Its Serial Killer Fall.
It’s 1981, and all is not well on the streets of New York City. American Horror Story: NYCits plot apart from the location has been completely kept secret, beginning with a pile of garbage along the street at night, a sight common enough even in present-day New York and a symbolic gesture hinting at the what’s in store for the eleventh season of Ryan MurphyUnbelievable Horror anthology success. This is a story of the underworld, one of death and aspiration among cities imprisoned in a particularly punishing time.
Wednesday’s premiere was two episodes long, and the show will continue with this weekly release pattern, airing two seasons through to the finale. It’s a bit of a punishment — you’re basically watching a AHS feature film every week — but it works for this season, as the plot has, so far, liked to twist.
We are introduced to the main players in stages. Patrick (Russell Tovey) is a cop who stumbles across what appears to be a dark pattern of vicious murders targeting the city’s gay community. Patrick also happens to have a secret relationship with Gino (Joe Mantello), a writer for The Downtown Native whose work focuses on the gay scene — and has recently been focused on what appears to be the pattern of crime Patrick is investigating.
In another twist, Hannah Wells (Murphy’s frequent collaborator Billie Lourd) is a viral pathologist who discovered a mutant disease in the native deer population on Fire Island. . One slip, and the new virus can easily enter people, so it is necessary to exterminate the deer. Adam (Charlie Carpenter) is drawn into the war when his mate goes missing after meeting in the woods with a man wearing a harness and a leather mask. He told his fears to Patrick at the police station, whose hands were tied by the 24-hour rule—and because the NYPD had no interest in participating in crimes involving the gay community. As far as they are concerned, they can deal with it on their own.
That’s exactly what Adam decided to do, following a photographer who once photographed a man who matched the description of a black father, an artist named Theo (Isaac Cole Powell), who photographed sexy photo for mate Sam (Zachary Quinto, a group of high paying customers) loyal to Murphy. While Theo is preoccupied with finding artistic value in his subjects – “Exposing perverts in what everyone else finds beautiful”, he explains – Sam seems to have many interests. more brutal. And some relationship with the man in the skin mask.
As Gino attempts to do some press investigations, he is kidnapped by a mysterious man and nearly tortured (to death?), before his captor realizes Gino is in army and release him. Gino was a little shaken by the incident, and then decided to publish an article about his experience. In Ryan Murphy’s fashion, the mayhem really doesn’t seem to affect his characters—at least, not at first. At one point, Sam went to Hannah’s clinic to get a prescription for sexually transmitted amoeba. Total? Sure. Relate to? Who knows at this point.
There’s an atmosphere of unknown doom that pervades the series even in its early episodes, with people constantly referring to the feeling of bad omen pervading the city, muttering things like , “Something dark is coming.” Not always so?
AHS: NYC have everything Signature Murphy-esqueand more: It’s sexy, it’s gorgeous, and it’s subversive — at least because of the era and the community in which it’s set. Like most seasons of this show, NYC started strong, although at this point it’s hard to say exactly what’s going on.
Who is the father with the murderous blood-stained skin mask? Is this perhaps an origin story for the rubber man ghost from around the world to return in Season 1? As a horror-tinged dramatization of the oppression faced by urban marginalized communities in Reagan’s America, it remains active today. That’s exactly what you can say about any American Horror Story season: They all work, until they go astray. Let’s hope NYC can go in the right direction.
