History YMMV / AmericanHorrorStoryCoven

* LoveItOrHateIt / ItsPopularNowItSucks: While ''Coven'' is the highest-rated season of ''American Horror Story'' to date, longtime viewers have not been shy in criticizing the show's radically different atmosphere compared to previous seasons, calling it ''[[Series/TheRealHousewives The Real Housewitches of New Orleans]]'' and the main mystery as ''[[AmericasNextTopModel America's Next Top Supreme]]''.

** Zoe [[spoiler: raping a man to death (he's a rapist, but it doesn't change what she did) [[DoubleStandardRapeFemaleOnMale Not that the show saw an issue with it]]]].

** Fiona's quote from the first episode "Wear something... [[WomanInBlack black]]." is fairly popular with fans. On Website/{{Tumblr}}, it's sometimes combined with another memetic quote to create "[[Film/MeanGirls On Wednesdays, we wear black."]]

* BaseBreaker: Madison. She's either a fierce, entertainingly evil bitch or an annoying one-note jerk.

* TheyJustDidntCare: The term for magically moving from place to place is given as being "transmutation," in spite of transmutation meaning "the process of changing one thing into another thing." Not only is the term ubiquitous in real world occult history (see: good old alchemy), but it's also frequently used in both scientific and everyday contexts to indicate state changes. It's a wince-inducing malapropism that access to a dictionary or even a normal vocabulary would've avoided.

* HarsherInHindsight: The feature of Stevie Nix's music and Misty's insistence that she's a witch. The creators actually had to spend a lot of time getting her permission to user her music and, later on, get her to agree to cameo. She was hesitant because she'd gotten a lot of harassing fanmail and hate-mail from people who were convinced that her lyrics were proof of her being an actual witch.

* [[TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter They Wasted a Perfectly Good Actor]]: Evan Peters and Denis O'Hare are both members of the main cast and have proved themselves to be talented actors in previous seasons, however in Coven they have almost nothing to do.
** The reason for their little importance is said to be to give the women actors more to do, keeping in theme with female empowerment... only for the show to give importance and arcs to other male characters such as Luke and Hank, making Peters and O'Hare's talents look even more wasted.

** Cordelia also grew far and far more popular as the series went on.

* ShockingSwerve: The whole ''season'' is made of shocking swerves, but the most glaring one is [[spoiler: Luke's offscreen death and cremation]].

* DarknessInducedAudienceApathy: An odd version. Even though this is the highest-rated season of AmericanHorrorStory so far, yet some find none of the characters particularly sympathetic.

* LoveItOrHateIt / ItsPopularNowItSucks: While ''Coven'' is the highest-rated season of ''American Horror Story'' to date, longtime viewers have not been shy in criticizing the show's radically different atmosphere compared to previous seasons, calling it ''[[Series/TheRealHousewives The Real Housewives of New Orleans]]'' and the main mystery as ''[[AmericasNextTopModel America's Next Top Supreme]]''.

** Early episodes state that it's rare for a witch to develop multiple talents, and that the reason [[spoiler:Fiona thought Madison was the Supreme was because she was telekinetic AND pyrokinetic]]. Cue the later episodes, [[spoiler: where nearly every girl is able to perform most of the wonders, including raising the dead (which was also stated to be an incredibly rare gift).]]

** A joke-fanon from Reddit about Stevie Wonder, who spends her time wandering into people's houses and singing.

** [[NiceGuy an]] seems to have been received well by the audience. Misty is hands-down ''the'' most popular character in the show, with many fans wishing that she would be the next Supreme [[MisaimedFandom despite her stating that she does NOT want to be it]].

** Queenie, after [[spoiler: betraying Delphine and the Coven.]] She used to be an EsembleDarkhorse until then.

** Zoe, due to her lack of action at the start, the morally questionable [PayEvilUntoEvil rape]] in the first episode, aggressiveness later on. However, her kindness with Kyle, cool powers and willingness to fight made her enjoyable.

** [[BaseBreaker Madison]] to viewers who find her a one-note bitch, especially amongst Misty Day's fans.
** Zoe to fans who perceive her as useless.

** Queenie, after [[spoiler: betraying Delphine and the Coven.]]

** {{N|iceGuy}}an seem to have been received well by the audience. Misty is hands-down ''the'' most popular character in the show, with many fans wishing that she would be the next Supreme [[MisaimedFandom despite her stating that she does NOT want to be it]].
** Myrtle has gotten quite a bit of love for her dynamic with Fiona, intelligence and her relationship with [[spoiler: Misty Day]]. She's been especially popular [[spoiler: post-revival by Misty, with her being more assertive and cunning.]]

* FanPreferredCouple: The fandom has taken a huge liking to Misty Day and Cordelia Foxx ([[PortmanteauCoupleName Foxxay]]).

* TheArtifact: Evan Peters. It's pretty obvious the writers felt obligated to hang onto him, since he'd been a regular cast member since season 1, but they seemed to have pretty much nothing to do with him for this season, since the story revolved entirely around female characters. So, he spent most of the season suffering from severe brain damage, and we see him about once an episode to remember that, yes, he's still on the show.

** Though 99% of the reviews counted on RT are for the first episode, so it's more of the most rated season ''premiere''.
** The season started with this, but pretty soon many, if not most, reviewers started to call out the abysmal writing.

* ShockingSwerve: The whole ''season'' is made of shocking swerves, but the most glaring one is [[spoiler: Luke's offscreen death and cremation]]. It ''reeks'' of writing laziness.

* TheyJustDidntCare: The term for magically moving from place to place is given as being "transmutation," in spite of transmutation meaning "the process of changing one thing into another thing." Not only is the term ubiquitous in real world occult history (see: good old alchemy), but it's also frequently used in both scientific and everyday contexts to indicate state changes. It's a wince-inducing malapropism that access to a dictionary or even a normal vocabulary would've avoided. But then again, the writing for the whole season has turned out to be subpar at best.

* UnfortunateImplications: Like the [[YMMV/AmericanHorrorStoryMurderHouse previous]] [[YMMV/AmericanHorrorStoryAsylum seasons]], Coven has a few themes that leave a bad taste in the viewers' collective mouth.
** Sex equals death (a rather cliched horror trope) is {{exaggerated|Trope}} to the point one wonders if Coven is promoting Abstinence Only.
** [[spoiler: While someone raping a rapist is comparable to the ethical issues surrounding killing a killer, having the main protagonist rape a rapist [[note]]the rapist in question isn't a killer[[/note]] to death without any consequences or reprehension raises a lot of other issues.]]
** Of the four students at the witch school, the heavyset black girl and the girl with Down syndrome have secondary billing compared to the two pretty white girls. However, [[spoiler: after Madison was killed,]] their roles were equalled out and mostly stayed that way [[spoiler:after Madison was revived.]]
** As [[Series/AmericanHorrorStoryMurderHouse Murder House]] and Series/{{A|mericanHorrorStoryAsylum}}sylum before, Coven has been criticized for relying on [[RapeAsDrama rape to provide drama]] for female characters.
** The only male witch seen in multiple episodes is CampGay, and never referred as such. In the finale, when [[spoiler: Myrtle says she has to be burnt at the stake]] she defines him as a 'colleague'.
** The mostly Caucasian witches use their powers to garner wealth and live luxuriously. The mostly African American voodoo witches call the ninth ward their territory and live ''very'' humble considering what they could do with their gifts.
** Marie Laveau, who was by all accounts a nice person and had followers of all races in real life, is the villain of the season and has grown to hate whites (and not just the racist ones). Further, she has had the least amount of character development of anyone in the season. Meanwhile, the notorious Delphine Lalaurie [[spoiler:has been made as a character searching for redemption.]]
** Every mother who appeared longer than one scene (not counting Myrtle as Cordelia's replacement mother) has been abusive or neglectful towards her child or children.
** The central themes of Coven are oppressed groups (referring here to women and, to a lesser degree, people of color) and 'power corrupts'. This leads to some unintentional and rather ironic implications that "women with power are evil".
** Every single male character on the show is under control of a female one, all but stating that female empowerment is basically misandry. Further reinforced by the fact that the witch-hunters (the witches' main threat) are ALL male while the witches are all female (Ryan Murphy thought that having warlocks would 'make the season too much like Glee' so he basically opted to be as offensive as possible).
** The eviler the character, the better her situation is ([[DoubleStandard of course, unless it's a man]]), and of course the nicer they are (or just if they're male) the worst they have it.
*** Averted by the end, where [[spoiler: Fiona, Marie, Delphine and Madison are all dead]], and [[spoiler:Cordelia, Kyle, Queenie and Zoe are happy]].
**** Still played straight in regards to gender, because the male character that had the happiest ending ([[spoiler: Kyle]]) got [[spoiler: an eternity of servitude]].
** Ryan Murphy announced that, starting from episode 9, characters were starting to die and not come back. The first to go were both [[MenAreTheExpendableGender male characters]] and the first witch to die permanently was [[spoiler:Nan, the one with Down's syndrome AND the only one whose backstory was never shown on screen]].
** Young women coming into their own is a threat to older women. There's only so much female power to go around.
** In the final episode, the new Supreme [[spoiler: Cordelia]] goes on TV and gives an interview. The scene equals witches to gay people, but like TrueBlood before it, this show didn't get that while people are stupid to fear LGBTQ people, they are most certainly NOT to fear witches, as we've been repeatedly shown this season that they are really likely to abuse their powers.
** The female characters rarely, if ever, team up and show loyalty to each other, feeding in the old prejudice that women are too selfish to be team players, taken to the extreme in The Seven Wonders, where [[spoiler: Madison, Queenie and Zoe were laughing and playing outside ''seconds'' after Misty died]].
** Female empowerment is linked to the ability to dominate/hurt/kill people, especially men.
** The male characters are either evil, useless to the extreme, or both, this is not only misandric, but also pretty misogynistic, suggesting that women have to have the playing field heavily slanted in their direction in order to be empowered, and thus perpetuating the idea that women are lesser than men.
** A lot of people called out ''Asylum'' for the misogynistic implication that in order to become a strong, dynamic and empowered character, a woman must be victimized by a man, perhaps sexually, and rise above it (referring to Lana's character arc). This season featured several strong, empowered women who were not defined, held down or victimized by the men in their lives, if they even had one. [[UnpleasableFanbase It was roundly criticized for being misandric, being female-centric with most of the male characters being one-dimensional, useless, villains, or one-dimensional useless villains.]]
*** The problem, as usual, is in the writing, which was absolutely dire in Coven. Also, who wasn't victimized in 'Asylum'?
** The fact that the current Supreme withers as the new one comes into her own creates an unfortunate implication that powerful young women are a threat to powerful older women and that there's only so much female empowerment to go around. As opposed to encouraging the next generation, the older generation is an obstacle that needs to be destroyed.