Rating: 7/10

With the 2016 election being so controversial, writer and producer Ryan Murphy decided to use the historical event as a strong inspiration for the newest season of “American Horror Story” (AHS). The new season is titled “AHS: Cult” and it premiered on Sept. 5 on FX. This addition to the series will tell the story of Ally Mayfair-Richards, who almost loses her mind after the 2016 election results, and how she starts to deal with her worst fears coming to life: clowns, blood and small holes. Meanwhile a man named Kai Anderson, who is very happy with the election results, starts to plan a very suspicious scheme to show why fear is the emergency exit.

Fear, so far, has been the recurring theme with this show and it’s what I’ve been left feeling after watching the first episode. “AHS: Cult” starts off on a remarkable yet rocky start to the new season.

This episode, titled “Election Night”, starts out with the 2016 election front and center. Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump aren’t characters in the show they’re just plot devices. The story then turns to two different characters one who supports Trump and the other who supports Hillary.The Hillary supporter loses her mind in bad way when the election results are announced and the Trump supporter loses his mind in a great way. This is where the show almost went downhill. The script, at the very beginning, started to sound like propaganda rather than an actual story. It portrayed all of the Trump supporters as psychopaths and the Hillary supporters as sane people which isn’t the point of making a TV show. Luckily, that only lasted for the first half the episode. It started to finally get into a more complex story like previous seasons before.

Like with most of “American Horror Story” and their previous seasons, it tells a new story with returning actors and the performances are really good. One of the returning actresses is Sarah Paulson, who plays Ally. At first it seemed like she was just doing a horrible acting job, but then it became clear that she is playing a truly disturbed person. Paulson’s acting implied a history of mental health problems, but at the same time the show had her as an innocent soul which really gave her character depth. The other big returning actor is Evan Peters who plays Kai. Peters gives a very seducing, unpredictable performance which really draws the audience in. You would never know what he would say or do next. Overall the entire cast did a fantastic acting job.

With a problematic story, but terrific acting, this season of AHS is definitely an unique reinvention of the show. This episode definitely leaves you wondering what’s going to happen next and I’m very interested to see where this story heads.