• Network: FX
  • Series Premiere Date: Oct 5, 2011
  • Season #: 1 , 2
American Horror Story Image
Metascore

Generally favorable reviews - based on 30 Critics What's this?

User Score

Generally favorable reviews- based on 310 Ratings

  • Summary: After a miscarriage and nearly breaking up, Ben and Vivien Harmon (Dylan McDermott and Connie Britton) move from Boston to Los Angeles with their daughter to start a new life in a house with an eerie past.
  • Genre(s): Horror
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 15 out of 30
  2. Negative: 3 out of 30
  1. Reviewed by: Mark A. Perigard
    Oct 5, 2011
    91
    I loved the pilot, mostly because I could never predict where the story was going, a rarity in prime-time TV.
  2. 80
    The show may be ridiculous, but the humiliation and panic feel real. And there's something to be said for surprise.
  3. Reviewed by: David Hinckley
    Oct 5, 2011
    60
    Viewers who like the horror genre and the offbeat Murphy/Falchuk approach, and who are willing to put in enough serious time to absorb all the nuances, will fall in love.
  4. Reviewed by: Ellen Gray
    Oct 5, 2011
    30
    As the one character who grounds a story that would otherwise seem like a random collection of bad things happening to so-so people, Britton's the only reason I could imagine watching American Horror Story past the three episodes I've seen.

See all 30 Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 68 out of 80
  2. Negative: 3 out of 80
  1. This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Brilliant season and exquisite season finale. Exhibit A. What other show would literally kill off its entire starring cast in the first season? Exhibit B. Jessica Lange in one long, devastating take. Exhibit C. More story twists in one episode than most shows manage in an entire series. Expand
  2. Surprisingly edgy for non-pay TV. The writers must have had a lot of fun coming up with all the bad things that could happen on just the first episode. Its easy to see how this could be a lot of fun for a few more weeks, but hard to see where they take it from there. Already, the question is clearly "why don't you just move?". Expand
  3. The show is a strange mixture of funny, dark and mind-twisting. It will rise so many questions which you'll want to be answered so badly that you'll even forget about the common and irritating plot twists and you'll ask yourself: "What the hell is going on here?!" and like so untill the very last episode of the season where each question is slowly yet clearly answered.
    The flashbacks that retell the past events that happened at the scenes of each season are often fun and bring a dose of depth to the storyline.
    Expand
  4. I watched the entire season and was not impressed in the least. Why would I want to watch a show with ghosts who act just like living people? What is the point of being dead if you have the same issues when you were alive? Death is more of the same **** Really? Really!?! Expand

See all 80 User Reviews

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