I’m always wary of new television shows.  I don’t want to get sucked into something that is just going to get cancelled.  I also don’t want to get my hopes up only to be disappointed.  So I pretty much didn’t even know about American Horror Story on FX until after it aired its first episode.  And I only happened upon it while browsing Hulu where the pilot episode can be viewed for free until October 31st.  Curiosity got the best of me and I clicked play before I even knew I was giving in.

American Horror Story is about a family that moves into a super creepy mansion style house.  It’s called the Murder House apparently, and it’s on the Murder House tour according to this psycho chick in the second episode.  The family has a bunch of their own issues including teen angst/rebellion, an unfaithful spouse, and baby problems which is horrorful enough without the evil house.

There is a pretty good level of creepiness throughout the show.  You have an old maid that appears young to the philandering husband, a nosy bitch next door that abuses her Down Syndrome afflicted daughter, said daughter sees the ghosties of the house and lets everyone know “you’re going to die in there,” many many views of Dylan McDermott‘s naked ass, and a psychopath teen who has a thing for Violet, the rebellious teen in the family. 

There is always a baddie lurking just outside the corner of your eye.  It seems the house likes to drive its inhabitants crazy and murder them.  With this family, you can’t tell yet if it’s their personal drama driving them crazy or the house.  It’s enough of a tease to keep you tuned in.

So far, the drama hasn’t overshadowed the horror of the show.  If that happens, I probably won’t continue watching.  I watch for the horror, not the soap opera.  Right now, I’m on the fence with AHS.  It has potential to be awesome in a Stephen King kinda way, but television shows seem to always overdo the drama aspect. 

Tonight at 10 pm on FX, episode 3 airs.  It looks to be a dramafest, so we’ll see how I feel about the show after this episode.

Speaking of shows that get turned into soap operas, I was extremely disappointed with the season premiere of The Walking Dead.  I’ve looked forward to this show all year and the letdown was pretty major. 

Pretty much a soap opera.

Zombies get thrown in here and there, but it’s just kind of like.  “Oh woe is me, woe is me, how horrible my life can be.  Ah shit, gotta kill a zombie.  Done, woe is me!”

To give TWD the benefit of a doubt, I’m telling myself they were just setting up all of the backstory for the rest of the season and the next episode will be much better.  To be honest with myself though, I’m extremely concerned that the next episode will be my last.

If you like a lot of soap opera drama with a couple of zombies thrown in, tune in next Sunday at 9 pm on AMC.  As for me, I’ll be watching it with you with much less enthusiasm than before.