Summary

• Seasons 12 of American Horror Story breaks free from past connections, resulting in a more cohesive and focused storyline.
• By adapting existing material like Danielle Valentine's Delicate Condition, the show proves it can excel with structure and clear stakes.
• Embracing original sources for future seasons could lead American Horror Story towards more engaging and less convoluted storytelling.

Despite all its faults, American Horror Story: Delicate Part Two still has not referenced earlier seasons.

With black hooded cultists, a coven of villains, and a lot of knotty conspiracies that involve most of the main characters, American Horror Story: Delicate certainly has a lot of motifs in common with earlier seasons. However, no existing characters from the show’s universe returned in season 12’s first nine episodes. This seems to have provided the series with a creative jolt of inspiration, as season 12 has proven more cohesive and easier to follow than its predecessors. By avoiding links to earlier seasons of the series, American Horror Story: Delicate's plot proved the show still has life left in it.

American Horror Story: Delicate’s Source Material Makes Its Story Solid

Season 12’s Plot Has Been Far Less Chaotic and Random Than Recent Outings

American Horror Story season 12 is far from perfect and, at times, the plotting of Delicate was annoyingly slow. However, there is no denying that season 12 has a much clearer plot than its predecessors. Earlier seasons of American Horror Story were ostensibly self-contained plots that took place in the same universe as other seasons, but their later episodes would always inevitably reveal some convoluted connection between an earlier season and this outing. Without this impetus, Delicate is the most focused the show has been since season 7 (or arguably even season 4). This is great for the anthology show's future.

Even though Delicate did bring back numerous recurring cast like Leslie Grossman, Billie Lourd, Dennis O’Hare, and American Horror Story mainstay Grace Gummer, the season didn’t expend precious screen time establishing links between itself and earlier seasons. This is a curse that has afflicted many earlier seasons of the show, most infamously 2018’s season 8, Apocalypse. That flat outing followed a group of unlikable characters for a few uneventful episodes before killing everyone off and revealing it was secretly a belated follow-up to 2013’s Coven. Any excitement for a Coven sequel was swamped by this pointless setup.

American Horror Story Season 12 Proves The Show Should Adapt More Stories

American Horror Story’s Seasons Could Focus On More Than Books

Whether it is another book, a comic, a short story collection, or even a podcast, American Horror Story's subsequent seasons should also adapt more original source material. Regardless of where the show finds its next inspiration, having an existing story to adapt has given the show structure that recent seasons sorely lacked. American Horror Story: Delicate episode 8 brought back the campy chaos that the show is famous for, but its storyline still felt focused, and its stakes remained clear. Unlike earlier seasons, American Horror Story season 12 hasn’t been able to rely on earlier seasons for its twisty mysteries.