S05.E02: Chutes And Ladders

[Chaos Theory]

I have decided Miss Evers is my favorite character. Every time she spoke I laughed. Miss Evers and Mr March were so much fun to watch from beginning to end especially when they were deciding who got to die first.

This is already light years better the Freak Show. I hope it keeps the momentum going because I am really enjoying it.

Edited October 16, 2015 by Chaos Theory

[RedheadZombie]

Sarah Paulson is just mesmerizing. I don't know why Ryan keeps making her the bridesmaid but never the bride. 

 

 

 

I find there is an undertone of petulance in Finn Wittrock's performances that makes him one note to me.  

 

I called him petulant last night.  It's not working for me.  He's like a two year old having a tantrum.

 

I would call Asylum a "bride" role for Sarah Paulson.  She set the whole season into gear, was the heroine we rooted for, and finished the story in the end.

[Surrealist]

Oh, I've mentioned it already a week ago! It's just too obvious that they've modeled their hotel after Holmse's.

 

Gah! My apologies. :)

[Captanne]

Wow, SO 80s. So, so, so, 80s. I see now why they wanted Bowie (probably Iman, too) for this. Anyone who plays Roxy Music and dresses Finn Witrock the way he's dressed had the 80s in mind. He's the spitting image of John Taylor (bassist for Duran Duran.)

 

Evan Peters was a nice surprise!  Loved the accent.  While the hotel is very much after H.H. Holmes -- the real hotel was built in Chicago in time for the 189Something World's Fair and Holmes was a sporadic murdering loser.   He was also a con artist, a dubious doctor with a failing pharmacy career, and he built that hotel on bad debt and money from cons.  He was not an oil magnate by a long shot.

Meanwhile, I enjoyed the episode. It was a nice way to spend a very, very rare evening at home with nothing else to do.

Edited October 16, 2015 by Captanne

[Allie56]

I'm so glad that they have Evan Peters doing some heavy lifting this semester. He's always been, in my opinion, one of the best actors on this show and definitely one of the best young actors on the show. I actually enjoyed Coven, but wasting Evan on Kyle was one of this show's biggest missteps. He was just so compelling! I agree with everybody who loves Mrs. Evers. I'm sure everything will come together, but I'm kind of wishing that the show had just focused on the building of the hotel and used Mr. March as their Jessica Lange replacement. More of them! More!

 

So, is the vaccine thing going to be a way of destroying the vampires? They've called it a disease or something, right? So maybe they're going to vaccinate against it? Otherwise the vaccine thing is a big heavy-handed and is bothersome, and I'm a big proponent of vaccinating. 

[caracas1914]

So other than the detective eventually reuniting with his son and trying to "save" him, I don't see any actual storylines developing at all. It seems it 's going to be a hotel full of sociopaths killing random guests in the most gruesome manner possible in a music video style. All sizzle and appetizers but no main entree.

There doesn't seem to be, surprise, any narrative thrust at all through the first two episodes.

[JenE4]

So other than the detective eventually reuniting with his son and trying to "save" him, I don't see any actual storylines developing at all. It seems it 's going to be a hotel full of sociopaths killing random guests in the most gruesome manner possible in a music video style. All sizzle and appetizers but no main entree.

There doesn't seem to be, surprise, any narrative thrust at all through the first two episodes.

This is what I said about last week--save the last half hour, which finally had some semblance of storylines. I actually thought about 10 minutes into this show that I was going to give up on this season, but then suddenly it all came together for me--actual storylines and characterization started to take place, and I was captivated by the rest of the show. Well, I did doze off and missed everything with the serial killer investigation and whatever else near the end (woke up for the hipster lumberjack), but that's because it was an hour and 40ish minutes and I was already up late the night before watching debate commentary. Granted, some storylines seem a little lamer than others, but others I'm intrigued about where they're going. Evan Peters knocked it out of the park as Mr. March! As someone mentioned upthread, how is he not a leading man in movies? He impresses me season after season, and he so perfectly captured the 1920s. I'm even now more invested in the vampire love triangle--something will definitely come to a head there now that Donovan is on the outs. The creepy vampire Holden kid even got more interesting now that his sister discovered him. I'm not really too into Sally's story, but I liked how she got the detective to open up about his story. I suppose she's an emotional vampire, and if that helps to develop characterization of the victims, i think that's pretty cool.

[DrSparkles]

I'm so glad that they have Evan Peters doing some heavy lifting this semester. He's always been, in my opinion, one of the best actors on this show and definitely one of the best young actors on the show. I actually enjoyed Coven, but wasting Evan on Kyle was one of this show's biggest missteps. He was just so compelling! I agree with everybody who loves Mrs. Evers. I'm sure everything will come together, but I'm kind of wishing that the show had just focused on the building of the hotel and used Mr. March as their Jessica Lange replacement. More of them! More!

So, is the vaccine thing going to be a way of destroying the vampires? They've called it a disease or something, right? So maybe they're going to vaccinate against it? Otherwise the vaccine thing is a big heavy-handed and is bothersome, and I'm a big proponent of vaccinating.

Ahh, yes, Gaga called it our virus.

ETA: Spellbound!!!

Edited October 16, 2015 by DrSparkles

[Fable]

Hmmm...I don't know.  I liked Iris, the cop, Liz Taylor (who I suspect won't feature much) and Mr. March.  Everything else bored me.  The story, as it is, seems too disjointed, and the episodes last much longer than they need to.  

[lofidelity]

I have never wanted anything more than I want this season to be about Sally 'n' Scarlett becoming pals and teaching Scarlett to be like "Fuck y'all self-involved assholes" to her shitty parents.

[Kimmature]

So, Chutes and Ladders?  The chutes are obvious, but do the ladders refer to what Sally Syringe said about addiction being like climbing a ladder of infinite misery?  Or maybe an oblique reference to all the shit that happens in the elevators?

 

H.H. Holmes house was full of chutes leading to incinerators, lime pits, false elevators etc.  From everything I've read about the series so far, the actual hotel is based in great part on Holmes' house of horrors, even though the show isn't really plumbing the depths of that yet.  If you look at the schematics of his house, his number of victims, and the ease in which he made a living off of insurance claims etc., it's a lot scarier than fake vampires and whiny ghosts.

 

The one thing that really rang true to me about this episode was when Gaga said that her favourite year was 1979. It was a horrible year for fashion, music, politics, wars, education, but it was pretty much the last year before AIDS happened, when we learned to expect that young people would die en masse, that sex had actual consequences that antibiotics couldn't cure, and before politics became extremely partisan, and hateful towards education. 

[mercfan3]

That AIDS bit is interesting, I didn't get the "all my friends died" reference Gaga was making. 

 

It's interesting that Ryan is essentially combining Zombies and Vampires mythology. 

[LittleIggy]

I can't believe this mess ran for an 1:42!  Some of the scenes were completely unnecessary. During the fashion show, I legit uttered - the fuck am I watching!

 

Surprised to not see this yet mentioned but Ryan seemed to have based Evan Peter's character and indeed the concept of the show on someone who is considered America's First serial killer H.H. Holmes. I saw a not so great documentary on this on Netflix. With murder on his mind, Holmes built a hotel in Chicago back in the 1800's with "a maze of over 100 windowless rooms with doorways opening to brick walls, oddly-angled hallways, stairways leading to nowhere, doors that could only be opened from the outside and a host of other strange and labyrinthine constructions." He is believed to have murdered over 200 people but only confessed to about 27.

 !

I read a book about that guy so I thought of him too. Didn't the murders occur during a world's fair in Chicago?

Is the hotel like the Murder House in that if you die there, you are trapped there?

I assume The Flower Song duet from Lakme was an homage to The Hunger.

[Free]

So other than the detective eventually reuniting with his son and trying to "save" him, I don't see any actual storylines developing at all. It seems it 's going to be a hotel full of sociopaths killing random guests in the most gruesome manner possible in a music video style. All sizzle and appetizers but no main entree.

There doesn't seem to be, surprise, any narrative thrust at all through the first two episodes.

 

It's definitely style over substance, well even more so blatantly this season.

[Sile]

I read a book about that guy so I thought of him too. Didn't the murders occur during a world's fair in Chicago?

Is the hotel like the Murder House in that if you die there, you are trapped there?

I assume The Flower Song duet from Lakme was an homage to The Hunger.

 

Harold Schecter wrote a book about him (Depraved), but for anyone that's not a hardcore true crime fan and doesn't want all of the agonizingly gory details, I'd recommend Devil in the White City by Erik Larsen.  It juxtaposes Holmes' story against the story of the Chicago World's Fair.  In fact, it takes quite a while to even mention Holmes at all!

 

Although I bought the book because of Holmes (because I'm one of those hardcore true crime fans), I think I ended up liking the story of the fair even more.  Really interesting and educational at the same time.

Edited October 16, 2015 by Sile

[editorgrrl]

I didn't get the "all my friends died" reference Gaga was making.

I assumed it was the artists Andy Warhol, Keith Haring, and Robert Mapplethorpe.

Countess: I mourn it still. I think about everything that could have been, had they all lived. My friends: Andy, Keith, Robert. All that loss.

Tristan: Were those guys you killed?

[SpaghettiTuesdays]

All right, I'll eat my words. Hated the premiere, but I loved this episode. 

 

Finn and Evan!! Yessss! Both, I think, went out of their type-cast and it was marvelous. I loved Evan as a the evil-Gatsby. And Mare was fantastic as the housekeeper. 

 

I'm rather interested in what they're going to do with Scarlet. And that kid's got balls to go off on her own like that. She's sharp, for sure.

 

Lady Gaga is still Lady Gaga. I think she's doing a great job but I just can't get into it. 

 

Still love the hotel - it's absolutely beautiful, body chutes and all. I really enjoyed the show's backstory of the hotel. Wouldn't you know it, our own Mr Detective is staying right at the heart of it!

 

RIP Swedish girl. I hope you went off to that Hilton in the sky.

 

Ew, I just remembered the tooth-grinding scene. Blech. No more, please.

[Mattipoo]

This was a much better episode than last week. The storylines got going a little bit and Evan Peters and Finn Wittrock really make the show much more entertaining and compelling. Mr. March and Miss Evers are great, absolutely love their scenes. I thought Scarlett looking for her brother at the hotel was a pretty good scene. The young actress really sold it. Also, Gaga is starting to be less annoying than I thought and I agree with those who think she has an ethereal quality that fits with the character and also some screen presence and charisma, although in all her scenes I still feel like I am watching a music video rather than a television show. At least she is a much better actress than Madonna, IMHO. Also love Madchen Amick as the anti-vax mom. Hope she gets more to do in future episodes. Yay for lumberjack beard man bun hipster getting killed. What a tool.

Edited October 16, 2015 by Mattipoo

[Snookums]

That was a terrible fashion show!

 

 

Dreadful! You can't tell me Vogue and Naomi Campbell were so hot to trot over Old Navy's fall line. And all the models seemed bored out of their gourds. Stand up straight, people!

 

Agree with everybody who's listed the six thousand plot lines that are listing this creaking barge of a show far to port and we're only the 2nd episode in! Good Lord, Murphy, you have an entire season! He's like a kid who gorges on Halloween candy 'til he pukes rather than wait until tomorrow to eat some of it.

 

I am really confused on the whole Dead Vs. Kinda Undead thing going on. Sally, Ms. Evers and March are clearly ghosts, but nobody seems to acknowledge the fact, and there's plenty of different corporeal menaces running around, but none of them seem connected, or even layered, like in Season One's Murder House. The best conceit of that show was how the ghosts weren't necessarily aware of each other, but they all were part of the same story. This is much more like some tryhard third year film student's idea to make fifteen short films and run them all on top of each other with no never mind for story.

 

I just could NOT with Man Bun Pickup Meal. That guy had hit full Hipster Brooklyn and I was done.

[Anela]

 

 

So, is the vaccine thing going to be a way of destroying the vampires? They've called it a disease or something, right? So maybe they're going to vaccinate against it? Otherwise the vaccine thing is a big heavy-handed and is bothersome, and I'm a big proponent of vaccinating. 

I had been thinking the opposite, and wondering if they would make themselves sick, so as to pollute their blood, but a vaccine makes more sense. 

[darkestboy]

Good episode but could've done with ten minutes or so being shaved off as well.

 

Nice introduction for March as a character. Flashbacks were a bit overlong though for my liking but Peters is pretty good in the role so far.

 

I find that Tristan is going to grate fairly quick for me. Though he's a hypocrite, I actually don't blame Donovan hating the bloke.

 

The Countess clearly has her types and so on. I did like the Studio 54 flashbacks in this one.

 

Sally and Iris are both horrific characters in different ways and Scarlett is smarter than both her parents combined to be honest.

 

Naomi Campbell can't act but she wasn't given anything here to really test her though, 8/10
 

[Captanne]

I viewed that whole fashion show through the lens of, "No wonder they wanted Bowie and Iman."  So, I wasn't really watching Campbell, per se, but more watching her and thinking, "Yeah.  Iman would have been better."

 

The fashion in the fashion show was utterly irrelevant.  Which is, maybe, RM's way of making a statement about fashion and haute couture in general?  They way he did the anti-vaxxers?

[Etta Place]

My husband and I were talking about how events inside the hotel seem to operate on a sort of dream logic - it's not clear at all how people get from one place to another, or how something can happen, etc. But it's kind of working for us in that framework. Also, I appreciated the tooth-grinding scene even as I cringed and looked away. That's something that's going to cause a reaction in just about everyone, and again comes straight out of dreams. (Although I don't think people's tooth-loss dreams are usually quite that graphic. I'm guessing - I've never had one myself.)

 

I'm one of those who read both Depraved and Devil in the White City as well, so enjoyed the HH Holmes similarities. Also enjoyed the bar scenes similar to The Shining.

 

Wes Bentley is terrible at watching children.

[ClareWalks]

I think the vaccine stuff was a way for RM to make a point, and a way for Chloe's character to let off a bit of steam that there are REAL threats out there (like kidnapping, with her own son) and this bitch is not even doing the most basic thing to protect her child (like Wes's character failed to do with her own son). Hopefully it won't turn into a "vaccinate against Vampire Virus" storyline. That would be monumentally stupid.

[gunderda]

DANDY!!!!!

It took me a bit to recognize him. 

 

Much better episode... however I could do without the vampire stuff.  The flash back with March was the best part. Gaga is OBVIOUSLY his wife. It was her voice when she told him not to gag that girl he was bricking up in the wall. 

 

So it seemed to me the first mattress 'monster' is now down in the chute with the swedish girls.  And now the new druggie is the new mattress 'monster'? 

I hope we learn why she puts them in the mattress. 

 

And where does a vampire live if he's booted from his home? 

[LoneHaranguer]

 

Agree with everybody who's listed the six thousand plot lines that are listing this creaking barge of a show far to port and we're only the 2nd episode in! Good Lord, Murphy, you have an entire season! He's like a kid who gorges on Halloween candy 'til he pukes rather than wait until tomorrow to eat some of it.

And yet the episode has a drawn-out feel, like it wasn't originally written to fill much more than a one-hour time-slot. I'm guessing they went well over their quota in selling ad time and needed to pad the episode so they wouldn't have ten minute long commercial breaks.

[Black Knight]

I'm surprised no one's mentioned Sweeney Todd yet. The backstory with Evan Peters' and Mare Winningham's characters, from the way she was his helper/co-conspirator to how he disposed of bodies through a chute, had a lot of resonances for me with Sweeney Todd.

[Bruinsfan]

And where does a vampire live if he's booted from his home? 

If he looks like Matt Bomer (and will forever), I suspect he won't have that difficult a time finding another sugar momma or daddy to put him up.

[Petunia13]

Ill volunteer!

[gunderda]

Would it be a hard reach that he maybe just relocates to another room/suite within the hotel?

After all what's her face is only there before he's her son so if he lives wouldn't that mean she would quit working there?

[Chaos Theory]

If he looks like Matt Bomer (and will forever), I suspect he won't have that difficult a time finding another sugar momma or daddy to put him up.

Plus he is a brooding vampire that does seem to click with teenage girls....so it's all good for Donavan.

[Tara Ariano]

In case you missed it, here's the Previously.TV post on the episode!

 

American Horror Story's Hotel Was Built By A Real Sicko
No, not Ryan Murphy. ...Okay, him too.

[phoenix780]

It's definitely style over substance, well even more so blatantly this season.

It's like a series of images, music videos, and...things that kinda feel like perfume ads (Gaga walking through the columns in her red dress).  It's holding my interest, but I'm not entirely sure why.  

 

It's interesting to read people commenting about the multiple plots when I haven't really noticed much of any story at all.  There are vampires, there's a hotel where stuff happens, and it's all loosely connected.  A lot of the characters seem to just be existing, not doing all that much yet.

 

Random question- I thought Cheyenne Jackson's character was a writer, so what was up with the fashion show?  Just because he had a cool place to host it?

[Tara Ariano]

Random question- I thought Cheyenne Jackson's character was a writer, so what was up with the fashion show?  Just because he had a cool place to host it?

 

It's established in the season premiere that he's a designer. Elizabeth compliments him on a dress he made for Michelle Obama.

[Snookums]

After all what's her face is only there before he's her son so if he lives wouldn't that mean she would quit working there?

 

 

Yeah, wasn't Lila panicking about that last episode? Oh well, onward to fifty more plot points that will come to nothing!

 

Okay, I've finally figured out what's going wrong with Lady Gaga. 

 

This would seem like absolute perfect stunt casting: Elizabeth is supposed to be this uber-decadent work of art, an aesthete that has become practically godlike in her personal style and utterly devoted to preserving her "look". Gaga has definitely achieved this in her own work. She's an amazing performer who has totally subverted the "sexy" chanteuse/performer into actual art, where all the sexual fripperies she uses in her costuming and lyrics are turned towards some kind of inner power as opposed to pleasing the male gaze. It's like if Leni Riefenstahl was put in charge of Versailles.

 

But because that's such a Gaga "thing", it can't be applied to the character of Elizabeth. I never feel like I'm watching the character  seduce trashy and callow young men and ride horses onto 54's dance floor; I'm just watching Gaga. None of the stuff the show has her doing feels organic to the character she's playing because it belongs to the person playing the character already.

 

I mean, I sit there and watch LG running around in fab dresses and My Little Fetish Stripper Pony heels and am "eh." Mare Winningham comes onscreen in Frumpty Dumpty maid outfit bleat-twittering about stains and I'm all "ha ha, YEAH!" Can you imagine if Mare had been cast as Elizabeth? She'd have made something unforgettable out of her because it wouldn't feel like a reality show starring what she already does.

[Captanne]

What if Jessica Lange had been cast in that role?  Would that work?  (It would for me.)

[phoenix780]

It's established in the season premiere that he's a designer. Elizabeth compliments him on a dress he made for Michelle Obama.

Thanks, I have no idea where I got writer.  Clearly I'm not all that focused.

[Chaos Theory]

What if Jessica Lange had been cast in that role? Would that work? (It would for me.)

God no. I love Lange but her performances were wearing thin. I am loving Gaga in this. I think she lends a quality that Lange lacks. I may be in the minority but I don't miss Lange at all.

[Bruinsfan]

I don't think Lange could have worked in that role—regardless of talent, she's just not physically right to play an ageless vampire, and distant calm is not a mood I've ever seen her project. Angela Bassett now, I can see her owning Countess Elizabeth.

[Adusk81]

Another great episode. Evan Peters is back in full psycho mode thankfully. Gaga continues to impress. She is one creepy bitch and gets what she wants. Finn annoyed me but I think he will grow on me. Miss Evers was amazing in her scenes. She sells her character wonderfully. Scarlet is really good too. I'm liking that she's an actual character as opposed to just being their other kid. With what she's going through I foresee her being a stand out as the season progresses. Sadly no naked Bomer this week but he owns the screen whenever he's on it. Kathy Bates was great too. She liked getting cuffed a bit too much. Chloe has something else going on. Some secret I think. Her character is too intentionally bland to keep her that way. I almost feel like she knows what happened to Holden and that's why she is so insistent on vaccines. Perhaps there is a vamp vac. But the absolute best moment of the episode for me was watching a douchebag man bun sporting hipster get stabbed in the neck. He only gets stabbed by vampires you've never heard of. Dracula is so mainstream. Damn fine TV.

Edited October 16, 2015 by Adusk81

[Free]

It's like a series of images, music videos, and...things that kinda feel like perfume ads (Gaga walking through the columns in her red dress).

 

It does, especially the fashion show scene.

 

It's interesting to read people commenting about the multiple plots when I haven't really noticed much of any story at all.  There are vampires, there's a hotel where stuff happens, and it's all loosely connected.  A lot of the characters seem to just be existing, not doing all that much yet.

 

It's like a collection of shorts.

[Captanne]

I think what I miss by not having Lange and that I don't get in Gaga at all -- is a sense of age-worn entitlement.  That sort of elegant energy but sense of loss like Rutger Hauer gives in the end of Bladerunner, "I've... seen things... you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion; I watched c-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate... All those... moments... will be lost, in time, like [chokes up] tears... in... rain...."

 

That's what I'm not getting from Gaga.  (The comparison is not entirely apt because Rutger Hauer's character in Bladerunner is dying and Gaga's character is immortal -- but I'm missing that sense of ennui with a hint of despair.  Does that make sense?)

 

I think Gaga is trying to give it and I think that's the direction -- especially with her lines about missing Robert, Keith, and Andy as well as her comment to Donovan that the only thing left to give her a thrill is a really good heartbreak.  But it's just not coming across.  Kudos for trying and it's all being laid out in front of her but she just misses the mark.

 

For me.  Only for me.

 

(And I have no agenda -- I'm older so I'm not a Gaga fan or non-fan.  I'm completely open to her performance.)

Edited October 16, 2015 by Captanne

[Snookums]

But the absolute best moment of the episode for me was watching a douchebag man bun sporting hipster get stabbed in the neck. He only gets stabbed by vampires you've never heard of. Dracula is so mainstream. Damn fine TV.

 

 

You get a gold star for this!

 

 

That's what I'm not getting from Gaga.  (The comparison is not entirely apt because Rutger Hauer's character in Bladerunner is dying and Gaga's character is immortal -- but I'm missing that sense of ennui with a hint of despair.  Does that make sense?)

 

 

Completely. And it's super frustrating because there's just a bread crumb or two of a really haunting (ba-dum-tish) story there: when her boy toy doesn't want to go to the art show and points out they don't have room for any more art "and you can't afford it anyway";  and later when she's reminiscing about having it all and watching it all fade--every friend you make, every time you embody, will inevitably pass. It's the curse of age: no matter how beautiful you stay, how young you look, you're going to outlive your money, your dear ones, and your time. 

 

That could be a truly enthralling take on the vampire mythos. Too bad it's getting drowned in all the myriad "can't decide where to take this story so switch to that one!" remote control channel scan that is the rest of the show.

[peacheslatour]

You get a gold star for this!

 

 

Completely. And it's super frustrating because there's just a bread crumb or two of a really haunting (ba-dum-tish) story there: when her boy toy doesn't want to go to the art show and points out they don't have room for any more art "and you can't afford it anyway";  and later when she's reminiscing about having it all and watching it all fade--every friend you make, every time you embody, will inevitably pass. It's the curse of age: no matter how beautiful you stay, how young you look, you're going to outlive your money, your dear ones, and your time. 

 

That could be a truly enthralling take on the vampire mythos. Too bad it's getting drowned in all the myriad "can't decide where to take this story so switch to that one!" remote control channel scan that is the rest of the show.

Didn't Louis and Lestat always have lots of money?  If you were a vampire couldn't you supplement your income by rolling drunks or something?  That's what I'd do.

[Captanne]

This reminds me of the tragedy of Captain Jack Harkness.  He's a Doctor Who character who has an amazing joie de vivre and who, while saving the universe, is mistakenly given immortality.  Therefore, even though he loves life and love more than anything -- he goes through to infinity loving those whom he constantly loses.  

 

His television show, "Torchwood"* actually lost viewership (I was one deserter) when the love of his life was killed.  (On July 9th, 2009 -- but I'm not bitter.  Oh.  Wait.  Yes, I am.  Very.)

 

*NB:  Torchwood is an anagram of Doctor Who.

Edited October 17, 2015 by Captanne

[LittleIggy]

I'm enjoying Gaga. She is just so stunning.

[bohochickn]

Hmmm...I don't know.  I liked Iris, the cop, Liz Taylor (who I suspect won't feature much) and Mr. March.  Everything else bored me.  The story, as it is, seems too disjointed, and the episodes last much longer than they need to.I 

Tweeted Denis O'Hare, said we'd definitely see Liz Taylor's back story.

[caracas1914]

Gaga's is fine, in that so far she hasn't been required to show any major acting chops, and visually in staged scenes she looks stunning. She reminds me of a Donatella Versace but with oomph. However that is going to get old if that's all she can bring to the AHS table.

As others mentioned, so far she hasn't pulled off the sense of loss/pain of someone who's seen it all in over 100 years.

Sooner or later I would expect she has to pull her weight in some storyline and then we'll see.

[Petunia13]

God no. I love Lange but her performances were wearing thin. I am loving Gaga in this. I think she lends a quality that Lange lacks. I may be in the minority but I don't miss Lange at all.

I agree.

[Whitley Trillbert]

I don't think Lange could have worked in that role—regardless of talent, she's just not physically right to play an ageless vampire, and distant calm is not a mood I've ever seen her project. Angela Bassett now, I can see her owning Countess Elizabeth.

 

And it would work cause AB isnt aging in real life either