Revisiting the (Recent) Classics: AMERICAN HORROR STORY: COVEN

I’ve said before how I don’t get to watch television the old-fashioned way, sitting down on the sofa at a prescribed time and watching it along with millions of other viewers. The Nielsons would never be able to accurately measure my viewing habits. I simply stay too busy for “appointment” television. I do realize that, thanks to the advances in technology, allowing you to binge watch your favorite program over the Internet or on your cellphone, the standard viewing experience is far less common today than in years gone by. Still, it remains the way most people watch their favorite programs, whereas I may wait months or even years to see a show that interests me. I only this past week finished watching the third season of AMERICAN HORROR STORY, subtitled COVEN. I haven’t been watching the series in order, though, so COVEN followed on the heels of FREAK SHOW for me.

The Minotaur character, which was terribly underused, I thought, made COVEN a perfect fit for me to talk about it on this site. It was scary, or could have been, if the writers had kept it around for longer. That would be my second biggest complaint with the collection. The first and biggest is that I didn’t care for what they did with Marie Leveau. I understand that this is an alternate history. It drove me crazy when all the PC bitchers were up in arms over THE LEGEND OF TARZAN and the way they had Tarzan put a quicker end to the crimes of the Belgians in Africa; it was a separate reality, never intended to depict real history. Even so, when the film featured characters based on real people, it did not depict them in ways contrary to how they were in real life. George Washington Williams was still brilliant, brave, and altruistic, and heel Leon Rom was still a fascist pig. By contrast, Voodoo queen Marie Leveau was not at all villainous in real life. Taking nothing away from Angela Bassett’s performance in the role, I didn’t like this false portrayal at all. If you’re going to use historical figures as characters, you need to stay true to their actual personalities, not screw with them for dramatic purposes.

By The Evil Cheezman

WAYNE MILLER is the owner and creative director of EVIL CHEEZ PRODUCTIONS (www.evilcheezproductions.blogspot.com, www.facebook.com/evilcheezproductions), specializing in theatrical performances and haunted attractions. He has written, produced and directed (and occasionally acted in) over a dozen plays, most of them in the Horror and Crime genres. His first novel, THE CONFESSIONS OF SAINT CHRISTOPHER: WEREWOLF, is available for purchase at https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/734763 MORTUI VELOCES SUNT!

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