Thursday, August 19, 2021

My Review of American Horror Stories: "Game Over"


Written by Ryan Murphy And Brad Falchuk
Directed by Liz Friedlander

Michelle: "Do you wanna play again?"
Rory: "No, I think I've spent enough time in the Murder House."

It's almost like a point was nearly made about overemphasis on something but at the last minute was then somewhat ignored. I mean we all love a certain house but at the same, has the time to come to put that particular house to rest?

Ryan Murphy definitely seems to be aware that American Horror Story fans have those conflicting feelings and this episode debuted with a Tate/Violet shipper couple played by Noah Cyrus and Adam Hagenbuch as they visited the infamous house, met some past residents and then some other people who really shouldn't be in the house and then things took a turn.

The turn being that the opening few minutes were part of a video game by ambitious developer Michelle (Mercedes Mason) who seems to have a hard time connecting with her son, Rory (Nicolas Bechtel) as the latter cannot deal with her impulsive behaviour while at the same time being a massive fan of the show.

Of course Michelle then decides the best way to get a handle of the game would be to trick realtor Tim (Tom Lenk) that she was interested in buying a certain house. Michelle then got to meet the likes of Ben Harmon, Andi, Maya and her friends before being  trapped in the house courtesy of Ruby and Scarlett. Yup, they're still a thing.

However while Michelle became a little reflective in death, Rory decided to do something that I'm surprised no one else considered and burn the house to the ground. Needless to say Ruby was the only ghost against that idea and Scarlett herself couldn't bring herself to die with Ruby as the place went up in flames and seemingly free all the ghosts.

Saying that, Scarlett  did move into one of the condos that replaced the house and it seemed like her and Ruby got their happy ending. Only that was actually an upgrade to Michelle's game and while Rory seemed more happy with her by the end of this episode, it just highlighted that while this show might park a certain house for a while, it'll never be completely forgotten.

- We got to see Bloody Face, Twisty the Clown and Addie Langdon during the opening sequence as well as the commentary of Sarah Paulson's views on Roanoke.
- Scarlett becoming an assassin between episodes wasn't that much of a shocker to be fair. Tim's reaction to her brutal honesty was funny though.
- I'm surprised they didn't pull in more residents for this episode but likely due to COVID and scheduling, we're lucky we got who we did.
- Chronology: Over a decade since the events of the opening two parter for the series.

Game Over makes for a decent but not spectacular finale to this spin-off's debut season. I did mostly have fun with this show but I definitely feel there's room for improvement and less reliance on earlier seasons would help it as well. Anyways onto the main series next week.

Rating: 7 out of 10

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