“AHS: Freak Show” just got intensely dark. ‘Massacres and Matinees’ the season’s second episode introduced us to two new freaks and sadly (really, genuinely horrifically sad) took away a freak. The turmoil in last week’s premiere episode was created by the townies against the freaks, but this week brought a whole new type of struggle, and it’s rooted deep within the flaps of the Freak Show tents.
When Strongman Dell Toledo (Michael Chiklis!!!) shows up with his wife and fellow performer Desiree, a three-breasted hermaphroditic sensation (Angela Bassett), the troupe of monsters begins to face problems they don’t even realize are coming yet. Chiklis knows how to play one role but he plays it very well. He was a corrupt strongman in “The Shield,” a literal strongman in “Fantastic Four” and he’s a dick of a strongman in ‘Freak Show.’ He shows up with the confidence of a mountain, only to crumble into desperation when Elsa rejects his act (as well as Desiree’s three titties, ding-a-ling, and working female parts). Immediately Elsagives in and…boy, was that a mistake. Now Toledo is calling the shots, running the show, beating up Jimmy, and billing Elsa lowest on the show roster. The jump in logic here defies gravity but hopefully it will clear itself up.
Meanwhile, Dot and Bette remain the headliners of the show, only it’s the unsuspecting Dot who shows up her conjoined twin and turns out to be the one with real talent (which we see in yet another anachronistic performance of Fiona Apple’s Criminal, complete with slow motion mosh pits and crowd surfing like it’s a Nirvana show, not a 1950’s carnival). I’ll have to get back to you on these musical numbers because I simply don’t know how I feel about them yet. I will say that, stylistically, this one worked much better than last week’s Life on Mars disaster. The twins provide a complex emotion for the show. All of a sudden their lives are in upheaval, their yearnings for different and separate lives has reached a zenith and is figuratively pulling them apart. It doesn’t help that the overshadowed Elsa isn’t pleased and that just might mean she’ll have to kill off her brand new monster-darlings by turning them against each other.
Perhaps the most exciting element of ‘Massacres and Matinees’ is the teaming up of Dandy and Twisty. But more on that in a moment…
Is it just me or is Dandy the most unexpected character of this season? He whines like a man-child (he is very reminiscent of Veruca Salt and her lovely demanding nature…“I WANT IT NOW!”), he’s bored all the time, possibly kills the neighbors’ pets, drinks cognac from a monogramed crystal baby bottle, and it turns out, is pretty fucking sadistic…all in all, Dandy is my favorite character thus far. He is such a bewildering spectacle and is rising to the top as one of the quirkiest of the bunch. Which is impressive since he couldn’t even secure himself a spot as part of the freak show talent after pleading with Jimmy.
As mentioned above, this episode saw the unlikely duo of Twisty the Clown and Dandy the sociopath team up under a bizarre (albeit well-intentioned) push from Dandy’s mother, Gloria (the impeccable Frances Conroy). But what we see in their time together is that Dandy is the true monster, and Twisty is just…broken. He’s truly a clown who just wants to entertain children, even if he’s a bit misguided in what might entertain them (severed head, little boy?). In some ways, he reminds me of Lennie from Of Mice and Men. Except he’s got that serial killing side hobby. While none of us want to feel sympathetic toward this beaten down clown, part of us does.
Aside from Toledo’s inexplicable rise to ultimate power over Elsa in less than a day, this episode showed a lot of plot strength. It flowed nicely and made a surprising amount of sense for such a chaotic source of entertainment. More so than any “AHS” season, ‘Freak Show’ is really playing up the style. Each season has been highly stylized, but this season seems to put a great amount of focus on it, as if it’s its own character. The show plays out almost like an elaborate music video, or a moving painting. Along with some of the darker moments (MEEP!) and deeper character development (Jimmy has a heart that’s going to make our eyes and our panties wet) ‘Massacres and Matinees’ brought back a lot of the signature cinematography, music, and eerie sound effects that have worked so well to unsettle “AHS” audiences for the last three years. This show can, will, and should be completely kitschy, but that doesn’t mean it’s not going to get dark and rough, again I say Meep! The pacing is quick; the heat is being turned up inside the carnival walls while Dandy and Twisty turn up the heat on the innocent townsfolk of Jupiter. This thrill ride just got a little more ill.
But of course, it’s not all lollipops and balloons. The show has a few quirks that I can’t get past. For one, Lange and Bates’ accents are insanely bad. I let it go last week to give the show the benefit of the doubt, but after another hour of that madness, I have to say something. Second, are the viewers the only people who see how disgustingly horrific Twisty is? How is he able to walk up to any given person and pass himself off as a perfectly acceptable work-for-hire clown? Something tells me I’ll just have to deal with these issues. But something tells me that’s okay.