Should you watch it, wiki it, or wait for the recap? Watch it! It’s the season premier after all.
Elsa recruits conjoined twins Dot and Bette to join the rest of her travelling freak show, which includes Jimmy (with conjoined hands), Ethel (a bearded lady), and Ma Petite (a midget). Unknown to them, a mysterious clown, Twisty, is also on the loose, and Elsa also has a freakish secret of her own.
I walked into “Monsters Among Us” not expecting to be impressed – after all, the gimmick of the fourth season, Freak Show, is clearly spelt out in the title. Even the opening credits weren’t as creepy as the previous three (although granted, I turned the music down a little, it being just before midnight when I watched it and all).
Did I regret watching it at night? Thankfully, no (but I’ll update you when I wake up). Did I regret watching it at all? No. As gimmicky as I thought the deformities were, this was an episode grounded in character. The most gimmicky of the characters, Bette and Dot, had a surprising amount of depth and development, and Jessica Lange provides a splendid performance as usual, captivating us to the end.
Highlights:
Elsa’s singing
I had to write that. Of course, this being set in 1952, she couldn’t have sang “Let It Go.” In the final Act, Elsa and the freaks deliver a performance to a wealthy mother and her son, Gloria and Dandy Mott, with Elsa carrying the performance with a rendition of an old song (which Wiki tells me is David Bowie’s “Life on Mars). I guess EPs Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk’s Glee experience came in really handy here for her song number. Nevertheless, it was quite fun to watch the episode close with this.
Elsa and Ethel’s relationship
As with the rest of the relationships, theirs is equally depraved, although we only see hints of it in this episode. The only person that Elsa shows any vulnerability too is Ethel – and that’s the last person we’d expect, given Ethel’s direct, slightly brutish behaviour. It provided a unique layer to what would otherwise have been a simple master-servant relationship.
Dot and Bette’s support of Elsa in the final Act
As grotesque as this carnival might be, there’s this understanding that the freaks only have each other, and hence must stand together and cover the backs of each other. In the last Act, before the two Tags, Gloria offers to buy Dot and Bette from Elsa. Dot and Bette firmly refuse, and you see how they’ve grown to accept the rest of Elsa’s freaks as family. This development contrasts strongly to their first suspicious encounter with Elsa. Dot’s stance is especially moving given her animosity at the beginning of the ep(Dot’s the smart one, Bette’s the dumb one, in case you’re unclear).
Elsa’s characterisation
Elsa grows from stereotypical villainess to attention-seeking actress throughout the course of the episode. But we never really gain any sympathy for her, because she’s the only normal one out of the bunch, and it looks like she’s using the freaks to satiate her own desire for fame.
But in the closing Tag, we see that Elsa herself has a deformity – her legs are stumps. And yet of all the freaks, hers is the only deformity that nobody will pay to see. Her deformity is worse than useless – it’s a liability and it’s not a money spinner. Whilst her audience might come solely on the uniqueness of her freaks, she is the only one who must develop another skill to gain the attention of the audience, and thus is the weakest performer of them all.
The multiple layers of Elsa’s character will prove to be a draw as the episodes unfold.
Letdowns:
The Teaser’s mystery of Bette and Dot
The Teaser slowly reveals to us that Bette and Dot are conjoined twins. The thing is, it’s played up like a huge, horrific sight, a spectacle that will have us retch like the nurses do.
When we finally see Dot and Bette? Nifty special effects is all.
Jessica Lange’s awkward accent as Elsa
Jessica Lange’s accent sounds inconsistent throughout the episode. I appreciate the effort to differentiate the various characters she plays, but this felt a bit over the top. Perhaps if I had never seen her speaking normally in other instances, this wouldn’t have been as jarring.
You know what’s the “worst” (in which case I mean freakiest) part of “Monsters Among Us?” Twisty. Twisty the clown. Despite all the freaks, it’s the most normal of carnies that gets to me. I had forgotten all about him until his sudden appearance on the carousel in the last Act. That’s the cherry on the top of an already fantastic episode.
I hope I can sleep tonight.
Leave a Reply