“American Horror Story: Cult” concluded Tuesday night, and it was insanely disappointing.
I’ve been on the record that I’ve been enjoying the seventh season of the hit show, despite the fact most people I knew watching were not sharing my view. I thought the show was doing a nice job of balancing the current political climate without coming over the top. AHS had done a nice job of creating a strong blend of a character driven story and spicing it up with references to Trump, the MAGA crowd, Hillary Clinton and far left nut jobs.
Even the finale looked promising until the final ten minutes. There was a badass SWAT team raid to take out lead villain Kai (Evan Peters), and it looked like he was going to rot in prison. That seemed like a fitting end for the insane man hellbent on taking power.
Instead, the writing got super lazy. Kai literally walks out of prison to only have his head blown off by two women who he had terrified. That in and of itself isn’t terrible. In fact, the shooting was pretty cool.
It’s the fact that one of the women involved in the plot to kill him, Ally (Sarah Paulson) dropped a line about being a “nasty woman” right before he was shot in the back of the head. It was painfully forced, and was so bad that it pretty much ruined an entire season. Again, it wasn’t the fact Paulson and her friend blew Kai’s head apart. It was the fact that the entire ending scene was so obviously forcing a political message.
The show went from being entertaining, suspension and not preachy to being none of those things by the time it was over. I was hoping I could put this season up near the top with the first few seasons.
Unfortunately, it looks like “American Horror Story: Cult” is destined to be remembered with “AHS: Hotel” and “AHS: Freak Show.” So much potential, but just pathetic execution.
Hopefully season 8 bounces back.