 So, I started this channel roughly three years ago to talk about my thoughts and opinions about American Horror Story, so it's no shock that my most requested video since pretty much day one was my ranking of the seasons. And if you've been with this channel for a while, you know that I love lists and I love to rank things, so why on earth has it taken me three years to do the most obvious video I could make? To put it simply, I am a Libra and I am incredibly indecisive and specifically with AHS, my rankings of the seasons change all the damn time. I also re-watch the show pretty frequently and genuinely love each season for their own reasons. Long story short, today I will be giving you guys my ranking of the seasons as of right now. This is not definitive and like I said, I do love each season, so if your favorite ranks lower than you would think it doesn't mean I hate it, I'll be ranking from my least favorite to my favorite, including the first nine seasons that I've aired as of right now. I also asked you guys for your rankings of the seasons on my community page and I got over a hundred responses from you guys and I've compiled a separate ranking of your guys' rankings at the end of the video, so make sure you stick around for that. Before we jump in, I'd like to take a moment to recognize my channel members. Thank you guys so much for your support, it is very appreciated. And if you would like to become a member and receive early access to videos and monthly exclusive uploads, you can hit that join button below this video and join for as low as $0.99 a month. But without further ado, let's start with the season that I have in the ninth and lowest position. Spoiler alert for all nine seasons, you have been warned. Coming in at number nine, I have Freak Show. Freak Show has a lot going for it. A great cast with the likes of Angela Bassett, Sarah Paulson, Kathy Bates, Frances Conroy, Evan Peters, Jessica Lange in her last main role in the series, just to name a few. It also treads brand new territory for the series in an attempt to create a band of outcasts performing in a side show. Honestly, on the surface, thanks to its bright color palette and over the top costumes at times, you might think this is a more lighthearted season of AHS. And if you do think that, let me tell you how wrong you are. I think the strongest element in Freak Show is the element of tragedy that is explored. It also nails the dreadful tone that is similarly explored in seasons like Roanoke and Asylum. Characters like Mopetit, Meep, and Pepper all suffer such terrible fates in the season. With the season ending with the majority of our Freaks being massacred by Dandy Mott, let's just say the season doesn't exactly end on a hopeful note. Despite maybe Bet and Dot, Jimmy Desiree getting happy endings, the rest of them got death. With all that being said, I do think the season is a bit of a mixed bag and especially on rewatch, I feel like the pacing drags on at times and I think the main reason I ranked the season so low is because unlike most of the other seasons, I'm not extremely invested in a lot of the characters. Thus, it is a harder season for me to connect to. However, Freak Show did give us one of the best episodes of the entire series with the Orphans episode, I think that should not be overlooked. This being said, there used to be another season that I would consistently rank as my least favorite season. It has only recently been replaced by Freak Show after a recent rewatch. So who knows where Freak Show may end up in the future? Moving on to the eighth spot on my list, I have Colt. Colt is a season that in previous years I may have ranked a bit higher than this. I genuinely love the season but on my last rewatch, it just doesn't stack up when compared to the many great seasons that the show has. I think the season may just try to tackle a little too many things. In the very first episode, you'd expect it to majorly focus on a dramatized version of the state of politics in the US after the 2016 election. And that does act as a jumping off point for the season and is crucial to certain episodes. But by the end, it strayed so far from there that you might forget that the season starts with Evan Peters humping Trump's face. That being said, I think it does capture the hysteria that was and is still present in the country. And at the very least, it serves as an interesting time capsule. The events that happen in Colt honestly aren't that far-fetched now that we have lived through a Trump presidency. But anyway, I think that Allie's character arc is pretty strong, although I do think that the shift in her character could have been built up a bit more. It almost comes out of nowhere. But once that shift does happen, the season is much stronger because of it. It is rewarding to watch Allie finally figure out that she isn't crazy and that people she loved and trusted have been gaslighting her. It's satisfying to watch her infiltrate the Colt, kill Ivy, and ultimately come out on top by the end. It is a happy ending that is very rare in the series. Evan Peters, though, is probably my MVP of the season. Kai Anderson is so easy to hate, especially once he's killed his sister. I think he's one of the most despicable villains that we've had. He's egotistical, purely evil, and yet completely in over his head. Kai aside, Evan Peters also plays a number of real life Colt leaders throughout the season. And these flashbacks and explorations of these Colts were some of my favorite parts of the season. All in all, I do think Colt is strong, but it cast a big net and only reeled in about 70% of the fish, if that analogy makes any sense, but let's move on to number 7. In my 7th position, I have Apocalypse. Let me just say this, when the season ended in 2018, I would have ranked the season within my top 3 seasons. It is only with hindsight and 2 or 3 rewatches later that I can report that this season is a tad bit disappointing. I'll say the season might be the most egregious example of a really strong season completely fizzling and fumbling the ball in the last 2 or 3 episodes. I really wish that Ryan and Brad, or whoever, writes these shows anymore, could have spent more time on it, obviously. As is the case with most seasons of the show, the scripts for the episodes are being written as the season is filmed. AHS and Ryan Murphy are notorious for having strong starts and weak endings, but to his credit, or perhaps somebody else's credit in the writer's room, I feel that for the most part, they assemble a cohesive narrative that fits in with the tone and expectations that were established in the beginning of the season. I think that Apocalypse took a wrong step in its 8th episode, and tried to, but never really recovered from it. Up until episode 8, Apocalypse seemed unstoppable. Each episode was more interesting than the rest, with the crossover elements finally starting to live up to the hype. There were a couple of things like cinematography that were pretty weak throughout, but for the most part, and the general fan reaction was that up to that point it was pretty much living up to the hype. Episode 6 was Return to the Murder House, and this is pretty much the orgy of the season, especially in terms of fan service, but that aside, the episode does a really good job of filling in the blind spots of Michael Langdon's backstory with the Murder House. That episode also shows how natural the world and characters from both Coven and Murder House fit in together so well, which I think is a major accomplishment by the way that the season did pull off, especially after it had been 5 and 7 years since those characters had last been seen on television. The first 3 episodes almost serve as their own mini season, with mostly new characters in Outpost 3 taking up a majority of the plot and screen time, but these characters were captivating enough that it was almost sad to see them die so early on. The entire season seemed to be pointing us towards a confrontation between the Antichrist, Michael Langdon, and a rising star in the Coven, Mallory. Their fiery altercation in episode 3 shows just how powerful they both are. We then get Michael's backstory at Hawthorne, and we see him do incredible things with his powers. We see Mallory's backstory at the Coven, where she uses her powers to literally create life. These two characters are established early on in the season to be extraordinarily powerful. Yet when they finally meet again in the finale, Mallory impressively pulls off time travel, only to then run over a defenseless young Michael Langdon. Sure it is somewhat satisfying to watch, but the finale lacks any of the visual magic that we've seen the two characters use. I just think if they had more time to nail the finale, maybe somehow avoid the time travel device, forget or significantly cut the subplots that were introduced in episode 8, then maybe Apocalypse could have been within the top 3, if not the number one season of AHS. Honestly, episodes 1-7 of Apocalypse are great and extremely satisfying, particularly in the world building elements. But anyway, I really do love the season, I just think the ending could have been a lot stronger and so I can't really rank it any higher than it is. So let's move on to my number 6 spot, which is Roanoke. Roanoke will always hold a special place in my heart and I will defend it against any haters all day, any day. Up until recently I had this season in my top 3, I think out of all the seasons I've rewatched this one the most. My favorite thing about Roanoke is how it's one of the few seasons that packs genuinely scary moments and it has some very dark moments as well, but all in all it's still a really fun season to watch, which is something I couldn't say for Freak Show or Asylum, which at times get a bit too dark and hopeless for me to handle sometimes, but American Horror Story's foray into found footage is ambitious, especially with a significant format change in the middle of the season, transitioning from my Roanoke nightmare to return to Roanoke. One thing I would say about it though is that I wish the shift happened an episode or two earlier, because once it does shift to return to Roanoke, shit gets real. If you've ever seen Halloween Resurrection, let me just say that AHS Roanoke is what the makers of Halloween Resurrection wish they could have achieved. And the season really scratched that itch for lack of a better term of mine for the perfect blend of a slashery, ghosty, found footage project. However, aside from maybe Lee Harris or Shelby Miller, Roanoke doesn't have that many gripping characters and I do think there were significant missed opportunities with the character of Scathitch. Once again I'm aware that is not how you say it, but it's how I say it. I think it could have been really great if they were able to fully utilize that character and like I said I used to rank this season much higher, but I have come to the conclusion that I cannot rank it any higher than number six as of right now thanks to my last round of rewatches as I've been saying. It is flawed, but I love it nonetheless. Moving on to my fifth pick, I have Murder House. We are now in the territory of seasons that I think are undeniably great. Maybe not to you, but to me. Let me just say this, Murder House was made in 2011 and that does show particularly in the relationship of Tate and Violet. I've never been a big fan of them and it has always weirded me out that Tate is so beloved with some of the fan base, but aside from that I think Murder House is a great horror drama. Vivian Harmon is probably my favorite character in this season and I think that Murder House nails a poetic, beautiful, and tragic ending to the Harmon's story. And when it comes down to it, it is a family drama. Let's not forget that the season also gave us Moira O'Hara, Constance Langdon, Adelaide Langdon, and so many other iconic characters. It gave us legendary moments like Violet's death, I mean. It's the blueprint for the entire series and it majorly holds up ten years later. It's scary, funny, heartwarming, heartbreaking, and oftentimes outright disturbing. The early seasons really commit to taking the viewer on an emotional journey and Murder House will definitely rip your heart out and step on it a few times. Murder House feels like destiny because everything came together perfectly for the season to spark what is now a franchise. Think about how differently things would have been with a different cast or even more so if they hadn't locked the perfect location. It's a classic, it was the moment, and that is why it is in my top five. But without further ado, coming in at number four is 1984. I just re-watched 1984 and if you want to hear all my thoughts about it, I did do a member exclusive video where I retroactively reviewed the season. But I'll briefly summarize what I love about the season here, but if you want to become a member and watch that video, feel free to. Like I said in that video, my two favorite characters from the season are Brooke Thompson and Donna Chambers. For Brooke, I think that her character arc was really well done. She starts the season having gone through two traumatic events, those being her blood soaked wedding and her attack with the night stalker in her own home. The others at Camp Redwood are constantly casting doubt on these two events, both of which only happened because both her fiancé and Montana didn't believe that she hadn't slept with Montana's brother. Hopefully, you were able to follow that. If you've watched the season, you know what I'm talking about. We learn that she was telling the truth by episode five, but by the end of that episode, she has been framed with the entire murders of that night in 1984 and sentenced to death. So when she does get a second chance at life, her shift from victim to seeking vengeance is realistic and natural. By the time Brooke is saved by Donna, she has spent five years in prison. This is a character change that I think makes sense and is easy to understand unlike how quickly Ally from Colt was able to overcome her trauma. Brooke has reflected on the events that led her there in prison and it is natural that she feels an overwhelming sense of anger towards Margaret Booth and she only trusts herself to achieve justice. This is something she isn't able to achieve as she is shot by Margaret once they meet again and she has escaped Camp Redwood by the time Donna and the ghosts throw Margaret through the wood chipper. Despite this, she escapes to Oregon and eventually settles down and has children in what I can only assume is a very healthy and calm relationship, something that Brooke so desperately deserves. Donna is the anti-hero of the season and during similar traumas to Brooke in her past. The differences in these two characters lie in how they process their trauma. After finding out that her father is a serial killer, Donna devotes her work to proving that no one is born a killer and that society creates killers. In the name of this research, she lets Mr. Jingles loose at Camp Redwood only to find out that Jingles hadn't killed anyone outside of the war until 1984 as Margaret was the true culprit of the 1970 massacre. Overcome with guilt, Donna begs Benjamin to kill her. She too is given a second chance and she then aids in freeing Brooke from death row and seeing through that Margaret is held accountable. Accountability via wood chipper. I think these two characters are very well fleshed out and I go a lot more in depth in that video, but aside from that, the slasher genre is my favorite horror sub-genre so the heavy influences from Friday the 13th and Halloween greatly add to my appreciation for the season. I won't lie, it falls short in a few areas. It feels like a tonal departure from AHS, which upset a lot of fans, I don't have a huge problem with that, but I do not think that the Richard Ramirez angle was great. But fresh off a rewatch, 1984 seems like a rejuvenation of the show with major casting changes in the absence of Sarah Paulson and Evan Peters, but it doesn't try to be like previous seasons and it thrives in the lane that it created for itself. Not sure if that made sense, but let's move on to my third choice, welcome to my top three. Number three is hotel. I won't lie, for the longest time I considered hotel to be the worst season of AHS. This is the one I was talking about earlier that I used to always say was my least favorite season. The first time I saw it, I found it hard to get invested in the characters thanks to the slower pacing and overlapping storylines. For years I tried to give it a second chance, but just couldn't get through a rewatch. I blame my attention span, which I think honestly got a lot better over the quarantine, which played in part to this probably. I'm happy to report that in October of 2020 I successfully rewatched hotel and in record time. I think I was able to fly through all of the episodes in only two or three days and I honestly fell in love with the season. I don't know what I was thinking before honestly. Hotel nails a specific tone of dread and haziness that I think is really unique and captivating. The hotel Cortez has the capability to pull you into its trance and I think hotel has one of the strongest ensemble cast of characters, second only to Coven. Each ghost in the hotel Cortez is equal parts heartbreaking and terrifying, which allows you to feel for them. Lady Gaga as the Countess is just perfect, I can't even find words to describe it. She is the series most captivating villain. The common complaint that I hear about hotel is John Lowe's storyline as the Ten Commandments killer doesn't make sense and is confusing. Word. It definitely is those things. However, and I honestly think the season may have hypnotized me on that last rewatch because seeing the season happen with the unreliable narrator that is John Lowe added that element of hopeless dread that I was talking about earlier. As the audience, like John Lowe, you feel like you're going crazy being gaslit even but you experience it through John Lowe. We aren't outsiders looking in so when it is revealed that he is the Ten Commandments killer, it's a bit world-shattering. I'm not saying the critiques of this are invalid, I'm just saying that when I rewatched it, the hazy navigation throughout the story with John Lowe as the unreliable narrator was something that really hooked me and got me through it. It was honestly one of the most unique experiences I've had viewing something so that says a lot. Like 1984, I think hotel similarly tried something new for the series in the absence of Jessica Lange and that upset some viewers but really worked for others. So it seems like one of those seasons that you either love or you hate and this is evident that I've seen going through your guys' responses as well. If you would have asked me a year ago if Hotel was in the top three seasons of AHS, I would have said hell no. So opinions are subjective and can change over time and Hotel is the best example that I have of this. That being said, let's move on to my second pick. The runner up to my favorite season of American Horror Story is Coven. These last two seasons that I have left are both ones that I hold very near and dear to me and they both are incredible seasons in their own right. Coven has probably my favorite atmosphere of any AHS season. The New Orleans backdrop and the beautiful cinematography brings me so much comfort when I watch the season. The cast of the season is like AHS All Stars, I mean we had Sarah Paulson, Jessica Lange, Angela Bassett, Emma Roberts, Francis Conroy, Evan Peters, Gabri Sidibe, Dennis O'Hare, Lily Raebe, and Jamie Brewer, just to name a few. AHS's take on witches was so incredibly fun and the characters are all so dynamic and enjoyable to watch. The season isn't without flaws but it overwhelmingly makes up for them by the end of the season. Coven is a complete season with a clear trajectory and a clear ending. Although in another world I could see a spin-off centered around the Coven lasting for many seasons. Coven is honestly the only season of the show that I could see being really successful if it were its own show outside of the anthology. But that's really besides the point here. Like I was saying, the atmosphere of the season sucks you in and makes you not want to leave the world. Cordelia is probably my favorite character to come out of the entire series and Fiona and Marie LeVau are not far behind her, not to even mention Myrtle Snow. So many good characters this season. The cast is so amazing that every episode is lit up by their performances. Even if the story wasn't as good as it is, it would still be top tier entertainment getting to see so many legendary actors perform together. To make a long story short, the season is pure magic. But now it is time to see which season I placed in my number one spot and if you've been paying attention you would have deduced that it is no other than Asylum. Like I said, I'm incredibly indecisive and my choice for the number one spot was not an easy one. Coming off of Murder House, Asylum had the hefty task of selling fans on the anthological format of the series. And if Asylum wasn't as strong as it is, who knows how successful American Horror Story would have went on to be. It's a pivotal season. It gave us Sarah Paulson's first leading role in the series, brought Jessica Lange to new heights, and they managed to deliver a genuinely horrifying season. Asylum doesn't shy away from the darkness and it takes an emotional toll on me every time I watch it. For me, the films and TV shows that stand out are the ones that make you feel how the characters are feeling. Asylum, a bit like Hotel, puts the viewer in the shoes of Lana Winters. Lana's character arc is probably the best the show has ever seen. And when the madness did indeed end, the satisfaction that Lana felt is shared with the relief that we all felt knowing that she had not only escaped, but put an end to Briarcliff Manor. Jessica Lange as sister Jude is tied for my favorite Jessica Lange role. Lily Rabe as sister Mary Eunice as well is a great character to watch. Aside from them, Asylum also gave us Kit Walker, Pepper, The Angel of Death and some of our most nefarious and vile villains in Dr. Arden and Oliver Threadson. At the end of the day, this is American Horror Story and I think not only is Asylum the best season in terms of quality, I also think it is the scariest. All right, so that is my ranking of the seasons, but don't click off the video just yet, because like I said at the beginning of the video, I asked you guys for your rankings of the seasons about a week ago and I got quite a few responses. So much so that I scratched my original idea, which was going to be going through every comment and assigning points to the seasons based on how you guys ranked them. But that proved extremely time consuming. So I made a Google form that I put on my community page and thank God a lot of you responded to that as well. It was much easier to do it that way. So thanks to all of you who took your time to do that. It got 161 responses before this very moment. So obviously that is only a small portion of you guys, so feel free to leave your ranking in the comment below. But let's start with the season that received the least amount of votes by you all and that is none other than Freak Show, which received 14.9% of the vote with 24 votes. You guys agreed with me based on this selection of people that submitted the survey as Freak Show being the week season. That being said, I will say going through those comments, Freak Show wasn't in last place when I did like the first 30 comments that I did do the math for. So we do have a lot of Freak Show stands out there and I'm sure you'll let us know in the comments below. But moving on, the next season that you guys ranked at number eight is Apocalypse, which received 22.4% of the votes. You guys ranked Apocalypse one spot lower than I did. Turns out I wasn't being too hard on Apocalypse like I suspected. You guys are somewhat in agreement with me. At number seven, you guys ranked Roanoke, which is one spot lower than I ranked it and it got 26.1% of the vote. And then number six, we have Hotel, which received 28.6% of the vote. You guys ranked Hotel three spots lower than I did, which is the biggest negative difference on this list between my list and your guys' list. Generally, you guys don't like Hotel as much as I did, but opinions are subjective. Our top five starts with a tie for the fourth slash fifth position. So we have Colt, which received 48 votes, which depending on how you look at it is three or four spots higher than I ranked it, which is the biggest positive difference between our lists and also in fifth or fourth place is 1984, which also got 48 votes, which is depending on how you look at it either one spot lower than I ranked it or exactly the same as I ranked it. So we're pretty much in sync in terms of 1984. Rounding out our top three at number three, you guys ranked Murder House with 62 votes, which is two positions higher than I ranked it. So maybe I had Murder House a little bit underrated, who knows? Number two, we have Asylum. You guys switched number one and two for me, putting Coven in the lead with 94 votes, which of course is one spot higher than I ranked Coven. So yeah, I'll put up the graph of the Google forum so you can see exactly what I'm talking about. That's how you guys ranked it based on a specific group of people. Obviously, it doesn't represent all of you. So like I said, let me know in the comments below what your ranking is. Going through the comments on my first post, I don't think I saw a single one that was identical to mine, which I thought was really interesting. There weren't a lot that were identical to each other either. There's just so many ways you can arrange the seasons and everybody's opinions are so subjective. I think it's kind of cool that for the most part, everyone's list is pretty unique. But there you have it. The video I told myself I would never make. I'd love to hear your rankings in the comments below. Like I said, I think there is a case for any season to be your number one, so there should be no judgment in this comments section. Let's be nice and respect everybody's opinions. Give this video a like if you enjoyed it. I really appreciate things like liking the video and commenting on the video because that shows YouTube that you guys are engaged and it helps my videos get recommended to more people. Thank you guys so much for watching and I will see you next time.