Popnography
CONTACTStaffCAREER OPPORTUNITIESADVERTISE WITH USPRIVACY POLICYPRIVACY PREFERENCESTERMS OF USELEGAL NOTICE
© 2024 Pride Publishing Inc.
All Rights reserved
All Rights reserved
Scroll To Top
By continuing to use our site, you agree to our Private Policy and Terms of Use.
The center cannot hold and the emperor is naked. American Horror Story, that glossy, ghostly family drama about Manifest Destiny, is the ultimate Ryan Murphy shell game. Is it an examination of uniquely American horrors, like the cultish group that held Vivien and Violet hostage in the second episode or the school shooting that condemned Tate to a lifetime in the house? Was it a satiric TV adaptation of Kenneth Anger's Hollywood Babylon, that lurid exploration of Tinseltown's dirty laundry, featuring Sal Mineo in a cameo and Elizabeth Short as a victim of the deadly house?
No. None of those things, ultimately, because Ryan Murphy says ya got trouble, TV viewers, trouble right there on your screens, and we bought it hook, line and sinker, tuning in week after week to what amounted to little more than an elaborate reboot of Beetlejuice.
The season finale, "Afterbirth," opened with a flashback to Boston, when Ben convinced Vivien, who was about to leave him, that they could have a fresh start in California. He saw their future in a flash, he said. He was stoking a fire (cut to flashback of Dylan McDermott standing naked in front of the house fireplace), Viv was cradling a baby (talons ripple Viv's belly) and Violet was reading a depressing Russian novel (cue Violet cutting herself). To be fair, McDermott and Britton wrung every heartbreaking nuance out of the scene, which doesn't detract from the increased reliance of late on "ironic" flashbacks to the Harmons.
I doubt if it will surprise even those who haven't seen the episode that Ben dies in the house shortly after Viv's funeral, a victim of Hayden. For some reason, as Hayden's gang of ghosts hang Ben from the second-floor balcony, neither Violet nor Viv appear. The body's hardly been cut down before realtor Marcie is showing the house to a new couple with a teenage son.
"We can't let what happened to us happen to them," Viv whispers to Ben. Faced with eternity, they've reconciled. And so Viv, Ben and The Maid(s) hatch a plan to terrify the couple into leaving, one that finds Ben as Rubber Man, trying to rape the wife and culminating in Viv disemboweling Ben and Ben shooting Viv in the head.
(Murphy claims it never occurred to him that the finale felt a little Beetlejuicish. That's like Mike Kelly stiffly saying The Count of Monte Cristo has nothing to do with Revenge.)
Oh, and remember Viv's stillborn son? He wasn't stillborn, he died in the house, which means that the Harmons now permanently have an infant--and a seemingly unlimited clothing allowance. They're all happy, Tate and Hayden are miserable... and Jessica Lange, you ask?
Jessica Lange does what Southern steel magnolias have always done: She cleaned up the mess. First she concocted a story for the police about Violet running away with her newborn baby brother, leaving Ben and Viv the only victims of the house and thus allowing Jessica Lange to keep Tate's son in her mirror closet. Then she went to the beauty parlor after three years, where she gloated about the remarkable little boy she's been raising. She's switched her stifled ambitions, you see, from her failed career as an actress to supporting the beautiful son she was always meant to raise, the one who needed a mother forged in the fires of adversity. And guess what? That remarkable little boy--a towheaded angel, of course--had killed his babysitter by the time Jessica Lange returned from her beauty appointment. "What am I going to do with you?" she asks the blood smeared toddler.
And suddenly, the new shell game starts, the one in which viewers tune in for a Beetlejuice reboot and Murphy, with his ADD-show runner tendencies, has moved on to a trendy mash up of Gypsy and The Omen.
Want more breaking equality news & trending entertainment stories?
Check out our NEW 24/7 streaming service: the Advocate Channel!
Download the Advocate Channel App for your mobile phone and your favorite streaming device!
From our Sponsors
Most Popular
38 Male Celebs Who Did Full Frontal Scenes
November 17 2023 5:18 PM
These are all the celebrities Who came out as LGBTQ+ in 2023
December 31 2023 12:19 PM
26 actors who showed bare ass in movies & TV shows
February 28 2024 1:50 PM
16 times male celebrities had to say they weren't gay
April 17 2024 11:57 AM
21 LGBTQ+ reality dating shows & where to watch them
April 03 2024 4:01 PM
15 Unforgettable Gay Kissing Scenes From TV & Movies
February 14 2024 10:20 AM
14 queens who quit or retired from drag after 'RuPaul's Drag Race'
April 04 2024 12:56 PM
40 steamy celebrity Calvin Klein ads we'll always be thirsty for
January 04 2024 10:54 AM
The 15 Best LGBTQ+ Movies of 2023
December 04 2023 10:32 AM
Watch Now: Advocate Channel
Trending Stories & News
For more news and videos on advocatechannel.com, click here.
Trending Stories & News
For more news and videos on advocatechannel.com, click here.
Latest Stories
How Todrick Hall is giving back to the community
April 17 2024 8:35 PM
Here's who 'Drag Race' fans on social media want to see win season 16
April 17 2024 5:05 PM
Andy Cohen responds to all the recent Bravo & 'Housewives' chaos as more ensues
April 17 2024 3:56 PM
Not just JoJo Siwa: 30 songs made for an artist & released by another
April 17 2024 3:16 PM
How The Pride Store celebrates National Tea Day: A tale of two brews
April 17 2024 2:14 PM
Here's why Netflix's 'Baby Reindeer' is our new twisted queer obsession
April 17 2024 12:17 PM
April 17, 2024
April 17 2024 11:50 AM
Troye Sivan & Charli XCX are teaming up for the gayest tour ever
April 17 2024 11:43 AM
Kennedy Davenport finally explains the rumored 'All Stars 3' drama with Trixie Mattel
April 16 2024 4:16 PM
Watch the queens from 'Drag Race Live' hilariously reveal Out's RuPaul cover
April 16 2024 4:10 PM
Noah Beck claps back at people who assumed he's gay for hugging a male friend
April 16 2024 4:03 PM