I already managed to finish the first season of it, and I'm actually quite sad about it, because it was awesome.
I'm actually sorry that I didn't watch this any sooner - it is really one of the best TV series they came up with in these days - and the fact that the guys who made Glee were involved in this didn't even ruin it at all.
The first season is based on a little family who moves into a new house (the Murder House), in the hopes of a new start.
Since the wife - Vivien, played by Connie Britton - just gave birth to a stillborn son and caught her husband - Ben, played by Dylan McDermott) cheating on her with one of his psychology students - Hayden, played by Kate Mara- she doesn't really thrust Ben anymore. And because Ben is a psychologist, he tries to get the little family to work out once again.
Their daughter, Violet - played by Taissa Farmiga - is the first one to make her parents buy the house, since she finds it "cool" that the last owners of it, a gay couple - Chad and Patrick, played by Zachary Quinto and Teddy Sears - died in an infamous murder/suicide.
The family doesn't realize, tho, that the house was owned by at least twenty different people before them - and all of these people are still haunting it in one for or another.
The show goes on to tell each and every story of these ghosts, and - of course - draws the lines between them and the new family.
As I said, each one of these ghosts is totally different. There are two kids, a psychopathic teenager, a half-burned man, a seductress who to men appears like a sexy woman, but to women seems like an old matron, a surgeon who suffers from some kind of illness that makes him want to chop up people and create monsters, the guy's wife and child, and some other people who come and go along the series.
What makes this first series work is the mystery that stands behind everything, since until the last possible second you won't find out what is actually happening in that house, and why this "great war" goes on between the dead and the living.
Granted, some of them are just plain insane, but there are a few in there who have pretty good reasons for what they are doing.
Also - since it IS a thriller/horror/mystery, it does have some pretty intense scenes in it. They are not THAT bad, but if anything can scare you you should really keep away from it (I actually put this show about at the level of Carnivalé, since that one was also a pretty creepy thing all in all).
I don't want to tell you guys too much about the plot since it would ruin the whole thing for you, but I do have to tell you that the acting is AWESOME.
I really think that the whole series got their Golden Globes with a reason this time. A very good job, indeed.
Now, the second series is apparently a totally different story.
As you can see, this time it's not only a family, but a lunatic asylum ran by the church.
I have to tell you that even though I only watched the first episode of it, it was also pretty intense.
So yeah, you should really, really check this one out as soon as possible. I swear it will be worth it.
