Is This A Black Mirror Episode?: American Horror Stories 2.02 Review

Rating: ★★★★☆

I'm going to be honest, this was ALMOST a 5-Star review from me. It was a close to perfect episode and it was a standalone one with nothing to connect previous seasons of the anthology.

Gabourey Sidibe made her return to the series in a new role, Jaslyn, that felt grounded and realistic, with plenty of well-developed backstory to make her actions meaningful. Max Greenfield played her husband Bryce who I was cautious to trust for the first half of the episode; after seeing him play Schmidt on New Girl for seven years, I just never know what to expect from him which really worked in his favor for this show!

I wasn't sure where the episode was going until about 3/4 of the way through when the twist happened with Dayle (Joel Swetow), Jasyln's possible stalker, who was creepy in the best way possible. I had several theories running through my head prior, which signifies a good mystery in my opinion. Even after the twist, there was still plenty of time for even more "What the Heck?!" moments.

One of the only reasons I didn't feel I could rate this as 5-Stars is because I felt like I had seen a similar twist before. The tech aspect of the horror felt very reminiscent of Netflix's Black Mirror, though upon reading the summaries of the first three seasons (I'm aware I'm VERY behind, I'll catch up eventually), none of them rang a bell for me. So somewhere out there may exist a show or movie like this, but it works well as a standalone Horror Story episode.

After two really good episodes, I have high hopes for the remainder of this season!

Sidibe returned to the series after previously appearing in Coven, Freak Show, Hotel, and Apocalypse. Greenfield also returned after appearing in Hotel as well as another Ryan Murphy show, The Assassination of Giani Versace: An American Crime Story. Nancy Linehan Charles made her American Horror Story debut in this episode, but has appeared in Murphy-produced show 9-1-1: Lone Star. This marked the first appearance in a Ryan Murphy / American Horror Story series for the rest of the credited cast.