‘American Horror Story: Freakshow – Episode 7’ Review
Stars: Jessica Lange, Sarah Paulson, Kathy Bates, Angela Bassett, Frances Conroy, Michael Chiklis, Denis O’Hare, Even Peters, Emma Roberts, Minn Wittrock, John Carroll Lunch, Patti Labelle | Created by Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk
Jimmy is at the Mott’s Mansion trying to convince the twins to come back to the camp believing them to be a prisoner. As Gloria informs them Jimmy that she paid for them, Dandy says something that causes Jimmy to suspect he was with Twisty the Clown way back in episode 4. An even more suspicious Jimmy manages to convince Dot to come with him leaving a quietly furious Dandy and a worried Gloria while the twins think about how to use their leverage over Elsa to further their individual desires.
Back at the camp, Paul is still in a bad way and being watched over by Penny. Stanley, still trying to get a freak to sell to the morbidity museum, sees Dell leaving the hook up establishment looking for Andy. He blackmails Dell into killing a freak and dragging them to the barn that Maggie was supposed to use, but the first attempt on Amazon Eve ended with a bust lip and a black eye. Eve and Ethel want to teach him a more violent lesson, but Jimmy tries to resolve it with words and goes for a drink that doesn’t end as expected.
Definitely an improvement on the last episode, but I still want more Dandy. Penny gets some more character development through interactions with her violently proud father, but she doesn’t feel like a substantial enough character to really care about right now. With Paul lying down, and the rest of the featured characters literally being side attractions, we’re left with Dell, Jimmy, and the twins playing the main parts this episode. Unfortunately, Dell’s kind of boring, Jimmy is serving as a plot device and the twins are pretty much the same characters they were from the beginning: Bette with her emotional tendencies and the naivety to go with it, and Dot with her more cold heart and logical attitude.
American Horror Story: Freakshow, and this episode in particular, is a good show, it’s just lacking the excitement from earlier episodes. There’s no real tempo to it, it just kind of plods along until it finds a plot point to exploit. Frustratingly the writing is still good, the acting is still entertaining and the story shows promise, it just seems to have lulled the past couple of episodes from the intensity of Twisty and Dandy’s burgeoning psychotic side. Maybe I’m a little jaded by some of the other things I’ve reviewed recently (like Sinbad: The Fifth Voyage – review online soon) but I’m not impressed, just waiting for more.
***½ 3.5/5
