When the first season of American Horror Story initially aired, the general public did not know that each story would end after one season. While it may have been considered risky to change the cast, character, and themes each year, they really hit it out of the park with American Horror Story: Asylum. The Asylum chapter offers a much darker and stranger tale than we saw at the Murder House, while still offering fantastic performances from the entire cast.
Jessica Lange was more of a supporting character in the first season, but she’s front and center this time around as Sister Jude, the administrator of the Briarcliff asylum. Not only must she deal with her own personal demons, but outside forces, including psychopaths, demonic forces, unorthodox medical experiments, and aliens? While this sounds like a lot to throw into a limited series, the creative team manages to pull it all off for the most part. It really helps, that there are so many fantastic supporting actors, including James Cromwell and Zachary Quinto, who elevate the material that could come off as unbelievable in another actor’s hands.
The second chapter of American Horror Story was recently released to Blu-ray and DVD, and should definitely be enough to satisfy the average fan. For the most part, fans of the series should notice a better quality picture on the Blu-ray edition than what you get from your local station provider, as the picture tends to be a bit compressed when watching it live. There are also a number of special features in the set, including multiple deleted scenes and behind-the-scenes featurettes. For American Horror Story fanatics, it may not be considered a definitive release, and I would have loved it if commentary had been included on each episode.
If you haven’t seen American Horror Story: Asylum, I’d definitely suggest giving it a try. It’s rare to see such great performances in the horror genre, especially when it comes to television releases. Jessica Lange steals the show this season and is a pleasure to watch in every scene she’s in. Asylum sports a great supporting cast, along with one of the craziest theme mash-ups I’ve ever. The recent Blu-ray and DVD release from Fox includes all 13 episodes of the Asylum storyline, with a set of bonus features that gives you a behind-the-scenes look at the making of the show. I'm hoping that we get a more extensive set of bonus features for future releases, but that shouldn't stop fans from picking this one up.
Season Score: 4/5 Disc Score: 3.5/5
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