On September 25, FX’s newest crime-horror “Grotesquerie” premiered on Hulu. Starring Niecy Nash, the series follows a small-town detective trying to solve a string of wicked murders.
Ryan Murphy, creator of the popular anthology “American Horror Story,” “Scream Queens,” “Glee” and several other series, combines gory horror with a classic who-done-it plot in “Grotesquerie.”
Nash, who also played in Murphy’s “Monster,” plays Detective Lois Tyron, a struggling alcoholic detective thrown into a grotesque series of extreme, almost supernatural murders. Tyron teams up with murder-obsessed nun-journalist Sister Megan (Micaela Diamond), an unlikely partner who discovers a religious connection to the town’s murders. As the murders continue to torture Tyron and Sister Megan, the killings take unexpected turns.
At home, Tyron lives alone with her food-addict daughter Merritt (Raven Goodwin) while her husband Marshall (Courtney B. Vance) is in comatose at a hospital run by a peculiar nurse (Lesley Manville).
In traditional Murphy fashion, the series is boldly gory and sexually perversive, with stomach-churning imagery and imaginative murder plots. The murder scenes themselves are endlessly and gruesomely creative, and the series is chalk with visceral and disturbing imagery throughout. The religious symbols and depictions are particularly disturbing, with one scene even depicting a staged murder in the shape of Leonardo da Vinci’s The Last Supper.
Rather than being a traditional detective story, “Grotesquerie” weaves religious and supernatural elements throughout the story, reminiscent of early seasons of “American Horror Story.” The religious subtext of the murders brings in a whole host of unlikely characters, all who could potentially be connected to the crimes themselves.
Nicholas Chavez, who recently starred in Murphy’s true crime “Monsters” as Lyle Menendez, plays Father Charlie Mayhew, a local Priest who uses his attractiveness and unattainability to manipulate his followers. Father Mayhew is constantly riding between sinner and saint; he has a kink for self-flagellation and develops a dangerously close relationship to Sister Megan. The Father is a fan-favorite and is often theorized to be “Grotesquerie” — the killer’s chosen name — himself.
Kansas City Chiefs’ Travis Kelce even appears in the series as Nurse Eddie, a flirty orderly at the town hospital who tries to help Detective Tyron with her alcoholism. Though his appearance doesn’t fully make sense, it brings the series a much-needed lightness.
For “American Horror Story” fans, this new series brings back the best qualities of the original show — without some of the failures of its later seasons. It’s suspenseful, bold, humorous and occasionally campy — all features of the beloved first half of “American Horror Story.” If Murphy lost his horror groove in the final seasons of “American Horror Story,” he’s found it again with “Grotesquerie.”
New episodes of “Grotesquerie” air on Wednesday at 10 PM on FX and are available on Hulu to stream the following day.
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