American Horror Story: 10 Worst Characters
Which of the AHS characters turned in some absolute horror shows over the years?
American Horror Story has had some utterly brilliant characters over the years, but it’s had some damp squibs too. Considering the casts are so large and the narratives so sprawling, it’s natural that some characters will be lost in the mix.
Also, while it’s great for fans to see their favourite actors return in new roles season on season, it can mean some that led the show in one season are relegated to background roles the next. Sometimes they’re limited by their range, and at other times the characters needlessly contain actors capable of star turns.
Perhaps controversially, there’s no place for Lena Dunham’s Valerie Solanis. Though some fans (probably the type Solanis’ followers would label ‘scumbags’) plied IMDb with 1-star ratings before it even premiered, Dunham’s performance was - questionable accent aside - an absolute tour de force of pent-up vitriol.
Rather than a character who was adjudged to be terrible before they could even be seen, these characters were ones viewers expected a lot from and were left disappointed. Either because they didn’t fit the tone of their season, wasted their star or were just plain misfires, with AHS has more than its share of bad characters.
10. The Extra Terrestrials
The Extra Terrestrials in Asylum weren’t so much bad characters as they were completely wasted. Asylum is probably the busiest season American Horror Story has done to date, and as a result some arcs were bound to get truncated.
AHS: Asylum already included an examination of the torture of mental patients, Nazi science and serial killers without adding the alien angle in there. Ryan Murphy’s trademark unflinching portrayal of horror would work fantastically with alien invasion, but with Asylum it just... didn’t.
The worst thing is it means we may never get a full season exploring an alien arc. The X-Files went dark at times, but with the exception of the controversial Home episode, everything Mulder & Scully did looks tame compared to AHS. When it was announced that Apocalypse would be linked to other seasons in the AHS series, many fans were anticipating a return of the Extra Terrestrials. In the end, it was Coven, Hotel and Murder House that were exhumed, with Murder House particularly feeling like clutching at the straws of fan service.
If that’s a sign they’re running out of ideas, Murphy could do a lot worse than bringing the Extra Terrestrials back for Season 9.