The season has been hinting at Witch-hunters for a while but now they finally become a prominent part of the storyline. This steers the narrative into an interesting direction bringing with it fresh characters and conflicts and pushing the possibility of an alliance between Marie and Fiona. Meanwhile, Queenie educates Delphine on racial prejudice and Nan becomes closer with Joan by translating the thoughts of her son.
There is a great use of special effects in episode 9 with the headless body of Delphine operating as if nothing is the matter and dismembered limbs bare a close resemblance to reality. The social commentary is wonderful to see, although its delivery is a little heavy handed and a more meaningful unique manner could have been constructed for Delphine to renounce her views. The script throughout is unoriginal and the dialogue doesn’t quite fit together. It doesn’t feel like there’s any depth to the characters and at this point I loose connection with the show, which seems to be the normal response whenever I watch it. There are certain scenes where character differences suddenly appear, with no mention of grievances before. Although not a huge flaw, its still clunky and illuminates that the show doesn’t quite fit together this season.
There are a few twists that carry a great change to the direction of the season but I found them clichéd and predictable. These moments could have brought a great gravity to character changes and narrative if they weren’t filmed in a cliched manner. It seems that if you aren’t invested the rest of these episodes aren’t going to communicate with you. The characters have to be significant for the viewer to engage but a dry script mixed with conventional and predictable presentation of the script on screen is stopping this.
Episode 9 follows on from the rest of the season. The script hasn’t improved and no matter how many special effects or gore-ridden scenes are thrown into it, the episode isn’t highly entertaining.
Review Score: TWO AND A HALF STARS (OUT OF FIVE)
American Horror Story: Coven airs Monday nights on Channel Eleven.
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