Politics invade ‘American Horror Story: Cult’
Mingling politics and horror is a tricky business, best done with a light touch. The late George Romero’s zombie classic “Night of the Living Dead” was shot through with the horrors of Vietnam and the social anxieties of the civil-rights era, but neither subject was mentioned in his film. The bizarre 2001 feature “Donnie Darko” used the Bush-Dukakis election of 1988 as a backdrop to its peculiar fantasy.
“American Horror Story: Cult” (10 p.m., FX, TV-MA) begins with characters reacting to the surprising results of the 2016 election. Sarah Paulson and Alison Pill play Ally and Ivy, married gay parents and joint owners of a restaurant. They find the triumph of the “Make America Great Again” campaign to be a personal affront and an existential threat. First seen watching television alone, Kai (Evan Peters) explodes with delight, happy that his worldview has been vindicated.
“Cult” is about the election and the current president, except when it’s not. Which is quite often. The news seems to shatter Ally, whose relationship to reality seemed already tenuous. She begins seeing killer clowns everywhere. Her visions include the monstrous clown from “American Horror Story: Freak Show,” several seasons back. Are these figments of her imagination? If so, why does her son see them as well?
Neither side of our electoral divide comes off terribly well here. Representing Trump supporters, Kai spouts faux-Nietzschean rants about power and fear. Others, Ally in particular, seem almost parodies of liberal “snowflakes,” in need of “trigger warnings” and other buffers against harsh reality.
Ultimately, the injection of real-life politics into this lurid anthology series seems distracting and unnecessary. Must our president invade yet another hour of television? Adding a political dimension to Paulson’s terrors doesn’t make them seem more serious or credible — it makes them absurd. I’m not sure when the “Cult” part of this killer clown series kicks in, but the pilot could be for a series called “American Horror Story: Pretentious.”
REST OF ‘DISNEY’
“American Experience” (8 p.m., PBS, TV-PG) concludes its two-part 2015 profile of Walt Disney, examining how he used the new medium of television to promote his movies and theme parks, extolling a folksy combination of forward-thinking futurism and a reverence for small-town Main Street Americana.
OTHER HIGHLIGHTS
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The semifinals begin on “America’s Got Talent” (8 p.m., NBC, TV-PG).
› Jane must profile a controversial activist on the season finale of “The Bold Type” (9 p.m., Freeform, TV-14).
› “Below Deck” (9 p.m., Bravo, TV-14) embarks on a fifth season.
› “Road to 9/11” (9 p.m., History, TV-14) looks back at the emergence of Osama bin Laden.
› The new series “Killer Instincts With Chris Hansen” (9 p.m. ID, TV-14) recalls tales of murder.
› “Inside the NFL” (9 p.m., Showtime) premieres its 39th season.
› “Hard Knocks: Training Camp With the Tampa Bay Buccaneers” (10 p.m., HBO, TV-MA) concludes as football season looms.
› “A Season With Navy Football” (10 p.m., Showtime, TV-14) follows the Navy Midshipmen squad.
› Worries about Serena and her daughter on “Somewhere Between” (10 p.m., ABC, TV-14).
› National parks can be murder on “NCIS” (8 p.m., CBS, repeat, TV-PG).
› Burns opens his own university on “The Simpsons” (8 p.m., Fox, repeat, TV-PG).
› “Bachelor in Paradise” (8 p.m., ABC, TV-14).