An anthology series focusing on multiple heroes and places like house having murderous past, an asylum, a witch coven, a hotel, a freak show, a Roanoke farmhouse and even a cult.
Cult tries hard to straddle the line between horror and satire, and to be both relevant and shocking in its relevance. The end result half-succeeds, swerving between exaggerated satire and eye-rolling drama.
It's a dumb, ugly, blunt time to be alive, and to it has come an often dumb, ugly, blunt TV show. It is called American Horror Story: Cult. And it's a major missed opportunity.
Besides not making a ton of sense, Cult's biggest problem is how it exploits the very serious realities of modern America as fodder for its typical gaudy scares.
The annoying guy who is in every season of AHS, Evan Peters, plays a kind of scary MAGA guy with blue hair and a man bun, who tries to shake things up in suburban Detroit.
Liberals aren't just snowflakes with imaginary fears, and the right isn't only made up of soulless fear-mongers. The politics of fear may work, but the twisted logic in this futile exercise falls apart quickly.
Trump is a tough nut to tackle -- and you can take that literally if you'd like. Even so, this is a big, bloody hunk of red meat for his remaining defenders, many of whom already see Hollywood in the worst ways imaginable.
Though Murphy's characteristic maximalist style is noticeably absent from a visual standpoint, it's still present within the narrative itself, making Cult an interesting deviation from the norm and possible blueprint for future seasons.
Sarah Paulson is a peerless performer but watching her cower, scream and unravel is less effective. when 24 hours a day, seven days a week, the competing channels are filled with far scarier clowns.