American Horror Stories is Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk's solution to running out of material after several hundred installments of American Horror Story: it's an anthology series, with hour-long episodes that sometimes verge into science fiction and mystery rather than horror. Season 3 was released in two parts, at Halloween 2023 and 2024. Usually when a year elapses, they call it a new season.
As in the mother series, there may or may not be gay characters, and they may or may not be sleazy, leering stereotypes. I watched just enough of each episode to determine if the protagonist was gay, sometimes fast-forwarding to check for queer codes. 
1. Bestie: "After the loss of her mother, a young woman seeks connection with a mysterious online friend." Amrou Al-Khadi, a queer Muslim drag queen, appears as Ana Rexhia. whose podcast has the motto: "It's a drag to be a fag, so just die!" What a disgusting thing to say, especially in the first scene of the first episode.
The high schooler's mysterious online friend, a grotesquely misshapen person, encourages her to do bad things like dress up as the Ana Rexhia "Die Fags!" character for Halloween. Everyone is horrified, even the school bullies, and her dad locks her in the basement. The online friend becomes more and more aggressive...
She gets a boyfriend at school, or thinks she does, but he turns out to be allied with the online friend.
The first guy her age in the cast list is Gavin Conner, so I thought he would be the boyfriend, but I didn't see him anywhere. I'm still posting the cool Halloween cupcakes from his Instagram.
2. Daphne: "An artificial intelligence smart device grows attached to its user." The device is played by Gwyneth Paltrow, and the user by Reid Scott. Yes, she pushes him into s*x.
4. Organ: "A blind date through a dating app goes very awry," as you can see.
6. Clone: Same plot as #2, except that it's an AI replica of an old, rich guy played by Victor Garber, bedeviling his...son, assistant, or lover?....Guy Burnet. About halfway through, they finally reveal that he's the lover, but not a husband, so no legal rights. Uh-oh.
7. X: A dangerous patient disappears, and a nurse sets out to find her. The nurse is a lady, interested in Security Guard Malcolm, played by Dyllon Burnside.
9. The Thing Under the Bed. A grieving wife -- why are these people always grieving? -- "peels back the sinister history of her neighborhood." The wife is having nightmares, so she withholds sex from her husband, Matthew Holcomb, who objects because he's trying to get her pregnant and start a family. After talking to her sister, she lets hubbie start, but he gets pulled under the bed to his blood-splattering death.
.jpg)
See also: Bobby Hogan: From homophobic college to Parody Spiderman, with some significant dicks in beween
2. Daphne: "An artificial intelligence smart device grows attached to its user." The device is played by Gwyneth Paltrow, and the user by Reid Scott. Yes, she pushes him into s*x.
3. Tapeworm: "An up and coming model will stop at nothing in her hunger for success." Including a tapeworm. I didn't even start this one, too disgusting.
4. Organ: "A blind date through a dating app goes very awry," as you can see.
Actually, Raul Castillo plays the guy with the app. It brings him a roomful of underwear-clad women before things go very awry.
5. Backrooms: "A desperate father will do anything...and go anywhere...for a chance to find his missing son." I figured that Dad, played by Michael Imperioli, would be searching through the back rooms of gay clubs and adult bookstores, but the son is like ten, and it's paranormal back rooms.
More after the break
6. Clone: Same plot as #2, except that it's an AI replica of an old, rich guy played by Victor Garber, bedeviling his...son, assistant, or lover?....Guy Burnet. About halfway through, they finally reveal that he's the lover, but not a husband, so no legal rights. Uh-oh.
7. X: A dangerous patient disappears, and a nurse sets out to find her. The nurse is a lady, interested in Security Guard Malcolm, played by Dyllon Burnside.
Left: Dyllon's Ricky dates Pray Tell, the MC of the 1990s drag shows on Pose.
8. Leprechaun. Some unemployed blokes break into a bank...and find trouble. Focus character Colin, played by Henry Eikenberry, top photo, has played gay characters before, but not here. Colin has a pregnant wife.
When the guys discuss the scheme, an Old Dude asks Declan, Daniel Zholghadi, "Do you think your sister is hot? If you don't, you must be gay. It's ok to be gay, but.." Wait...what?
Also, Dudebro Martin is a secret drag queen. Not necessary for the plot, just shock value. He dresses as Carmen Miranda, a Brazilian singer known for her fruit-basket hat and songs like "Chicka Chicka Boom Chick." She died in 1955.
9. The Thing Under the Bed. A grieving wife -- why are these people always grieving? -- "peels back the sinister history of her neighborhood." The wife is having nightmares, so she withholds sex from her husband, Matthew Holcomb, who objects because he's trying to get her pregnant and start a family. After talking to her sister, she lets hubbie start, but he gets pulled under the bed to his blood-splattering death.
Matthew Del Negro, right, plays the suspicious detective, who thinks she did it.
I was expecting a sinister history of the neighborhood, but it's some stuff about dreams becoming real. Estranged sister may be a lesbian, and the helpful nurse may be gay, but nothing is mentioned.
My Grade: One gay protagonist, some incidental gay characters, some weird homophobia. The same plot repeated over and over, an EC Comics-type cautionary tale about why technology is bad. Only #1 and #8, and #9 were interesting enough to watch for the horror.
.jpg)
See also: Bobby Hogan: From homophobic college to Parody Spiderman, with some significant dicks in beween
No comments:
Post a Comment
No offensive, insulting, racist, or homophobic comments are permitted.
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.