Big changes coming for ‘American Horror Story’

Warning! Spoilers Ahead!

I don’t usually spoiler alert the news, but if I didn’t throw one up I might be shunned or beaten or tickled to the point of tears. American Horror Story has been this manic, debauched treasure all season, filling up our screens with horrifying stories and plot twists that feel like they came from the most craven of minds.

Ryan Murphy, the show’s co-creator, is that craven mind, the man behind the once-good-but-in-the-end-terrible Nip/Nuck and Glee, a show so sugary sweet that it makes all the diabetics shimmy and shake. But while Nip/Tuck may have “jumped the shark” and while Glee may be strapping on water skis, AHS just ended its first season a huge success, torturing the Harmons to the delight of nearly 4.4 million viewers. With numbers like that, it’s no wonder that the show is headed for a second season, but according to EW it and we are in for some massive changes.

“It’s a really fun idea to do an anthology show. That’s the way it was designed from the beginning. Every season, there will be a new haunting and we’ll have a new overriding theme.” said Ryan Murphy who also signaled that a new cast would be a part of season two, though he did say that some of the original cast may remain, albeit in different roles.

One person who is likely done, though, is Connie Britton, who Murphy said had recently concluded Friday Night Lights and, “was not interested in going back into the grind of a 5-year commitment. When I told her she only had to do a 1-year run, she was excited by that.”

Clearly, this idea is a bit risky. Britton, McDermott, and in particular, Jessica Lange shined in what may be their only season on the Golden Globe-nominated series, and while we know now, more fully, the bent vision of Murphy and co-producers Brad Falchuk and Tim Minear, and we know that there will be little to no boundaries or assumed survivors in season 2, we do not know how audiences will adapt to the new cast or members of the old cast playing different roles. That said, the biggest knock on Murphy, as a writer, has always been his inability to naturally evolve a show past the first few seasons, and a complete annual overhaul should certainly help to keep things fresh and away from any shark tank ramps.

Written by Jason Tabrys (@jtabrys)

The former editor-in-chief, Jason still reappears in the rafters of our fair site from time to time but he now spends his days leaping from one place to another, trying to put right what once went wrong. You can still find his words across the toxic constellation that is the… More »