'American Horror Story' Premiere: Television Killed the Freak Show Star

Under ringleader Elsa Mars' carnival tent, the seats are empty — at least they were during Wednesday's bloody premiere of American Horror Story: Freak Show.
"Times are tough," Elsa's bearded female sidekick Ethel Darling (Kathy Bates) explains. "Thanks to Red Skelton and Lucille Ball, folks are getting their jollies at home now."
Freak Show, the fourth season of FX's acclaimed miniseries, is set in 1952 during TV's Golden Age, an era when actors devoured the attention of the American people and sideshows subsequently struggled to attract any paying customers as a result.

This "Monsters Among Us" episode sets up a narrative where Elsa (Jessica Lange), a fame-hungry cabaret performer from pre-war Berlin, will do anything to pry those eyes away from TVs in order to get them to notice and accept her troupe of oddities.
They have an uphill battle, though, because the residents of Jupiter, Florida, are already ferociously discriminating against them. Nurses balk at the sight of conjoined twins Bette and Dot (Sarah Paulson) but Elsa sees them as the freak show's savior ("what pretty girls you are"); men throw beer bottles at three of Elsa's performers; and a detective meets his gruesome demise after stereotyping them ("there is no place in Jupiter for freaks").
"Don't call us freaks," yells Jimmy Darling, Ethel's son who has lobster-like hands.
 

Evan Peters plays Jimmy Darling, a boy with lobster-like hands.

Image: Frank Ockenfels/FX

Like in past American Horror Story seasons, much attention will be focused on Paulson's role. In Freak Show, she's essentially playing two characters, Bette and Dot, who begin their journey entrenched in the murder mystery of their mother. We eventually learn Bette, the usually optimistic, softer-spoken of the two Tattler twins repeatedly stabbed her mom with knife in a fit of rage for not letting them venture out into public to see a movie. Dot then stabbed Bette in the chest to cover up the crime. The two, who can read each other's thoughts, ended up in the hospital, where they are saved by Elsa, who brands them as "The Siamese Sisters" and makes them the headlining act in the freak show.
By the end of the episode, Elsa confessed that she selfishly brought the Tattler twins in to attract massive crowds to watch her sing. Elsa has always dreamed of becoming a star, and we're left wondering how she fits into the freak show, until the final minutes when she tearfully disrobes and reveals that she's a paraplegic with two prosthetic legs.