American Horror Story Freak Show: Episode 1 Recap: Dont Call Them Freaks (Season Premiere)

Was the first episode of "Freak Show" everything you had hoped for? It's a definite "yes" for me. Here's what we know about Ms Elsa and her traveling circus.

The Queen Bee As Always

It's 1952 and they've arrived in Jupiter FL. The circus is in bad financial shape. Ms Elsa has to do some creative bargaining to keep them afloat. She sees an article in the paper about a person discovered with a monstrous condition. She visits the hospital and talks the Tattler sisters into joining the circus.

See This Is Precisely Why I Hate Clowns!

Elsewhere there's a killer clown on the loose. He's killing people and stealing children. He's super freaky. And the locals aren't much friendlier than the clown. They dont want the freaks around and will do whatever it takes to drive them away.

This Guy May Be Freakier Than The Freaks

A rich woman and her son visit the show. They want to buy Dot/Bette. She's not for sell and wants to stay with her "family". They dont take kindly to that answer. I'm sure we'll see more of them later.

Bette & Dot Or Is It Dot & Bette (I'm Not Sure)

The characters we've met thus far include:

Elsa Mars- a former German cabaret singer and proprietor of the circus. Elsa recruits new acts for the show and keeps everyone in line. She is actually just using the circus as a way to try to become famous again (if she ever was famous).
The Bearded Lady- Ethel Darling (Kathy Bates). She is very loyal to Elsa because Elsa helped her when she was down on her luck.
Siamese Sisters- Bette and Dot Tattler (Sarah Paulson). I'm having a hard time telling these two apart. One is good, one is bad. One stabbed their mother because she wouldnt let them go to the movies. Then the other one stabbed her. Elsa finds them at the hospital and recruits them.
Lobster Boy- Jimmy Darling (Evan Peters). Jimmy's mother is Ethel. He apparently has quite the way with ladies. And given Ryan Murphy's penchant for using real stories in his shows, there was indeed a real Lobster Boy. Check him out. It's a very interesting story.
Pepper- (Naomi Grossman). As you'll recall if you watched "American Horror Story: Asylum" Pepper was sent there for killing her infant niece/nephew. We're now seeing what happened to Pepper before she was sent to the mental hospital. This marks the first time Ryan Murphy has used a recurring character in AHS. I'm supper happy because I love Pepper. Pepper for President!
Twisty The Killer Clown- the name says it all. He's a freaky clown with a mask that has a big smile. Maybe he secretly wants to join the circus. Someone suggested he might be Elsa's son which would be very interesting.
We know the woman with three breasts (Angela Bassett) and her Muscleman boyfriend/husband will arrive sometime soon. I'll review the other characters next week.

I Missed You Pepper!

This episode had a healthy dose of sex. Elsa asks Bette/Dot some personal questions about their sex life. Did you know that the hospital candy stripper is Grace Glummer (who is Meryl Streep's daughter)? The video of her heroin induced sexcapes were a bit hard to watch. And Lobster Boy's scenes with the housewives of Jupiter were pretty graphic. I'm not sure how some of this stuff gets past the censors. Not that I'm complaining.

The death toll was also impressive for a pilot episode even by Ryan Murphy standards. We have Bette/Dot's mother. The detective who told the circus to get out of town died at the hands of Jimmy (dont call them freaks). Then everyone else beat his dead body to a pulp. Twisty killed at least 2 people. I'm not sure how many more.

Grade: 4 Monsters (out of 5). i'm already enjoying this crazy world (except for the clown). I This show is helping reinforce my prejudice against them.