Being a fan of a TV show for so many years also means learning to deal with disappointing seasons. Unlike movies, which have just one shot at telling a story, series have much bigger narratives to develop over time. And while some manage to stay consistently good from beginning to end without making too many mistakes, that’s actually pretty rare. Sooner or later, some creative decisions are bound to disappoint at least part of the audience (even when it comes to anthology productions). Still, there’s only so much we can let slide, especially when a show has been around for so long and should know exactly what its established fanbase expects. And with American Horror Story, it feels like that limit has been totally ignored.
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Honestly, as a fan, I wasn’t expecting Season 13 to be on the same level as Murder House, Asylum, or Coven, given how much the show has declined over the years. However, I think most people (if not pretty much everyone) expected, at the very least, a season that knew how to make the most of its own ideas, regardless of how much time it had to work with them. Ryan Murphy has recently expressed his desire to keep the series going, and Season 14 has already been confirmed. But that’s why this needs to be said (or rather why Murphy needs to be warned): if he doesn’t figure out what’s going wrong with the show, putting out new stories every year just for the sake of it won’t accomplish anything. Eventually, there won’t be enough viewers left to justify keeping it going.
American Horror Story Proved How Lost It Has Become with Season 13’s Awful Finale
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There were plenty of reasons to get excited about Season 13. Even though the show’s reputation hasn’t exactly been in the best place lately, the announcement that the original cast would be returning was enough to get everyone excited and feeling nostalgic again. And along with them, came some of the most beloved characters, all coming together in what Murphy even compared to the Avengers. The premise was also kept pretty mysterious at first, but there was talk of an enormous threat. Plus, the way the new episodes were being promoted made it clear that this was supposed to be a celebration of AHSas a whole. Put all those pieces together, and there was a very good reason to start watching again and expect something genuinely exciting.
So Season 13 premiered, but with a limited number of episodes released each week, and fans were unhappy with the first batch because of how wild and confusing the plot was. I’ll admit that, since it was still the beginning, I was willing to give it some leeway. AHShas always had a habit of starting with an unclear storyline before things finally start making sense around the halfway point. But as the episodes went on, things didn’t improve, and the negative reactions kept piling up. Episodes 9 and 10 managed to change some minds since they actually captured the essence of the show’s early 2010s era. But unfortunately, it was pretty much downhill from there, and by the end, I don’t think there was much left for fans to defend (myself included, despite trying to stay optimistic).
We saw Satan (Paul Anthony Kelly) suddenly back away from an extremely dangerous plan for no sensible reason, Ashley (Elle Chapman) die without anyone knowing what she was, Madison (Emma Roberts) and Ben (Joey Pollari) fall in love overnight before she gives birth to a baby in what feels like the blink of an eye, Constance and Fiona (Jessica Lange) randomly discover they’re sisters, Mallory (Billie Lourd) travel back in time and quickly figure out how to defeat Mr. Nas, and Cordelia (Sarah Paulson) die and come back to life for what feels like the millionth time. And that’s not even getting into how rushed and underwhelming the resolution was, making the witches’ power and impact in Covenseem like they never even mattered. From the start, the season promised the ultimate evil who would be highly difficult to defeat, but Satan seemed to get scared in the end. Honestly, even his son Michael (Cody Fern) in Apocalypsewas much more challenging to take down.
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The final two episodes were an absolute disaster, but I’d even go as far as to say that the season finale, in particular, wasn’t just one of the worst episodes in AHS‘s history, but one of the worst TV episodes I’ve ever seen. The plot made no sense, everything felt rushed, some characters were sidelined without explanation, and the whole premise of how significant this threat was supposed to be went nowhere. Ever since Murder House, the show has struggled with developing certain arcs properly, and there have always been characters who deserved more attention than they got. And of course, there’s also the fact that watching it 15 years ago is a very different experience from watching it today. Still, I’ve never seen potential go to waste quite like it did in Season 13.
At least, one thing became clear: the main difference between this new season and previous ones was the episodes’ runtimes. And if you really take a closer look at everything, you’ll realize the only reason 13turned out so poorly was the decision to give its 13 episodes around 30 minutes each (sometimes even less). I understand the format was meant to complement the season’s theme, but at some point, you have to consider whether that choice is actually going to work in the end, because it can easily undermine the entire narrative. I wouldn’t say this season was lacking in ideas at all; it has plenty of the crazy elements that have always been part of AHS, but it just couldn’t deliver the intended impact as it was constantly racing against the clock.
Ryan Murphy Needs to Give the Show a Format That Fits Its Seasons
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I don’t think 13‘s problem was a lack of ideas. There was more than enough material to make something really good, as the early episodes were setting up an intriguing mystery. However, these were ideas that inevitably needed more time to come together and make sense without leaving so many plot holes behind. Fans came up with all sorts of theories about why the episodes were so short, but the only thing we know is that Murphy came up with the episode count, and that’s it. Either way, given the amount of time they had to tell this story, I would have preferred to see the narrative restructured to fit that format, which didn’t happen.
I got the feeling this season had an ambitious story in mind, but the creative team never really figured out what needed to stay and what could be cut during development (like Episode 11, which focused exclusively on Madison and Ben). And that’s a major mistake when you’re working with such a huge cast, multiple characters, and connections to other seasons. There’s simply too much to juggle. I’m not saying every AHSepisode needs to be an hour long, after all, the show has had seasons where a more straightforward plot worked very well, like Roanoke: its episodes were around 40 minutes long, with a faster pace that suited the season’s format and overall concept. So, with that, Murphy, who has become more directly involved with the show again, needs to understand that the format has to match the kind of story he’s trying to tell.
In my opinion, a few additional episodes or longer runtimes would have made a huge difference, because all the season really needed was to give its existing conflicts more attention: some relationships needed more development, some revelations should have been properly set up, and even some of the returning characters deserved more meaningful roles — Evan Peters is one of the main stars in the cast, yet he barely had anything to do. This was a season that had all the ingredients to get things right, but the writing always seemed to be in a hurry to move on to the next big moment.
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Not every season has to get everything right in every episode, and I was willing to overlook a few questionable moments here and there if the finale could somehow make everything that came before it worthwhile — but it managed to be even worse than all of that. At this point, Murphy urgently needs to rethink how he approaches storytelling before even starting to write the next season, because 13was so poorly developed that it’s unforgivable. The show has already lost a lot of its audience, and if things keep going this way, it’s only going to lose even more. We’re not asking for an overly complex story, just for it to preserve what makes AHSwhat it is and make sure the plot makes sense, both in terms of what happens and how the events are shown. That’s really all it takes, and it’s not that hard.
What do you think American Horror Story needs to do to get back on track? Does the series need some kind of change? And could Season 13 have been better with longer episodes, or was its problem the writing itself? Let me know your thoughts in the comments!
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