History YMMV / AmericanHorrorStory1984

* AudienceAlienatingPremise: The fact that real-life serial killer Richard Ramirez was depicted as a super-powered and nearly-immortal servant of the devil didn't sit well with some viewers, especially since Richard Ramirez died only a few years before the airing of the season.

** [[HollywoodSatanism Richard Ramirez]], aka the [[SerialKiller Night Stalker]], is reimagined as Satan's own bloodthirsty PsychoForHire. A sociopathic murderer who nearly decapitated an elderly woman, Ramirez follows Brooke Thompson to Camp Redwood and makes the sympathetic Benjamin Richter sell his soul to Satan to recruit him as an unwilling partner-in-crime, returning to Los Angeles and spending a year killing random innocents with no signs of stopping while Benjamin had to watch everything. After Benjamin finally exposes him, Ramirez breaks out of prison to get his revenge. Finding Benjamin's family in Alaska, Ramirez murders his wife and challenges Benjamin to a duel for the safety of his baby son. Slaughtering the members of Kajagoogoo, Ramirez is happy to assist Margaret Booth in her plan to massacre dozens of people. Despite having a tragic upbringing, Ramirez openly embraces his unholy master and [[CardCarryingVillain proudly refers to himself as pure and uncut evil]].

** [[ManipulativeBitch Margaret Booth]] is a deranged camp counselor who gradually evolved into a SerialKiller. Upset over the various counselors who bullied her at Camp Redwood, Margaret tried to persuade Benjamin Richter into murdering them for her. When he refused, she killed them all herself and framed Benjamin for all the murders, which led to him being tortured inside of a mental institution for fourteen years. After Benjamin escapes and goes on a killing spree as Mr. Jingles, Margaret decides to murder the new employees at Camp Redwood so she can pin the blame on him again. When this fails, she frames Brooke Thompson instead, resulting in the latter spending five years in prison and seemingly being publicly executed. When Margaret becomes wealthy exploiting various massacre locations as tourist attractions, she decides to do the same for Camp Redwood by holding a musical festival there. After the members of Kajagoogoo are killed, and Margaret runs into Richard Ramirez and another serial killer inspired by Ramirez's murders, Margaret sanctions them to slaughter dozens of musicians and civilians at the festival just to [[FameThroughInfamy thrive off the camp's subsequent infamy]].

* MoralEventHorizon: Margaret crossed the line multiple times over the course of the season. She truly crossed that line when [[spoiler:she enlists the Night Stalker to make a massacre at the music festival triple-fold, so they could have more victims.]]

* ValuesDissonance: Brooke's emotional abuse she suffered at the hands of her fiancé is very obvious for all of us to see in our era; but back in the 70s into the 80s', various abuses of the sort were only just coming to light with many practitioners of psychiatry and psychology having difficulties exploring the topic or area at the time. Brooke may literally have had no idea what he was doing was completely wrong or if she just plain surrendered to end the tormentor's isolation.

* LesYay: One of the first shots in the series is of two girls preparing to make out, and despite claiming that she's "not a lez", Montana is incredibly insistent that Brooke come with her to Camp Redwood. [[spoiler: Then Subverted when it turns out she despises Brooke and wants to murder her, since she blames her for her brother's death.]]

* UnfortunateImplications: The fact that real-life serial killer Richard Ramirez was depicted as a super-powered and nearly-immortal servant of the devil didn't sit well with some viewers, especially since Richard Ramirez died only a few years before the airing of the season.

** In "Slashdance", Mr. Jingles is stopped in his rampaging by an overweight and misfit teenage boy who admits to him (thinking Mr. Jingles is part of the group he arrived with) that he knows he was only invited because their moms made them but confesses that dressing up as Mr. Jingles makes him feel powerful. Mr. Jingles silently listens and lets him go— was this out of empathy and pity for another person outcast by society, or out of bewilderment?

* CatharsisFactor:[[spoiler: After watching Margaret Booth get away with committing ''two'' massacres while framing innocent people for her atrocities, watching her suffer a CruelAndUnusualDeath at the hands of her victims is absolutely satisfying. Doubly so that now as she's technically a ghost stuck on the camp, her victims will have lots of fun with her forever.]]

* EpilepticTrees: Some viewers are convinced that Brooke will turn out to be a murderer or secretly evil based largely of her actress' previous roles in the series largely being [[AlphaBitch "Alpha Bitches"]], with Brooke's NiceGirl heroine status being part of a BaitAndSwitch. [[spoiler: It's ultimately Jossed, though the character develops a darker, more cynical side due to all the shit she had to go through.]]

** The curb-stomping Ramirez gets in Arizona matches up almost exactly how the real Richard Ramirez was captured: A bunch of Latinos recognized the murderer from the news and beat the shit out of him. They even captured the small details such as the newspaper stands and the attempted carjacking.

* HilariousInHindsight: Trevor’s GagPenis is a bit of a RunningGag in the season. Unrelated SoBadItsGood movie (made for an app) [[https://youtu.be/ORHNs7YHET8 “Trevor and the Virgin”]] bases its entire premise on a rumor that the titular Trevor has the biggest dick in their college.

** Margaret is a judgmental, holier than thou, intolerant fundamentalist who shows no warmth to any of her new counselors, not even the visibly distressed and chronically terrorized Brooke (easily the nicest and most respectful of the counselors). Yet Margaret also survived a massacre where she had her ear cut off, her friends/co-workers were all killed, and then later she loses her husband. Her one consolation seems to be her faith and the money she inherited from her husband's estate. [[spoiler: However, this is later subverted '''hard''' when we learn she was the true murderer and that she framed a then innocent Benjamin, who had been nothing but kind to her.]]
** Benjamin emerges as one once the truth comes out that [[spoiler:Margaret]] is the killer. Yes, he has killed people once escaping from the asylum, but he was in fact [[spoiler:only an innocent victim subjected to horrific torture and brainwashing, all ''after'' being traumatized in Vietnam.]] Even after he discovers the truth and settles on becoming a good person, [[spoiler:his wife is brutally murdered by Ramirez and he has to send his son away to protect him.]] Worsened by the reveal that [[spoiler:he was bullied by the other kids at camp and emotionally abused by his mother as TheUnfavorite, who blamed Benjamin for his little brother’s accidental death before going on a murderous rampage and attempting to kill her own son, resulting in him killing her in self defense. As a ghost, his mother sadistically reveals that she sprung Margret into committing the murders in the 70’s and framing him, and spitefully declares that she never loved him.]] Benjamin Richter has not had an easy life.
** Nurse Rita [[spoiler: i.e Donna Chambers is a [[MorallyAmbiguousDoctorate psychiatrist]] who uses her position to free Jingles with the hopeful, almost ''gleeful'' expectation that people will surely be killed!]] Something she adamantly claims is ForScience. Several characters are completely justified in wanting her dead, yet you can't help but feel a twinge of sympathy for her when the episode "Red Dawn" reveals that [[spoiler: four years prior to the story she discovered her much loved father was a '''serial killer''' who [[DrivenToSuicide offed himself]] ''right before her eyes'' when confronted with the truth!]] Not helping the matter is when [[HistoricalDomainCharacter Richard Ramirez]] taunts by confronting her with [[spoiler: the ghost of her dad telling her that he was "born a monster" and that she is ''just like him''.]] Suffice to say there is very little to envy about this woman by the time she begs Jingles to MercyKill her!

** Xavier spent years homeless and addicted to drugs before being taken off the streets and sobered up only to be coerced into performing in pornography in “return,” and is subsequently harassed by his pimp to the point that he goes to Camp Redwood just to try and escape. This pimp ends up following him to the camp, sexually harasses and manipulates him, and attempts to blackmail him into returning to pornography despite Xavier’s anxiety over it destroying his potential career and feelings of humiliation over it, and when the pimp is murdered Xavier has a nervous breakdown of guilt. Xavier and his friends are hunted down by two serial killers and witness a few murders, traumatizing then. Then Xavier is locked in an oven and has his whole face and body horribly burned and disfigured, destroying his self worth and his lifelong dream of becoming an actor— along with being forced to MercyKill a severely wounded Bertie.
** Benjamin's early life has him being the unfavorite to his mother, who then goes on to curse, blame, despise and [[spoiler: try to kill]] him for his brother's murder despite y'know, the lifeguard not even watching his brother swim when he should have. He then joins the army and comes back shell-shocked, taking up a job at a campgrounds that ends with [[spoiler: him being blamed for a massacre he didn't even do. Then, the joyous judicial system fails him in more ways than one, and the medical profession figures the best way to save him is electro-shock therapy and borderline torture which warps his mind so badly he actually believes he's the murderer!]] He then learns the truth and after nearly sinking further into hell with Ramirez, overcomes his trauma and starts up a new family with a job and a potential promotion in mind, only for Ramirez to murder his wife and target his son. He then has to leave his son behind because he can't risk Ramirez targeting him. John Carroll Lynch gives an absolutely sensational performance for the character, and the arc of Mr. Jingles has been noted as one of the highlights of the season for it.

** [[HollywoodSatanism Richard Ramirez]], the [[SerialKiller Night Stalker]], is reimagined as {{Satan}}'s own bloodthirsty PsychoForHire. A sociopathic murderer who nearly decapitated an elderly woman, Ramirez follows Brooke Thompson to Camp Redwood and makes the sympathetic Benjamin Richter sell his soul to Satan to recruit him as an unwilling partner-in-crime, returning to Los Angeles and spending a year killing random innocents with no signs of stopping while Benjamin had to watch everything. After Benjamin finally exposes him, Ramirez breaks out of prison to get his revenge. Finding Benjamin's family in Alaska, Ramirez murders his wife and challenges Benjamin to a duel for the safety of his baby son. Slaughtering the members of Kajagoogoo, Ramirez is happy to assist Margaret Booth in her plan to massacre dozens of people. Despite having a tragic upbringing, Ramirez openly embraces his unholy master and [[CardCarryingVillain proudly refers to himself as pure and uncut evil]].

** [[HollywoodSatanism Richard Ramirez]], also known as the [[SerialKiller Night Stalker]], is Satan's own bloodthirsty PsychoForHire. A violent Satanist wreaking havoc around Los Angeles, Ramirez nearly decapitated a woman and disemboweled a rude aerobics student to earn the heart of his teacher, Montana Duke, promising to kill Brooke Thompson for her. Following Brooke to Camp Redwood, Ramirez makes the sympathetic Benjamin Richter sell his soul to Satan to recruit him as an unwilling partner-in-crime, going back to Los Angeles and killing dozens of random innocents with no signs of stopping while Benjamin had to watch everything. After Benjamin finally exposes Ramirez and gets him arrested, Ramirez tries to [[TheCorrupter corrupt]] Brooke in prison before escaping to get his revenge. Finding Benjamin's family in Alaska, Ramirez murders his wife and challenges Benjamin to return to Camp Redwood once more for the safety of his baby son, Bobby; at Camp Redwood, Ramirez slaughters the members of Kajagoogoo shortly after his arrival. Happy to assist Margaret Booth in her plans and serving as a "major inspiration" to another serial killer, Ramirez teams up with him to participate in a massacre, and when that fails, Ramirez tries to return to Alaska [[WouldHurtAChild just to kill Bobby]] as his own twisted idea of a "final revenge".

* WinBackTheCrowd: After [[Series/AmericanHorrorStoryRoanoke three]] [[Series/AmericanHorrorStoryCult divisive]] [[Series/AmericanHorrorStoryApocalypse seasons]], not many were excited for "1984", with most people expecting it to be an adequate yet forgettable seasons. It was not helped by the marketing depicting this season as yet another slasher genre throwback, as well as the absence of long-time ''AHS'' actors Creator/EvanPeters or Creator/SarahPaulson. However, to everybody's surprise, many were impressed by the season's sensible and well-written plot, as well as its willingness to indulge in classic slasher tropes while adding surprising twists to the mix (with a finale that was considered to be as good and cohesive as ''[[Series/AmericanHorrorStoryMurderHouse Murder House]]'' and ''[[Series/AmericanHorrorStoryAsylum Asylum]]''). On Website/RottenTomatoes, the season has an '''87% rating''' (at one point having a rating of '''95'''), '' which is the highest out of the whole series''.

** Xavier spent years homeless and addicted to drugs, and it’s mentioned his mother was also an addict— which is presumably how he got into drugs in the first place— he was taken off the streets and sobered up until to be coerced into preforming in a pornography in “return,” and is subsequently harassed by his pimp to the point that he goes to Camp Redwood just to try and escape. This pimp ends up following him to the camp, sexually harasses and manipulates him, and attempts to blackmail him into returning to pornography despite Xavier’s anxiety over it destroying his potential career and feelings of humiliation over it, and when the pimp is murdered Xavier has a nervous breakdown of guilt. Xavier and his friends are hunted down by two serial killers and witness a few murders, traumatizing then. Then Xavier is locked in an oven and has his whole face and body horribly burned and disfigured, destroying his self worth and his lifelong dream of becoming an actor— along with being forced to MercyKill a severely wounded Bertie.

** Benjamin emerges as one once the truth comes out that [[spoiler:Margaret]] is the killer. Yes, he has killed people once escaping from the asylum, but he was in fact [[spoiler:only an innocent victim subjected to horrific torture, all ''after'' being traumatized in Vietnam.]] Even after he discovers the truth, [[spoiler:his wife is brutally murdered by Ramirez and he has to send his son away to protect him.]] Worsened by the reveal that [[spoiler:he was bullied by the other kids at camp and emotionally abused by his mother as TheUnfavorite, who blamed Benjamin for his little brother’s accidental death before going on a murderous rampage and attempting to kill her own son, resulting in him killing her in self defense. As a ghost, his mother sadistically reveals that she sprung Margret into committing the murders in the 70’s and framing him, and spitefully declares that she never loved him.]] Benjamin Richter has not had an easy life.
** Nurse Rita [[spoiler: i.e Donna Chambers is a [[MorallyAmbiguousDoctorate psychiatrist]] who uses her position to free Jingles with the hopeful, almost ''gleeful'' expectation that people will surely be killed!]] Something she adamantly claims is ForScience. Several characters are completely justified in wanting her dead, yet you can't help but feel a twinge of sympathy for her when the episode "Red Dawn" reveals that [[spoiler: four years prior to the story she discovered her much loved father was a '''serial killer''' who [[DrivenToSuicide offed himself]] ''right before her eyes'' when confronted with the truth!]] not helping the matter is when [[HistoricalDomainCharacter Richard Ramirez]] taunts by confronting her with [[spoiler: the ghost of her dad telling her that he was "born a monster" and that she is ''just like him''.]] Suffice to say there is very little to envy about this woman by the time she begs Jingles to MercyKill her!

* ValuesDissonance: Brooke's emotional abuse she suffered at the hands of her husband is very obvious for all of us to see in our era; but back in the 70s into the 80s', various abuses of the sort were only just coming to light with many practitioners of psychiatry and psychology having difficulties exploring the topic or area at the time. Brooke may literally have had no idea what he was doing was completely wrong or if she just plain surrendered to end the tormentor's isolation.

** The abuse Mr.Jingles is put through in this series, matched with John Caroll Lynch's amazing performance for the character.

* CatharsisFactor:[[spoiler: After watching Margret Booth get away with committing ''two'' massacres while framing innocent people for her atrocities, watching her suffer a CruelAndUnusualDeath at the hands of her victims is absolutely satisfying. Doubly so that now as she's technically a ghost stuck on the camp, her victims will have lots of fun with her forever.]]

** Benjamin's early life has him being the unfavorite to his mother, who then goes on to curse, blame, despise and [[spoiler: try to kill]] him for his brother's murder despite y'know, the lifeguard not even watching his brother swim when he should have. He then joins the army and comes back shell-shocked, taking up a job at a campgrounds that ends with [[spoiler: him being blamed for a massacre he didn't even do. Then, the joyous judicial system fails him in more ways than one, and the medical profession figures the best way to save him is electro-shock therapy and borderline torture which warps his mind so badly he actually believes he's the murderer!]] He then learns the truth and after nearly sinking further into hell with Ramirez, overcomes his trauma and starts up a new family with a job and a potential promotion in mind, only for Ramirez to murder his wife and target his son. He then has to leave his son behind because he can't risk Ramirez targeting him. John Carroll Lynch gives an absolutely sensational performance for the character, and the arc of Mr.Jingles has been noted as one of the highlights of the season for it.

* UnfortunateImplications: The fact that real-life serial killer Richard Ramirez was depicted as a nearly-immortal and super-powered servant of the devil didn't sit well with some viewers, especially since Richard Ramirez only died a few years before the airing of the season.

* UnfortunateImplications: The fact that real-life serial killer Richard Ramirez was depicted as a nearly-immortal evil messiah and a super-powered servant of the devil didn't sit well with some viewers.

* WinBackTheCrowd: After [[Series/AmericanHorrorStoryRoanoke three]] [[Series/AmericanHorrorStoryCult divisive]] [[Series/AmericanHorrorStoryApocalypse seasons]], many were not excited for this season, expecting it to start off good, before petering out in quality by the end of the season. It was not helped by the marketing depicting this season as yet another slasher genre throwback, as well as the absence of long-time ''AHS'' actors Creator/EvanPeters or Creator/SarahPaulson. However, to mostly everybody's surprise, many were impressed by the season's willingness to indulge in classic slasher tropes while adding surprising twists to the mix, with a finale that was considered to be as good and cohesive as ''[[Series/AmericanHorrorStoryMurderHouse Murder House]]'' and ''[[Series/AmericanHorrorStoryAsylum Asylum]]''. On Website/RottenTomatoes, the season has an '''87% rating''', '' which is the highest out of the whole series''.

** Bruce, for being played by Dylan McDermott, his [[BlackComedy darkly funny]] fangasming over meeting Richard, and his {{Determinator}} attitude.

** Bruce, for being played by Creator/DylanMcDermott, his [[BlackComedy darkly funny]] fangasming over meeting Richard, and his {{Determinator}} attitude.

** Margaret is a judgmental, holier than thou, intolerant fundamentalist who shows no warmth to any of her new counselors, not even the visibly distressed and chronically terrorized Brooke (easily the nicest and most respectful of the counselors). Yet Margaret also survived a massacre where she had her ear cut off, her friends/co-workers were all killed, and then later she loses her husband. Her one consolation seems to be her faith and the money she inherited from her husband's estate. [[spoiler: Subverted when we learn she was the true murderer and that she framed someone, a then innocent Benjamin, who had been nothing but kind to her.]]