‘American Horror Story: Freak Show’ premiere review: Jessica Lange, Sarah Paulson steal the show

Tonight marks the premiere of “American Horror Story: Freak Show” and we have high hopes this season (it can’t be any worse then “Coven”, can it?). We have all of our favorites back again for another spin on the wheel of fortune… but will it be a winner? Let’s see what the 90 minute premiere had to bring us, shall we?

Siamese twins (Bette and Dot): They have always had difficulty fitting in (especially in the 50’s), so when they meet Elsa (the ring leader of a failing circus sideshow) who is nice to them, Bette is open to her, but Dot is skeptical. When Elsa tells them that she knows the truth about what happened to their mother (Bette murdered her) she tells the twins that they should join her side show where she will protect them from the cops… how could they say no?

Bette is excited to finally be away from the farm and surrounded in glamour, but Dot hates it there. Elsa isn’t afraid to use the twins to headline her new show (even though they are wanted women) and comes up with a cover story in case the cops come snooping.

Unfortunately, a detective finds them and tries to arrest them, but Jimmy and his crew push back and Jimmy kills the detective.

Elsa: All she has ever wanted was to be a big star, a household name. Although she sold Bette and Dot on being the headliners for her show, her real motive is that they would bring in the audiences that would then see her singing and she would get the recognition she’s always craved. Unfortunately her first performance with them didn’t go quite the way she thought. The big reveal that we didn’t see coming was that Elsa is an amputee and is miss both legs.

Jimmy Darling (Lobster boy): We love, love, love that he is a romeo that gets all the girls – even with “lobster” hands he’s still completely charming. He makes every woman feel like Juilet, including Bette and Dot – unfortunately because times are tough Jimmy finds himself prostituting to make ends meets.

Ethel (The bearded woman): She is Elsa’s hench woman, and keeps everyone in line, but is having a hard time getting Bette and Dot to eat and ready for the show. She is also Jimmy’s mother.

Twisty the clown: We don’t have one of those hipster phobias where we are “afraid of clowns” (and we are aware that some people actually have Coulrophobia, at the same time clowns seem to be the “cool thing” to be afraid of these days), but if we were… twisty would give us nightmares for the rest of our lives. He is on a killing spree, murdering many and taking children hostages making them live in cages like animals.

After “Coven” we were worried that “Freakshow” was going to have a lot of problems, but we were pleasantly surprised. There were some thrills, scares and characters that we want to root for (and others that we will have nightmares about tonight.) Episode grade: A-

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Photo: FX