American Horror Story’s “Death Valley” Double Feature

Part Two of “American Horror Story: Double Feature” takes us to 1950’s New Mexico in Death Valley. The President, one of the main characters, is involved with confidential dilemmas within Area 51, namely a government cover-up of people vanishing mysteriously in the middle of the desert. The very first episode of Death Valley landed on FX on Sep 29, 2021. President Dwight Eisenhower works with Valiant Thor, a scientist running his own lab where he works with several alien beings. The government officials in Area 51 comes across a broken UFO in the middle of the desert. Many years later, three teenagers travel to New Mexico to go camping in the desert, they approach a congregation of dead animals sliced perfectly in half, laying in the dirt. The teens drive away in fear at night when a huge flash of white light blinds them from inside the car. They wake up, unconscious and unaware of what had happened the night before to when they eventually figure out that they were kidnapped by the government and placed in Area 51 for unexpected reasons.

Death Valley is a fascinating miniseries. The alien conception was really interesting to me, especially since I’m a big fan of extraterrestrial subjects. When I realized one of my favorite actors was playing in Death Valley, of course I heard all about it. The first episode starts with black and white coloring for the show indicating that it takes place in 1954. The setting in New Mexico with the desert, open space, and crashed UFOs reminds me of a memory of when I visited Area 51 near its gates and Death Valley on a road trip. The character development in Death Valley was captivating and there were a lot of moments where I didn’t expect some of the events that were executed, but it did add a thought-provoking after effect in some of the scenes.

Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk did an excellent job producing the “Double Feature” season, but a disadvantage for the new watchers is that, due to the “Double Feature” aspect of the season, the plot of Death Valley starts on episode 7 of a 10-episode season, which will unquestionably confuse the new viewers in the future. Although I mentioned that I loved “Double Feature,” I feel like the acting in Death Valley wasn’t too great; it definitely does not compare to the other seasons of American Horror Story overall. One thing that was not reasonable, was the random plotline. Of course, I loved the show in general and the season itself was entertaining and suspenseful, but some of the scenes didn’t really make sense. There was one scene at the start where Maria, a wife of a businessman was cooking at her home and a dust devil unexpectedly formed outside where her son was playing. The child disappeared in the dust devil and came back possessed then eventually possessed Maria. Throughout the 2 times, I watched through Death Valley, I never understood clearly what had happened in that circumstance, or why I should care. Out of the two piece of “Double Feature,” this desert tale is definitely the weakest.