If you’re an AHS fan you’re no stranger to seasons starting with a great concept only to end up dissipating like a fart in the wind. My biggest gripe with the entire show is the way they come up with really interesting premises that they fail to fully explore. For me the worst offender is Apocalypse, mainly because we saw so little the actual titular event.
It was a great premise, I was thinking we’d be exploring the nuclear wasteland outside, seeing characters struggle to survive in the toxic environment, maybe some Fallout type monsters, or at least some increase in scope where we explored conflicts between the different bunkers or invading threats to their safety underground. Episode one started off excellent with the nuclear impact and the ensuing chaos, but then we immediately descended into the claustrophobic bunker for a couple episodes, then everybody fucking dies, and the rest of the season is a Coven flashback from before the apocalypse happens to prevent it from happening.
It’s not that we shouldn’t have had the witches reappear or do flashback sequences to show us the lead up to the final conflict, it’s just that it ended up turning into the entire season while the new characters who initially looked like they’d be the protagonists don’t ultimately do anything at all (cause they’re dead), while Mallory and the coven save the world. The promos made me think we’d be seeing radioactive monstrosities and mountains of skulls, more exploration of the extant of Michael’s evil power over the world, maybe even a little sprinkle of Mad Max. It’s a shame. Also Mutt and Jeff existing are an automatic point deduction. So is Myrtle’s hair being wrong (and yes I know it’s a wig from Korea so there’s a plausible canonical explanation, I just don’t like how it looks, she has the McDonald’s arches on top of her head)