American Horror Story: Asylum - 2x01 - Welcome to Briarcliff

    I don't think a summary can be done.  We are introduced to a series of characters, and some plots and mysteries are set up.  In the present, a couple of honeymooners break into the abandoned asylum.  Then we get to go back in time, where we get more background about the rich cast of characters that the asylum hosted.  We get a strange nun that runs the place, a guy who gets abducted by aliens, then is accused of being a serial killer.  A reporter is investigating that guy, and gets captured, and held by the nun who runs the place.  Then there's also a mad scientist doctor doing experiments or something.  It's implied that there are mutants or something running around the grounds.

    I wasn't entirely thrilled with the first season of American Horror Story.  The characters were absurd, the twists seemed to be forced, and every time they introduced someone, it was clear that they would usually figure into the story in more than one way.  The number of connections between characters got a little too unbelievable.  No one made reasonable decisions.
    (A side note - horror is much more effective if you can realize that the victims are doing everything right.  When they start making dumb mistakes that we all see coming, they lose the respect of the viewer.)
    After I finished watching the first season of American Horror Story, I actually forgot almost everything about it.  I remember the rubber suit.  I can remember a few broad things, like that there was the neighbor next-door.  There was a gay couple.  But for a show with so many characters, it was just a mess of plots, each of which would get rewritten every couple episodes.
    So, I like horror movies set in asylums.  I think they provide an easy-to-use set that promotes wonderful and creepy shots.  And some of that shows up in this episode.  Unfortunately, there's also this bizarre alien abduction plot, which doesn't just seem out of  place, but it makes the show laughable.
    I also have one other complaint about the show.  There's way too much sex.  I'm hardly prudish, but I'm also all in favor of sex scenes having something to offer, in terms of moving the story along, or developing characters.  Usually there are certain mixings of sex and death in horror movies, but usually they make death a consequence of sex.  That's followed here, except that the people having sex are married.  There's also a strange sex-ish scene with the lead nun, which was more puzzling than erotic.

    I've kind of resigned myself to that I'll probably keep watching the show.  But every episode will end roughly the same way.  I'll be confused, and probably a little annoyed by it.