Asylum was my favorite too. Really the only season I liked from start to finish. Also gave up in the middle of Hotel.

Since everyone's praising the new season, maybe I'll give it a chance.

Gave the first episode a watch. I liked it, much more than I ever liked Hotel. I'm already a fan of Mr. Jingles, although I wish we hadn't seen his face so early on. Plenty of Friday the 13th and Halloween references. The fade to white after the opening murders was a nice touch. Very Friday the 13th.

Is there a connection between Mr. Jingles and the Zodiac Killer?

- Mr. Jingles has a limp. Zodiac suspect Arthur Leigh Allen had a limp.

- The Zodiac's last confirmed murder was in 1969. Mr. Jingles's initial murders at Camp Redwood occurred in 1970.

- The scene in episode 2 when Karen Hopple blows a tire reminded me of Kathleen Johns, who in 1970 had a car wheel sabotaged by a man she later claimed was the Zodiac.

- And last but not least, John Carroll Lynch portrays Mr. Jingles. Lynch also portrayed Arthur Leigh Allen in Zodiac (2007).

Coincidences?

Bambi's correct, the clown was Twisty. Lynch also played John Wayne Gacy in a couple episodes apparently.

I always think of him for Fargo too. Didn't even realize (or forgot) he played Twisty until this thread. He certainly does a good job at portraying psychotic characters. Twisty's one of my favorite AHS characters and I was immediately interested in Mr. Jingles too.

Haven't read any theories, but it's crossed my mind. In addition to her befriending Richard Ramirez, Margaret reminds me of adult Angela in Sleepaway Camp 2. "Boys are blue. Girls are red. Don't even try to make purple." That sounds like something Angela would say.

I didn't like last week's episode either. The show's been losing me for a few episodes now actually. However, I thought last night's episode was a slight improvement. It goes in a direction I wasn't quite expecting as the follow up to how the previous episode ended.

It slowed down and I just stopped caring about what was happening. I'm not getting my hopes up that the season's going to suddenly get a lot better, but last night's episode was a small breath of fresh air for sure.

Watched the finale this morning. Don't want to spoil anything, but I liked it. As a whole, I liked this season. Wasn't expecting the show to go in the direction it did in these last four episodes and I think that helped me enjoy it more than I would've otherwise. As much as I love the slasher genre, the plot was getting stale and needed a shake-up.

I'm going to miss that opening credits sequence. Possibly my favorite part of this season...

Is it even anywhere near as good as Asylum?

Definitely not. I never wondered if I should bother finishing Asylum. 1984 isn't all bad though. Without a doubt it's better than Hotel.

I made it a little further, but eventually gave up too.

There's no way it's one of the worst seasons. It's easily better than Hotel and it sounds better than some of the seasons that happened between Hotel and 1984. I rank it somewhere above Hotel and Murder House and below Asylum.

You might as well finish it at this point. This season's had its ups and downs, but I didn't hate it overall. I also liked the finale. Not as much as those first few episodes, but there were some scenes in the finale I thought were pretty good.