I have to start talking about Ryan Murphy‘s ‘new’ product with FX, Grotesquerie, by complaining about the platforms. The Star Plus series here arrives on the platform WEEKS after its US premiere and that, my friends, means that the executives have decided that the rest of the world does not have the privilege of surprise. In a series where the mystery is essential, it takes only one click on social media and you already know everything. It gets even more frustrating because original stories are so rare that it’s wonderful ‘not knowing’ what’s going to happen. Which won’t be the case here. Anyway…

Ryan loves true crime, true stories (especially the ones about drama), musicals, and horror. And he doesn’t mess up in any genre. With Grotesquerie we embark on a horror universe that reminds us of Seven, The Omen, the first season of True Detective and others of the genre. “I’ve never done anything like this before. I’ve never written a season of television on my own or for fun, just to do it, right?” the showrunner explained in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter. “I was interested in writing about something that I was feeling, which is this kind of existential crisis of: Is this all happening? Why do I feel like every day I’m in some kind of nightmare that we can’t wake up from? And more than that, as you’ll see, love is really the only thing that gets us through it,” Ryan says.

And that’s it, if you don’t mind gore, and if you’re comfortable with cults, religion, and death, Grotesquerie is your thing. The horror series follows Detective Lois Tryon (Niecy Nash) as she uncovers the truth behind a series of crimes and is helped by a nun, Sister Megan Duvall (Micaela Diamond), who is also a reporter and a true crime fan.

Everything feels extremely dark, gloomy, and scary, a deliberate choice to confuse us. With a cast that includes Courtney B. Vance, Lesley Manville, Travis Kelce (yes, the player and boyfriend of Taylor Swift) as well as Nicholas Alexander Chavez (who shone as Erick Menendez in the series Monsters) it only makes everything even more tense and intriguing. The narrative is intriguing, intricate and believe me: the story is not what it seems.

The killer is a religious fanatic serial killer who signs the grotesquely drawn crime scenes as ‘Grotesquerie’. Sister Megan’s help is essential for Lois, who deals with alcoholism, a morbidly obese daughter, her husband’s betrayal (Vance) and the fact that he is in a coma, under the care of a strange and abusive nurse (Manville). On the nun’s side, her friendship with a priest (Chavez) is also a way to try to find out who is taking the lives of apparently innocent people.

Only two episodes are available on Star Plus and the season ends in the US next week, so we’ll have to watch SIX episodes until we find out the twist, which is literally a 180º turn. I’ll avoid spoilers in this post, but the truth is already out there.

I invite you to avoid the revelation and embark on the delirious story that came from Ryan Murphy‘s imagination. The cast brings together some of the best actors of the moment, with experienced and newcomers in the mix, and that alone is worth checking out.

Okay, if you want to know the spoiler, here it is.

Lois is actually in a coma and everyone around her is not who we think they are. She wakes up when her husband decides to turn off the life support machines and then we’ll be on the real path to discovering the crime. Which means we won’t find out who the serial killer is this season, but only next season. How about that?

Pesquisar

Pesquisar