Created by Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk for the cable network FX, the series is produced by 20th Century Fox Television. Coven was broadcast between October 9, 2013, to January 29, 2014, consisting of 13 episodes. Like its predecessors, the season was met with both positive reviews and strong ratings, with the premiere attracting a series high of 5.54 million viewers, which, at the time, was the most viewed episode of the series. The season garnered seventeen Primetime Emmy Award nominations, including Outstanding Miniseries. It received nominations for Lange, Paulson, Bassett, Conroy, and Bates at the 66th Primetime Emmy Awards, with Lange and Bates winning their respective categories. In addition, Coven was nominated for Best Miniseries or TV Film at the Golden Globe Awards.
Teenager Zoe Benson discovers she is a witch after accidentally giving her boyfriend a fatal brain aneurysm during sex. She is sent to Miss Robichaux's Academy, a school for witches in New Orleans, where she meets the headmistress, Cordelia Foxx, and fellow students Madison Montgomery, a spoiled teenage actress who can move objects with her mind, Nan, a clairvoyant, and Queenie, a human voodoo doll. After young witch Misty Day is burned at the stake, Fiona Goode, the current Supreme and Cordelia's estranged mother, arrives to ensure their protection, much to Cordelia's displeasure. At a fraternity party, Zoe bonds with Kyle Spencer, while Madison is drugged and gang-raped by Kyle's fraternity brothers, mainly Brener. The boys flee on a bus, which Madison telekinetically overturns. Fiona takes the girls on a field trip and tells them about the history of witches in New Orleans. Nan leads them to a tour of Madame LaLaurie's mansion, where she tortured slaves to preserve her youth and was poisoned by voodoo priestess Marie Laveau for her lover's torture in 1834. In a hospital, Zoe learns that Kyle died and rapes an unconscious Brener, killing him. Fiona has a still-living LaLaurie dug up.
Still seeking to be perpetually young and beautiful, Fiona questions her new captive, Madame Delphine LaLaurie, who in the previous episode was dug up from an unmarked grave, still alive. Delphine tells Fiona that 180 years earlier, Marie Laveau gave her an immortality elixir, killed her family, and buried her alive. In hopes of becoming immortal as well, Fiona visits the still-living Laveau in a 9th Ward beauty salon and creates a renewed rivalry between the Salem witches and the voodoo practitioners. Meanwhile, Zoe and Madison decide to cast a resurrection spell in order to bring Kyle, one of several frat boy members that Madison murdered, back to life. When Kyle reanimates as a scared, angry monster, Zoe must seek help from a reclusive Necromancer, Misty Day, the witch burned at the stake in the previous episode. Elsewhere, Cordelia and her husband Hank have trouble conceiving a child, so he wants her to perform a fertility ritual, to which they proceed.
Madison and Nan take a liking to the new next door neighbor, Luke Ramsey, but have problems with his overly-religious mother Joan. After an encounter with the Ramseys, Madison develops the power of Pyrokinesis. A weakened Fiona learns she has terminal cancer and believes it to be caused by one of the students rising to take her place as the Supreme. After hearing of Madison's growing power, Fiona takes her under her wing. She shows Madison what it means to be a real witch, and gets her to reveal another new power she possesses. Realizing she is the next Supreme, Fiona plans to get rid of her. Meanwhile, Zoe visits Kyle's distraught mother and takes him home, not knowing of her true colors. She sexually abuses him. Cordelia is told by her doctor that she can never have a baby and goes to Marie Laveau for help. As punishment for her crimes of torture and abuse of slaves in 1830, the racist Delphine LaLaurie is forced by Fiona to be a maid to the students, causing tension between her and Queenie.
Fiona tells the house butler, Spalding, to get rid of Madison's body and rescues Queenie from the Minotaur, a mythological beast that was sent to the Academy by Marie Laveau. At Kyle's house, Zoe hastily cleans up the mess that he created after killing his mother, but ends up losing him as Halloween commences. Away on a "business" trip, Hank cheats on Cordelia with his girlfriend, Kaylee, whom he then murders in his hotel room. The Council of Witchcraft pays a surprise visit to the Academy to discuss Madison's disappearance. After receiving a gruesome present from Fiona, Marie officially ends the truce between the witches and voodoo practitioners and calls upon the dead to wreak havoc on the Academy.
Continuing from the last episode set on Halloween night, Zoe and the others go on the defense when zombies attempt to get into the school. Faced with death, Zoe unleashes a new power. Madame LaLaurie deals with the fact that she was a horrible mother when she sees her own daughters amongst the hordes of zombies. After an attack on Cordelia leaves her blind and helpless, Fiona also deals with the fact that she was a bad mother. The Council returns after the attacks on Cordelia and the girls, but Fiona manages to persuade them into believing head of the Council, Myrtle Snow, attacked Cordelia due to her grudge against Fiona. Myrtle is sentenced to burn at the stake for harming another witch. At the end, Misty Day appears and resurrects Myrtle.
Zoe, Queenie and Nan decide to come together as a Coven and use a spirit board to make contact with the other side in order to find Madison. The girls end up making contact with the spirit of legendary serial killer, The Axeman of New Orleans. Queenie warns Zoe to stay away from that kind of witchcraft because it has dangerous consequences, but Zoe is determined to find out what happened to Madison. Zoe uses the spirit board alone, and summons the Axeman, who wants something in return for helping her find Madison. After decades of being held inside the Academy's walls, he asks Zoe to release his spirit that was trapped there by its former students. A now blind Cordelia develops the power of Second Sight and finds out about Hank's indiscretion, causing him to worry that she will find out his real secret of being a witch hunter. Madison is revived by Misty, and Kyle is kept at the Coven. Also, Fiona desperately wants to have one last whirlwind romance before she inevitably dies.
Fiona has a tryst with the Axeman, which is complicated by the side effects of her chemotherapy. Meanwhile, Zoe casts a spell to restore Spalding's tongue and interrogates him, killing him after he admits Fiona was Madison's real murderer. A newly revived Madison bonds with Kyle over being undead. Delphine and Queenie also become closer, and Delphine tells Queenie that the other witches will never truly accept her because of her race. Queenie visits Marie, who offers to let Queenie join the voodoo practitioners if she brings her Delphine. After walking in on Kyle and Madison having sex, Zoe feels betrayed by them both, but Madison claims the two should simply share him. Zoe refuses, knowing that the minute they have sex her power will kill him. Madison insists that she can't kill him because he is already dead; that night Madison, Zoe and Kyle engage in a threesome.
Misty and a resurrected Myrtle arrive at the Coven to escape a witch hunter. The Coven prepares for the Sacred Taking ritual; in which a Supreme witch takes her own life to ensure the safety of the Coven, hastening the arrival of the next Supreme. As Fiona's health begins to fail, she sees Madison who claims to be the next Supreme by reviving herself, and Fiona's punishment will be to burn at the stake. She convinces Fiona to swallow a handful of pills but she later throws them up. At Marie Laveau's, Delphine is being held in a cage and scoffs at Marie's taunts. Marie hacks off Delphine's hand as a warning. That evening, an attack is carried out when an unseen witch hunter shoots and kills Joan Ramsey and injures Luke. The next morning, Fiona finds Delphine LaLaurie's head in a box on the porch. Misty revives Joan at Fiona's request.
Marie scoffs at Fiona's offer of an alliance, but must later reconsider when witch hunter Hank turns his attention on her voodoo tribe. Hank's back story is revealed, showing how his father trained him to be a witch hunter and how he met and charmed his way into Cordelia's life. Myrtle finally gets her revenge upon the Council that betrayed her. Meanwhile, Queenie attempts to force the disembodied Delphine to appreciate the modern African-American heritage. Nan's clairvoyance allows a comatose Luke to reveal a dark Ramsey family secret. Also, Myrtle restores Cordelia's eyes and allows her to see again. In doing so, Cordelia loses her power of Second Sight. Hank storms Marie's shop killing several voodoo practitioners and injuring Marie before being killed by Queenie. Joan smothers Luke with a pillow after he learns she murdered his father.
Marie and Fiona form an uneasy alliance in order to protect themselves from the witch hunters. Meanwhile, Nan develops new powers of being able to read and control people's thoughts. Madison tries to sabotage Zoe and the other witches in the race for the Supremacy. Fiona tries to show Misty the wonderful things a Supreme can enjoy, by introducing Stevie Nicks to her. It is also revealed how Marie is still beautiful and alive after 300 years. Nan learns that Joan murdered Luke in his hospital bed after he threatened to reveal a family secret, and Nan turns to a dark path by exacting an equally cruel and lethal revenge against Joan, making her kill herself.
A flashback to the 1830s reveals the origins of Delphine LaLaurie. After she moves back to New Orleans from Paris, she fears she will tire of the city's atmosphere. She then discovers her shocking attraction to blood and torture. In present day, a newly reassembled Delphine takes up an old hobby to pass the time. Marie and Fiona have a deadly face off with witch hunters of the Delphi Trust, while Cordelia makes a desperate sacrifice to protect the Coven. Meanwhile, a jealous Madison doesn't accept the fact that Kyle is in love with Zoe. The two argue over who deserves him more and Madison uses magic to hurt Zoe, threatening to take Kyle apart again.
Knowing her death from cancer is approaching, Fiona attempts to make amends by saying goodbye to Cordelia, giving her a family heirloom. Cordelia regains her power of Second Sight and foresees the harrowing future of the Coven. Cordelia goes to the Axeman and shares her visions with him, which later leads to the murder of Fiona. With Fiona gone, the girls finally band together as a Coven. Also, Queenie summons Papa Legba and visits her own personal hell. Later Queenie kills Delphine LaLaurie, inadvertently killing Marie (as Papa Legba terminated their immortality after breach of contract) and the two find themselves in their actual hell, which is an eternity of Delphine being tortured by Marie in her own torture chamber.
Zoe, Madison, Misty, and Queenie undergo the test of the Seven Wonders. The one who performs them all successfully is the next Supreme. At first, the girls pass each test, until they reach descensum, where they must send their spirits to hell and return before sunrise. All pass except Misty, whose spirit remains trapped in her own personal hell. Next is the act of transmutation. Zoe impales herself on the iron gates of the Academy, resulting in her death. Queenie fails at resurrection, while Madison refuses to bring Zoe back to life. Myrtle convinces Cordelia to attempt the Seven Wonders, and she completes them all successfully while Madison fails at divination. Cordelia resurrects Zoe and is crowned the new Supreme. Myrtle later requests to again be burned at the stake for her dishonorable actions of murder and a fresh start for Cordelia. Kyle kills Madison for refusing to resurrect Zoe, and Spalding takes her body. As the new Supreme, Cordelia decides to go public with the presence of the Coven. Myrtle insists on being burned at the stake for harming the council. Hundreds of girls are shown outside the gates as Cordelia appoints Queenie and Zoe to members of the Council and makes peace with her dying mother after inheriting her powers and title of Supreme, marking a new beginning in the history of the Coven.
Production
Conception
In January 2013, series co-creator Ryan Murphy hinted that a clue about the third season would be hidden in the tenth episode of the second season.[15] In a later interview discussing that episode, he stated, "I sorta feel like for the third version I want to do something that's a little bit more 'evil glamour.' Just something that's a little bit more...one of the things that I missed this season was I really loved having that Romeo and Juliet youth story with Violet and Tate [from the first season]. I want something like that again, and we're doing something like that in the third season. And we're contemplating shooting the show in a different place. We're contemplating shooting it in a place in the country where true horror has been."[16] In another interview, Murphy added that the season would be set in the modern-day.[17]
Executive producer Tim Minear has stated that, while this season's tone might be lighter with more humor, the global themes of it will be "oppression of minorities of all kinds, and within that idea, minority groups going after each other and doing the work of the larger culture." He added, "While there is a strong feminist theme that runs throughout Coven, there are themes of race and themes of oppression, and themes of family – especially mothers and daughters."[18]
Future season
In October 2016, Murphy stated that a future season of the show would feature a return/continuation of Coven. He stated that this is not the theme for season 7, but a later season. He also confirmed that Lady Gaga's character from Roanoke is the first Supreme.[19] Later that month, Murphy announced that the season would be a Coven and Murder House crossover continuation. Merging stories, themes, and characters. He also stated that he had begun reaching out to actors from both seasons to reprise their respective roles. In 2018, Murphy announced the eighth season, Apocalypse, which would be the crossover season. Apocalypse follows the world after a nuclear holocaust, and the events leading up to the end of the world, principally, the witches' fight against Michael Langdon, the antichrist who was born in Murder House.[20]
Casting
Series executive producers and co-creators Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk stated that, as with the second season, "many actors" would return for the third season in different roles.[21]Jessica Lange, Evan Peters, and Sarah Paulson all confirmed their returns. Murphy added that Lange would portray a "real glamour-cat lady",[17] whose name was later revealed to be Fiona Goode.[22] Paulson said in an interview that her character would "definitely [be] different [to her season two character]." She added, "Basically, she's going to look different, and my relationship to Lange is going to be quite different this time. At the beginning of last season, no one knew that Lana would be the hero, so it's possible I could end up the evil one this year. As of right now, there will be some of Lana Winters' qualities in my character, but I don't know for sure."[23]Taissa Farmiga, who played a lead role in the first season, starred as Zoe Benson, a character involved in a prominent romance with Peters' character.[24]Lily Rabe and Frances Conroy portrayed series regulars Misty Day and Myrtle Snow, respectively.[24][25]Kathy Bates co-starred as Delphine LaLaurie, an evil woman from the past who tortures her slaves.[26] Murphy stated that Bates' character would be "five times worse than [her] Misery character" and is also inspired by a "true event".[27] It was reported on May 22, 2013, that Emma Roberts would co-star as Madison Montgomery, a difficult Hollywood starlet.[28]
In May 2013, Murphy announced via Twitter that Angela Bassett and Patti LuPone had joined the cast.[29][21] Bassett later confirmed she would be playing voodoo priestess, Marie Laveau. In an interview, LuPone said that her character, Joan Ramsey, would not be a witch but "the personification of the religious right, 'like Piper Laurie in Carrie.'"[30]Gabourey Sidibe appeared in 12 episodes of the season portraying Queenie, a young witch, whose prominent ability allows her to become a human voodoo doll.[31] First season actress Jamie Brewer recurred as Nan, a young witch who is clairvoyant.
Principal photography for the season began on July 23, 2013, and concluded January 17, 2014,[38] in New Orleans, Louisiana.[39] The casting call reads, "After two seasons shooting in Los Angeles, the series moves to [New Orleans] for its third season. Filming begins July 23, 2013, in New Orleans, Louisiana and [will be] completed on January 17, 2014."[40] Despite Ryan Murphy stating that the third season would take place in multiple cities,[17] New Orleans is the primary setting of the third installment.[18] The Buckner Mansion, a 19th-century Greek Revival home in the Garden District neighborhood of New Orleans, was used for exterior shots of Miss Robichaux's Academy.[41][42][43]
Coven's premiere episode, "Bitchcraft", was watched by 5.54 million viewers, which, at the time, was the highest total viewers of any American Horror Story episode.[45] It was surpassed by the fourth season's premiere, "Monsters Among Us", which received 6.13 million viewers during its broadcast.[46] The ratings slipped for the second episode, delivering 4.51 million viewers and a 2.5 rating among adults 18-49 – down 17% from the premiere.[47] The rest of the season's episodes remained relatively steady in ratings; the episode with the lowest viewing numbers was the penultimate episode, "Go to Hell".
Critical response
American Horror Story: Coven received positive reviews from critics. The review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes reported an 85% approval rating, with an average rating of 7.25/10, based on 221 reviews, becoming the best-reviewed season of the series on that site. The site's consensus reads, "A noteworthy ensemble cast combined with creepy storytelling and campy, outrageous thrills make American Horror Story: Coven a potently structured fright-fest."[48] The season scored 71 out of 100 on Metacritic, based on 24 reviews.[49]
Anne T Donahue of The Guardian stated that Coven "could be American Horror Story's best instalment yet," writing, "That's not to say Coven is perfect. It's been called out as glorified slave-torture porn in the US, and it's important that Madame LeLaurie's storyline comes full circle, and that slavery is handled in a responsible way. The same goes for Zoe's storyline, and the incidences of sexual assault within this season, too. But American Horror Story can handle it. And while it's obviously over-the-top, its broader social commentary makes it a unique series, unlike anything we've seen on television before. It's a conventional horror story, but it's America's horror story too. Just try making it through an episode without hiding behind the sofa."[50] In their post-season reviews, The Michigan Daily gave Coven a B+, saying, "And while its conclusion, appropriately titled "The Seven Wonders", never quite matched the high standard it set for itself throughout the season, Coven's reputation will nonetheless remain a solid one."[51] Jeff Jensen of Entertainment Weekly gave the season a B rating and said, "I can't deny my experience: Week to week, the excesses of Coven were wickedly amusing. Next year, I hope American Horror Story can be more than that, and with less."[52]
In contrast, Coven was also met with negative reviews from some critics. The A.V. Club gave the season a low rating of D+, with critic Emily VanDerWerff remarking, "It lurched drunkenly from idea to idea, never settling on one long enough to build anything of worth."[53] Some critics, like Amanda Kay LeBlanc, state that the series is ineffective in completely opposing the ideas of racism, oppression, and racial conflict that are integral to Coven's conception.[54] "Although the narrative of Coven explicitly decries racism," she writes, "it simultaneously invests in colorblind racist narratives. Whiteness is central in Coven, operating through discourse that ignores racial difference and contemporary forms of oppression and erasure."[55] She additionally argues that Coven excessively depends on and uses the imagery of violence against black people for entertainment and plot progression.[55]
American Horror Story(season 3): Critical reception by episode
Graphs are unavailable due to technical issues. Updates on reimplementing the Graph extension, which will be known as the Chart extension, can be found on Phabricator and on MediaWiki.org.
Season 3 (2013–14): Percentage of positive critics' reviews tracked by the website Rotten Tomatoes[48]
Gary Megregian, David Klotz, Timothy A. Cleveland, Paul Diller, Brian Thomas Nist, Steve M. Stuhr, Lance Wiseman, Noel Vought (for "Fearful Pranks Ensue")
Outstanding Achievement in Sound Mixing – TV Movie or Miniseries
Bruce Litecky, CAS (Production Mixer) Joe Earle, CAS (Re-recording Mixer) Doug Andham, CAS (Re-recording Mixer) James S. Levine (Scoring Mixer) Judah Getz (ADR Mixer) Kyle Billingsley (Foley Mixer)(for "The Replacements")
^The character's full name is retroactively revealed to be Otis Spalding Van Wirt in the first episode of the second season of American Horror Stories.[1]
^ abLeBlanc, Amanda Kay (May 27, 2018). ""There's nothing I hate more than a racist:" (Re)centering whiteness in American Horror Story: Coven". Critical Studies in Media Communication. 35 (3): 273–285. doi:10.1080/15295036.2017.1416418. ISSN1529-5036. S2CID148841474.
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