American Horror Story’s “Freak Show” fizzles out in finale

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“American Horror Story” got even creepier this season with masks, murderers and a killer clown. Watch the show 9 p.m. Wednesdays on FX.

By Andrew Roberts

In a mediocre end to an unexciting season of “American Horror Story: Freak Show,” writers tied off lose ends lazily by killing characters no one cared about.

These characters, including Amazon Eve, Legless Suzi and Penny are killed at the expense of everyone’s favorite serial killer Dandy Mott, who throws a lovely little tantrum and shoots them with a golden revolver. This final scene was sloppy, as Dandy killed way too many people for the amount of bullets in his gun and wasn’t seen reloading.

Minutes earlier, the freaks had risen up and quit the freak show Dandy bought from Elsa Mars. For some reason, they didn’t leave the fairgrounds, which made them easy targets from a very angry Dandy.

This whole rampage was only in the first few minutes of the show and was meant to have some shock appeal. But, as the bodies piled up I couldn’t help but yawn as the tension that one would normally expect from this usually frightening show was gone. The suspense was replaced with a level of boredom as Dandy took down his targets.

Dandy meets a particularly gruesome end at the heads of twins Jimmy Darling and Desiree Dupree. His end was satisfying but felt lazy and forced, as it was expected. The next half of the finale shows Elsa finding great fame from a singing career on television and embracing her German heritage. This part felt unnecessarily long after the bloodbath.

The episode ended in a corny way that would have satisfied many: a reunion where Elsa sees all her dead friends in a sort of freak show, entering stage left before the screen goes black. It was nice seeing all of the former characters again, but after the merciless treatment of characters in seasons such as “Asylum,” it felt uncharacteristic of “American Horror Story.”

Compared to previous seasons, “Freak Show” seemed like a weak link. It suffered from poor character development, such as Jimmy’s story falling flat, Dandy being insane just for the sake of insanity and an overall lack of fear and tension that should have existed throughout. Hopefully the next season will better (even without the excellent Jessica Lange, who may not return).

The stage was set for a grand and exciting American Horror Story, but it fizzled out.