I have mixed feelings about this season and especially about this episode. It was very emotional, well-acted, serious, all that stuff. It wasn't "horror," though. There was nothing scary about it. It was very depressing, though. I'm of the generation that came of age in the early '80s, having started college in 1984. I witnessed the AIDS crisis firsthand, watching so many of my friends get sick and die during that decade. I don't need a TV show to remind me what it was like to be a gay man in the '80s because I remember exactly how it felt.
It's not that this kind of story shouldn't be on TV; I think it's important to tell people what happened. That said, had I known this season of AHS wasn't going to be a horror story but rather a story of the start of the AIDS crisis, I probably would have opted out. Or I could have at least made myself emotionally prepared for it. Instead, I'm stuck in PTSD-land crying over memories of the loved ones who were taken far too soon.
It's not that this kind of story shouldn't be on TV; I think it's important to tell people what happened. That said, had I known this season of AHS wasn't going to be a horror story but rather a story of the start of the AIDS crisis, I probably would have opted out. Or I could have at least made myself emotionally prepared for it. Instead, I'm stuck in PTSD-land crying over memories of the loved ones who were taken far too soon.