Credit: Courtesy of FX
Some say Ryan Murphy’s messy TV shows have earned him the moniker of “white Tyler Perry.” Others simply remember American Horror Story: Coven and suspect that this chaotic auteur won’t see the gates of heaven for all the gore and sexual depravity he platformed on FX. And yet we let him get away with murder via All’s Fair, which just wrapped up on Dec 9.
The first season of Ryan Murphy’s lawyer drama showcased pithy one-liners, telenovela plotlines, and Sarah Paulson serving face. Blink, and you would have thought it’s one of those American Horror Story sideplot alternate universes.
Even before All’s Fair ended with a bang, Ryan Murphy’s latest TV show was renewed for a second season. But until then, if you’re craving more fierce women on screen — especially those with sharp brains, foul mouths, and those whose clothes probably smell like smoke, liquor, and acid — I’d suggest you sink your teeth into Ryan Murphy’s Grotesquerie.
Grotesquerie stars Niecy Nash, who returned this year to the Ryan Murphy cinematic universe as Emerald Greene in All’s Fair. But before that, back in 2024, she was on TV screens as Lois Tryon, a brilliant-but-socially-inept detective obsessed with the most gory serial killer case on her docket.
As a chronic overthinker, Lois works hard and drinks hard, unable to unstick herself from the web of clues hinting at the identity of Grotesquerie, the self-named murderer who taunts her. But Grotesquerie doesn’t just feel like Ryan Murphy paying homage to The Silence of the Lambs.
For one, there’s a curious religious motif or metaphysical element woven into the blood-soaked fabric of this show. An unlikely bedfellow for Lois comes in the form of Sister Megan Duval (Micaela Diamond), a nun-turned-church-blogger who seems a little too excited about Grotesquerie’s Last Supper tableau wrought from dismembered bodies.
Courtesy of FX
Also questionable is Sister Megan’s devotion and level of zeal for Father Charlie Mayhew. Charlie is played by Nicholas Alexander Chavez, an actor who burst onto the horror scene thanks to a different Ryan Murphy project: Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story.
What also sets Grotesquerie apart from being another Longlegs-type thriller is what it does for horror representation. There’s a dearth of Black final girls in horror, but since Annalise Keating, TV has been missing its beautiful, problematic, hate-to-love-her Black antiheroine.
In an era where so many wonderful pieces of Black-led media strive to put women in neat, polished boxes, Ryan Murphy wrote Lois as abrasive, irresponsible, and utterly confident in her abilities.
You’ll never find Lois plagued by imposter syndrome at work; in fact, she wields her knack for deduction and her detective’s badge with reckless abandon. In fact, Lois and Sister Megan are so comfortable with violence, you start to wonder: Are they the killers? Are they the aforementioned Grotesquerie?
Watch the Trailer Here:
And because it’s a Ryan Murphy show, a bloody, murder-driven drama is incomplete without absolutely bonkers cameos: Courtney B. Vance of sci-fi horror series Lovecraft Country plays Lois’ comatose husband, Raven Goodwin of Abbott Elementary and horror remake Single Black Female co-stars as Lois’ misfit daughter, and Travis Kelce plays a suspiciously flirty hospital porter.
If you love media reminiscent of David Fincher’s Se7en that features weapon-wielding femme fatales, hop onto Hulu and give Grotesquerie a try.
Categorized: Streaming News
