Tuesday, October 24, 2023

Review: First 5 episodes of 'AHS: Delicate'


"American Horror Story: Delicate" details the story of actress Anna Victoria Alcott (Emma Roberts) trying to have a baby with her husband Dexter Harding (Matt Czuchry) while competing for an Oscar and other acting awards.

And, in classic "AHS" fashion, there are also satanic forces trying to claim the baby in exchange for facilitating Anna's fame. But of course, Anna doesn't know that, so she's being gaslit to kingdom come, which is making her feel crazy.

The gaslighting and disbelief is frustrating, and the time skips are disorienting. I'm sure that's part of the point, but those sorts of narratives drive me insane, and not in the fun way.

I couldn't even tell for certain whether Dexter was intentionally gaslighting Anna or not until the fourth episode when he had scenes discussing Anna with his mother. Even then, his reactions seem exaggerated from the viewer perspective.

I do enjoy the casting though, as Dexter reminds me of Czuchry's characters in "Gilmore Girls" and "The Good Wife." Likewise, the rest of the cast is really pulling their characters off as well, particularly Roberts and Kim Kardashian.

Kardashian's acting might not be top tier, but it actually felt more natural than some of the things she says on "Keeping Up with the Kardashians," so I enjoyed it. She's well suited to play Siobhan Corbyn.

In fact, the main reason I chose to give this season a try is because I was interested in seeing the more notable cast members together, namely Roberts, Czuchry, Kardashian, Billie Lourd, Cara Delevingne, and Denis O'Hare.

I actually thought Lourd was playing Preecher until the fourth episode since Preecher looks like Lourd's mother Carrie Fisher from some angles, but Preecher is actually played by Julie White. And Preecher is a real standout among the cast despite her current lack of screentime.

Another thing that really entertained me was the "my body" video created to fix Anna's reputation, as shown below. Despite being a bit ham-fisted, it was actually really good and I could see it being used for a similar real-life situation.


I also enjoyed when Siobhan took a call from Anna Wintour and the first thing she said was, "Hi, love." That struck me as funny both because of Wintour's rumored ability to intimidate and because of her previous interactions with Kardashian in real life.

While I'm not sure the show is for me, there's plenty to be found for those who do like this particular type of horror story, especially when the meat of the plot finally starts to pick up around the fourth episode.

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