Ryan Murphy’s American Horror Story Replacement Does Something AHS Never Pulled Off

While Ryan Murphy’s new show Grotesquerie may not recapture American Horror Story’s cult success, the series is trying something that the anthology show never quite pulled off. According to TheHollywoodReporter, nearly a fifth of scripted TV shows from 2019-2020 were cop shows. The police procedural has been one of the most popular formats in American television history since Dragnet began back in 1951, so it is no surprise that Ryan Murphy’s new series Grotesquerie leans into the format. What is surprising is how long it took for the legendary TV producer to take advantage of this multi-decade trend.

While every season of American Horror Story is connected, all the show’s outings vary wildly in terms of tone and style. Some are largely period pieces, like season 4’s Freak Show or season 2’s Asylum, while others are mockumentaries, like season 6’s Roanoke. American Horror Story season 12 was a (comparatively) straightforward riff on Rosemary’s Baby but, only two years earlier, season 10’s Double Bill split its episodes into two separate stories about vampires and aliens. Despite all of these disparate thematic preoccupations, the franchise has never gone near TV’s most enduringly popular format.

Grotesquerie Has More Cop Show Elements Than American Horror Story

Even American Horror Story: NYC Wasn’t As Mystery-Centric As Grotesquerie

American Horror Story never successfully blended supernatural horror with police procedural drama, although the show tried this at least twice. Most seasons of the series, from season 3’s Coven to season 9’s 1984, are more focused on something outright supernatural, like witches or an unstoppable slasher villain. However, after American Horror Story’s ratings waned and season 12’s finale earned the show’s worst reviews ever, Murphy opted to take a new approach in his upcoming series. Grotesquerie is a new Ryan Murphy horror show but, from its first trailer to its synopsis, it is also a cop show.

Although American Horror Story season 11 NYC and season 7 Cult both focused on less supernatural storylines, neither of these outings ever centered the cops solving their mysteries. In contrast, the main character of Grotesquerie is Niece Nash’s Detective Lois Tryon, a troubled cop who pairs up with a young nun to solve a series of gruesome murders. Judging by Murphy’s earlier horror shows, the story outlined in this premise is likely to become more convoluted and twisty as the series unfolds. However, there is no denying Grotesquerie emulates the cop show format in a way American Horror Story never could.

Grotesquerie Borrows More From Another Hit Horror Show Than AHS

Murphy’s Latest Series Owes A Creative Debt To True Detective

If anything, Grotesquerie sounds much more like True Detective than American Horror Story, particularly given its ritualistic crimes and the main character’s struggles with alcoholism. Since Grotesquerie brings back Ryan Murphy’s penchant for stunt casting, it is fair to guess that a series with Travis Kelce among its stars will likely be less self-serious than the dour, oppressively bleak True Detective season 1. However, both the imagery of Grotesquerie’s trailers and promotional posters and the show’s synopsis borrow heavily from the HBO hit’s acclaimed first season.

Grotesquerie seems like an attempt to fuse the campier, more crowd-pleasing elements of American Horror Story with the police procedural framework of True Detective. Murphy’s new show looks dark and violent, but American Horror Story’s dark sense of humor is likely to make an appearance in the series. Grotesquerie‘s unlikely pairing of a cop and a young nun is already quirkier than True Detective‘s pair of gritty, grizzled cops, and Grotesquerie’s trailer promises trippier, more explicitly supernatural horrors than the reserved HBO show ever depicted.

Ryan Murphy’s Grotesquerie Already Has A Very Different Tone Compared To AHS

Murphy’s Earlier Horror Series Has The Wrong Style For Grotesquerie’s Story

Whether or not American Horror Story season 13 is the last outing for the long-running series, it is already clear that Grotesquerie will be very different from Murphy’s first horror series. American Horror Story often veers into pretty silly, explicitly supernatural territory, whereas Grotesquerie seems like it will take itself a little more seriously. Admittedly, it is not yet possible to tell how far into outright horror Grotesquerie will get in comparison to True Detective, which flirted with horror sequences but was surprisingly grounded in the end.

However, Grotesquerie’s creative debt to True Detective will likely reign in Murphy’s wilder flourishes and ensure the show never gets too absurd. Murphy’s shows tend to start relatively straightforward only to grow increasingly surreal and ridiculous as they continue, but Grotesquerie‘s cop show formula may limit its potential for bizarre tangents and offbeat subplots. Only time will tell if Grotesquerie can avoid these pitfalls American Horror Story falls into, or if the upcoming horror/thriller hybrid’s new cop show format won’t be able to contain Ryan Murphy’s infamous excesses.

Source: TheHollywoodReporter