American Horror Story: Murder House

I've just gotten around to watching the first season of American Horror Story, retroactively given the subtitle Murder House. I liked it occasionally, but felt it grew out of the control of its creators until it resembled a camp ghost story.

In the time-honored tradition of haunted house stories, a family has moved across country, from Boston to Los Angeles, to get a fresh start. The wife (Connie Britton) has had a miscarriage, the husband (Dylan McDermott), has had an affair with a student, and the daugher (Taissa Farmiga) is cutting herself and doesn't play well with others. The house is a stunner--built in the 1920s by a doctor to the stars, but the price is suspiciously low. The realtor tells them that the previous owners died in a murder-suicide, but that's just scratching the surface.

Over the course of the dozen or so episodes of the show, we'll meet many more ghosts, including the doctor and his wife, twin boys, a teenage mass murderer, a mincing gay couple, and even the Black Dahlia. At times it was almost comic how many ghosts are in the house--it's like the Grand Central Station of spooks. The show establishes its own rules for ghosts--they are solid flesh and bone, and can kill, but they can disappear at will. They can't leave the property, except on Halloween. They would appear to be frozen in time as to their appearance, except for the maid, Moira (Frances Conroy) who has aged since she was murdered, except when she appears young to horny men.

Also in the cast are two living people (at certain times we can't be sure who is alive and who is dead). Jessica Lange is the nosy lady next door, a failed actress who has had very bad luck with her children and knows all the secrets of the house, and a horribly burned man (Denis O'Hare) who keeps showing up to tell McDermott he must get out of the house.

The show, created by Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk, has its heart in the right place. There is a lot of creepiness going on, especially when describing what seems to be the origin of the horror, when the doctor (Matt Ross) tries to stitch together his dismembered child. But I found it didn't have a satisfactory resolution--just what was at the heart of the evil? I'm grateful they didn't use the old "Indian burial ground" tack (I wonder who the Indians were that roamed over present Beverly Hills?) but it just seemed instead an endless parade of ghosts that popped up only to suit the script. I mean, why didn't Elizabeth Short, who was the Black Dahlia, only show up late in the series? Some ghosts appear once or twice, and then never again, why?

Also, the family at the core of the story is not that interesting or likable. I did like Farmiga, who plays an alienated teen quite well and figures to fall in love with a ghost. But the endless squabbling between McDermott and Britton went on far too long, and they weren't very sympathetic.

I am intrigued that the show's subsequent seasons use the same actors but in a different horrific setting, so I'm up for watching more.