Following a largely warm response to American Horror Story season 10’s first part, Red Tide, fans overwhelming hate Death Valley. While critical and audience consensus deemed Red Tide’s finale a disappointment, the first five episodes refreshingly called back to the proper pacing and gripping premises of the series’ heyday. Red Tide episode 5, “Gaslight,” even holds the third-highest episode rating for the entire series on IMDb, truly proving how exciting the first half of American Horror Story season 10 was, and subsequently what a letdown Death Valley became.
American Horror Story: Double Feature was marketed to audiences as a split season, with the stories being separated by one’s setting at the sea and one at the desert. Teasers for season 10 gave audiences further hints as to what creatures or villains awaited American Horror Story’s beloved actors, which suggested a sea-based humanoid that fans theorized to be sirens for Red Tide and an unmistakable alien for Death Valley. With the creature for Red Tide being fairly ambiguous ahead of season 10, fans’ early excitement skewed to the alien premise, which was a familiar creature in American Horror Story’s seasons.
While Red Tide won’t be regarded as poorly due to how well-crafted the majority of its episodes were, Death Valley’s overwhelming disappointment stains American Horror Story season 10 as a low point in the series. The split timelines in Death Valley left each underdeveloped, the characters weren’t gripping, the young casting called back to American Horror Stories’ most common criticisms, and the finale had absolutely no stakes, twist, or excitement, all contributing to Death Valley’s severely underwhelming premise following Red Tide. One way Death Valley could have redeemed itself in the eyes of American Horror Story fans is connecting it back to Red Tide, which was heavily implied in the first story, yet never came to fruition. After 10 seasons, fans longed for the overlapping stories and connections featured in nearly every installment, and Death Valley sorely disappointed viewers.
Much of the anticipation for Death Valley’s alien premise was the hope that it would answer the questions and mysteries left from American Horror Story season 2, Asylum, which is still regarded as one of the show’s best installments. Aliens played an underlying role in Asylum’s conflict and especially the major characters’ resolutions. Yet, American Horror Story had hardly answered their purpose or the true fate of Kit Walker (AHS favorite Evan Peters). Interestingly, Kit Walker would have been the perfect way to directly connect Death Valley and Asylum. Kit had been abducted at age 40 when the aliens finally returned for him, and his fate was left as never being seen again. Had Kit shown up waiting at the Area 51 alien-human holding center when Death Valley’s modern-day characters arrived, season 10 would have had an incredible opportunity to rescue its bland story.
Overall, Death Valley just didn’t pull in audiences as it struggled to provide a central story or conflict. Whereas American Horror Story: Roanoke has held the title of the least beloved season, fan and critic consensus supports that Death Valley now wears the shameful crown. Just a quick scroll through Twitter following Death Valley’s finale reveals fans’ abundant dismay. It also feels like a disheartening way to send off American Horror Story’s Sarah Paulson, who was one of the only interesting aspects of Death Valley. Still, her character was nothing compared to Red Tide’s TB Karen. After revealing American Horror Story season 10 would likely be her last run, fans likely won’t rest until she’s given a proper story and character to retire her series career on.
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