There’s one thing I forgot to take into account when I came up with this challenge. Today is October 1st. Today is also Saturday. I work on Saturdays. So how am I supposed to watch something today and still have time to post about it at a reasonable hour? (You see, I’ve already failed at that last part, and I haven’t even gotten to my solution.)

The solution I’ve come up with, however feeble it may be: I’m going to talk about something I’ve already seen and know well enough to discuss from memory. Then I’ll watch something less familiar tonight and post about it tomorrow.

Anyway, a few months ago I drafted a post longhand that was meant to be my first exploration of a television series in whole. I’m going to steal that post’s thunder a little and instead start Halloween with American Horror Story. AHS is one of those shows I thought I would hate but ended up “loving.” I say loving in quotes because I love talking about it, and I love the experience of watching it, especially with others, but really thinking about it seriously I sort of tolerate it at best. It’s very pulpy, very much a soap opera. The writers have a tendency to bite off more than they can chew, or hint that the show is heading in one direction only to veer off in a completely different direction for no discernible reason. And yet, I can’t seem to stop watching it.

American Horror Story’s greatest strength is its “format,” that is to say, the fact that each season is self contained. You can watch AHS: Asylum or Hotel by itself, with no knowledge of any other season, and not miss a thing. However, for those brave enough to watch every season, the reward is one of my personal favorites in television: an ensemble cast. I know of few greater pleasures than getting to watch the same actors stretch their artistic muscles in so many different ways. However, that can sometimes be its greatest weakness as well. The actors on the show are not always the best, and are often that much worse for some pretty poor dialogue writing. Even still, for the few gems, watching them return season after season is one of the major draws for the show as a whole.

For a perfect discussion, I would have to make an entire post about each different season, and admittedly I haven’t seen the most recent two. But I can say that each season has its own charm, and there’s likely something for virtually any audience. Overall, I enjoy watching American Horror Story more than I think it deserves. But I think that’s half the fun.