The first season of “American Horror Story” was a unique offering to last year’s lineup of new and old television programming.  The story centered around the Harmon family – broken but seemingly on the path to recovery – and their new and very haunted home in Los Angeles, commonly known around town as the “Murder House.”  The paranormal and disturbing imagery from their encounters with the spectral residents sat naturally alongside the overarching theme of infidelity.  No matter how many new ghosts or disturbing personas entered the storyline, the focus always remained on the family:  Ben, Vivien, and their daughter Violet. 

Sexuality – as is quite commonly featured in Ryan Murphy’s television shows – was a central theme in the first season.  Infidelity was the most prevalent demonstration of this theme as the reminder of Ben’s liaison continued to come back and haunt them, in more ways than one.  The first season also featured a number of varying plot points, including school shootings, suicide, and even managed to tie in the Black Dahlia to the Murder House.  Never once though did these side stories or sexual themes drag the central focus away from the Harmon family.  They were merely there to help the viewers understand the sordid history of the house and the family while bringing together all of the moving pieces to a dark and quite unexpected conclusion. 

Herein lies the main difference between the first two seasons of “AHS”.

“American Horror Story: Asylum” premiered on November 17 of this year and appears to lack the focus that the first season possessed.  Briarcliff Mental Institution – the insane asylum where this year’s story takes place – is the singular location, but the set of characters established as the focal point seem to be built on the thin side.  With the announcement earlier this year that the show was to be continued as an anthology, excitement and momentum built around the fact that many of the actors from Season 1 were to be cast in entirely different roles.  It almost seems as though Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk (the co-creators of “AHS”) liked working with the cast so much that they decided to bring them all back for a second round and to give each of them their fair share of screen time rather than to focus on a single, cohesive unit to build the story around, such as they did with the Harmons.  The actors all did a great job last season and no one can argue that they are again nailing their performances (especially Sarah Paulson in a much larger role as Lana Winters and Jessica Lange as Sister Jude), but how can the viewers care about any of these characters if the focus is shifting every five minutes from one storyline to another?

Season 2 takes place in a new setting and time period (1964, to be exact), and with at least six unrelated protagonists to follow.  The storyline now involves an exorcism gone wrong, a sadistic nun running from her sinful past, blood-hungry creatures in the forest, and a present-day honeymooning couple who find death in the asylum, among too many other plotlines to name.  There is also a common thread that runs through this story that is based on the fear of “abnormal” sexuality and relationships, as demonstrated by the biracial marriage, female nymphomaniac, and lesbian couple.  With too many characters and storylines to focus on, the writers have a lot of work cut out for them to pull this story together and to keep the viewers engaged.  Will one or a few of these characters and their associated storylines come to the forefront by the end?

Kit Walker (played by Evan Peters who was excellent as the creepy Tate Langdon last season) has the potential to surface as the truly goodhearted and innocent protagonist in the end.  The story most likely will not pan out that way as not enough of each episode focuses on his character and back-story to connect with him in that way.  It is more likely that his character is providing viewers with a basis for understanding and experiencing the main conflict between the power players at the asylum:  Sister Jude, Dr. Arthur Arden, and Dr. Oliver Thredson.

The focus on the conflict between Jessica Lange’s Sister Jude and pretty much all of the men she encounters (“I’ll always win against the patriarchal male”) could be hinting that she is going to be the one to come out on top.  Then again, the writers may just be using her as a soundboard to showcase common viewpoints from that time period that were on their way out, as noted by Zachary Quinto’s Dr. Thredson in the second episode.  It is also possible that these snippets from her are simply just a window into who she really is since she would never readily admit to such weakness:  “I believe that her memories are her own worst enemy” is the most telling of all of her quotes this season.

Lange won a number of awards for her exceptional performance as the nosy and meddling neighbor Constance Langdon last year on “AHS.”  It would be no surprise if this second season turns out to be a starring vehicle for her.  The same could be said of James Cromwell’s Dr. Arthur Arden (a new addition to the show) except that it is becoming clearer by the episode that the character is pure evil.  Between the frequency of patients dying under his scalpel, his supervision of the creatures in the woods, and his affinity for torturing prostitutes, there is no doubt that Dr. Arden is around merely to personify the evil that resides within the asylum. 

What is curious about this season is that Zachary Quinto (the psychiatrist introduced in the second episode) receives top billing in the opening credits.  At first it appeared as though he might only be there to antagonize Sister Jude or perhaps to serve as the representation for the moral and humane side of treatment as he refused to put any stock in the supernatural excuses provided to him and shunned the antiquated practices of treatment inside the asylum.  The logical and sympathetic medical professional would have been a great protagonist around which to center the rest of the season.  It looks as though this year’s story will continue to place a heavy focus around his character, but not as someone the viewers can relate to or root for in the end.  With the most recent revelation of who Oliver Thredson really is and his dark piece in this season of “Asylum”, the search for a positive and relatable focal point continues.

Bottom line:  Keeping tuned into the show will be worthwhile if the writers can reduce the number of supernatural elements to a more reasonable amount and spend time building up the stories and likability of a smaller set of protagonists.  If they are not able to manage that, at least the show will continue to be a unique Wednesday night offering for those who appreciate the random scare.

Author Bio:

Suzanne Scacca is a contributing writer at Highbrow Magazine.