I've Ranked The "AHS" Seasons And Need To Know If You Agree With Me (But If You Don't...You're Wrong)

I can't be the only one that thinks Hotel straight up sucks.

Editor's note: This post contains depictions of gore, violence, and sexually explicit content. Please continue at your own discretion!

🚨SPOILERS AHEAD!🚨

1. Coven (Season 3 of American Horror Story)

Michele K. Short / ©FX Network / Courtesy: Everett Collection

I have to admit, deciding on which season was my favorite was hard. I finally decided on Coven, which strikes me as a popular opinion.

The backdrop of New Orleans was very fitting, considering all of the jazz music and voodoo in this season. I'm impressed that the plot blends in true and tragic events. Axeman (Danny Huston) and Madame Delphine Lalaurie (Kathy Bates), were based on real people. Obviously, both of those people were monsters in real life and surely terrifying, but they were really interesting additions to the Coven storyline, especially with Fiona having feelings for Axeman (ok, he WAS sort of handsome). No, I'm not one of those women who would send love letters to serial killers in prison, I'm just saying that when a *TV character* falls in love with a man who happens to murder people, sometimes you accidentally go "aw."

I loved Evan Peters as Kyle, although I wish his role was bigger than what it was and I wish he hadn't been killed off so soon. He was obviously brought back by our fav witches, but he wasn't the same. 

Madison, on the other hand, I had a love-hate relationship with. I mean, she tried stealing Kyle from Zoe even after he clearly showed more interest in her. Naturally, I felt bad for her after being manipulated and killed by Fiona (before being resurrected), but she was just a b*tch throughout the whole show. She didn't really care about anyone but herself, but I will say, I loved her sense of fashion.

Misty Day was such an iconic character in my opinion. I mean, hello, she came back to life after being burned at the stake. And she loves Fleetwood Mac as much as I do?! That's badass. Truly, the main reason Coven reigns supreme is Stevie Nicks' cameo.

2. Murder House (Season 1 of American Horror Story)

Robert Zuckerman / © FX Network / Courtesy: Everett Collection

This was one of the ones I was struggling with when I was choosing my no. 1 and I almost picked it because WOW!

Murder House commenced my love of AHS. The entire concept of it is incredible, with the house holding countless spirits. It's twisted, yes, but amazing. I also do not feel good about it, but I loved Tate and Violet's relationship (despite him being a toxic murderer). 

Out of all the seasons in AHS, I don't think I've ever cried so hard as much as I did with this one. My tears were flowing after Addie's death, but I was thankful she wasn't on the Murder House property when she died so her spirit wasn't stuck there. Nevertheless, her mother's reaction was heartbreaking. This season gets really depressing towards the end, with everyone dying except Constance's grandson, who we eventually realize is the Antichrist. And when it was revealed that Violet was dead the whole time, I straight up lost it. 

The true events incorporated into this season were seriously brutal, such as the Black Dahlia murder and the house being based on the Amityville horror.

The first time I finished Murder House, I literally sat on my couch for half an hour and pouted. I didn't really like the fact that I had finished it and was too deep in my feelings, so it took me a couple of weeks to start watching Season 2.

3. Asylum (Season 2 of American Horror Story)

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Asylum was probably the creepiest season for me and was hard to stomach because of the racism and the brutality that took place. The main couple, Kit and Alma, played by Evan Peters and Britne Oldford, was based on a real interracial couple in the '60s who made claims about alien abduction. They had also gotten a lot of backlash for being an interracial couple, just like in the show.

I honestly felt a lot of stress watching this season, primarily because I wanted so bad for Kit and Lana's characters to leave the asylum. When Lana was brought back after escaping Dr. Thredson's house, I about cried.

That's a whole other story. Dr. Thredson was based on a real serial killer named Ed Gein, who also inspired Norman Bates and Leatherface. When I found out he was Bloody Face, I instantly hated him, along with Dr. Arden, who I have a few choice names for. 

This opinion of mine may be controversial, but I hated Grace's character. I hated that she knew that Alma was alive the whole time and didn't tell Kit, not to mention that she tried to get with him. I also hated that she was deliberately trying to get the aliens to come back.

Jude I felt bad for throughout the entire season, but I noticed later on that there were quite a few characters that I had a love-hate relationship with in this season, like Sister Mary Eunice and Wendy. Let me know in the comments if you felt the same way!

4. 1984 (Season 9 of American Horror Story)

FX

I've always loved the '80s culture and music (and still do), so this season obviously had to be high on my list, especially with all of the Def Leppard and Friday the 13th Camp Crystal Lake vibes!

The main thing I'll criticize of this season for is that I wish there were more episodes. It felt too short and I wish that just about all of the characters in the beginning weren't killed off so early, and I mean early as in, like, the first episode. I was kind of scared that there wouldn't be much left to show, with Camp Redwood having the same concept as Murder House and Hotel (people being stuck on site if they died on the property), but of course, Ryan Murphy provides.

I began having a love-hate relationship with Richard Ramirez. I mean, obviously, I HATED him and the real person he was based on, but they had to go and make him really attractive. Come on Hollywood, stop doing this to us! I also hated the fact that Montana was in on the whole thing until toward the very end. I didn't really want to trust her when she started acting nice,  but I couldn't help but feel sorry for her when Trevor died.

One character that I don't think gets noticed enough was Ray. I loved his character and was sad he and Brooke couldn't get together. There were a lot of mixed emotions throughout this season, especially with who to like and who to trust.

Even though Mr. Jingles was a murderer, I felt bad for him because of his dark past. He looked like such a lost soul, but I was happy to see that his mother came around in the end after he died at the camp.

I constantly had anxiety with Brooke's character. She went through a lot of stuff that wasn't her fault, and she ended up having to change her identity because of it. Personally, I would hate having to become an entirely different person just because of events that weren't my fault. I don't know if I would want to go back into normal society if I couldn't be the person I was born to be.

5. Freak Show (Season 4 of American Horror Story)

Michele K. Short / ©FX / Courtesy: Everett Collection

I don't even know where to begin with this one. It's super intense, beginning to end, and nothing like I expected it to be. 

I don't like clowns. In fact, I hate them. Whether they're meant to be scary or not, they terrify me, and this just reaffirmed my fear.

It wasn't until Twisty died that I realized that Dandy Mott was the villain to really worry about. Obviously their maid saw right through him but it didn't end up well for her, now did it? And his mother was no help at all.

Some parts of this season bothered me a lot, especially with Maggie's betrayal and people judging the circus performers because of their deformities. Also, it was set in the '50s, yet "Come As You Are" by Nirvana was played? Now, I like Nirvana, so I'm not complaining, and I guess the producers had a reason for using a song that wouldn't have even been released during that decade — but still!

I do think some characters should've been kept alive longer, but Dandy didn't die soon enough! Even though the actor, Finn Wittrock, is a BEAUTIFUL man, I hated him so much in this season. He was so angry and sadistic, and there was obviously no hope for him. 

Elsa's character was teetering on my bad side. She was really self-centered and claimed to care about Ethel, but ended up killing her. All she ever cared about was fame. I mean, she even sent Pepper away to her sister, who framed Pepper for the death of their baby. 

Overall, I still liked this season a lot and I disagree with the many people that said it was bad.

6. Cult (Season 7 of American Horror Story)

Again, what is up with the clowns?! As if AHS isn't scary enough. 

After the two previous seasons (Hotel and Roanoke, which I'll get to later), Cult was quite an improvement. This season was pretty intense from the beginning to the end, quite rightfully so, with it being about a murder cult.

I found it shockingly hard to be attracted to Evan Peters this time around, mainly because of the blue hair. I actually liked it better when he shaved his hair later on in the season, but I digress...

Although I'm not going to get political, this season was based around the 2016 presidential election. Yes, a lot of people did bad things in the show, obviously, but murder is a pretty extreme punishment. The people I was actually glad got killed were Kai and Ivy.

Ivy was the character that made me the most mad. She ended up being in on it the whole time, messed around with Winter while being married to Aly, and joined the cult just because she was mad at Aly. She was just a horrible person and I was glad when Aly poisoned her. Sorry, not sorry!

This season was intense and I was surprised quite a lot, especially with finding out who was in on the cult and who wasn't (which apparently wasn't a lot of people!).

7. Apocalypse (Season 8 of American Horror Story)

FX

Being a Christian, this season hit a little close to home for me, especially with the end times concept and the Antichrist.

I loved how this season tied in with Murder House and Coven, those being my favorite seasons. The parts with Michael stressed me out, so I was happy when he was killed after Mallory traveled back in time. But another kid ended up becoming the Antichrist, so really all it really did was delay his arrival.

Another part I love about this season is that Tate and Violet got back together. I didn't think that would happen after I watched Murder House, so you can kind of assume how excited I was when Madison got back them back together. Still, it made me sad they were stuck in that house with Michael off wreaking havoc on the world.

In my opinion, half of this season was good and the other half wasn't. I think I liked the second half better, when it involved more of the characters from Coven and Murder House. I didn't really care for Ms. Venable or the two guys that worked in the lab and constantly did drugs. This is the main reason I ranked it how I did. I know they were relevant, but they were kind of irritating in my opinion.

During the part where Cordelia defeated Michael, I was super stressed out. I knew that Mallory would die if she didn't sacrifice herself, but it also meant that Cordelia had to die in order to save all of them, so it was still heartbreaking.

I kind of wish that Kyle from Coven was in this one since Zoe was in it but, I know he wouldn't have been relevant to what was going. Oh well!

8. NYC (Season 11 of American Horror Story)

FX

This season I actually liked a great deal, the only reason though that I put it so far down is that I had gotten about halfway through it before I realized what was going on so I had to start over. That also could have been just me, though!

Being based on the AIDS virus and the targeting of gay men, this was a really sad season.

The people I probably felt the most sorry for were Patrick, Gino, and Barbara. They honestly all just had a really tragic end. It was heartbreaking when Patrick figured out that Barbara had died and he just broke down. Even though he was with Gino, he still cared about her. Everything just went downhill after her death, and it didn't take me long to see that it wasn't going to get any better. With so many men contracting the virus, so many of them dying, and close to no one doing anything about it, I knew this season would be a tearjerker.

Moving onto the characters I didn't love. The big buff guy with the black mask that seems to teleport everywhere intimidated me throughout the show, probably just because he always just stood there for a long time and you didn't really know what he would do. Also, Sam (played by Zachary Quinto) is, *surprise surprise* a major a-hole who always has a major part in the issues that are going on and ends up paying the price later on.

I really liked this season and I feel like Evan Peters would have been amazing in it. But at the same time, I understand him wanting a break.

9. Roanoke (Season 6 of American Horror Story)

Prashant Gupta / ©FX / Courtesy: Everett Collection

This one...I don't know, this one was okay. I liked the first half better than the second, but in general I think it would've been better if it wasn't done in a documentary fashion.

The Butcher obviously pissed me off, and so did Scáthach (sorry Lady Gaga!). I was mainly invested in the plot with Matt's sister, Monet, and her killing her ex-husband in the woods. That was really the only part of this season that interested me, though I guess the situation with hostages in the second half of the season also had me on the edge of my seat.

I wouldn't really feel comfortable living in a house that secluded from society and surrounded by woods. It just doesn't seem safe at all, and Roanoke, along with practically every scary movie ever, confirms that. Personally, I would've been scared to death if I saw all those people outside my house for three nights in a row trying to kill me. I mean, who wouldn't be?!

I think it could've been done a whole lot better, and that's all I can really say about this season. 

10. Double Feature (Season 10 of American Horror Story)

©FX / courtesy Everett Collection

This one is similar to Roanoke and Apocalypse in the sense that I liked one half, but not so much the other. Red Tide was the first half and Death Valley was the second half, and I liked Red Tide a LOT better.

I remember when this season came out in 2021, reading articles before it was released, and being excited about the fact that part of it was set near the water. That being said, this season was nothing like what I expected. I actually expected it to be one plot, which I don't know why I thought that, considering it's named Double Feature.

As I said, Red Tide was really good. The only character that actually pissed me off was Harry's daughter, Alma, mainly because she ended up being a little b*tch after taking the black pills, and her killing her father in the end. I don't know...I never liked her, but the rest of Red Tide I really enjoyed.

I was disappointed in Death Valley, but mainly because of what articles were saying before the season's release. Sources were saying that there was going to be a connection between Death Valley and the aliens from Asylum. The only connection I can think of is the teens getting pregnant from the aliens which is what happened to Alma and Grace in Asylum. So I guess there was sort of a connection, but not enough to be getting us all excited for. I can only say three words; could've been better.

11. Hotel (Season 5 of American Horror Story)

Prashant Gupta / ©FX Networks / Courtesy: Everett Collection

I'm not going to sugarcoat anything about this one. Hotel sucked. Even though this was Lady Gaga's debut in AHS, it still sucked.

I won't lie, it took me two watches to finally realize what was going on, and I didn't have that problem with any other season (except slightly with NYC). There was also more gore than I thought was necessary. James Patrick March was obviously a real a**hole. I could use harsher words, but I'm choosing to be nice.

Hotel was another one with a similar concept as Murder House, with people being stuck at the Hotel Cortez if they died there. Personally, I would've rather been stuck at Murder House than the Hotel Cortez. Believe it or not, I feel like the hotel was more depressing.

Another reason I didn't really like this one at all was that there were children stuck at the hotel, and they, along with other children not at the hotel, ended up drinking blood. It just didn't sit right with me.

The characters I was most interested in were Tristan and Liz, mainly because of what happened with the Countess, but that's all I have to say about this season.

Do you agree with my ranking? If you've been watching Delicate, where would you put it on the list? Let me know in the comments!