‘American Horror Story’ With Lady Gaga And Angela Bassett Continues Its Decline, But Ratings Still Decent

There is good news and bad news for American Horror Story this week. First, let’s start with the bad news as reported by Headline Planet, a site that noted that Wednesday’s episode was the lowest-rated fifth episode in the franchise’s history.

“The bleed continues for FX’s ‘American Horror Story: Hotel,’ which again slipped in adults 18-49 and total viewership. Per Nielsen cable data, Wednesday’s episode drew a 1.48 adults 18-49 rating with 2.867 million total viewers. Both numbers trail those of the previous broadcast, which posted a 1.60 and reached 3.045 million total viewers.”

The good news is that, according to Zap2It, American Horror Story was the most watched show among adults 18-19 on cable Wednesday evening. Perhaps that can make up for the mostly bad reviews last night’s episode, “Room Service,” received. TV Fanatic wasn’t thrilled with this episode.

“While there were some bright, shining moments tonight, this really felt like another night of too many things happening and not enough attention being paid to the season’s over-arching stories.”

The review adds that Darren Criss and the plot surrounding Liz Taylor made the episode almost tolerable.

“It’s not a great sign when the most engaging part of an episode is an aside, or when returning to the basics of the plot feels tedious,” claims A.V. Club. The comments after the review were worse than the review itself.

“Yep— to me, it’s another Ryan Murphy ‘what the hell, let’s throw that in plotline,'” claims Spydervain.

“Too many Plots! Too many Plots!” repeats Mr. Sweet.

Some of the other comments are too awful to repeat. It seems that the show, according to reviews and comments on several sites, indicates that American Horror Story may have jumped the shark. Twitter has been particularly brutal towards the show.

https://twitter.com/summsxo/status/662415264798146560

https://twitter.com/FeministHealy/status/660687990201675776

Lady Gaga has received mixed reviews for her performance and although she was hoping for critical acclaim, she has received better reviews than most pop stars who pretend to be actresses. While some will ultimately blame Lady Gaga for American Horror Story‘s demise, perhaps the writing is really the culprit. Paste Magazine criticized the writing in a recent review.

“That’s a problem American Horror Story has as well. By the end of ‘Chutes and Ladders,’ we already see that we have a story that takes place over almost a century, filled with dozens of characters—most of whom will end up being superfluous, likely—and surely more to come, as the series decides it needs more deus ex machinas.”

Earlier this year, author Shane Barnes of Flavorwire discussed why American Horror Story had become its own worst enemy. He believes that it’s as if the writers thought people only wanted to see the big stuff. However, without strong characters, many deaths becomes just many deaths. There is nothing substantial around all the gore and deaths that take place.

The ratings for American Horror Story are still high enough to guarantee another season. However, perhaps the show may want to hire new writers and actors to make things more fresh. Did you watch Wednesday’s episode of American Horror Story? Let us know what you think in the comments section.

[Feature photo by Jason Merritt/Getty Images]