Ranking ‘American Horror Story’ Seasons Before Tonight’s ‘6’ Premiere

American Horror Story

Opinions are like a-holes, everyone has one. So here are our opinions on American Horror Story‘s first five seasons, ranked in order of greatness.

With the sixth and ever-so-mysterious season of American Horror Story starting tonight on FX (10pm ET), the team at AwardsDaily TV ranked their favorite seasons of the series. What will the team choose as their favorite season? Were we allured by the witches of Coven? Did we all want to stay with the residents and vampires of the Hotel Cortez? Were we sympathetic to Freak Show? Or, did we prefer checking in with the crazies of Asylum over Murder House? Read below to see our choices.

Murder House

Best In Show

Welcome to 2011 where producer Ryan Murphy unveiled a daring new horror anthology series called American Horror Story (the subtitle Murder House would come later after subsequent seasons were assured). It dug into horror tropes of the 70’s (female sexuality, fear of pregnancy, sex in general…) and meshed them beautifully with 20-century murder milestones. Black Dahlia? Check. Nurse murders? Check. Columbine? Check. Murphy penchant for kitchen-sink writing kind of worked beautifully here as we didn’t yet understand the rhythms he would undertake for the series. The cast is uniformly good with Connie Britton lending gravitas to the proceedings and, of course, Jessica Lange dominating with her Tennessee Williams-based Constance. Perhaps best of all, Murder House started in October and finished shortly before Christmas with a tight season. Whereas later seasons would drag out into the new year, this one is horror television for the ages. – Clarence Moye

Asylum

A worthy follow up

American Horror Story: Asylum aired back when audiences were super-intrigued, you might say hyper-actively committed, by the new franchise following the success of Season 1, Murder House. The second series got us hooked, confirmed our devotion. Set predominantly in a mental institution during the 1960s, the wacky characters this time fit the bill of the season’s premise: struggling inmates, evil nuns, twisted doctors, an angel of death, a horrific Santa, and even a certain Anne Frank makes an appearance. Tackling under eerie, gripping execution are themes of bloody murder, homosexuality, possession, amputations, and a whole host of fucked-upness. With 17 Emmy Award nominations, Asylum was a creepy blast with the awards bodies too. Performers like Lily Rabe, Emmy-winner James Cromwell, Zachary Quinto, and of course Sarah Paulson, particularly go for it – not to mention an unforgettable bout of the name game. – Robin Write

Hotel

Better than its reputation suggests

With Jessica Lange gone from AHS and Lady Gaga stepping in, there was going to be trepidation with the fan-favorite gone from the show after four seasons. Hotel returned the show to Downtown Los Angeles and ranks as our third favorite in the series. What did we love? Denis O’ Hare as Liz Taylor. Great as always, but the rebirth scene was such a wonderful send off for this loved character who had had such a heartwarming story arc. Sarah Paulson as Hypodermic Sally was a welcome addition but seeing her character Billie Dean Howard from Murder House was a giddy delight.

We all loved Emmy-winner Lou Eyrich for keeping the clothes off of Matt Bomer’s vampire Tristan, and we all loved that vampire orgy scene. In true AHS style, there was lots of blood and lots of sex. Finally, Lady Gaga as The Countess delivered a seamless transition from stage to TV and gave a stellar, Golden Globe-winning performance in her series debut. Each week, she donned those glam gowns and went for the kill in that Michael Schmidt glove, adding to the visual beauty of the show which remains outstanding season after season. – Jazz Tangcay

Quote of the season : ““Hack me, bludgeon me, surprise me!”

Coven

Eh…

If you were wondering what tone the third season of American Horror Story was going to have, look no further than the title of the first episode. “Bitchcraft” assures us that the scares will be aplenty but so will the toxic tone. Set in sweaty New Orleans, the season focuses on the small group of girls that attend Miss Robichaux’s Academy, and it’s basically a more violent, stylish Hogwarts. For the most part, the season tries to keep it light, but it falls apart by the end due to over-plotting and too many episodes. It’s the perfect example of how the holiday break ruins the momentum of this series. Despite a horribly villainous (and Emmy-winning) turn by Kathy Bates as slave owner Madame LaLaurie, the season really belongs to AHS newcomer Angela Bassett. Her voodoo priestess reminded us how much we missed seeing Bassett in a juicy role, and it proved that Ryan Murphy has a knack for reviving actresses’ careers. – Joey Moser

Freak Show

Worst. Season. Ever.

A lot of people love American Horror Story: Freak Show. It’s just that none of those people work at AwardsDaily TV. What started out so promising ultimately devolved into a plot-devoid, drawn-out, and exhausting mess. The major hook of the up-front ad campaign was the brilliant creation Twisty the Murdering Clown. But, as he often does, Ryan Murphy lost interest, and Twisty met a too-soon end in the series after being made something of a sympathetic figure. We want none of that. Instead, we’re given the good-looking monster Dandy (Finn Wittrock) who whined and pouted and bitched his way through the rest of the season. His personality was the biggest horror show of the whole season, nearly squashed a delicately beautiful performance from Sarah Paulson as Dot and Bette Tattler, conjoined twins. Then, there were the awful production numbers… We’re not actually convinced the Television Academy really watched the season. It garnered 19 Emmy nominations – a high for the series – but won only 5 awards in the Creative Arts categories. This was the first year the series failed to take home a major award. We think that’s because voters finally watched it rather than ticking off best friend Ryan Murphy’s name 19 times. Freak Show emerges as a sad, sad mess, and we welcome anyone to legitimately defend it. Razor-tipped glove thrown down. – Clarence Moye

American Horror Story: 6 premieres tonight on FX at 10pm ET. Check back for the full reaction from AwardsDaily TV later tonight. You can also follow @AwardsDailyTV for our AHS:6 live tweeting event.

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