At the risk of sounding like fake praise, AHS's exploitation factor wasn't just important to the season, but topical as well. Exploitation has a negative connotation, but it's also the act of making use of, and benefiting from, resources. AHS: NYC focuses on the AIDS outbreak in New York City's gay community in the 1980s, through the lens of its members. To do so effectively, a majority of the series had to show the anxiety and loneliness of their collective experience during that time.