Given that American Horror Story has now stretched over a decade in seasons, it’s safe to say it’s proved its worth as an enjoyable series and, as a result, many viewers that have resisted watching the show are now giving in. Many new viewers are beginning the show with a small amount of prior understanding and, since there are now so many seasons, they’re questioning if there’s a better order to watch it in.

For one, some viewers insist on watching the show in order of the timeline. The timeline takes place from 1952-2021 so far, but the story is not put in this order because it’s put in the order of relevance for each season’s content.

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In other words, it prioritizes what a season is, rather than when it is. That being said, this timeline approach eliminates the specific order of messages/themes that each season brings to the story. These messages are usually utilized in each particular season and in that particular order because they speak to a prior season or coming season. Either way, they are placed in this order so that we get the information or message delivered in each season, in that order.

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There are also those who prefer to watch the seasons in order of popularity but this too affects the overall story. The issue with this approach is that the order of this list entirely depends on preference which makes it difficult to pin down a specific order to watch the seasons in, without having an overall concept to center the decision around. For instance, if you preferred seasons with a lot of action, the list would look entirely different than if you wanted to watch seasons packed with drama. Beyond that, what many new viewers seem to be unaware of is that all of these stories are connected and address the same concept of people being the real monsters but through different lenses.

There are many people that believe that because the American Horror Story characters and storyline don’t carry over into each season, that it doesn’t matter what order you watch the seasons in. This however ignores the fact that the moments in the show when characters from past seasons make an appearance, it is in that season and at that point in the story, for a reason. These reasons come in several forms throughout the story.

Time is one factor throughout the seasons and is essentially what ties everything together in a particular order. The seasons all follow a timeline and while they may jump back and forth in time, we visit each event when we do because it brings something particular to the storyline.

For example, Michael Langdon’s character, who is conceived in the first season and appears as an adult to fulfill his purpose in Apocalypse. The time gap is essential, for one, so that his character has time to grow physically, and also to build up the downfall of humanity which leads up to the apocalypse. By the end of Apocalypse, his character dies at the hands of witches from Coven which restarts the cycle.

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Easily the biggest reason to watch it in order is crossovers. For the sake of the order in which crossovers happen, it is best to watch the show in the order that it was released because that is the order that makes sense for the crossover characters to be present. Their role as a crossover character in the specific season that they make an appearance is usually different from the role they play in their own season. Despite that, it is often equally as important because their involvement in the other storyline helps audiences pinpoint the relationship between seasons in terms of time and location.

While there are several significant character crossovers throughout the many seasons, there are also crossovers of previous or future locations that come up. For example, in Apocalypse, some of the witches must return to Murder House to combat Michael.

The seasons also seem to alternate between stories with heavy emotional and dramatic elements that are very character-driven, and more action and gore-focused stories that are plot-driven like many classic horror films. This stretches the story out and gives writers Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk plenty of room to weave in all of the vital information for the bigger story, without cramming it all into a few seasons. This is a slowly unraveling story and that benefits the suspense of the show, which is very important to any horror piece.

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It should be noted that the first three seasons, Murder House, Asylum, and Coven don’t connect to each other directly through shared content or crossovers but the order of information that they give is important for the following seasons so it’s best also to view these in the proper order. Really, the point of the seasons being so different from each other in the first place is to create variety that brings about the potential for more content and to represent the many weaknesses of humans that can lead to them becoming monsters, and the many different forms that can take.

Ultimately those that choose to watch it out of the correct order are likely watching for quick entertainment, that doesn’t require memorizing information, and that’s simply not what this show is meant to be. Though it may appear to be several different stories grouped together by the theme of horror, it is actually the message of people being the real monsters and how that will ultimately affect humanity that is displayed through multiple lenses to emphasize the point and consequences. It is very important to pay attention to all of the connecting threads that tie the seasons together to fully understand why watching American Horror Story in the order it was intended is the best order to appreciate all of the horrifying magic it brings to the table.

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