American Horror Story: 10 Things Freak Show Must Do Better Than Its Predecessors

7. Flash Backs/Forwards

Both Asylum and Coven featured a series of time jumps which were repeated throughout the seasons. While Asylum jumped forward to the present to show what was happened at the then derelict asylum, Coven jumped back to see the origins of Madam LaLaurie in the 1830s. Each time they worked slightly differently €“ Asylum opened each time with a flash forward whereas Coven only used them for character development. The problem with Asylum's use of them was that they were quite distracting €“ it took quite a few episodes before it became clear at all about what was going on, but then it used them to wrap up the season at the end. This improved somewhat with Coven €“ but the reverse in this case was the problem due to the lack of true horror that year, with the exception of the flash backs. It is quite obvious that they will play some part in Freak Show €“ after all, Jessica Lange is going to play a German, and with the series set in 1950 it would be rather strange if there were no flash backs to the events of the Second World War. Freak Show needs to show a better balance in the events both in the main setting and any other time period to ensure that the themes are carried through to stop the season from feeling disjointed.