American Horror Story has returned to FX for its eighth installment, “American Horror Story: Apocalypse.” The TV series premiered on Wednesday, Sept. 12 at 11 p.m., bringing forth Ryan Murphy’s dystopian vision of how the world will come crumbling down.
Fittingly, the first episode, titled “The End,” is set in Los Angeles, and opens to sirens and missile warning threats on people’s cell phones across the city. News broadcasts covering the devastating revelation then disclose that they too must evacuate, and that is when true panic starts to settle in.
Within minutes of the evacuation warning, citizens are already killing one another to get out of L.A., and the audience follows a young socialite escaping on her father’s private jet with her hair stylist, her hairstylist’s grandmother and personal assistant.
What made the premiere captivating was that it clearly stated in the beginning that the world was coming to an end due to the beginning of WWIII. Although there was no explanation as to why the world had gone to war, one can only hope that question will be answered in later episodes.
Overall, the episode could have been better in terms of a season premiere, because previous seasons of “AHS” have done such stellar work regarding first episodes. “Apocalypse,” unfortunately, was not the most exciting.
The reason for that may be because the storyline seems to follow the “Fallout” video game’s plot almost identically. That is, except for the fact that the fallout shelter in “Apocalypse” has regressed mostly to tools and resources from the 1600s, rather than being frozen in the 1940s like the video games. No electricity — just candlelight and a fireplace.
Although a slightly different take on the “Fallout” games created by Bethesda, the plot mirrors what the video games have been building off of since the 1990s.
However, looking ahead to what the season may have to offer, there is a lot that can be done to create a successful season.
The elements of 1600s culture is such a huge factor of the shelter inhabiting the few survivors left in their area, down to people traveling by horse and carriage and wearing gas masks that resemble the elongated plague doctor masks.
The shelter has even separated the remaining survivors into two classes: the “grays,” and “purples” — headed by Wilhelmina Venable (Sarah Paulson), who oversees the shelter along with Miriam Mead (Kathy Bates) with a no nonsense attitude towards those staying under their “care.”
It is unclear whether or not the two actually care about the well-being of the survivors, but once again, the premiere episode is not expected to give us answers, but rather leave us with questions to stay tuned for what will happen next.
Compared to other American Horror Story seasons, there is uncertainty as to whether or not it will compare to previous seasons like “Coven,” or “Murder House.” Although there is reasonable doubt in this season’s potential, loyal AHS fans will have to wait until next Wednesday at 11 p.m. to see whether or not season eight has been worth the wait.
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Macey Rose is a freelance reporter with the Daily Lobo. She can be contacted by email at culture@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @maceyrae9.
