The show centred on the staff and inmates of the
fictional Briarcliff Asylum for the criminally insane. Most notably the
power-mad HBIC, Sister Jude & seemingly meek Sister Mary Eunice
(Lange and Rabe), the Monsignor, Timothy Howard (Joseph Fiennes) Dr. Oliver
Thredson (Zachary Qunito) and the wrongly imprisoned Lana Winters (Paulson),
Grace Bertrand (Lizzie Brochere) and Kit Walker (Peters), the latter of which
is strongly believed to have murdered his wife in a blind rage.
Yes, most of the inmates that you see are obviously
seriously disturbed, such as a homicidal Santa, a woman claiming to be Anne
Frank, as well as a chronic masturbator that quite literally creeps up
every now and then, but what seemed to be more disturbing were those that were
running the place...I'll try not to ruin it for those who haven't seen the show
through to the end yet but as you can probably guess, the inmates are barely
half of the real issue.
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| Evan Peters as Kit Evans |
Looking deeper into the characters as the series
progressed only saw things going from slightly freakish to demonic, not to
mention chronically messed up. The show had it all, from possession
and exorcisms, excruciatingly violent deaths and eerily calm
serial killers. What’s not to love?
Both Asylum,
and the first season of Ryan Murphy’s anthology series shared the same issue;
powerful and enigmatic episodes early on in the season that later felt
discombobulated and lost a lot of steam as they reached their conclusion. I’m
not saying that the show was in any way mediocre, but I am pointing out that
some plot points carried out towards the end felt out of place with the
original story, almost like it was made up as Murphy and co. went along.
While the show still makes me wonder how someone who
created Glee could reach inside their soul and
pull out some of the most depraved and shocking stories seen on TV today,
there’s no denying that this 13 part series was something
I fail to find very often in American culture.
Something that’s genuinely scary.
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