American Horror Story: Coven (Season 3)

[Lucky]

It is focused this time around, which is a welcome relief after the scattered S2. The cast looks excellent so far, solid characterization for only one episode. The only thing I'm really missing is a mystery pull (Rubber Man from S1), but I'll trade moments like those for a tightly plotted character ensemble. Direction is still flourishing as the most stylish thing on TV.

Missed this show. Hope it can maintain consistency.

[Henry Gale]

This show can be a mess, but I'll still gladly take the ballsy haphazardness of Asylum over most things on TV.

Pumped that Coven is finally here.

[Lucky]

Glorious. The final line delivery was perfect. Jessica Lange FTW.

[Lucky]

Nobody else is watching this in MatchCut Land? It has been a ride so far, must-see TV status for me.

[Spun Lepton]

I'm working my way through Season 2 right now. Just finished episode 9. I'll probably catch up on Season 3 soon.

The theme music for this is a bastard of an earworm.

[EyesWideOpen]

I'm fully caught up now and loving it. The first episode or two were just ok but it's been quite the ride over these last few episodes. Everyone of these seasons has had such a fantastic cast.

[Lucky]

Yeesh, give it two episodes and the show can unravel to True Blood level. Too many characters, dropped storylines, character motivations change on a dime...starting to feel like last season. Jessica Lange is still excellent, however.

[Lucky]

Without hyperbole -- the largest derailment of any television season I have seen. It's a dumbfounding spectacle of complete disregard for characters and continuity. I don't think the writing team talked to each other at all.

[EyesWideOpen]

It kind of fell apart near the end of the season but the last two episodes redeemed it. It's definitely the weakest of the three seasons but I still enjoyed it even though it was all over the place.

[Sxottlan]

Asylum is the show's masterpiece so far imho and this did not threaten that status. Better than Murder House, but I think it went off the rails so completely that I couldn't help but think that it was intentional. In that this season was really about the weakening of a system and culture due to infighting.

I mean, the entire process of how a Supreme rises at the expense of the previous one is going to cause internal strife. I'm surprised it hadn't happened before Fiona, but we saw the dwindling number of members at the school over the years. So I liked how the season appeared to throw red herring villains our way only to have our heroines too busy to notice as they try to kill each other.

But that still doesn't excuse the dead end subplots (the neighbors?) or the comings and goings of characters. Who was the main character here? I dunno. Started with Zoe, but then she seemed to become marginalized down the home stretch. Fiona really did appear to be the real villain in all of this, but frankly it was hard to tell with her back and forth about leading the coven.

The teased plot never materialized about a turf war between the voodoo priestess and the Coven, but I liked the idea of the male witch hunter group. Maybe they were afraid of getting too close to something resembling X-Men or Harry Potter with each character developing her own individual power? So while Zoe has her black widow ability and Queenie her "living voodoo doll" ability, those are used early and then forgotten. Not to mention Zoe's one time ability to disrupt or jam Laveau's zombie drone attack. Laveau freaks out about what happened, making me think Zoe is the Supreme, but there's no more of that.

[EyesWideOpen]

Will to be fair there is a moment for each of the witches where we are supposed to think they are the one that is going to end up being the next supreme.

[Sxottlan]

Will to be fair there is a moment for each of the witches where we are supposed to think they are the one that is going to end up being the next supreme.

That's true. It's just I would have liked to have gotten more exploration of some of these powers and how they develop. And an explanation of that "disruptor" ability that Zoe exhibited. I'm used to the anime convention of a character suddenly displaying incredible and new power as a sign of being the chosen one, etc.