The final episode of American Horror Story - Roanoke certainly loads up the episode with plenty of the remaining tropes such as reality television, media, and news. While I think giving Paulson yet another role after just last episode, her Audrey (complete with a British accent) having been shot by police, I get why Murphy and Falchuk couldn't help it. She's their MVP, a series veteran, so what's one more role as Lana Winters, an interviewer icon who killed her psychopathic son and is able to interview Lee on national television. Then the last Polk boy arrives with machine gun, knocking Lana out (despite her effort to calm him down and convince him to drop the weapon), and almost killing Lee before the police outside stop him.
So you have the interview show satirized by Murphy and Falchuk. There have been reenactment and interviews of those being portrayed in a show satirized by Murphy and Falchuk. You have the high powered producer who made the Roanoke show a success and how Hollywood is gung ho about going to the well again for an exploitative second season where actors and their actual real life counterparts show up at a location for a celeb reality show satirized by Murphy and Falchuk. There are the college kids with their phones and cameras wanting to make it big on social media. And in the final episode, Murphy and Falchuk even satirize ghost hunting shows with "Spirit Chasers", where another actor (Leslie Jordan) joins the paranormal researchers to the Roanoke home, finding Lee inside looking for her missing daughter. And included is the news with "live broadcast" at the scene as the police surround the Roanoke house, with overhead helicopter footage and media pundits discuss the current situation satirized by Murphy and Falchuk. No stone unturned.
There is even a court trial as Lee is prosecuted for the murder of her husband and has the luxury of a masterful lawyer and favorable jury, taking apart her daughter's testimony by bringing up a ghost girl she knows, Priscilla. Murphy and Falchuk even add "Crack'd" an amusing satirical jab at those shows about killer women. Murphy and Falchuk's team were really inspired during this season. They really didn't leave any stone unturned. 3.5/5
I had to admire the cinematic close to the episode where Lee and her daughter discuss Priscilla's protection from The Butcher through a sacrifice. With all the "found footage" and camera footage as the storytelling devices for the season, that what happens inside the house that couldn't be done that way without really stretching credibility, Murphy and Falchuk decide to shoot it as regular on-set scene...it is that one moment that isn't a reenactment or recorded-on-a-technical-device-as-it-happens footage. And the paranormal television parody is absolutely inspired. Not only do they get the feel of such a show down, seeing them all actually encountering actual activity that murders them is icing on the cake. I would love to actually see Jordan in one of these shows as himself.
Comments
Post a Comment