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American Horror Stories Season 2 Already Looks WAY Better Than Season 1
The trailer for American Horror Stories season 2 teases an improvement in quality and far more terrifying tales than the mixed-reviewed season 1.

American Horror Stories Season 2 Already Looks WAY Better Than Season 1

The official trailer for American Horror Stories season 2 suggests the new scares and storytelling will be far better than season 1. American Horror Stories serves as a spinoff to Ryan Murphy’s American Horror Story, with the newer anthology even bringing back characters and locations from the original series. However, while American Horror Story follows one terrifying tale per season, American Horror Stories sees a new plot in each episode.

American Horror Story, which debuted in 2011, has produced some of the most acclaimed seasons of horror television in history, with the series already renewed through 13 seasons. While the first few seasons of American Horror Story were met with critical acclaim, the same wasn’t true for its first official offshoot, American Horror Stories. The spinoff, which generally starred young actors new to the American Horror Story family, lacked consistency in quality between episodes, leading American Horror Stories season 1 to receive disappointingly mixed reviews from critics.

Despite a lackluster first season, American Horror Stories was renewed for season 2, perhaps due to the strength of its best-received episodes, “BA’AL” (starring Billie Lourd) and “Feral.” While the first season may not have consistently lived up to expectations, the trailer for American Horror Stories season 2 suggests a big jump in quality for the new plotlines. The episode titles themselves had already teased a proper use of the format, with American Horror Stories season 2 adapting some of the most popular themes, like “Bloody Mary,” that wouldn’t suit a season-long story. Alongside teasing the returns of seasoned American Horror Story actors like Dennis O’Hare and Gabourey Sidibe, the American Horror Stories installment 2 trailer reveals an improvement in production quality, far more twisted narratives, and a step away from over-relying on connections to AHS seasons.

Where American Horror Stories Season 1 Went Wrong

While “BA’AL” and “Feral” were seen as worthy episodes, the poorly-received installments of American Horror Stories season 1 seemed to find their greatest fault in writing for teenage plotlines. Particularly for those that returned to AHS season 1’s Murder House location, the writing for the teenage characters lacked substance and a compelling narrative, with generally subpar acting and very little context given for the new figures’ introductions. Considering the Murder House episodes seemed to present the biggest issues for American Horror Stories season 1, it didn’t help that three of the seven episodes focused on these characters and the already exhausted AHS location.

The most important area where American Horror Stories season 1 went wrong was the horror aspect of its storylines. “BA’AL” and “Feral” offered truly terrifying tales with captivating performances by Billie Lourd and Cody Fern and the gripping twists that viewers expect from an AHS spinoff, but “Drive In,” “The Naughty List,” and the Murder House episodes were lacking in these key elements. While AHS has certainly employed the campiness of the horror genre, American Horror Stories season 1 overutilized this exaggerated style in favor of producing genuinely frightening tales. However, American Horror Stories season 2 appears to be a welcome return to form, with the episodes already teasing intriguing nightmare-inducing twists.