On Tuesday, Ryan Murphy released his latest contribution to what's starting to feel like a streaming platform takeover, following up "American Sports Story: Aaron Hernandez," "Monsters: The Lyle And Erik Menendez Story," "Grotesquerie" and a string of others with his return to "American Horror Stories," which plopped into our laps in a five-episode dump on Hulu, just in time for peak spooky season.
If you're saying to yourself, "Wait, I didn't know there was a new season of 'American Horror Story,'" there isn't. This is "American Horror Storie(s)" — plural — and how that differs from "AHS" proper is that by centering each episode on a standalone story that begins and ends in 38–49 minutes, Murphy takes a break from fiddling around with how to land the end of a full season narrative arch, which he historically gets called out for fumbling. Interweaving plot lines that come together satisfyingly after 9 or 10 episodes? Too hard. Throwing together whatever bonkers thing he can think of for one nonsensical (but in a fun way) episode? Yeah, that's his sweet spot. And that's exactly what we get here.
