Why American Horror Stories' Game Over Has Fans So Divided
The spin-off series to FX's "American Horror Story" has had fans divided since its two-part premiere, so it's not surprising that the Season 1 finale was just as polarizing.
"Game Over" brings viewers back to the ghostly "Murder House" for the fourth time in the franchise, though in a totally new way. Nothing is quite what it seems as the meta episode references the original show, the series premiere of "American Horror Stories," discusses cast members, and pokes fun at fans. The crux of the finale is the strained relationship between a mother-son duo who cannot connect despite her obsessive attempts.
While developing a video game based on your son's favorite TV show and casually dropping $100,000 on a house to get the "vibe" seems more "Black Mirror," the episode is all about name-dropping various "American Horror Story" characters, locations, and storylines. "American Horror Stories" has been renewed for a second season, so perhaps this was the first step toward revisiting more universes from an outside perspective.
However, not all fans were happy about "Game Over."
How meta is too meta?
On the "American Horror Stories" subreddit, fans were split over the meta jokes and the reveal that everything was actually occurring within a video game. Many found the video game logistics confusing and thought the self-referential jokes only further complicated things. A few even felt the writers came across as "defensive" and "slightly bitter," given the spin-off's underwhelming response.
"I'm for meta and don't even mind simulation or dream within a dream stuff," said u/rapzel79. "But it made no sense." They went on to question the episode and concluded that "mixing the meta and the game was too much."
"So her video game is about her trying to make a video game and dying but then her son burns the house down and then Scarlett returns years later and reconnects with Ruby? That's the video game?" asked one Redditor. "No one involved with making this episode has ever played a video game."
With arguably the harshest dig at "Game Over," u/Seanawesome14 said, "This story genuinely sounded like fan fiction written in a high school creative writing class."