[Smithy]

First review! Has a couple of spoilers so I'll put it in one just for the complainers

Spoiler:

After a disappointing fourth season, “American Horror Story” returns to FX with “Hotel,” which spends most of the debut episode building and introducing characters.

The always spectacular Kathy Bates plays Iris, the front desk clerk and gatekeeper to the Cortez Hotel. She’s been working there for 20 years, and reminds me of R. M. Renfield in “Dracula” (being that she’s a human working for a hotel filled with vampires).

Speaking of vampires, it takes quite a bit of time before Lady Gaga is introduced. She’s “The Countess,” a seductive, eccentric and methodical vampire who owns the Cortez Hotel. Yet, even with the power of Gaga’s performance, Sarah Paulson, who plays Sally, a junkie and friend of The Countess, has the most provocative character of them all.

And while the first episode doesn’t introduce James March (Evan Peters) – who built labyrinth of a hotel in 1930 – we get a taste of the secret rooms when kids appear and vanish, with one containing a kiddie party haven used to seduce even children.

The most exciting thing about each season’s debut episode is the visual introduction to the characters and locations. While “Freak Show” may have been the most vibrant and colorful of them all, “Hotel” features stunning costume designs and set pieces that are nothing short of spectacular.

But, what I found most intriguing about “Hotel” is that it appears FX and Ryan Murphy have taken their gloves off. Being that “Hotel” is the fifth season, I don’t think the filmmakers have any fear of losing committed viewers. Thus, they have taken everything to the edge of gluttony, which is ironically part of the underlying story-arc.

It appears many of the “Hotel” victims are sinners, as teased in the below opening title sequence. And with that comes junkies, criminals and the insane. “Hotel” gets graphic with the drug use, takes sex/rape to an entirely new level with a conical drillbit dildo, and even has a blood orgy that’s uncomfortably erotic. Everything about “Hotel” is about excess, and there’s no denying that everyone involved is ready to take it all the way (****, the season opens with Detective John Lowe (Wes Bentley) discovering a man, with his eyes gouged out and his tongue removed, glued inside a woman who has been impaled).

The one thing that I love about the “American Horror Story” franchise is that, much like a video game, it’s all about the ride. And while the end game may be inconsequential (I have’t liked any of the season finales), Ryan Murphy and company have set the stage for a monstrous fifth season that’s boasting its ability to be unapologetic from sex to the drugs and violence.