The anthology series American Horror Story is a hit in gay communities. It's stylish, witty, adequately creepy -- and gay inclusive, a rarity in horror tv. Here's my rating of the gay content of the first four seasons: beefcake, buddy-bonding, gay characters, and gay symbolism. Scale of 1 (terrible) to 5 (excellent).Season 1: Murder House (2011)
A family moves into a house overrun by the ghosts of previous residents. Interesting twist: ghosts can become corporeal, with bodies indistinguishable from those of the living.
Beefcake: lots of muscular chests and backsides. These ghosts get naked a lot.
Buddy Bonding: Troubled teen Tate (Evan Peters) seems to have a little thing for the troubled psychiatrist (Dylan McDermott).
Gay Characters: Zachary Quinto and Teddy Sears play a bickering gay couple who were planning to split up. Then they were murdered in the house, and now they are stuck together for all eternity. The other ghosts and humans are generally nonchalant about them.
Gay Symbolism: None.
Overall Rating: ****
An evil nun runs a creepy asylum for the criminally insane in the 1960s. With demons, Anne Frank, and alien abductions.
Beefcake: Not much. Evan Peters as an alien abductee.
Buddy Bonding: None. Again, all of the significant friendships are male-female.
Gay Characters: Sarah Paulson as Lana Winters, a lesbian reporter committed to the asylum and forced to undergo a homophobic "treatment" regiment. In the present, she's a famous writer, out-and-proud.
Gay Symbolism: None.
Overall Rating: ****
A school for teen witches, a voodoo queen, and the re-animated corpse of 19th century murderess Delphine LaLaurie. What more could you ask for? Maybe some gay characters?
Beefcake: Lots. Madame LaLaurie had a thing for torturing hunky male slaves, and the teen witches build themselves a Frankenstein-monster boyfriend (Evan Peters again).
Buddy Bonding: Some female bonding going on.
Gay Characters: None, except for a fruity Truman Capote-esque member of the Witches Council, who appears briefly in two episodes.
Gay Symbolism: Witches hiding in the shadows, afraid to let anyone know their true identity, etc., etc.
Overall Rating: ***
A financially-strapped freak show in 1950s Florida, with a murderous clown and his dapper young apprentice wandering around.
Beefcake: Evan Peters again, the bare buns of a Viking Hustler, a circus strongman, and an amazing bodybuilding little person (his name is Kyle Pacek).
Buddy Bonding: Men are mostly competitors.
Gay Characters: Several. But for a change, Dandy, the ultra-feminine murderer, is not.
Gay Symbolism: Freaks hiding in the shadows, et., etc.
Overall Rating: *****
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