American Horror Story, the new TV series from Glee creator Ryan Murphy, premiered on FX last night. The premise of the show revolves around a family moving into a haunted house. Now, I love a great ghost story as much as the next guy, but I didn’t watch the show and I don’t think I’m going to.
Why? Murphy’s very talented and the cast includes such heavy-hitters as Jessica Lange so I’m sure it’s a quality program, but I have a big issue with the premise. It’s an issue that I’ve blogged about before and that other astute non-white people like the young and then funny Eddie Murphy have pointed out: why don’t white people who live in houses haunted by evil supernatural forces just move out?
With a TV series like American Horror Story, this issue is even more pronounced. It’s one thing to suspend disbelief and accept that a white family isn’t moving out of a haunted house in a 2-hour movie, but a successful TV show could run for years and years. Which means if the series is a hit, we could spend the next ten years wondering: why the fuck doesn’t that white family get out of the house already?
I’m sure the writers will come up with some clever ways to keep that family in that house, but I’m sorry—I’m not going to buy it. If that house is that haunted and that evil, no one will be stupid enough to stay there that long. Read more...