Grotesquerie review

Ryan Murphy’s latest horror story is not based on true crime but lives up to its title.

PLOT: A series of heinous crimes have unsettled a small community. Detective Lois Tryon feels these crimes are eerily personal, as if someone—or something—is taunting her. At home, Lois grapples with a strained relationship with her daughter, a husband in long-term hospital care and her own inner demons. With no leads and unsure of where to turn, she accepts the help of Sister Megan, a nun and journalist with the Catholic Guardian. Sister Megan, with her own difficult past, has seen the worst of humanity, yet she still believes in its capacity for good. Lois, on the other hand, fears the world is succumbing to evil. As Lois and Sister Megan string together clues, they find themselves ensnared in a sinister web that only seems to raise more questions than answers.

REVIEW: Think about the worst thing you could never unsee boiling in a pot. This line of dialogue spoken by Niecy Nash-Betts in the first episode of Grotesquerie perfectly sums up Ryan Murphy’s latest FX series. The third new production from Murphy in as many weeks, following Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story on Netflix and American Sports Story: Aaron Hernandez on FX (with a fourth, Doctor Odyssey, premiering this week as well), Grotesquerie takes viewers back to the wholly fictional scary stories the talented showrunner started with on American Horror Story. While Murphy’s flagship horror series tells scary stories with a decidedly supernatural bend, Grotesquerie blends the frightening with the realistic in a combination of police procedural and thriller that echoes The Silence of the Lambs and David Fincher’s Seven for what may be the writer/producer’s best effort in years.

Capitalizing on Niecy Nash-Betts’ acclaimed performance in Dahmer, Ryan Murphy has cast her in the lead role of Lois Tryon, a veteran police detective with a drinking problem. While Lois struggles with a morbidly obese daughter, Merritt (Raven Goodwin), and a comatose husband, Marshall (Courtney B. Vance), she is called in to investigate a crime scene that is beyond shocking. With Grotesquerie airing on FX and Hulu, I expected the visuals to be somewhat toned down. Still, the graphic first murder scene involves children, blood, and intentional staging that immediately brings to mind NBC’s Hannibal and the beauty hidden within the disturbing. Lois is taken aback by what she sees and even more so when a nun, Sister Megan (Micaela Diamond), arrives to report on the heinous deaths for a Catholic newspaper. Lois detects something slightly off about the kooky nun, but their partnership immediately develops as the crimes pile up.

Within the first two episodes of Grotesquerie, we witness four different crime scenes, all of which are successively more elaborate than the previous. Lois recedes into her liquor while Sister Megan is appalled and attracted to the crimes. Sister Megan confides in her editor, Father Charlie (Nicholas Alexander Chavez, most recently seen as Lyle Menendez in Murphy’s Monsters), who is fascinated with the macabre and some secret fetishes. Lois tries to contend with what she has seen while also dealing with a sexually voracious healthcare worker, Nurse Redd (Lesley Manville), who may or may not be taking advantage of Lois’ comatose husband. The crimes and Lois’ home life collide often as Grotesquerie, the self-named serial killer, seems to form a bond with the cop hunting them down. The series is structured to make us question whether any protagonists could be serial killers or just wacky players, as we have come to expect from Ryan Murphy productions.

Niecy Nash-Betts once again proves she is an underrated actress with her performance as Lois Tryon. Having worked for decades in comedy roles, including Reno 911! and The Bernie Mac Show, Nash-Betts only recently has been able to showcase her dramatic chops, including a lead role in The Rookie: Feds and Dahmer. This character feels tailor-made for the actress who runs the gamut in emotional range in these first episodes while never feeling miscast in the least. Equally good is Micaela Diamond, best known for her stage work as a singer and actress, who gives Sister Megan just enough quirkiness to keep us wondering if she is altogether sane. It may be too early in Grotesquerie to judge how the series will balance elements of dark humor with the deeply serious subject matter, but so far, it feels like this series is aiming for a unique tone about American Horror Story and American Crime Story. We have yet to see how Travis Kelce factors into the story this season, but any time you can get an acclaimed British actor like Lesley Manville to play a character as surreal and broad as this, you must have some tricks up your sleeve.

I have watched each and every Ryan Murphy series since Popular and Nip/Tuck. Grotesquerie feels distinct from the super-producer’s last dozen or so projects. Co-created with Jon Robin Baitz, Murphy’s collaborator on Feud: Capote vs. The Swans and Doctor Odyssey, and Joe Baken, Grotesquerie has the signature Murphy look and subject matter but handles it differently. This story could have been a season of American Horror Story, but the campiness is virtually non-existent in this show so far. Murphy’s recent forays into procedurals and true crime stories have certainly impacted the flow of his new projects. Still, the absence of his repertory players from this cast helps the series feel fresher. Murphy brings back multiple talented directors from prior projects, including Max Winkler. Winkler has helmed entries in American Horror Story, American Horror Stories, The Wathcer, Feud: Capote vs. The Swans, and Monster: The Lyle and Erik Menedez Story, and directs half of the ten-episode season of Grotesquerie. The other episodes come from Elegance Bratton and Alexis Martin Woodall, who bring to life the scripts written entirely by Murphy, Baitz, and Baken.

Grotesquerie has a cohesiveness that has been missing from recent Murphy products, which are rectified by the co-creators writing the entire series. I went in with pre-conceived notions that this would fit alongside any number of Murphy’s prior projects, but instead, it draws from them all while forging a voice that sets it apart. Grotesquerie is disturbing but not yet scary, and yet I am drawn to it because I want to know who the killer is as much as I want to learn more about Loius Tryon. Niecy Nash-Betts is a formidable presence on screen but also a deeply human performer who can be funny and brash when she needs to be but never ceases to make this character feel real. One of Ryan Murphy’s biggest issues in his fictional series is the ability to make the characters seem real rather than larger-than-life, and he and his colleagues may have finally done it with Grotesquerie. It is early to make a final judgment on this one, but I am invested in this series in a way I have not felt with a Ryan Murphy project since the early days of American Horror Story.

Grotesquerie debuts two episodes weekly on FX beginning September 25th.