Rank the Emmy-nominated performances of AHS

I’d probably put Jessica Lange in “Asylum” as number one. Without a doubt, her best performance on the series. Frances Conroy in “Coven” is second. A true camp supporting performance.

I dropped the series after Hotel, so I can’t rank the “Cult” performances. Anyway:

Sarah Paulson in “Asylum”
Jessica Lange in “Asylum”
Frances Conroy in “Murder House”
James Cromwell in “Asylum”
Zachary Quinto in “Asylum”/Jessica Lange in “Murder House”
Kathy Bates in “Coven”
Denis O’Hare in “Murder House”
Connie Britton in “Murder House”
Frances Conroy in “Coven”
Jessica Lange in “Coven”
Sarah Paulson in “Coven” (writing was not really good)
Kathy Bates in “Freak Show” (underused)
Angela Bassett in “Coven” (overacted, but still more remarkable than the following)
Denis O’Hare in “Freak Show” (nothing special)
Sarah Paulson in “Hotel” (underused)
Sarah Paulson in “Freak Show” (underused)
Jessica Lange in “Freak Show” (more of the same)
Finn Wittrock in “Freak Show” (unpopular opinion: this character is very easy to portray)
Angela Bassett in “Freak Show”/Kathy Bates in “Hotel” (nothing special and underused)

VeraDoyle wrote:

Shaoran Li wrote:

I dropped the series after Hotel, so I can’t rank the “Cult” performances. Anyway: Sarah Paulson in “Asylum” Jessica Lange in “Asylum” Frances Conroy in “Murder House” James Cromwell in “Asylum” Zachary Quinto in “Asylum”/Jessica Lange in “Murder House” Kathy Bates in “Coven” Denis O’Hare in “Murder House” Connie Britton in “Murder House” Frances Conroy in “Coven” Jessica Lange in “Coven” Sarah Paulson in “Coven” (writing was not really good) Kathy Bates in “Freak Show” (underused) Angela Bassett in “Coven” (overacted, but still more remarkable than the following) Denis O’Hare in “Freak Show” (nothing special) Sarah Paulson in “Hotel” (underused) Sarah Paulson in “Freak Show” (underused) Jessica Lange in “Freak Show” (more of the same) Finn Wittrock in “Freak Show” (unpopular opinion: this character is very easy to portray) Angela Bassett in “Freak Show”/Kathy Bates in “Hotel” (nothing special and underused)

I just want to know what you mean by Sarah Paulson being underused in “Freak Show”. She’s had probably the second biggest role, and the most showy performance next to Wittrock’s and Lange’s.

Bette and Dot didn’t have much screentime after the first two episodes. I remember they were offscreen for most of the time, it was like 1 or 2 scenes each episode, with very few exceptions. Even in episode 9, when Sarah had a big dramatic scene with the characters crying or something like that, it was kinda out of the blue and the only scene she had for that episode.
Besides, they were thrown around all the time, from their house to the hospital, to the circus, to Dandy’s house, to that hiding place Ethel(Kathy Bates) arranged for them, then back to the Circus again, and all the while nothing substantial happened to them on screen, like the writers didn’t know what to do with them. I felt like most of the cast had more screentime than Sarah, just like in Hotel, but in Hotel at least her performance was more unique to me, unlike Bette and Dot who were very stereotypical characters in general.

1. Kathy Bates in Coven
2. Jessica Lange in Asylum
3. Sarah Paulson in Asylum
4. Finn Wittrock in Freak Show
5. Jessica Lange in Murder House
6. Frances Conroy in Coven
7. Zachary Quinto in Asylum
8. Sarah Paulson in Cult
9. James Cromwell in Asylum
10. Sarah Paulson in Hotel
11. Jessica Lange in Freak Show
12. Connie Britton in Murder House
13. Sarah Paulson in Coven
14. Frances Conroy in Murder House
15. Sarah Paulson in Freak Show
16. Denis O’Hare in Murder House
17. Angela Bassett in Coven
18. Angela Bassett in Freak Show
19. Kathy Bates in Freak Show
20. Kathy Bates in Hotel
21. Adina Porter in Cult
22. Jessica Lange in Coven
23. Denis O’Hare in Freak Show