I decided very early with in this series to focus on the surface. Did it loose it's way with the many lovers of the Countess-maybe (but I enjoyed the flashbacks it afforded us). Was John a loathsome character right up until he realised he was a sadistic killer? Of course, and it made me feel slightly shameful that he had to artistically spray a man's insides across a wall for me to tolerate him but this series really was all about the LOOK.
I didn't really care what they were doing, or more who they were doing, I just wanted to get lost in a sea of historical costumes, glitzy make up and killer (literally) accessories. The finale made me realise this is okay.
Never before has Ryan Murphy, the show's creator done anything more PopGoth than to give Hypodermic Sally a release through the internet. I LOVED IT. I loved how accurate a reflection of contemporary society the ghost was, shouting out words to anyone and no-one , leaving footprints in a mass of void and noise, and yet we are all unnatural online (and the irony of me sat here writing this blog is not lost on me).
Donovan's beyond the grave revelation that his heaven consists of an eternal childhood Saturday morning with pancakes was tender not because he was reaching out to the Mother he scorned for a lifetime. His 'happiness' was a memory. It seems the truth of Gothic to remind us that although we look continually to the future with planners, diaries and holiday countdowns (both of which I have), it is the assured passage of time and the fact that everything becomes, past, that haunts and revives us.
I don't really want to end on such a sombre musing, so I want to thank Murphy for his 'revamping' theme, bringing together vampiric creatures, fashion, rebirth, trauma and death has resulted in the American Horror Story I've been waiting for.
It truly was my fondest creation of his.
Countess Couture
*SPOILER* (sort of) Just a quick musing on the 'death' (again) of The Countess.
She rarely looked her age on this show, and thats not to insinuate any judgment on Lady Gaga's cosmetic appearance, but rather that the Countess, in the 'present' that is our contemporary time, rarely dressed in the styles of this current period. In flashbacks of course she embodied the twenties, the eighties and even nineties grunge, but in our time she was often in their costumes. So over the top, so styled in history - why, is our time, the present, the time at which fashion becomes past? Even Alex when newly turned initially releases herself of her Levi jeans and Gap t-shirts and swoons the hallways as a 'true' Nanny, a tightly bound, high seamed Victoriana Governess.
It's a true Gothic pun that the vampire (yes, I know we aren't supposed to call her that...) is always out of time, and time is evidently all they have. Even when dressing in there garb of the eighties, her natural body likely should never have seen those clothes, let alone adorned itself within them.
With a final episode to go I am excited to see what fashions the 'true' death have in store for The Countess.
