Saturday, March 22, 2014

Ode to Lana Winters

I have to say, I love American Horror Story. I love it in the same way I love Stephen King - it's cheesy, kind of B-grade, but tells an awesome story that you get weirdly obsessed with. I just finished watching Asylum, the last of the three seasons I hadn't watched. I think it was the best of all of them, with Murder House second and Coven third. They just really went hardcore on the whole 'bad things happening to innocent people' idea. A story where someone you can relate to is helpless to other people and things, constantly trying to escape but trapped, now that's the kind of story people are gripped by. It's also a very relevant story in this current climate of asylum seeker detention centers. The show is made in America so I'm not sure the parallel was intended, but nonetheless it feels like a metaphor.

Something else I love about this show is the amount of interesting female characters it has, all with their own stories. Some strong, some weak. But not weak in the sense that they're a stereotype with no background. Weak as in they have their own struggles and they've been beaten down by them. The characters themselves have all been written strongly.

Unfortunately I think it is overwhelmingly a white show, especially seasons 1 and 2, with the exception of Britne Oldford who was awesome, but didn't play a very big part. Possibly they took that criticism when they were making Coven, which obviously has the amazing Gabourney Sidibe and a small cast of other incredible black women making up the voodoo coven. Like, that's awesome and all, but I wish they would start casting other minority actors in roles which aren't to do with their race at all. You know? Just as the main characters. Who aren't involved in race-related storylines. That would be nice.

Ok, on to the other stuff I guess. Lana Winters' outfits at the end of Asylum were off the chain! They almost made me want to wear skirt suits, pointy stilletos and fur coats... almost. Here're some examples:






And here are a few I just found on ebay... because you never know, maybe one day I'll reform my sneaker and tshirt wearing ways and become uber-glam.





Sooo excellent. Powerful journalist lady looks all the way.