“Bad Fortune,” the fifth episode of American Horror Story: NYC, provides very little in terms of entertainment or importance, probably rendering itself as the season’s weakest episode yet.
While there wasn’t any actor that made the episode horrible, per se, the contents of “Bad
Fortune” did not do anything to advance the overall plot arc of the season. It gave some more
insight into the lives of some of the favorite characters, but from Patti Lupone’s job as a psychic to the fainting spells of Patrick’s ex wife, everything felt more like fluff and less like anything of importance.
Aside from owning the gay bar, Kathy Pizazz, played by Patti Lupone (Hollywood, American
Horror Story: Coven), owns a psychic shop. Ms. Pizazz instructs her new employee to only read happy fortunes and card readings to people, but, of course, she ends up telling everyone that they’re going to die and that they’re the devil, etc. Why this whole psychic plot point is
important, I’m not sure. Yes, the episode is titled “Bad Fortune,” but it seems Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuck just wanted to give Lupone more screen time.
Other than the psychic shop, it’s suddenly revealed that Dr. Wells, played by Billie Lourd
(Scream Queens, American Horror Story: Cult), is pregnant, and Adam, played by Charlie
Carver (Ratched, Hollywood), is the sperm donor/”father.” When did this happen? This whole
situation left me in a state of surprise and confusion – since when have these two been close
enough to where Dr. Wells be ok with part of Adam’s DNA being in her child? I just couldn’t
totally buy into that.
The last big issue in this episode is that Patrick, played by Russell Tovey (The Good Liar,
Sherlock), and Barbara, played by Leslie Grossman (American Horror Story: Apocalypse),
finally sign their divorce papers, finalizing all of the drama that’s been going on between the two. This is great and all, perhaps Patrick will finally be able to move on and accept his sexuality and happiness with Gino; alas, Patrick ends up being attacked at Barbara’s house, it’s discussed, and then it’s not brought up ever again. Why was someone at her house, waiting for him? It’s odd. Additionally, Barbara has fainting spells that are made to be a big deal but then have no long term repercussions. From a technical standpoint, it’s like they were added into the episode to increase the shock value but hold no core meaning.
While every TV show has some fluff episodes now and again, “Bad Fortune” held no interesting points for me, and I found myself even looking at my phone a lot more often than I would normally like.
Rating: 6.5/10.0