Every American Horror Story Season Ranked From Worst To Best

Yet another season based in the past, Freak Show followed the story of Elsa Mars and her Cabinet of Curiosities in Jupiter, Florida in the 1950s. Again the usual suspects returned to play their third or fourth different character, while this season also saw the one and only appearance of Michael Chiklis and Neil Patrick Harris, and the debut of future mainstays John Carroll Lynch and Finn Wittrock.

After three outstanding outings from Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk's show, the fourth simply couldn't live up to the expectation already set. The story simply wasn’t as compelling as a house full of ghosts, a sinister asylum, or a coven of witches fighting to survive.

So many of the great characters in American Horror Story are not exactly what you would describe as likeable, but it is a real struggle to find even one in Freak Show that is. Lynch's Twisty the Clown is by far the scariest, and most compelling aspect of the story, but he is gone after just four episodes.

One positive from the season was that it was the first to acknowledge the existence of a previous season. The first three stories had stayed completely separate, but Freak Show tied directly to, and crossed over with Asylum, with Lily Rabe, Naomi Grossman, and John Cromwell all reprising their roles from season two.