Until now, American Horror Stories (Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuck, since 2021), the series derived from the almost eponymous one by the same creators (since 2011) that premieres on Disney Plus, has gone from good to worse, devaluing from the first episode to the third.
In “Rubber (Wo) man, Part I” (1×01) we are very happy to return to the Crime House, but its soulless second part (1×02) ends it; and the next one, “Drive In” (1×03), is indefensible as a pure rubbish.
So, after two disappointments, one less accentuated than the other, we would love to be able to say that this terrifying fiction gets back on track in “ The Naughty List” (1×04) , but what it does is sink even more with this disastrous Christmas tale that can even be irritating in certain sections and, anyway, always like a complete disappointment.
The consequences of transgression
FX The initial section of the chapter places us in the most recognizable news on the Internet : that of the so-called influencers who record videos and post them on their network channel social.
This ultra-modern occurrence of American Horror Stories isn't particularly novel. Other series with the format of a narrative anthology have used what the viewer knows about the latest in technological dynamics , from The Twilight Zone (Rod Sterling, 1959-2020) or his cousin sister Beyond the Limit (Leslie Stevens, 1963-2002) to Black Mirror (Charlie Brooker, since 2011), to offer the public a horrifying or very dramatic story about the destructive possibilities of these.
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In his essay Danza macabra (1981), the novelist Stephen King affirms that the horror genre is an agent of the status quo, of reactionary essence, because it usually shows the most extreme consequences of the transgression that supposes any advance or decided separation of what is established; at least for a simple playful purpose. And in no other kind of history is this theory seen with greater clarity than in a proposal similar to that of “The Naughty List”.
There is no where to take this episode of 'American Horro Stories'
FX The doubtful honor of signing the worst of American Horror Stories has been the Californian director Max Winkler , who has one foot on the small screen and the other on the big one, and has directed both chapters of other series television programs, be it The New Normal (Ryan Murphy, Ali Adler and Katherine Shaffer, 2012-2013), New Girl (Elizabeth Meriwether, 2011-2018), Brooklyn Nine-Nine (Dan Goor and Michael Shur, 2013-2021) or Cruel Summer (since 2021), such as the feature films Ceremony (2010), Flower (2017) and Jungleland (2019).
There are grotesque moments here, of others' shame, that are intended to be satire and they skid but well, and even fragments of dialogue in the script of Manny Cotto (Dexter), who had already written the one for “Drive In”, completely absurd. But its biggest problem is the narrative decompensation , since the main conflict takes too long to appear.
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Thus, a character like the Santa Claus of the well-known Danny Trejo , whom we have seen before in the skin of the same in Heat (Michael Mann, 1995), by César Ocampo in the episode “Redrum” (8×06) by The X-Files (Chris Carter, since 1993), Tortuga in Breaking Bad (Vince Gilligan, 2008-2013) or Mr. World in American Gods (Bryan Fuller and Michael Green, 2017-2021), and their motivations lack strength .
In addition, we find it a real shame that Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuck (Nip / Tuck, scalpel blow) reoffend in a type of character that Ian McShane (Scoop) had incarnated much better as Leigh Emerson in American Horror Story: Asylum ( 2012-2013). The actions of his sad substitute turn “The Naughty List” into a vulgar slasher . And neither the counterpoint of the Christmas music at the crime scene works nor does the closure even relate to the fundamental plot. A nonsense from beginning to end .
