For better or worse, there is no new season of it American horror story this spooky season. But don’t think for a moment that that’s because Ryan Murphy has run out of ideas. Not at all. Complementing the second season of his true crime series Sample on Netflix and the upcoming fourth season of micro-anthology American horror storiesMurphy has a new FX show. Called Big questionit’s about a troubled detective investigating a series of disturbing murders, with each crime scene highly staged with increasing religious symbolism – so it’s basically Ryan Murphy’s take on David Fincher’s Seven.
Based on the first two episodes largely work. Sure, there’s some cringey dialogue and lots of it hmm plot points that in typical Ryan Murphy fashion are perhaps just thrown at the wall for fun and not really handled well. But damn if the setup and characters aren’t intriguing. If there’s one thing Murphy does very well, it’s captivate you in just a few episodes.
(Ed. remark: This post contains some spoilers for the first two episodes of Big question.)
Big question opens with a hard-boiled detective named Lois (played by Niecy Nash) being called to a crime scene. And honestly, it’s not that promising when she and an officer have this gem of a dialogue:
“If this isn’t a hate crime, I don’t know what is,” the officer says steelily.
“Hate against what?” Lois asks.
“Everything.”
It’s exaggerated and overly dramatic, but you know what? If the crime in question involves a dead man being fed to his family and them literally dying of shock, maybe that makes sense. It immediately roots us in the genre: this is an over-the-top and overdramatic kind of show, and the murders can be completely unrealistic (in an incredibly fun way).
Lois has all the hallmarks of a troubled detective: she’s an alcoholic, her husband is in a coma (and their marriage was rocky even before that), and there’s clearly some tension between her and her daughter. It’s a standard archetype, but because she’s not a middle-aged white man, it’s already more compelling than seeing the same kind of character combine his raging alcoholism and sad dead wife over and over again. We don’t see that kind of dysfunctional female character very often! Still, one thing remains true: She can’t quite crack this murder or put the pieces together, so even if it damages her ego, she seeks the help of an unlikely partner.
Enter Sister Megan (Micaela Diamond), a nun who is also an investigative journalist with a morbid fascination with true crime. There’s definitely something more going on with her – from her flirtatious banter with the new handsome (and possibly sadomasochistic?) priest, to her encyclopedic memory of the most disturbing Bible passages. And Diamond just nails the role of someone wide-eyed and seemingly innocent, but much more in tune with the macabre and dark side of human nature than her outward demeanor would suggest.
The first shocking murder scene is just the beginning. There are several more in the first two episodes, and each time Sister Megan notices a nod to some kind of Christian symbolism. That, coupled with the copious references to the archetypal seven deadly sins in Lois’ life (her husband’s extramarital affairs indicate lust, and the constant fixation on her daughter’s eating habits and her own alcoholism indicate gluttony) basically screams Sevenwith all the promises of this case hitting much closer to home than Lois is prepared for.
The funny thing is that Ryan Murphy tried to do this for in the fifth season of American horror story, subtitled Hotel. That season was so packed with extra schlock – ghosts, vampires, demons, oh my! – that it is incredibly easy to forget that the central plot was about a detective solving the case of the killer of the Ten Commandments (who, as the name suggests, brutally murdered victims who violated the Ten Commandments Commandments). But AHS: Hotel was honestly a mess, and if there’s one thing Ryan Murphy likes to do, it’s retry something he’s done before (i.e., how the first episodes of American horror stories was actually Murder House: The Redux).
Big question gives him the chance to redo that Bible-inspired murder story. And by keeping the focus firmly on the crimes, he might be able to pull this off. After all, the mystery is intriguing; the crime scene is so overly elaborate and disturbing that I can’t look away; and as someone who left a mark on Dan Brown’s Angels and demons at a stupid young age, the religious line is incredibly compelling.
If there’s one thing I’ve taken to heart if American horror story But the thing is, while the setup is almost always good, Murphy rarely sticks the landing. But man, since I’m totally stuck with it Big question for now. Let’s see where this fishing line will take me.
New episodes of Big question premieres Wednesday at 10pm EDT on FX and the following day on Hulu.