"American Horror Story - Freak Show" Season 4 The best bits - spoilers

• Creepiest opening titles (no mean feat)
• Jessica Lange (think Marlene Dietrich/Madeline Kahn in "Blazing Saddles")
• Fraulein Elsa's rendition of Bowie's "Life On Mars". Who cares if it was written nearly 20 years after this story is set (Sarah Poulson has 2 heads, Angela Bassett has 3 breasts, for crying out loud!)
• Lobster Boy (Evan Peters) spicing up a 50's Tupperware party
• Kathy Bates (with endearing Maryland accent) as the bearded lady
• Angela Bassett's unique rack
• Finn ("The Normal Heart") Wittrock as creepy momma's boy, Danny Mott. Liked his 'double date' at the movies in Episode 6.
• The use of John Morris's score for "The Elephant Man" in Episode 1.
• Hearing a new version of Siouxsie and the Banshees' "Spellbound" (1981) in Episode 2.
• The nifty black and white sequence in Episode 3, filmed like a German expression silent film.
• Roxy Music's "Avalon" in the 1952 gay bar.
• Wondering if Episode 5 is the most homoerotic episode of AHS to date.
• Elsa bombing bigtime singing "Life On Mars" to the rubes.
• Finn's unique puppet show featuring mom and the Avon lady (Episode 9)
• Finn's Tupperware themed pool party (also Episode 9)
• The recreation of two classic scenes from "Freaks" in Episode 12 (penultimate ep)
• Danny Huston playing a variation on Pinocchio's Geppetto with Crab-boy.
• "Noone gives a shit about Cole Porter" (Episode 13)
• The reprise of "Life on Mars" and the theme from the "The Elephant Man"
• Elsa wows Hollywood in 1960 and final scene freak reunion (to the tune of Bowie's "Heroes")

This season makes you want to rewatch all of Tod Browning's "Freaks" (1932).

"Hannibal", NBC, 13 interesting things about Season 2

1. A suspenseful opening scene, it seems cornfields are mandatory in thrillers.
2. "I love your work" intones Hannibal from the top of the silo. We all laughed.
3. An elegant departure from Dr Du Maurier (Gillian Anderson). Or is it?
4. Now I know how to cook Osso buco.
5. The photography and design in this show is top shelf. If you see the eye/death/mural in the Tate Modern I wouldn't be surprised. 
6. The beehive man, the flight into the hive scene. Stunning/macabre.
7. I'd forgotten how great Amanda Plummer is at doing deranged characters on screen. See "Pulp Fiction".
8. The body cross-sections under glass (a real "Oh my God! moment) in Episode 5.
9. Michael Pitt ("Seven Psychopaths" and Jimmy Carmody from "Boardwalk Empire") as Mason Verger giving the creepiest performance of the season, a psycho-Willy Wonka. Making the little boy cry in the stable in order to take a tear sample, then tossing him a chocolate. An inspired turn. He seems to be channelling Christopher Walken/Robert Downey Jr, with a touch of Jerry Lewis's Nutty Professor. Love the Dr Strangelove hair. Mason Verger is definitely standout psycho of both seasons. The face-feeding scene was almost too hard to watch in Episode 12.
10. Freddie Lounds' resurrection, didn't see that one coming.
11. The huge Shiva statue rearing up at Will and Hannibal in Episode 11.
12. The return of Gillian Anderson. She now specialises in playing the ice-queen character (see BBC's creepy and compelling "The Fall").
13. Spectacular (and gory) season finale. Don't turn off when the credits roll!

"Hannibal" NBC Episode 13 Series 1 final "Savoureux" review, spoilers

Don't expect fast moving action in this series final. This is a mood piece. The beautifully executed final scene between Will and Hannibal (with Mads Mikkelsen's glimmer of a smile). He knows that he knows. And he knows that he knows....
Dr Du Maurier (Gillian Anderson) certainly knows heaps about Lecter's past.
No graphic violence, apart from a regurgitated ear in Will's kitchen sink. Toward the end, Will sees Hannibal as the darkly demonic deer creature he has been dreaming of throughout this series - the realisation of who and what Lecter is. Now you realise what Lecter was doing with Will's fishing lures in an early episode.
I suppose some viewers might be getting a bit toey (restless) - waiting for a confrontation. But I think the tension is delicious - as delicious as Hannibal's weekly gourmet treats.
Series 2 must feature the missing Abigail (Kacey Rohl).

"The Following" TV series Episode 13, "Havenport" few spoilers

Well, the shit hit the fan for Joe in this episode. Roderick tried his Plan B. Emma and Jacob are a couple again. Claire tried a bit of kiss and stab with her ex-hubby/slowly unravelling Joe. I laughed out when Joe told Claire, "I am having a really bad day" and to all in Chateau Psycho, "Everybody needs to calm down!"
When do they pass around the Kool-Aid?
I like the inspired casting of Warren Kole (Roderick) as the blond All American Boy country sheriff. I enjoyed the sparring on the phone between Joe and Ryan. Joe is a great manipulator of people, but a crap writer, as Claire commented last week. He is using "the therapy of words" ... you tosser, Professor.
Loved the gal with the hair pin in the last scene.