American Horror Story: Coven

 

What is this season saying about women with power? The topic of the season is a witches coven that has hit on hard times. Partly because of an internal feud that has broken witches apart on racial lines and partly because the coven is infiltrated by witch hunters, and thirdly because the current Supreme witch is more interested in her personal power and holding onto it than fading as a new Supreme rises from the students at the witch coven school. In order to be a Supreme you have to have mastered seven core skills and most witches in this world never gain all seven powers.  Called the seven wonders a witch who wishes to become a supreme must demonstrate mastery of the skills that can be deadly if you do not, so only young witches who believe they can do all of them even try to attempt the rituals. This year in the coven is a bit different though. All four young witches seem to be showing the ability to try the 7 wonders and so much of the story is about competition among them. Zoe (Taissa Farmiga) , Madison (Emma Roberts) and Queenie (Gabourey Sidibe) are the main girls we focus on early in the season. Zoe is the new girl at the school, having just discovered her powers and is met coldly by Madison a tv personality who thinks the world is hers for the taking. then there is Queenie who is unsure of her place in the coven and looking for inclusion. In a separate storyline which eventual joins the main line we meet Misty (Lily Rabe) who is an earthy crunchy style witch, more of the backwater Louisiana mystic who uses nature in her magic. She eventually comes to the school but feels like she was added to that storyline to add an element outside the norm. Running the school is Cordelia (Sarah Paulson) who herds these cats, I say cats because the season plays up the most petty parts of being a teenager and the exhausting to watch rivalries strain the viewers nerves. When the Supreme, Fiona (Jessica Lange) returns to the coven from abroad we are setup for the main story, who will be the new Supreme. In this world as the young witch who will be the next Supreme gain powers, the existing Supreme experiences her powers weakening, so she knows the end is near.

  The idea I think around the main plot of this one is to give viewers many possibilities about how the transition could happen and by whom, so each character gets the spotlight at different times. Each has a story arc that allows the possibility that She could be the one. Unfortunately most of that involves making the women look like petty power hungry rivals and back stabbing foes. There are outside threats from group of modern day witch hunters who have infiltrated the coven through a personal relationship that everyone needs to come together to defeat but a splintering of the coven on racial lines from long past affronts keeps that from happening. Where it is set in New Orleans there is no way the show could not include the splinter group lead by Marie (Angela Bassett) with a cringy accent and a hateful attitude. Include another character who ended up being just a side show in the season Madame Delphine LaLaurie (Kathy Bates) as an excessively evil and cruel slave owner the slavery time period who like Elizabeth Bathory in classical literature uses the blood of her slaves to try to extend her life. Marie who has already gotten her immortality by selling her soul to a Voodoo deity Papa Legba (Lance Reddick) knows of Madame Delphine's atrocities and punishes her by tying the two women's lives together meaning they both live as long as Marie does then burying her beneath what ill become the grounds of the coven school.

  Lange takes a lot of space in this one paralleling the desire for eternal life and never giving up her place as Supreme. Her backstory shows her to be a evil power hungry being who refuses to accept mortality. So when she comes home there is more threat to the young upstarts. All this plays out in the worst way interpersonally, with just nastiness and one upmanship though out the episodes. Even though I think this was intentional to increase tension put in stakes and hopefully give catharsis at the resolution it made for uncomfortable viewing where the viewer can't settle on a hero. I am not sure the final outcome as 'kum by yah' come together moment really works because there was not enough bonding by the character. Again, for the third time in three seasons the writer jump through hoops to get Jessica Lange's character Fiona some redemption by the end of her story line. In each season she place someone I would not care to redeem but she must have it written into her contract that they complete a arc for her with some kind of redemption because it keeps happening. I found the writing a bit ham handed in the twists and turns of the character still I enjoyed the watch, I just felt it was pieced together instead of flowing in a more organic way. No real spoilers here so I will leave the twists out of this review. People have reviewed this really love it and I have to say at least it was different from the first two seasons where there seemed the writers had cruel intention toward their character. Still for me it just good not great.

So how does it treat the idea of Women with power? Really badly it literally tells you that women will be awful to you and everyone around them if there is a chance to be on top. That no backstab is too deep and grudges never go away in the hearts of women. Unfortunately they wait until the last episode to even try to change that and by that time it was too late.