- Network: FX
- Series Premiere Date: Oct 5, 2011
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Critic Reviews
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The overall narrative is a bit lacking, just as you don’t go to a circus show in the hope of seeing all the various acts tied together through storytelling. Yes, there’s a murder to hide, a few secrets for each of the major characters, and Murphy’s overall arc of the outcast who holds more humanity than the “normal people,” but I hope the actual storytelling of American Horror Story: Freak Show improves in subsequent episodes.
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Even when Freak Show collapses under its undiluted excess, it does remember at least one essential truth of terror: Nothing's scarier than a mean, ugly clown.
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It still has plenty of clever touches in word and picture.... But it’s not particularly scary, and doesn’t even feel that creepy or freakish, despite the sideshow setting and the obvious attempt to emulate one of the eeriest of American movies, Tod Browning’s “Freaks,” from 1932.
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It boasts strong performances, largely from actors you've already seen, in material that's as over-the-top as ever.
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The over-long season premiere--it's 63 minutes without commercials, so expect it to run close to 90 minutes on air; set yoru DVR accordingly--feels disjointed and the characters seem underdeveloped.
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Freak Show is certainly telling a weird story, but it’s not all that scary and, worse yet, the characters are already launching into tedious monologues about civil rights for geeks.
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This new AHS iteration of is, as always, a gorgeous-looking production featuring many excellent performances.... The fundamental problem in the opening hours is the lack of an original storyline to move the show beyond a series of gaudy shock reveals.
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Freakshow boasts some extraordinary performances by actors who labor in vain against a sometimes plodding script, weighed down with underwhelming horror moments, way too obvious metaphors about tolerating differences and a pervasively airless claustrophobia.
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 334 out of 508
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Mixed: 94 out of 508
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Negative: 80 out of 508
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Oct 8, 2014
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Oct 10, 2014
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Oct 9, 2014