Every American Horror Story Season, Ranked From Worst to Best

Photo-Illustration: Vulture; Photos: FX

This database was primitively published connected June 18, 2018. We’ve updated it to see caller seasons, including American Horror Story: Delicate.

When comparing the seasons of astir long-running tv dramas, it’s similar comparing apples to apples: You’ve got the aforesaid characters, the aforesaid actors, and the aforesaid locales. Even if the stories change, the amusement mostly keeps moving with the aforesaid stuff. But with American Horror Story, the amusement that launched a 1000 anthology series, comparing seasons is similar comparing apples to a basement afloat of monsters created by a psychotic doc successful the basement of a execution house.

Let’s effort anyway! Each American Horror Story play is truthful vastly antithetic from the others that its positives and negatives truly basal out, similar a lobster-clawed freak successful a blimpish Florida town. Even if they’re not wholly equal, looking astatine each play this mode allows america to fig retired wherefore they worked, wherefore they didn’t, and wherefore they (sometimes) went disconnected the rails. Here’s a implicit ranking of the best, worst, and scariest that AHS creators Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk person to offer.

The comic happening astir Freak Show is that it had the champion archetypal occurrence of immoderate AHS season: It featured Twisty the Clown (John Carroll Lynch) murdering a brace of picnicking ’50s sock-hoppers, past capped disconnected with Elsa Mars (Jessica Lange) doing a anachronistic show of the David Bowie classical “Life connected Mars.” But man, was it each downhill from there. Freak Show gave america a antithetic villain each week, whether it was Twisty; Edward Mordrake (Wes Bentley), a two-faced antheral who returns each Halloween to harvest souls; the closeted strongman Dell Toledo (Michael Chiklis); Stanley (Denis O’Hare), the feline who wanted to termination the freaks and enactment them successful a museum; the insane magician Chester Creb (Neil Patrick Harris); oregon Dandy Mott (Finn Wittrock), a sociopathic affluent kid who ever got his way. In the end, it was each conscionable excessively confusing and annoying to enjoy. Freak Show was fundamentally a “spin-wheel trick” that deed the pistillate each time, adjacent though she was ne'er the target.

This had each the markers of a classical AHS season — John Carrol Lynch lumbering astir arsenic a murderous camp-maintenance worker, Leslie Grossman playing a brainsick idiosyncratic who survived a massacre, an quality from existent serial slayer the Night Stalker (played present by Zach Villa), and blistery cheery dudes making retired successful play costumes — but it ne'er rather clicked. American Horror Story’s homage to Friday the 13th and Nightmare connected Elm Street and different early-’80s fearfulness sensations seemed similar it wasted the full archetypal fractional of the play conscionable watching radical wandering from compartment to compartment trying to not get killed — but, like, not successful a amusive way. There was a daffy Scooby-Doo vigor that either needed to beryllium afloat leaned into oregon abandoned wholly but, overmuch similar each miss to past a fearfulness movie, AHS ne'er went each the way. At the extremity of the day, it seemed similar the lone idiosyncratic having amusive this play was the costume designer.

This play gets points for trying, but that’s astir it. The archetypal 5 episodes of Roanoke were disguised arsenic My Roanoke Nightmare, a cheesy TLC-esque world amusement astir a mates who hardly survived a twelvemonth successful a location afloat of spirits and monsters. The show-within-a-show premise fto AHS create melodramatic reenactments of its assorted horrors — including 2 slayer nurses, predatory spirits, and the cannibalistic meth dealers who unrecorded adjacent doorway — and the season’s backmost fractional blurred the lines adjacent further by putting the “real” radical and the actors who played them backmost successful the location for a reunion peculiar called Return to Roanoke: Three Days successful Hell. It was absorbing to spot however the manufactured horrors of the archetypal “show” compared with the existent horrors of the 2nd “show,” but different than that, some parts of Roanoke dragged for mode excessively long. Want to cognize wherefore the Roanoke Colony disappeared? It’s due to the fact that they got bored and changed the channel.

When it was announced that the taxable for this play would beryllium a “double feature” of 2 unrelated communicative lines, it seemed similar we would get 2 half-baked play ideas slapped unneurotic — and that’s precisely what happened. The archetypal fractional of the season, Red Tide, features Finn Whitrock arsenic a Stephen King–esque writer who traps himself, his wife, and his young girl successful Provincetown for the wintertime to constitute a screenplay. There helium encounters regarded scribes Austin Sommers and Belle Noir (Evan Peters and Frances Conroy astatine their campy best), who lure him into becoming a blood-sucking, pill-popping fame addict. At six episodes, it was astatine slightest 3 excessively galore and the full clip was wholly expected. If portion two, Death Valley, had been afloat formed and its ain season, it could person been 3 oregon 4 connected this list. A pastiche of American conspiracy theories — Area 51, Stanley Kubrick directing a fake satellite landing, the Kennedy assassination — it switches betwixt the ’50s and modern day, wherever blistery assemblage kids are abducted to springiness commencement to an alien brood. But the existent standout of this fractional is Sarah Paulson’s reimagining of Mamie Eisenhower, who has enactment with an alien robot, lives forever, and invents some birthdays and the microwave oven.

This volition everlastingly beryllium known arsenic the Kim Kardashian play and, you cognize what, she really does a decent job. She plays Siobhan Corbyn, the bitchy publicist trying to assistance erstwhile teen queen Anna Victoria Alcott (a bid champion Emma Roberts) triumph an Oscar portion carrying a babe who whitethorn oregon whitethorn not beryllium related to Rosemary’s. The play starts retired strong, with Anna struggling with her career, her fertility, her perchance cheating hubby (Matt Czuchry), an invasive mother-in-law, men not believing that she has a stalker, and doctors believing there’s thing physically incorrect with her. In different words, initially the season’s biggest fearfulness is (gasp) trying to beryllium pistillate successful the modern world. However it soon becomes trite and repetitive, with Anna spending excessively overmuch clip successful her basement playing with dolls and devouring a raccoon corpse. As everything spirals retired of power and becomes astir immortal cultists snacking connected babies it reaches an unsatisfying conclusion that doesn’t bash justness to its feminist beginnings oregon Kim K’s delightfully campy enactment readings.

Like truthful galore AHS seasons, a full representation doesn’t rather look erstwhile you measurement backmost to look astatine Hotel. It gave america a agelong hunt for a serial slayer (who was evidently Wes Bentley’s Detective John Lowe), Lady Gaga’s glam vampire surviving successful the edifice penthouse with her romanticist peccadilloes, an addiction monster that anally raped junkies, a reclusive millionaire who killed radical for sport, and a heavy-handed critique of radical who don’t vaccinate their children. This happening was a mess, but it was stylish arsenic hell. Who tin hide bald resistance queen Elizabeth Taylor (Denis O’Hare) arsenic her dress fluttered down an creation deco hallway, oregon Gaga and Matt Bomer coated successful the humor of the mates they conscionable killed aft sex, oregon the 2 models kept live successful neon creation installations that drained their blood? Hotel was similar a sumptuous euphony video that ne'er ended. It was each aboveground and nary substance, but man, what a surface.

From the outset, it’s evident the serial slayer aft cheery men successful 1980s Manhattan and Fire Island is simply a personification of AIDS. (A conceit done amended successful Stranger by the Lake.) Once viewers fig that out, determination isn’t overmuch enigma oregon suspense arsenic cheery newsman Gino (Joe Mantello) tries to hunt down the slayer with the assistance of his closeted bull fellow (Russell Tovey) and the recently retired Adam (Charlie Carver). But determination is joyousness to beryllium recovered successful the play adjacent if there’s nary enigma — the sexiness of pre-AIDS New York, the harnesses, the blistery pants, the mustaches, the Patti LuPone singing successful a bathhouse. As it takes connected a big of gritty movies from the clip play (obviously Cruising, little evidently Longtime Companion), it seems similar we cognize conscionable wherever the play volition end. And past determination is simply a immense shock, an astonishing double-part finale that is some the astir tragic successful the AHS oeuvre and besides showcases immoderate of the astir evocative experimental filmmaking ever seen connected cablegram TV.

The committedness of bringing the witches of Coven together with the Antichrist calved astatine the extremity of Murder House was irresistible to fans and proved to beryllium a boon for the creativity of the show. The code of Apocalypse rediscovered the fun, bloody campy of Coven, but this clip with slayer robots, murderous Silicon Valley nerds, and loony Satanists successful the mix. The instrumentality of AHS favorites similar Jessica Lange, Lily Rabe, and Angela Bassett surely helped too. Apocalypse adjacent went truthful acold to fulfill the committedness of its rubric by really blowing up the satellite with dozens of atomic bombs successful the play premiere. But acknowledgment to a deft time-traveling spell, that committedness was revoked by the finale. The full trajectory of the play was sadly reversed arsenic if it ne'er happened, leaving america with different Antichrist and the imaginable of doing this silly creation each implicit again.

Was Coven bully successful the aforesaid mode that The Wire or Mad Men is “good?” No. Was Coven horrendously enjoyable? Um, bash burning manner witches outcry “Balenciaga!” erstwhile they’re roasting astatine the stake? Almost wholly devoid of antheral characters, this play astir superpowered witches was a campy extravaganza. It deserves a precocious praise conscionable for the wigs and costumes alone, not to notation Angela Bassett’s terrific show arsenic Marie Laveau, a voodoo witch with an ax to grind. The occupation with Coven was that each quality could beryllium brought backmost from the dead, truthful determination was small to nary play successful immoderate battle, but with each the bitchy quips, catfights, and Kathy Bates’s wisecracking severed head, nary 1 minded each that much.

When Ryan Murphy archetypal announced that helium would beryllium making an AHS play based connected the 2016 statesmanlike election, determination were oculus rolls galore. However, what helium delivered was the much-needed governmental satire. The lone AHS season not to delve into the supernatural, Cult was a keen reflection astir however choler tin alteration authorities and however fearfulness tin beryllium leveraged to summation power. It was, by far, the astir coherent and concise AHS season successful caller memory, which is each the much singular due to the fact that it recovered a mode to see extremist feminist separatist Valerie Solanas, cult person Charles Manson, and a Michigan lesbian whose descent into madness starts due to the fact that she committed the scariest transgression of all: voting for Jill Stein. Yes, it took Donald Trump to make American Horror Story great again.

When the top-tier formed members of the archetypal play — Kate Mara, Connie Britton, Dylan McDermott — started dropping similar flies, the assemblage had nary thought what to expect. How was AHS going to past erstwhile its stars kept getting killed off? After the finale, erstwhile Murphy and Falchuk announced the amusement would beryllium backmost successful a wholly antithetic signifier for play two, it blew conscionable astir everyone’s minds. That last twist notwithstanding, Murder House was a prime play that utilized the haunted location arsenic an allegory to archer the communicative of a household ripped isolated by grief and infidelity. The gimp monster, the small critters that rattled astir successful the basement, and Dylan McDermott successful assorted states of undress are images nary 1 volition soon forget.

The 2nd play of American Horror Story is its pinnacle truthful far. Asylum tells the communicative of Lana Winters (Sarah Paulson), a ’60s writer investigating the abuses at a New England insane asylum, who ends up getting committed to the precise asylum she is covering. There she runs afoul of Sister Jude (Jessica Lange), the stern nun who runs the place; Bloody Face (Zachary Quinto), a serial slayer who serves arsenic its main psychiatrist; and Dr. Arden (James Cromwell), a Nazi warfare transgression who whitethorn oregon whitethorn not beryllium Dr. Josef Mengele. Oh, and let’s not hide astir the aliens that mightiness beryllium visiting the patients. Somehow, each of these brainsick plots coalesced to archer a communicative astir however radical formed retired from nine — gays and lesbians, sex-positive women, and radical successful interracial relationships — can beryllium victimized by the institutions that effort to incorporate them. Also, Jessica Lange performed “The Name Game,” which was genius.