American Horror Story: Roanoke

Whether or not American Horror Story hurt Season 6 ratings with the decision to keep Roanoke entirely under wraps, fans are at least curious to see how the current run changes things up in the coming episodes. Ryan Murphy himself now teases some major Coven and Freak Show connections ahead, while promising a more opaque approach to Season 7.

For the past several years we’ve seen Sarah Paulson play some of the loudest, more extreme characters on television. Whether she’s donning a perm as Marcia Clarke, wearing two heads as Bette and Dot Tattler, or thick black eyeliner as Hypodermic Sally, Paulson is often a bold, stylized on-screen presence. But in Blue Jay, Paulson, looking like her natural self, gives a quieter performance as one of her most stripped-down characters yet.

Even as American Horror Story is already looking forward to its next season in secret, Roanoke has only just begun to lay out its mystery (at least before tossing it aside midway through). We’ve heard Ryan Murphy will start to lay groundwork for all the seasons to connect, and our first Roanoke tease of that will connect back to Freak Show.

It’s safe to say that American Horror Story is open to experimentation in its advanced age, whether testing out mystery formats or shortening its Roanoke run, but FX and Ryan Murphy may have been cooking up their biggest mystery right under our noses. Murphy says a “secret season” of the FX horror-drama is in the works, but what does that mean?

Just when you thought our long national eye-roll was over, and American Horror Story had finally unveiled its meta-Roanoke premise, Ryan Murphy will throw another curveball. The enigmatic showrunner teases that Season 6 will have a major shakeup midway through, and then again by Roanoke’s end.

Now that American Horror Story Season 6 has officially given up the ghost of its mystery theme, FX must take stock of their unorthodox approach to promotion. It seems viewers may not have been enticed to tune in for the big reveal after all, as early ratings for American Horror Story: Roanoke (that’s the name, we checked) are below that of last year’s Hotel.