American Horror Story Freak Show Season 4 Episode # 1 "Monsters Among Us" - Recap

 

The latest season of American Horror Story, the popular horror show (Freak Show) is set in 1952 in Jupiter, Florida. A milk delivery van stops at a farmhouse for delivery. Bill Palmer (Wilson Bradford), the milkman notices that his previous deliveries have not been taken inside. He enters the house and sees the dead body of the elderly Mrs. Eudora Tattler (Ann McKenzie).

He decides to take a closer look and gets more than what he bargained for, when he discovers the Siamese twins, Bette and Dot Tattler (Sarah Paulson). They are admitted to the hospital.

A mysterious stranger, Elsa Mars (Jessica Lange) arrives at the hospital and makes enquiries about the twins from a nurse (Kristin Witterschein).

Elsa invites the nurse to visit her show “Fraulein Elsa's Cabinet of Curiosities”. Next we see Elsa in nurse uniform and taking care of the Tattler sisters.

Elsa's business is running out of steam. She is facing pressure from her landlord, Mr. Haddonfield (Thomas Francis Murphy) to vacate. Elsa resorts to various unsavory tactics to extend the lease.

Elsa is looking up to Dot and Bette to salvage her show. Dot is the quiet and serious one. Bette is simple and happy go lucky. Elsa is able to impress Bette but Dot remain suspicious.

At the same time, the always smiling Twisty the Clown (John Carroll Lynch) is accumulating his own set of victims. The only difference is that he commits murders before kidnapping his victims.

He start with a young couple,  Troy Miller (Andrew Duplessie) and Madison Sanders (Skyler Samuels) making out near the lake. He repeatedly attacks Troy with a knife. As Madison tries to make her escape, he takes her hostage. Then he kills a couple, Jeffrey and Mildred Bachman (Ramona Tyler) in their home and kidnaps their son, Corey (Major Dodson).

The whole town is shaken up by these series of murders.

Then we meet the stud of Elsa's group, Jimmy Darling (Evan Peters). Despite his deformed hands, Jimmy longs for a regular life and is quick to lose his temper, whenever someone refers to him as a “freak”.

Jimmy uses his physical oddity to provide pleasure to housewives, who seek escape from their boredom. He wants to break away from the group and strike out on his own.

His mother, Ethel Darling (Kathy Bates) is the self-appointed right hand woman to Elsa. She is fiercely protective of her group and strongly believes that the group members need to stand for each other.

Dot and Bette escape from the hospital. Elsa convinces them to join her group, after revealing that she knows that Bette had killed Eudora. During the first performance of the group, patrons Gloria Mott (Frances Conroy), a high brow socialite and her son Dandy Mott (Finn Wittrock) are impressed with the Tattler twins.

They even offer to buy the sisters for a hefty sum, but the offer is rejected first by Elsa and then by Dot and Bette themselves. As a parting shot, Gloria makes fun of Elsa's singing, claiming that it was the worst part of the show.

Elsa, who has always harbored dreams of making it big is stung by these remarks. She also becomes resentful of the growing popularity of the Siamese sisters.

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There is also trouble brewing on the horizon for the group as a cop comes looking for Dot and Bette. He suspects them to be responsible for Eudora's murder and intends to arrest them. Jimmy kills him.

The group takes out the cop's corpse to a nearby open area and slice him up. Unknown to them, Twisty the Clown is silently watching the proceedings.

The production values are excellent as is the music and direction.

One of the main reasons I like this show is the fact that there are no youngsters (with raging hormones) running around waiting to be killed in the most horrid ways.

Being set in the 1950s, there is an old school appeal to it and the cast is full of thespians at the top of their game. This is a dream come true for an old school horror fan like me.

A must watch for fans of Horror.

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Image Sources: Brad Falchuk Teley-Vision, Ryan Murphy Productions, 20th Century Fox Television, FX Network

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The Flash Season 1 Episode 1 "City of Heroes" - Recap and Review

The episode begins with a Spiderman-type voiceover by Barry Allen (Grant Gustin). 14 years ago, his mother, Nora (Michelle Harrison) was killed in a freak accident at their house. Barry's father, Henry (John Wesley Shipp) is arrested and is still serving his jail sentence. Barry himself does not subscribe to this theory and believes that something/someone else is responsible. This event continues to haunt Barry to date.

Cut to the present. Barry is an assistant police forensic investigator at Central City. He is a lazy genius (as most of them usually are) and is brilliant at making deductions. These deductions, by the way, are presented in a visual style that instantly reminded me of the BBC show Sherlock.

Iris West (Candice Patton), daughter of Detective Joe West (Jesse L. Martin) is Barry's best friend. Joe has been like a father figure for Barry and covers up for his laziness. While Iris considers Barry as her friend, he himself seems to be having more than just platonic feelings for her.

Central City is home to S.T.A.R. Labs and being a science geek, Barry is excited about the particle accelerator being showcased by the CEO, Harrison Wells (Tom Cavanagh). Things do not go as planned, when Iris' handbag is stolen. Barry chases the perpetrator and is out of breath by the time he catches up with the thief.

The particle accelerator itself functions improperly, leading to a lightning strike that hits Barry, putting him in a coma. He wakes up nine months later and realizes that he has superpowers. He heals quickly and has superhuman speed.

Harrison was also hurt during the S.T.A.R. Labs explosion and is now restricted to a wheelchair. He is assisted by Cisco Ramon (Carlos Valdes) and Caitlin Snow (Danielle Panabaker). Cisco is a mechanical engineering expert and Caitlin is a bioengineering specialist.

Harrison, Cisco and Caitlin help Barry measure his speed at an unused Ferris Air testing facility site. As readers familiar with DC Comics might know, Ferris Air is owned by Carol Ferris. Hal Jordan works for Carol before becoming a member of Green Lantern Corps. In the 2011 film Green Lantern, Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively portrayed Hal Jordan and Carol Ferris respectively.

Superheroes don't exist without super-villains. Ours is one Clyde Mardon (Chad Rook), who can control the weather*. He uses his skills to rob banks. Interestingly, he is believed to be dead by Joe. Joe and his partner pursued Clyde nine months ago, during the night of the S.T.A.R. Labs explosion. As Clyde makes his escape in a plane, the plane is struck by a lightning and goes down.

Barry pursues Clyde as he flees from the cops after one of his robberies. Clyde creates a fog and makes his escape. Barry is convinced that Clyde has superpowers and in turn tries to convince Detective Joe about this.

Barry then confronts Harrison about his suspicions. Harrison confesses that the S.T.A.R. Labs incident that bestowed him his superpowers affected a large geographic area, covering more than just Central City. Like Barry, many more “metahumans” (term used by Caitlin) were created that night.

Barry decides to use his powers for the greater good. Cisco provides him with a heat and abrasion resistant suit that will help Barry exercise a greater control over his superspeed. 

Using his new costume, Barry fights Clyde. Detective Joe is also on Clyde's trail and helps Barry subdue Clyde.

This was a good episode. The show does an admirable job of setting up the characters and the relationships.

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Grant is adequate as the Scarlet Speedster. Right now, Barry Allen is a lazy genius and an all round nice guy. And yes, he was bullied in his childhood. Hopefully, the characterization will improve in the upcoming episodes. Rest of the characters are stereotypes as well - idolizing geek (Cisco Ramon), serious minded scientist (Caitlin Snow), over-the-top bubbly girl (Iris West) and the inspiring mentor (Harrison Wells). 

Jesse L. Martin as Detective Joe West shows some acting chops. I personally found him to the best performer.

Arrow (Stephen Amell) makes a cameo appearance. His pep talk to Barry about how Barry can inspire and do things that he cannot reminded me of the parallels between Batman and Superman.

Speaking of Superman, the show's explanation of S.T.A.R. Labs explosion being the cause of creating the metahumans (including the villains), reminded me of another CW show Smallville. The meteor shower in the pilot episode was cited as the reason for “the villain of the week” type episodes that dominated the first season. Hopefully, The Flash will not take the same route. 

I did like the line spoken by the cop to the thief (who stole Iris' handbag) if he wanted to see if he is faster than a bullet. I thought this was a nice reference to the classic Supes description: “Faster than a speeding bullet. More powerful than a locomotive. Able to leap tall buildings in a single bound.”

Trivia

1. The song “Poker Face” by Lady Gaga is the song on Barry Allen's facebook page.
2. The song “Girls Chase Boys” by Ingrid Michaelson can be heard in the scene, when Barry meets Iris after coming out of coma.

* - The character of Clyde Mardon is the brother of Mark Mardon, also known as the Weather Wizard.

Recommended watch to fans of The Flash/DC Comics.

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Image Sources: Berlanti Productions, DC Entertainment, Warner Bros. Television, CW Television Network

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