Ryan Murphy’s “American Horror Story” is perhaps one of the biggest shows to air in the last 15 years.
With intense, chilling plots, star-studded casts and memorable characters, the show has become a pop culture sensation since it first debuted in 2011. An anthology series, every season a new story would be told, despite having the same cast.
The first part of the show’s 12th season, “Delicate,” aired on Sept. 20. New episodes have been released weekly, with the last of part one airing on Oct. 18. Before it was even released, there was a large buzz surrounding “Delicate” online due to the directors’ choice to cast reality TV star Kim Kardashian.
“AHS” fans were skeptical about this decision, especially since the show has gone off the rails since its first five seasons. Many people speculated that the new season would be terrible from the trailer alone.
I’m here to tell you that it’s not.
Murphy has stunt-casted several celebrities on “AHS” in the past: Lady Gaga, Stevie Nicks, Patti LaBelle and more. They’ve all given memorable performances and were the highlights of their respective seasons.
Kardashian is no different.
“Delicate” is the first season of “AHS” to be adapted from a novel, “Delicate Condition” by Danielle Rollins. From what I’ve read, the show does a decent job of staying true to the novel, which has scored a spot on my reading list.
“AHS” veteran Emma Roberts stars as Anna Victoria Alcott, a young actress who is skyrocketing to fame. While her career continues to take off, Anna and her husband Dex (Matt Czuchry) attempt to have a baby via in vitro fertilization (IVF). The couple has been struggling to conceive and their last few attempts to use IVF were unsuccessful.
Finally, Anna learns that her embryo transfer was successful. However, she begins to notice a strange woman following her and things start to get extremely weird for Anna.
Kardashian plays Anna’s cutthroat PR agent, Siobhan. It may shock you to hear this, but I found myself more enthralled by Kardashian’s performance than Roberts’.
By no means is Kardashian’s performance good — but it’s campy, and I love camp when done right. And oh man, does Kardashian deliver a delightfully campy performance.
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Almost everything that comes out of Kardashian’s mouth in “Delicate” makes me chuckle or audibly laugh, whether it’s her exclaiming, “Gorgina!” while taking a group selfie, or threatening her lover with the line, “Otherwise, I break your dick off.”
Kardashian is clearly having fun with her role as Siobhan. She leans into the valley girl stereotype that the media has placed on her, and she makes it work.
While Siobhan is mostly present to exposition-dump or make quips, her presence always steals the scene from every other character around her. I’m hoping that she will have a more prominent role in the second part of “Delicate.” I think it’d be interesting to see how Kardashian deals with intense, in-depth material versus delivering a few lines at a time.
Roberts’ performance is somewhat lifeless compared to her previous roles in “AHS,” which is part of the reason why I’m so drawn to Kardashian’s presence.
Unlike Kardashian, Roberts has a lot more to live up to, especially because her performances in “American Horror Story: Coven” and Murphy’s “Scream Queens” are renowned by fans.
Roberts could’ve easily taken the same, campy route that Kardashian takes with her portrayal of Siobhan. In fact, she tapped into camp in her portrayal of Madison Montgomery in “Coven,” which is why I loved her character so much. Instead, we get a flat portrayal of Anna, who is always uneasy, but never truly terrified of what’s happening to her.
I know this is only the first part of “Delicate,” but so much has already happened, and Anna just seems anxious. I want to see Roberts amp up her levels of terror and paranoia in the next part.
Until then, “Delicate” is lucky to have Kardashian breathing both life and camp into it.
Rating: 7/10
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