AHS: 1984 - Mr Jingles*
A ton of far more important sites and highly viewed critics will undoubtedly put together pieces together on "Mr. Jingles", the second episode of AHS: 1984, but my quick cuts are rather piecemeal because I haven't quite collected all my thoughts. And I already plan not only to follow this season as "appointment viewing" but also will be binging the entire season in November after the Halloween season concludes.
The pacing for this Murphy/Falchuk joint is locomotive. I'm talking, no breaks, Pelham 1-2-3 full speed. I laughed aloud when a user on the AHS Reddit Live Discussion mentioned it felt like episode two was about three slasher films, covered in 45 minutes. It is just so breakneck, hitting all the slasher highlights, not even stopping to huff and puff.
But "Mr. Jingles" cracked me up because, despite being named for the serial killer who escaped the asylum [natch] and immediately kills his doctor at the very beginning (she does get to warn the head camp counselor who survived Jingles in 1970 and lived to tell about it, Margaret Booth (Leslie Grossman) before her car gets a flat tire, meeting her doom at the hands of the very patient she tried to help). Many on the Reddit board thought the doctor (Orla Brady) would serve as the Donald Pleasance of this season but Murphy and Falchuk weren't having none of that. I did see the trailer for next week where a flashback features Brady with Jingles in what appears to be a therapy session. He does tell her she's right...he is a monster.
What I did want to talk about was the enthusiastic energy on the AHS: 1984 Reddit board. You can feel the excitement as live viewers watchalong, dropping barbs on what they see. Considering the series appeared to be waning in terms of support by the end of Cult, that promise that Apocalypse seemed to produce appears to be building with each passing week of 1984. I can almost bet the credits sequence will be a YouTube sensation and have legs for years to come.
For the millennials who didn't get to grow up with 80s slashers and all of that, 1984 is kind of an opportunity to experience a callback that brings the decade, particularly early in the genre's popularity and rise. For the past couple decades, the slasher genre has been through highs and lows, peaks and valleys. It might be that 1984, thanks to the outright gleaning from the genre in its era of so many of the tropes--particularly the mind-numbing decision making such as Emma Roberts' final girl, Brooke, always going outside, in the dark of night, alone, despite danger often threatening her or Margaret Booth keeping the camp open despite every reason to get her and the counselors out of there--will lead to yet another renaissance. Much like Scream (1996) or Going to Pieces: The Rise and Fall of the Slasher Film (2006). We shall see.
The pacing for this Murphy/Falchuk joint is locomotive. I'm talking, no breaks, Pelham 1-2-3 full speed. I laughed aloud when a user on the AHS Reddit Live Discussion mentioned it felt like episode two was about three slasher films, covered in 45 minutes. It is just so breakneck, hitting all the slasher highlights, not even stopping to huff and puff.
But "Mr. Jingles" cracked me up because, despite being named for the serial killer who escaped the asylum [natch] and immediately kills his doctor at the very beginning (she does get to warn the head camp counselor who survived Jingles in 1970 and lived to tell about it, Margaret Booth (Leslie Grossman) before her car gets a flat tire, meeting her doom at the hands of the very patient she tried to help). Many on the Reddit board thought the doctor (Orla Brady) would serve as the Donald Pleasance of this season but Murphy and Falchuk weren't having none of that. I did see the trailer for next week where a flashback features Brady with Jingles in what appears to be a therapy session. He does tell her she's right...he is a monster.
What I did want to talk about was the enthusiastic energy on the AHS: 1984 Reddit board. You can feel the excitement as live viewers watchalong, dropping barbs on what they see. Considering the series appeared to be waning in terms of support by the end of Cult, that promise that Apocalypse seemed to produce appears to be building with each passing week of 1984. I can almost bet the credits sequence will be a YouTube sensation and have legs for years to come.
For the millennials who didn't get to grow up with 80s slashers and all of that, 1984 is kind of an opportunity to experience a callback that brings the decade, particularly early in the genre's popularity and rise. For the past couple decades, the slasher genre has been through highs and lows, peaks and valleys. It might be that 1984, thanks to the outright gleaning from the genre in its era of so many of the tropes--particularly the mind-numbing decision making such as Emma Roberts' final girl, Brooke, always going outside, in the dark of night, alone, despite danger often threatening her or Margaret Booth keeping the camp open despite every reason to get her and the counselors out of there--will lead to yet another renaissance. Much like Scream (1996) or Going to Pieces: The Rise and Fall of the Slasher Film (2006). We shall see.
Comments
Post a Comment