![]() ![]() The final episodes of NYC do not address this much, but it represents one of the more complicated aspects of the season. This is a belief many homophobic bigots had in the midst of the AIDS crisis, too, that the illness targeting the gay community was a punishment. In Sam and Patrick’s case, their physical decline is suggestive of the idea that the body keeps the score, that their shame and pain have manifested into disease. Sam, in particular, represented some of the darkest corners of this world - he, not Whitely/Mai Tai, served as the bogeyman of the ills of the community, the monster that many of those who opposed queerness may have thought the entire community to be. Some members of the community do abuse drugs, some do engage in dangerous sex, some do fall into a trap of depravity, some do hide their shame in damaging ways. This season is, without question, about the gay community, and hasn’t shied away from addressing some of the more controversial components of it. With Sam and Patrick’s ghosts, there is a reckoning occurring not only with these characters themselves, but perhaps even with the writers and creators of the show. Throughout this sequence, and with the explicit mention of AIDS, we get closer to the purpose and message of the season. By the end of part one, we finally hear the word “AIDS,” confirming that the illness being discussed throughout the season isn’t just a parallel, but the crisis itself. Patrick undergoes a similar quest as Sam, forced to face how his own internalized homophobia has hurt others, how his commitment to masculinity and policedom caused unnecessary pain. All of this remains ambiguous but further suggests that Big Daddy has always been some sort of specter, capable of embodying whatever those who see him fear most of confronting. ![]() There, Sam unmasks Big Daddy, who becomes a noticeably less large blond man, perhaps a former lover. Next, Henry takes Sam to a dungeon, where he must confront the ways he’s transferred the pain he experienced at the hands of his father and previous bosses into sexual depravity, before showing him the beach on Fire Island. These scenes are just as moving as they are terrifying - to die alone in a hospital, begging for help and compassion, is a true horror, one so many in both the AIDS crisis and more recently in the COVID-19 pandemic have actually experienced. With so few in the outside world willing to extend any warmth to those dying, Theo pushes Sam to finally offer some himself. Theo brings Sam through the hospital, showing him how men he knew and neglected to show kindness to have all succumbed to the illness as well. Sam is visited first by Theo, then by Henry (whom we never did see die). Before their deaths, however, each is visited by ghosts from their past, as though they’re Ebenezer Scrooge in the early hours of Christmas morning. The rapid progression of the illness is the focus of part one, as we see the disease take out both Sam and Patrick even though they’d only experienced mild symptoms earlier. The majority of NYC centered around two questions: Who is Big Daddy, and what is this growing illness that’s plaguing the gay community? We get answers to both of these questions in parts one and two of “A Requiem: 1981/1987,” even if they come in the form of metaphors. It doesn’t matter whether it was a good season of AHS: It was good television. So maybe NYC doesn’t have the exact same pace and flair as previous seasons, but it extended the boundaries of what we have always turned to AHS for. But more often, don’t we watch it to have our limits pushed, whether that’s through the visual of abject gore, the humor of some over-the-top campy characters, or the emotional pull of loss? Those are all hallmarks of horror as a genre, broadly speaking. But perhaps all this time it would have been better to dissect what AHS, as a medium, has most saliently offered us in the past. We’ve been preoccupied this season with whether NYC really feels like American Horror Story. Here’s to hoping it runs as long as Law and Order: SVU. ![]() The deal was announced by John Landgraf, chairman of FX Networks and FX Productions, at the Winter TCA press tour.” “The Disney-owned cable network has ordered installments 11, 12, and 13 of the series from 20th Century Fox Television. Deadline confirmed that FX ordered another three seasons after 10 wraps. Glad to see her wish come true! Let’s ask a serious question: Will season 10 be the end of AHS?Ībsolutely not! Can you imagine life without new seasons of American Horror Story? I don’t want to. If he’ll come back, I’m back,” she commented. So I’d love to have that experience again. She also talked about how she missed working with longtime costar and fellow AHS vet Evan Peters. I need to be a part of it again,” she said. In an interview with TV Guidelast year, Sarah Paulson spoke about how difficult it was not being in season 9 of AHS. ![]()
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