American Horror Story

That set is easily the most interesting thing about the show so far.... In Ms. Lange’s absence, the role of malevolent den mother appears to have gone to Lady Gaga, and that’s a pretty steep drop-off. Other members of the Horror Story repertory company return and continue to do amusing work, however. The story they inhabit this time around barely comes into focus in the first episode, which plays like a series of vignettes with only the loosest of connections.

The overall picture is just a little too busy, too dense. The first episode of Hotel--the only one available to critics--is so busy trying to set up its divergent cast of characters it ends up being confusing and exhausting.

Filled with arresting imagery, much of the action takes place in a beyond-creepy L.A. hotel.... There’s almost an indifference to story--after the premiere, it’s hard to see a huge motivation to watch in order to unlock the show’s lingering mysteries.

Aside from the always sterling production design--there is one audacious sign of hope in this otherwise trite Hotel.... I wouldn't go so far as to say Gaga's talent adds much to the proceedings, but her presence--and the manner in which its captured — certainly does.

I found the first episode (the only one sent out to critics; gosh, I wonder why) confusing, tedious, annoyingly precious, and often ostentatiously brutal, with even clunkier-than-usual dialogue (more so than previous seasons; consider yourself warned), but also darkly beautiful, deeply weird, and (sometimes) exhilarating.

Unlike some seasons of “AHS,” Hotel lacks dark humor, at least in tonight’s initial outing.... Visually, the premiere episode is a stunner, from the hotel set to the use of a fish-eye lens on the camera that squeezes so much into the frame.... Heavy on atmosphere in its early going and light on plot, a storyline starts to kick in around the premiere’s halfway point.

[Creators Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk] want to horrify and disgust their audience, pushing well into the realm of slasher porn as perversions, sexual and otherwise, bleed into pleasure killings. Disturbing us is the point, of course, but good horror stories go beyond grotesqueries and gore. American Horror Story: Hotel may do that.

The new AHS is, alas, mostly an exercise in style. Its flimsy plot, at least this early in its game, is something left over from a bad Ross Macdonald novel.

Its graphic and constant violence, including some very bad treatment of those two Swedish girls, is gratuitous, upsetting and prurient.... AHS: Hotel has the subtlety and texture of Gaga’s ill-considered meat dress.