Stream It Or Skip It: ‘American Horror Stories’ Season 2 on FX on Hulu, Where The Gold Standard Creepiness Returns In Fine Form

American Horror Stories, the anthology television series from Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk, creators of the American Story universe, returns to FX on Hulu for a second season of eccentric and episodic frights. Denis O’Hare, who frequents these parts, appears in its first outing, and American Horror Story cast members Gabourey Sidibe, Max Greenfield, and Seth Gabel are also set to return. And speaking of its parent program, the prequel-style first installment of Horror Stories season two enters the storyline of American Horror Story: Coven through an unseen side door.

AMERICAN HORROR STORIES: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: The Van Wirt Toy Company, and its bustling loading dock. A sedan pulls in and parks next to a few other vehicles, including a VW Bug. This is Natchez, Mississippi, and it’s 1961.

The Gist: As Miss Coby Rae Dellum (Forseth) arrives for her job interview, Mr. Van Wirt (Denis O’Hare) waxes poetic about dolls and doll making. “Dolls have been around since the Egyptians. They even found one in King Tut’s tomb.” Outside his office, the production line hums with activity. Sawdust being sifted, wax globules entering injection molds, craftsmen putting the finishing touches on eye holes and hair follicles. “And what is a doll, anyway? For when the Lord formed dust into man, he was seeking perfection.” It’s all Coby can do to smile along and point to her qualifications for the secretary position. But it doesn’t matter. She’s here for a different purpose. And Eustace (Matt Lasky), Van Wirt’s silent hook-handed hulk of a henchman, subdues her with chloroform.

“You’re on my estate, and this is my private dollhouse.” Decorum goes out the barred windows as Coby realizes Van Wirt is deranged and she is his prisoner. But she’s not alone. Upon his departure from the arch, vaguely Victorian sitting room, the lifesize dolls frozen scattered about come to life. “Well this is all we fucking need,” says Aurelia (Abby Corrigan). “Little miss started in the middle of the contest. She didn’t have to do the first three tests!” Van Wirt murdered his wife when he discovered her affair. (He had Eustace throw her down a Civil War-era well on his vast property.) But that left his son Otis (Houston Jax Towe) without a mother. And so the crazy rich, just plain crazy dollmaker has collected this group of women, which also includes Harlene (Simone Recasner), Faye (Maryssa Menendez), and Bonnie (Emily Morales-Cabrera). They must play their doll roles, and stay silent unless spoken to. And she who survives the interactions with Otis and Van Wirt’s impossible challenges will get to be the perfect new mother and wife. Some prize that is.

Dressed as a clown, Coby makes immediate headway with Otis when she employs her mild, still unproven powers of telekinesis. “It’s a gift,” she tells him, “something I was born with.” Aurelia scoffs at the display, while the others just stay scared. And they have a right to be, since people keep getting thrown down the well for bizarre infractions. (“You used a bouillon spoon for terrapin soup!”) Coby realizes that any kind of win is no win at all, and devises a plan for escape from the lifesize dollhouse. But while he has his endgame all prepared – doll molds come in all shapes and sizes – neither Van Wirt nor his captives are expecting what happens next.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? With one season of its own in the books and ten (!) seasons of American Horror Story to work with, you can expect more explorations and interweavings of the myriad characters and storylines in this franchise. And the format here – as well as the air of dark comedy – acts as a callback to that episodic horror classic, Tales From the Crypt.

Our Take: The twisted fairy tale angle of American Horror Stories is a fun one, with its access to that rich thematic history being emboldened by also connecting with a pulse distinct to our country’s cultural narrative. Van Wirt is fond of dusty Old Testament quotes that couch the role of a woman in patriarchal toxicity, but he’s also caught out by Otis, arguing on the telephone with a distributor who declares his handmade dolls obsolete in the new face of America’s beauty ideal, Barbie. And Coby initially considers her impossible situation with a dose of polite mid century manners before gathering her wits and self-determination in a play to strike back at the wrongheaded predicament. She won’t sit idly by. Not with what her mind can do.

It’s something this franchise in its many parts has always done, to uphold the particular American-ness of its title. Even the introductory title sequence itself – shared across the scope of AHS brands – is a deft mashup of horror movie editing, true crime vibing, and dubstep bass drops. “What is the stranger, more unseemly America behind “America”?!” it seems to shriek, and that’s what Horror Stories, with its episodic frame, aims to answer from many different angles.

Sex and Skin: With her partner, Van Wirt’s wife is seen in the moment of her infidelity.

Parting Shot: In New Orleans, the St. Charles Streetcar pulls away, leaving Coby and Otis in front of a large antebellum mansion. He shouldn’t use his own name here, she tells him. For his own safety. Instead, Otis will go by his middle name, Spalding. And out of Miss Robichaux’s Academy for Exceptional Young Ladies bounds a girl with an unruly orange frizz, who introduces herself as Myrtle.

Sleeper Star: “Don’t butter my ass and call me a biscuit.” Abby Corrigan (Castle Rock) is full of sass, suspicion, and spitting competitive spirit as Aurelia, the “maid” doll who resents Coby’s tardy arrival in the deadly dollhouse and dismisses her telekinetic powers as “voodoo shit.”

Most Pilot-y Line: “Your participation isn’t open to debate.” Denis O’Hare delivers this line with a sinister chuckle, connecting it to all of the fables and legends that have come before featuring individuals unfortunate enough to step into some spooky, terrifying, or otherwise life-destroying shit.

Our Call: STREAM IT. The episodic pace of American Horror Stories keeps the action lean and satisfying, and its sense of humor is as welcome as the foreboding and sidelong connections back into the AHS narrative mothership.

Johnny Loftus is an independent writer and editor living at large in Chicagoland. His work has appeared in The Village Voice, All Music Guide, Pitchfork Media, and Nicki Swift. Follow him on Twitter: @glennganges