Top 5 Best and Worst Characters of "American Horror Story"

By: James Southworth

FX's original show "American Horror Story" created by Ryan Murphy has quite an ambitious concept. Each season of the show takes place in different time periods and settings. In each of these settings, the show tries to thrill, intrigue, and most of all scare you with all of the events and ideas it presents. A lot of times the scares reflect the human condition rather than being entirely supernatural. For example, "Hotel" had clear messages about the effects of drug addiction. I do really enjoy this show. But it is far from perfect. A large result of that can be some of the characters the show presents. But the excellence of the show can also be a result of the characters. Sometimes we see characters with compelling arcs; other times they can really feel like cardboard cutouts. So, for this piece, I will be counting down my five favorite and least favorite characters throughout the whole of AHS. Feel free to give your own opinions! (There will be spoilers)

Favorite Characters

5. Dr. Arthur Arden (James Cromwell)- Asylum

You will be seeing another character from "Asylum" for my favorites list, as "Asylum" is my favorite season, and I believe it hosts some of the most interesting characters out of any of the seasons. This guy is seriously one of the most frightening characters to behold in this whole season; I honestly found him more frightening in some ways than the main antagonist of the show, Dr. Thredson. The fact that the guy is an undercover Nazi who just loves to torture others and has practically free reign over what he can do to the mostly blameless patients in the Asylum is frightening to say the least. Every time I saw him on screen I was distinctly unsettled. But there was also something compelling about him as a villain, especially in the fact that he was always cool and collected no matter what horrible acts he committed. It really showed that he believed in what he was doing wholeheartedly. He's one of the most evil characters on the show, but I couldn't help but enjoy watching every time he was on screen.

4. Marie Laveau (Coven)- Angela Bassett

Angela Bassett has become an awesome part of the ensemble cast, but her appearance in Coven is still the best. Much like "Hotel", Bassett helps make better what can often be a weaker season. She plays this voodoo witch who has been victim to racism and is on the lookout for revenge against the Coven who has always oppressed her own. Bassett always seems to play her characters with a real sense of powerful strength and determination to them. More than anything she has fun with them. This can be seen in Marie as she puts a dark comedic edge to her that ultimately makes the character feel dynamic. I rooted for this character more than any other out of this not so great season, and a lot of that was due to Angela's great performance. I have noticed that Murphy sometimes writes his side characters better than his main characters, and this is a great example of that.

3. Tate Langdon (Murder House)- Evan Peters

Peters is one of three actors that has been consistently a part of AHS, and I am always interested to see what type of character he'll be playing next. But still my favorite role by him (and it will most likely remain this way) is his very first role in murder house, where he plays a mentally unstable high school boy turned school shooter. It might sound hard to empathize with a person like this, but Murphy has a certain skill for making the audience have sympathy for those who we often consider horrible. Peters shows his character as one who is incredibly broken and messed up, in need of redemption. His redemption seems to be in the girl he befriends and eventually falls in love with, Violet Harmon. Peters doesn't play his character like a horrible, pathetic person though; Tate has a sense of humor, an inherent kindness in him, and never feels like a shallow individual. But the darker side of him can be very frightening because of the way Peters plays the character. It's a very multi-dimensional role and makes the first season that much stronger.

2. Liz Taylor (Hotel)- Denis O'Hare

O'Hare gives a bravura performance in the transgender character Liz Taylor. He really helps elevate what is otherwise easily the weakest season in the AHS catalog. It seemed at the beginning of this show that O'Hare was going to be once again a more minor character. But instead, Murphy wisely chooses to give him a starring role for the first time, and Liz turns into almost a main character near the end of the show. In a season full of deplorable characters who are all awful people in their own right, Liz is a breath of fresh air, as she is the only character in this season that (at least for most of it) doesn't kill anyone, and instead is a loving, compassionate character who is very accepting of others but often not very confident in herself. I was always rooting for this character to be able to discover and eventually accept herself. After the midpoint of this season, she becomes one of the strongest and most self-assured characters of the show, and this is where Denis's acting skills really shine, as he makes Liz fierce while still having her golden heart. I don't want to give too much else away about this character. If you want to watch "Hotel" for anything, watch it for this amazing character.

1. Sister Jude Martin (Asylum)- Jessica Lange

Lange is my undeniable favorite out of all the the cast of AHS. Every character she plays she always makes extremely believable and three-dimensional. But the role out of all of hers that is the clear best comes in the nun she plays in Asylum. Murphy has a sometimes obvious, one-dimensional distaste for religion. As a Christian, it can be infuriating to see how he portrays Christianity, like in "Freak Show" where he has a "Christian" mother abandoning her son because he is a sin to God based on something he can't avoid, or in "Hotel", where a serial killer justifies his killings based on the Ten Commandments. Murphy can be about as subtle as Stephen King when it comes to being anti-religion. But, for "Asylum", it actually turned out that a more compelling Christian was created in Lange. She does start off as a pretty horrible person, as she emotionally abuses the patients and even her own nuns. But we see a more interesting side to her when in an interesting twist of events she becomes a mental patient after claiming to have witnessed one of her nuns being possessed by a demon (which she is telling the truth on). We see why now this character may have been not such a great Christian- because her faith had constantly been twisted as she had been oppressed by others her whole life. The priest who she is in love with perverted her view of how a Christian could be. Once she realizes this priest is a virus to her, she becomes someone who does feel like they actually do love God, even if they have questions. The best moment of this character comes in a powerful monologue that Lange delivers about how broken she is to her patients who have no idea what she's talking about. It's an equally heartbreaking and powerful moment.

Least Favorite Characters

5. Kyle Spencer (Coven)- Evan Peters

It was somewhat insulting to watch Peters reduced to a zombie-like creation for almost a whole season. As the show started, I thought we were going to get to see Murphy tearing down what a frat-boy stereotype. But, just when that is about to get started, Peters has a spell put on him that turns him into a creature that can only speak seemingly in grunts and sexual advances. This guy is a talented actor, but he could NOT pull off this role. His movements did not feel connected, his expressions were always blank. There was really nothing to this character that made me feel like I should care for him. I hated that Murphy wanted to put Peters in a role like this, as it was clearly not within the guy's acting strengths. This is easily his weakest role to date, and will probably remain to be that way.

4. Shelley (Asylum)- Chloe Sevigny

Maybe it's because I find Sevigny to be a freaking boring actress, but I did not think that this actress matched this role of a sex addict at all. The lines that she delivered did not feel very convincing. I just did not feel she created any sympathy out of her character either, as she just seemed to take all of the intrigue out of the room whenever she was on the screen. She felt like a wall whenever another actor attempted to make a connection to her. I never got the feeling she had any particular objective to go after. There was nothing here. Luckily, she was not one of the bigger parts of Asylum, so she did not put too much of a damper on it.

3. Detective Jon Lowe (Hotel)- Wes Bentley

Jon is one of the least interesting serial killers I've ever watched. This season could've been from almost any other person's perspective and it would've been totally ok. But instead, Murphy decided to make Lowe the main character for a big portion of the season, and that did not work at all. He was extremely boring for most all of it, mainly just an empty canvas for the audience to project themselves upon so they could feel more a part of the show. He never seemed to have any real personality to him, which is what made it so weird that he turned out to be a serial killer. It was a twist I was expecting, but it still felt like a cheap move. His motivations for killing were a little all over the place- I couldn't decide whether it was for "justice" or some perverted religious agenda (once again- nice subtlety Murphy). He became a little more intriguing once he remembered he was a killer, but by the time that happened it was too late. I couldn't find a reason why I should care that he find redemption; I more felt he deserved punishment.

2. Violet Harmon (Murder House)- Taissa Farmiga

In a season full of great characters, Violet was the only one who felt like she conformed to horror stereotypes. It was hard to say which was worse between the character that Taissa plays in Coven versus the one she plays in this season. Taissa is probably my least favorite of the ensemble cast, as with both of the seasons she's in, she seems to play the same exact character- an emo, whiny teenager who feels as though she's entitled to everything even though she already has a lot of good things going on. But Violet did become the clearer worse of the two, as she embodied a lot more of the cliches of the rebellious teenager type- argues all the time with her parents, smokes/takes drugs, lashes out in a very violent way against her bullies, falls in love with a shady individual. Literally all the check marks are ticked off. The only thing that lifted her up was the rest of the cast making her look better as an actor. Otherwise, this character is a weak, shallow, cardboard cut-out, partly the fault of Murphy's writing, partly the fault of Farmiga's weak acting.

1. The Countess (Hotel)- Lady Gaga

"Coven" and "Hotel" are, in my opinion, the two weakest seasons of AHS. But their weaknesses are for differing reasons. "Coven" has a weak, generic story, but for the most part, the acting really shines through because of the very talented cast. "Hotel" often has an interesting story, but even some of the most talented cast members seemed to be weaker in their acting skills than usual. But there is one person in the cast of this season who I can safely say is not very talented in the acting department, and that is Lady Gaga. I'm not saying her acting is bad because I dislike her music. Those two things are not related. While I will give Gaga the credit that she certainly tries, her acting capabilities just do not reach to the character she plays. The Countess is clearly a character Lange would of played, as besides Jon Lowe, The Countess is pretty much the main character. She is a vampire who also happens to be a mother as well as the leader of Hotel Cortez. She has what could be an interesting backstory about being in love with two people at the same time but losing both of them. But anything that could be interesting about this character is lost because Gaga's acting skills are only surface level. It's not like anything she does is really cringe-worthy, it's more just boring and predictable. She plays a vampire in the most typical way possible: a seductive individual who is deceptive and cunning. There is nothing innovative besides the flashy, but often-times ridiculous-looking, clothing Gaga wears. I really wanted to like Gaga, and I can tell she could be a good actor with more time. However, a role of this weight was just not for her. The character was instead one who I could never sympathize for because of how many people she killed and how entirely ungrateful she was of everyone around  her. Murphy did seem to have a feminist idea going for her, like she couldn't be controlled by any man, but she came across as the most extreme type of feminazi out there, a murderous one at that. I hated this character so much; I couldn't get behind her motivations and I couldn't even find her interesting as a villain.

And there you have it! What are YOUR favorite and least favorite characters of the AHS franchise?