Every season of American Horror Story (so far), ranked from worst to best

Since we won’t get a new season of American Horror Story until 2021, let’s look back at which seasons of the show are particularly great.

FX anthology series American Horror Story has become something of a Fall tradition over the course of its near-decade on air to date, pulling out all the stops for the slowly darkening season with an assortment of terrifying scares and gruesome murders.

Unfortunately, thanks to the coronavirus pandemic that is stealing all our joy, we won’t get a new season of AHS until some point in 2021. Sigh. So what are we to do now? Reflect on the seasons we loved the most and why, that’s what we’re going to do.

AHS’s rotating cast and shifting format – the show changes its setting and premise each year – allows it to play with all sorts of horror tropes and snag big-name actors for even the smallest of roles. Its general tone can vary wildly from year to year, but you can always count on the show for bonkers plot twists, terrifying killers, and strangely dark and sympathetic characters.

This is a show that likes to swing for the fences – AHS loves camp and excess as much as it does murder and violence, and the mix of the two often results in something that feels truly original.

Here’s how we’d rank every season, from worst to best.