2013 January 29 « HORROR BOOM

SPOILER WARNING!

If you haven’t seen the entire season, still plan to, and want to go in clean, skip this and wait to vote until after you watch ’em!

Well, the budget here at Horror Boom is oh, let’s say we round it off, and ….we’re gonna go with zero at this point. That means we have to pay an extra $80 if you want to present more than ten options for any kind of poll. So, we can only list ten episodes, and had to cut out three- which has hard to do, but we went with Episode One- “Welcome To Briarcliffe”, Episode Two – “Tricks and Treats”, and episode 12 – “Continuum”. It’s not that they wer’nt good episodes; we just did some thinking and were pretty sure than they weren’t going to be in the running for best or favorite episode. There was just SO much more going on in the other ten, starting in “Nor’eastr” (Episode 3) – we saw the Raspers, for the first time, Sister Mary Eunice’s possession started to pick up speed, Sister Jude got hammered right before movie night, and we got the first (and only) actual look at the alien other than seeing flashes of long , freaky, insectile ~~arms~~ ~~legs~~ appendages later in the season. Plus, Shelley’s true descent into Hell began in the final scene of the episode with the first truly shocking, disturbing reveal of the season …the first of many, MANY more to come.

After that, American Horror Story Asylum just put the goddamned pedal to the metal and kept it floored, not easing off for a moment. Meanwhile, we viewers quickly realized were being treated to a pitch dark roller-coaster of a ride where you couldn’t see something coming at you until right before when it was already WAY too late to stop in time. They had carefully planned the route, but didn’t warn us before the really dangerous stuff)–sharp turns and dangerous driving that made our hearts pound and buckle up our seat belts instantly and hastily, trying not to panic about the fact that a head-on collision could occur at any moment. They then smoothly and wisely began backing down to the speed limit and thinking about the best route to the exit ramp on the penultimate episode, “Continuum”, where story lines took time jumps (in the case of Jude, a real nightmare of one), the finish line was in sight, we got closure on a couple of things, only to wrap up on the season finale (I keep wanting to call it ‘series finale’, since each season is self-contained and considered a novel of its own). All our questions were answered, we got closure (including the end of one character’s life that had Mrs. Horror Boom here so emotional she burst into tears and had to pause the episode for a goof ten minutes before fast-forwarding through the commercial break and onto the next act), and some great slow-burn pay-offs. Didn’t realize this till it got written down here just now, but there wasn’t much, if any, gore. in the finale. So what, though? It WORKED, and that’s all that matters!

As usual, you can vote on up to three (even we have trouble even narrowing it down to that) of what you personally thought were the best, most memorable episodes of American Horror Story Asylum. Also, there’s room for write-in votes as usual (all anonymous; we don’t even bother to block repeat votes, so there’s no cookies or IP addresses tracked) in case your favorite episode wasn’t included in the top ten. We included a link right here to the IMDB episode guide for the entire season right here, in case you’re not sure which episode title which major event happens in. Here’s the poll- vote away, and we’ll present the winners and runners-up in early February. Now, please exercise your right to vote below!

For the record, we voted for “I am Frank Part 2”, “Origins of Monstrosity”, and “Dark Cousins” tying with the finale, “Madness Ends”, and there wasn’t a dull or predictable moment in “The Name Game” either, and.… damn, this is just too hard!