The primary two episodes of Grotesquerie, yet one more new fall sequence from govt producer Ryan Murphy, debuted on FX on Wednesday evening and managed to evoke a number of seasons of American Horror Story on the identical time. The presence of nuns, monks, and non secular imagery — the serial killer on this sequence, whose identify is Grotesquerie, could be very into biblical references — echoes American Horror Story: Asylum (to not point out Evil, the primary season of True Detective, and the film Se7en). The season’s allusions to cults and its emphasis on the apocalyptic — “The top is fucking close to,” shouts an unhoused man within the first episode — recall to mind the Cult and Apocalypse seasons. Its lurid fascination with creatively disgusting methods to torture and kill different human beings is just like what we’ve seen in each American Horror Story entry up to now and in, for that matter, at the very least 75 % of Murphy’s tv oeuvre.
However although it’s rolling out within the weeks main as much as Halloween, which is historically AHS season, Grotesquerie shouldn’t be one other installment of the anthology sequence, although you’d be forgiven for considering so: The twelfth AHS season, Delicate, was cut up in half and concluded earlier this yr, so Grotesquerie, together with American Horror Tales, plural, which debuts on October 15 on Hulu, are filling in a programming hole of types. (American Horror Story was renewed by means of a thirteenth season again in 2020, and a brand new one is predicted subsequent yr.) So for these questioning whether or not Grotesquerie is only a seasonal substitute for American Horror Story, the reply is “no” but additionally “sure.”
Whereas it’s too early to say whether or not the present actually jells, based mostly on the primary couple of installments — critics weren’t given extra episodes for assessment — Grotesquerie distinguishes itself by being, firstly, a cop present. Detective Lois Tryon, performed by Niecy Nash-Betts, is the principle character and the first prism by means of which we view the Grotesquerie world. She’s assigned to find out who’s behind the grisly homicide of a Christian household of 4 in addition to two comparable, subsequent crimes. She’s written within the vein of virtually each cop in each vaguely status crime drama in current historical past: an alcoholic, workaholic obsessive who makes use of her police obligations to flee her painful household life, which incorporates caring for a husband who has been in a coma for practically a month.
In line with a procedural strategy, Grotesquerie could be very clearly a whodunit, which is a slight detour from the everyday AHS construction. In one other departure, whereas virtually each positive actor in the principle solid has appeared in at the very least one Murphy challenge — Nash-Betts was in Scream Queens and Monster; Courtney B. Vance, who performs her husband, was in The Folks v. O.J. Simpson; Nicholas Chavez, a priest with a true-crime fetish, was Lyle Menéndez in Monsters — none of them have appeared in a season of American Horror Story. (Lesley Manville, who performs a nurse with a retro ’do and a really nasty temperament, appears to be like like she was in Ratched, however she wasn’t.) Grotesquerie additionally guarantees to ship a extremely (I suppose?) anticipated efficiency from Tremendous Bowl–champion tight finish and boyfriend of America’s Sweetheart Travis Kelce, although he doesn’t make an look within the first two episodes. I’m betting he exhibits up as a member of no matter cult could also be related to the killings in a task that winks at his connection to Taylor Swift by commenting on the risks of hero worship. Both that or he’s on this factor for 5 minutes earlier than getting brutally mutilated.
The presence of Kelce seems like one other echo of American Horror Story given the franchise’s love affair with stunt casting. (See Adam Levine in Asylum, Stevie Nicks in Coven and Apocalypse, Woman Gaga in Lodge and Roanoke, and Kim Kardashian in Delicate.) Really, AHS’s most constant promoting level has all the time been the caliber of its performances, and Grotesquerie has that going for it, too. The fabric is constantly elevated by the actors, most notably Nash-Betts, who brings a grounded understatedness to Lois that saves her from falling right into a river of clichés. Manville is nice, too, fairly actually licking her lips over the prospect of portraying a domineering, perverse caretaker.
Along with being nicely acted, Grotesquerie is, like most Murphy joints, compelling and graphically violent out of the gate. Whether or not or not it actually must exist, particularly in a two-week interval that’s giving us three extra new Murphy-produced sequence (American Sports activities Story, Monsters, Physician Odyssey) and the return of one other (9-1-1), stays, similar to Travis Kelce, to be seen.