While Ryan Murphy’s new showGrotesqueriemay not recaptureAmerican Horror Story’s cult success, the series is trying something that the anthology show never quite pulled off. According toTheHollywoodReporter, nearly a fifth of scripted TV shows from 2019-2020 were cop shows. The police procedural has been one of the most popular formats in American television history sinceDragnetbegan back in 1951, so it is no surprise that Ryan Murphy’s new seriesGrotesquerieleans into the format. What is surprising is how long it took for the legendary TV producer to take advantage of this multi-decade trend.
American Horror Story’s Best Season In The Last 5 Years Was Missing Its Three Biggest Stars
American Horror Story massively improved its declining reviews with one season. Ironically, this was the first outing without its three big stars.
While every season ofAmerican Horror Storyis connected, all the show’s outings vary wildly in terms of tone and style. Some are largely period pieces, like season 4’sFreak Showor season 2’sAsylum, while others are mockumentaries, like season 6’sRoanoke.American Horror Storyseason 12was a (comparatively) straightforward riff onRosemary’s Babybut, only two years earlier, season 10’sDouble Billsplit its episodes into two separate stories about vampires and aliens. Despite all of these disparate thematic preoccupations, the franchise has never gone near TV’s most enduringly popular format.
Grotesquerie Has More Cop Show Elements Than American Horror Story
Even American Horror Story: NYC Wasn’t As Mystery-Centric As Grotesquerie
American Horror Storynever successfully blended supernatural horror with police procedural drama, although the show tried this at least twice. Most seasons of the series, from season 3’sCovento season 9’s1984, are more focused on something outright supernatural, like witches or an unstoppable slasher villain. However, afterAmerican Horror Story’s ratings wanedand season 12’s finale earned the show’s worst reviews ever, Murphy opted to take a new approach in his upcoming series.Grotesquerieis a new Ryan Murphy horror show but, from its first trailer to its synopsis, it is also a cop show.
AlthoughAmerican Horror Storyseason 11NYCand season 7Cultboth focused on less supernatural storylines, neither of these outings ever centered the cops solving their mysteries. In contrast, the main character ofGrotesquerieis Niece Nash’s Detective Lois Tryon, a troubled cop who pairs up with a young nun to solve a series of gruesome murders. Judging by Murphy’s earlier horror shows, the story outlined in this premise is likely to become more convoluted and twisty as the series unfolds. However, there is no denyingGrotesquerieemulates the cop show format in a wayAmerican Horror Storynever could.
Grotesquerie Borrows More From Another Hit Horror Show Than AHS
Murphy’s Latest Series Owes A Creative Debt To True Detective
If anything,Grotesqueriesounds much more likeTrue DetectivethanAmerican Horror Story, particularly given its ritualistic crimes and the main character’s struggles with alcoholism. SinceGrotesqueriebrings back Ryan Murphy’s penchantfor stunt casting, it is fair to guess that a series with Travis Kelce among its stars will likely be less self-serious than the dour, oppressively bleakTrue Detectiveseason 1. However, both the imagery ofGrotesquerie’s trailers and promotional posters and the show’s synopsis borrow heavily from the HBO hit’s acclaimed first season.
Grotesquerie’s unlikely pairing of a cop and a young nun is already quirkier than Tue Detective’s pair of gritty, grizzled cops.
Grotesquerieseems like an attempt to fuse the campier, more crowd-pleasing elements ofAmerican Horror Storywith the police procedural framework ofTrue Detective. Murphy’s new show looks dark and violent, butAmerican Horror Story’s dark sense of humor is likely to make an appearance in the series.Grotesquerie’s unlikely pairing of a cop and a young nun is already quirkier thanTrue Detective’s pair of gritty, grizzled cops, andGrotesquerie’s trailer promises trippier, more explicitly supernatural horrors than the reserved HBO show ever depicted.
Ryan Murphy’s Grotesquerie Already Has A Very Different Tone Compared To AHS
Murphy’s Earlier Horror Series Has The Wrong Style For Grotesquerie’s Story
Whether or notAmerican Horror Storyseason 13 is the lastouting for the long-running series, it is already clear thatGrotesqueriewill be very different from Murphy’s first horror series.American Horror Storyoften veers into pretty silly, explicitly supernatural territory, whereasGrotesquerieseems like it will take itself a little more seriously. Admittedly, it is not yet possible to tell how far into outright horrorGrotesqueriewill get in comparison toTrue Detective, which flirted with horror sequences but was surprisingly grounded in the end.
Grotesqueriepremieres on Wednesday, June 15, 2025, on FX.
However,Grotesquerie’s creative debt toTrue Detectivewill likely reign in Murphy’s wilder flourishesand ensure the show never gets too absurd. Murphy’s shows tend to start relatively straightforward only to grow increasingly surreal and ridiculous as they continue, butGrotesquerie’s cop show formula may limit its potential for bizarre tangents and offbeat subplots. Only time will tell ifGrotesqueriecan avoid these pitfallsAmerican Horror Storyfalls into, or if the upcoming horror/thriller hybrid’s new cop show format won’t be able to contain Ryan Murphy’s infamous excesses.
