American Horror Story: Coven (2013)
Average Rating: 7.3/10
Reviews Counted: 31
Fresh: 26 | Rotten: 5
A noteworthy ensemble cast combined with creepy storytelling and campy, outrageous thrills make American Horror Story: Coven a potently structured fright-fest.
Average Rating: 7.3/10
Critic Reviews: 10
Fresh: 9 | Rotten: 1
A noteworthy ensemble cast combined with creepy storytelling and campy, outrageous thrills make American Horror Story: Coven a potently structured fright-fest.
Season Info
An anthology horror series featuring violent stories involving different characters and locations.
Network: FX
Premiere Date: Oct 9, 2013
Cast
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Jessica Lange
Fiona -
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Kathy Bates
Delphine LaLaurie -
Sarah Paulson
Cordelia -
Evan Peters
Kyle -
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Taissa Farmiga
Zoe -
Angela Bassett
Marie Laveau -
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Patti LuPone
Joan Ramsey -
Emma Roberts
Madison -
Gabourey Sidibe
Queenie -
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Episodes
Bitchcraft
A young girl discovers she has a strange genetic affliction in the Season 3 premiere.
Boy Parts
Fiona helps Zoe and Madison deal with a tragedy. Meanwhile, Delphine struggles to adjust to modern life.
The Replacements
Fiona takes on an unlikely protégé. Meanwhile, Zoe tries to help Kyle.
Fearful Pranks Ensue
A long-standing truce between the Salem witches and Marie Laveau is threatened.
Burn, Witch. Burn!
Zoe unleashes a new power. Meanwhile, Fiona and Myrtle battle for control of the Coven.
The Axeman Cometh
The Dead
Critic Reviews for American Horror Story: Coven
The third installment in Ryan Murphy's American Horror Story dials back the frights for more confident storytelling.
The formula works particularly well in this installment, thanks to uninhibited work by the big-name cast.
There's still blood and gore all over the floor, mind you... But there's also a lightness of touch and tone, a backlight of sly humor and, more important, a clearly delineated narrative.
At some point, a discerning viewer needs something besides repeat trips into a bad dream.
When something tries to shock me consistently for 43 minutes, I'm pretty much never shocked by anything, or scared by anything. I'm usually just exhausted.
American Horror Story goes to camp this year, and no one will get a peaceful night's sleep - not just because of all the bloodcurdling screams, but because of a good bit of laughter as well.
Lange chews the scenery in ways that only she can, stealing focus every time she's on screen, and I don't mean that as a negative.
Falchuck and Murphy make TV as if they're convinced they could die at any moment and want to breathe life into as many of their cockamamie ideas as they can before they go.
The limited-series approach is perfectly suited to these over-the-top storylines, which would surely crumble under their own weight if forced to run a minute longer.
Whatever else happens in the new season, Bates and Lange will be chewing scenery together.
By now, fans of the American Horror Story franchise know to brace themselves for something weird and outrageous right out the gate. And the latest incarnation of the crazed scarefest doesn't disappoint.
The success of the series will ultimately depend on its ability to balance all its disparate threads and form something as affecting, unnerving, and unforgettable as its previous incarnations. Either way, we still have Lange.
There are aspects of Coven that are stylish and clever, and others that are just Carrie on steroids. The cast, of course, is tremendous.
Sex and death are gruesomely intertwined (so what else is new) throughout the first hour of FX's American Horror Story: Coven, the third incarnation of Ryan Murphy's overstuffed miniseries anthology that specializes in ponderous, grotesque overkill.
No matter what outlandish acts Murphy and his co-producer Brad Falchuk ask of the Oscar and Emmy winner [Jessica Lange], she turns them into small-screen magic.
So far, so creepy
It's always hard to tell how any series will go, especially one as reliably twisty and turny as American Horror Story, but in its first hour at least, Coven offers a clear entertaining setup for a potentially strong season.
So far, the first episode of Coven is a stylish introduction (complete with black hats). The two seasons before give reason to bet it will throw a lot more in this cauldron, and to hope for some strange magic.
Think about what might happen if Stephen King collaborated on a TV series with John Waters. That gets you close to the terror territory staked out by American Horror Story.
If Coven can stay away from scary moments that carry a too-strong whiff of real human suffering and instead serve the chills with enjoyable snark, we'll fall under its spell.
Even if the premiere of American Horror Story: Coven was a bit vague about its intentions for the rest of the season, it's clear that whatever happens will be entertaining, perplexing and, as always, sexy.
Hey, I was won over (for at least a week) when, in the midst of a mother-daughter argument, Fiona tells Cordelia, "Don't make me drop a house on you."
The presentation remains campy, even as the material has shifted toward the deadly serious.
Horror is back, wrapped in a gothic cloak woven with camp.
The storyline is more tightly focused than last year's see-what-sticks approach.
The premiere was a shocking introduction into this witch world. While it felt like nothing was held back, since it's American Horror Story my guess is that we haven't seen anything yet.
Coven definitely presents plenty of promising elements and characters spanning 200 years to have fun with this season, and the possibilities are literally endless.
The season premiere offers a little bit of everything we've come to appreciate about American Horror Story, in that it pulls no punches, twisting violence, sex and gore into a wickedly dark but altogether entrancing introduction.
The hour packs in sex, sexual violence, violence-violence, some beautiful cinematography and a surprising amount of offhand humor in telling its story of a New Orleans finishing school for young witches.
It was a solid premiere, and I think the more straight-forward approach bodes well for what the season will hopefully turn out to be if they don't get overly ambitious.
Something wicked did indeed come on Wednesday night with the third season premiere of American Horror Story: Coven. Something that wickedly delights in something wickedly funny, something disturbingly beautiful, and something totally bats-t crazy.
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