in the choreographed synchronized dance it is just perfect like it just really good I mean obviously it's like another level of her kind of what's going on in her mental state at that moment and then just to tie it in perfectly with the season with a theme I think it was one of the best literally the highlight of what we saw acting across the board as we've mentioned and also a you know pepper you know seeing more of pepper and seeing kind of her become like the Guardian to the babies throughout the season now knowing what we know about pepper it's even more I mean it's even more touching to kind of see those moments and know exactly what she went through uh-huh how she was kind of just discarded as many of these people were you know they're just kind of like discarded by society and forced into this asylum and not given a voice and you know told that they needed you know to be fixed or they needed to be to change you know because society was just so different back then I will say I also enjoyed ian mcshane Greg Ian McShane cameo crazy Santa yes the Santi Santi Claus the serial-killing Santy Claus I think anytime you get ian mcshane in TV show it's a win yes you know agreed he's awesome now where he talks about la loi and how evil she is but we can't forget about Arthur Arden come on I'm pretty sure he might be the still top baddie here I mean la loi and Arthur Arden those those two that's like one A and one B like you mentioned earlier those are those are like cream of the crop in terms of like not the like you know there's a lot also a lot of serial killers it's not let's be honest here there's a lot of horrible characters and throughout this season yes this show but those are di Anderson's up there to you I mean there are some despicable people in James Cromwell just does an amazing job I mean to watch him and the power dynamics the struggle that he's having with sister Jude within the asylum and kind of that you know they're like just using using different people to kind of manipulating the whole situation and putting people against each other just a really really effective if you're gonna have Jessica laying on one side to get a heavy hitter like James Cromwell someone who can hold his own that was just really really well done and like acting across the board was stellar this year now replay value this is a this is a weird one because I love the quality in this season and I I can't get enough of the performances but with that said and just the theme itself this the replay value is not too high a mile it's like watching Revolutionary Road with Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate look like great great movie I don't think I'm going to come back to it I'm out yeah it's okay no I'm with you on that it is there are a lot of like as good as this the high quality of this series season is it's a there are poem it's tough to watch it's it's you know being stuck in an asylum you know we only know what it would what it would feel like to have to go through that stuff I mean it's there's horrific things going on the electroshock therapy um you know Lana winters trying to be treated for her homosexuality I mean just ridiculous things and it's it's tough to watch it like you kind of want those things where you want to watch it and you kind of want to like okay that was good I'm not gonna this is not like a happy watch or you know we're binge watching at home let's go watch this really tough hang but uh overall I mean I think it's in terms of quality it's one of if not the best and number one is season one Murder House with 17 points this season takes our top spot it's where it all began and again like we said before asylum and Murder House could interchange but the one thing that holds this all together again it's just the idea of so many characters coming together this way and this anthology series of how it all began and just spread this out so far we got now nine seasons coming from this very first season where we still keep everything connected together the cannons still there to this day what do we have like Richard Ramirez that's the only like outlier we've had on this series they've been able to run strong from beginning to end and it's because of this season and the writing and just go back you can find the screenplays out there from this season it's so damn good taking almost all of the horror tropes and trying to flip them on their side I loved it the fact that you got a family goes into a haunted house the haunted house starts doing crazy stuff time to leave they try to leave they can't violet Harmon learns the hard way that she can't leave and then we have Constance Langdon played by Jessica Lange here we're again going back to before this all began Ryan Murphy saw Jessica Lange performance Blanche in streetcar named desire which changed his life and this is how we got this season and you can see it playing out so well from beginning to end every character especially Evan Peters as Tate Langdon is just so good I'm prepared for the noble war I know the secret I know it's coming and I know no one can stop me including myself Craig I have to be honest you make a really good case I mean it's hard to argue with everything you've you laid out here on why this is our top ranked season of American Horror Story obviously it's the one that started at all the characters the performances the story the idea of just a house kind of right that just kind of flips your world upside down all the years and years and years of just horrific things that happened inside the house the spirits that are stuck in there I think it was it's just so something so familiar if you're a fan of horror and it wasn't on it wasn't on the campy side I'm sure there's moments here and there but it was more of like a serious tone of you know school shootings very hard to watch stuff like very real-life Horrors though and you know Outsiders moving into a new town and having to deal with like the weird neighbors across the street and what's going on and you know the literal literal skeletons buried under her the in the ground and in some places the sequence of how Constance Langdon would punish addy I mean those those moments like guards kind of like burned into my head like just like what what the season was all about and like he said earlier when violet Harmon finds out that she had committed suicide and it kind of has a twist that you maybe you you thought could happen but you didn't really see it coming it's kind of like that Sixth Sense type vibe and it was a really well done season of material from start to finish so and you're right how it ended one of the strongest endings and kind of left this left open this whole other tale that we were gonna learn years later about you know the Antichrist Michael Langdon so I could not agree with more Theo I know that you cheated and you you you paid off someone for these votes so you did something but what what it's fine nothing house murder house murder house number one is okay in my book when it comes to replay value of course you're gonna be watching this season over and over again the characters this is where it all began this endless universe opens up here and they can always go back to that I mean you got what Croatoan and some great twists there in between it alright Greg I gotta give it to you you're number one is the GameSpot universe number one top ranked American Horror Story season I'll give it to you this time okay argue about this probably for for an endless amount of time but Murder House is pretty much the cream of the crop doesn't get any better to the Murder House so if you haven't watched it in a long time I recommend you immediately I mean all we have night now is time to re-watch stuff go back and re-watch the entire season of Murder House as well as hey every every other season of American Horror Story alright so that does it for our list let's take one more look at the full ranking once again here we go at number nine its apocalypse with five points number eight hotel with five points number seven is Roanoke with six points number six it's colt with eight points number five its freakshow with the ten points number four it's coven with ten points number three its HS 1984 with 13 points number two its Asylum with 16 points and number one it's Murder House with 17 total points making it the top season on our Power Rankings okay that does it for us over here everyone I'm just going to say this nice and slow be civil in the comments section down below we love you all artist objective goodbye it will see you soon for the next step down that's correct there's no correct ranking Greg we all have our own rankings so everyone to be nice in the comments we will be back with breakdowns of the next season AHS Hotel coming soon love you guys take care be safe see you soon

Channel: GameSpot Universe

Views: 297,595

Rating: 4.8532734 out of 5

Keywords: ahs ranked, ranking ahs seasons, ahs seasons ranked, power rankings, ahs power ranking, ahs timeline, ahs connections, american horror story, ahs complete timeline, ahs 1984, ahs season, ahs finale, american horror story cult, ahs cult reaction, ahs cult breakdown, ahs recap, ahs breakdown, ahs, sarah paulson, evan peters, Murder House, Asylum, Coven, Freak Show, Hotel, Roanoke, Cult, Roanoke Nightmare, Apocalypse, Ryan Murphy, connections, ahs connected, ahs connected universe

Id: wNNGDkQKp-Y

Length: 63min 13sec (3793 seconds)

Published: Fri May 22 2020