American Horror Story was created by Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk, who previously brought us the similarly Grand-Guignol Nip/Tuck and currently form two-thirds of the Gleetriumvirate. American Horror Story shares with those two shows a great many elements, including cartoonish characters, a blatant disregard for realism, and a fondness for creating big, preposterous moments that can either go very right or very wrong. I never got into Nip/Tuck, but I still watch Glee, and I watch it the same way I watch American Horror Story: enjoying the absurdity, engrossed in suspense to see how bad the train wreck will be from week to week, and waiting for the rare instances when all the plot flailing and emotional manipulation succeeds in creating a single moment that is truly moving or affecting.