American Horror Story is not afraid to have their characters commit murder. That's fine. We're happy to watch murderers in the act but with Coven every character is a murderer. Here's a little list just to keep you in check: Fiona murders Madison, Madison murders Kyle, Kyle murders his mother, Zoe murders Spalding, Myrtle murders the other council members, Misty Day awakes crocodiles to murder two men, Delphine murders, well, lots of people, Queenie murders a homeless man, Joan murders his husband and son, Marie helps murder Nan, Nan murders Joan, you get the picture. So the question that comes into play is - who are we rooting for? Morals are always on the border with American Horror Story, we know that. In Murder House, Constance (Lange) was a murderer but we still loved her. Coven, however, gives us only murderers, in fact the only character that isn't a murderer is Cordelia (Paulson) but we'll get to her later. It begins to border on the ridiculous that every character would have the capacity to murder someone so easily and without guilt. By doing this, it makes all of the characters seem on par, that there's no-one more dangerous, they're all equally as dangerous as the other. In addition, it makes all of them think the same therefore makes them all the same. Why would we prefer one killer over the other? What makes them different? Why? There personality, of course. Sure. But there doesn't seem to be many layers to them. If this was the intention, well done Murphy and Falchuk, but even if it was, it makes all of the characters blur and become more like a cult than a coven.
Thomas Stewart is a graduate from the University of Glamorgan and currently a student on the MA in Writing course at the University of Warwick. He is a Freelance Writer for Mens Fashion Magazine, Make and Believe, Smashpipe and more. As well as writing, he loves horror films, folk music, Raymond Carver, patterned jumpers, Richard Yates, curry, Scarlett Thomas, editing, chick-flicks, watches and biscuits.
