I swore I would never touch this series.
Yet, after reading the blowback about Delicate, I felt I had to somewhat defend something about this series. American Horror Story is, despite being one of my least favourite franchises on planet earth, a pretty big chunk of my love of horror. I knew people who worked on set and cast members, and I watched this show all the way from the first through ninth season while not really loving any of it (save for Hotel, which I will also inevitably write a piece on since Lady Gaga invented acting that season). The show is bad — the writing is all over the place, the plots are goofy, to put it kindly, and it really glorifies real life murderers and tries to create conspiracy theories about real human beings. And the original characters are also trash, with no consistent motivations or drive and who are additionally just morons. Except for one.
Her name is Madison Montgomery, and she’s a movie star.
Warning for the rest of this article, we will take a look at assault, violence, and honestly misogyny. If you’re not in the mood for that, I don’t blame you. Read literally anything else I’ve ever written and give yourself something nice today. You’re loved and valid.
Moving forward…
Watching Madison Montgomery (Emma Roberts) in Coven and Apocalypse is like watching Truman in The Truman Show but instead of him being the star, he’s constantly being told he is the villain while doing little to nothing to earn that title. While everyone around her fumbles to make one singular rash decision, Madison is a clear and distinct character from the start. The long and short of it is that Madison is a child star who was sent to the coven as some glorified “celebrity rehab”; she has the powers of telekinesis and pyrokinesis and she knows she is better than everyone else in that little witch bitch group. While in Coven, Madison does do more villainous things than her stint in Apocalypse, I hardly think she is the person we’re rooting against like the show thinks that she is. The other characters seem to be under the impression that Madison is horrible and entitled and violent which…yeah, she is. But so are they, and sometimes in much worse ways. Madison might be bitchy, but to this day she remains one of my favourite characters, way ahead of her time and better than that shit show (pun intended) deserved.
One of the first things that happens in Coven is Madison and newbie witch Zoey (Taissa Farmiga) go to a frat party. Madison embarrasses one of the frat guys by basically saying she only wants him for sex (a pathetic attempt at making her bitchy), so their solution is that they assault her AS A GROUP after they roofie her. Zoey and the only decent member of the frat, Kyle (Evan Peters) save her, but then the whole frat and Kyle leave on a bus. Once she wakes up, Madison stumbles out into the street and uses her telekinesis to flip the bus, killing almost all of her attackers. No one comforts her about this assault, and she barely touches on it again (we get one scene of her crying in the shower). Not only was she attacked, she took multiple lives — including one of the ones that saved her. Yet, this barely plays as more than a blip in Madison’s story. Zoey shows her no compassion despite knowing what happened, and only kills one of the surviving rapists because KYLE DIED, not because of what he did to Madison. She also kills this guy by assaulting him while he’s in a coma because Zoey has…a black widow vagina. What…is this show.
Madison’s response to assault is something, I think in this day and age, would be a ‘good for her’ horror moment. I think hardly anyone would have had a problem with her response all things considered. It also becomes even more relevant when in Apocalypse, it is revealed that directors also sexually exploited Madison while she was in Hollywood.
I will also say that the writers of Coven and Apocalypse seem to really push the ‘take advantage of Madison’ angle, and in a way that’s really vile. They push the narrative that she deserves it, and when it happens, it’s supposed to be either karmic or funny. When the frat bros assault her, the narrative pushes the idea that this wouldn’t have happened if she wasn’t a bitch. After she is killed (for the first time, she is killed multiple times on this show), her body is then used as a sex doll by the weird, mute butler who lives with the coven. And no one really does anything with that either, they just bring her back to life and basically have her deal with that trauma on her own. Allegedly in Apocalypse, after Madison comes back from her first stint in hell, there was a scene where the Antichrist assaults Madison after he brings her back to life. While I have no record of this being true, it seems on par with everything else that happens to Madison on this show. Yet when she kills other people or the other witches in this coven, I’m supposed to root against her.
Yeah, okay.
Madison shows compassion to another survivor in the same scene she reveals her own abuse, showing a level of empathy for other women the show fails to allow the other women characters. Despite Apocalypse and Coven doing the lip service of ‘girl power’ there is hardly any here. Madison calls the other girls ugly, so suddenly it’s okay for all of them to call her a slut despite knowing what happened to her. It’s okay for Cordelia, the SUPREME LEADER OF THIS COVEN OF MORONS, to literally slap her across the face in Apocalypse despite the fact she is trying to help. It’s okay, in the Apocalypse finale, for her “SISTERS” to ultimately leave her TO ROT IN HELL even AFTER she FOUGHT THE ANTICHRIST FOR THEM AND GOT HER HEAD BLOWN OFF. And why?
“Madison’s a bitch.”
Madison is a character that evolves — while she is a little more murderous in Coven, by the time Apocalypse rolls around, her character has been sitting in hell for five years, so she has softened a bit. Madison tries to be encouraging despite her default to bitchy, which I think Emma Roberts plays so well. She helps the ghosts in the Murder House, a staple location for any American Horror Story fan, and she tries to actively be a part of the Coven she once rejected (on pretty good reasons, I would say). Yet even as this character makes visible changes to the audience, the other witches seem to be reading a different script. Madison will say something helpful, and they’ll all scoff and call her a slut or bitch and then move on. They aren’t even responding to what she did say, just repeating shit they said from Coven. Watching Apocalypse was the most infuriating watch as they essentially brought Madison back to be a punching bag while she is doing everything she can to be a part of the team. She is putting aside her inherently selfish needs to finally embrace the coven, and they won’t even respond to her in a way that makes sense. I would honestly be okay with them not forgiving her if that was the plot, but it’s not. Madison is being helpful and then one of those horrors will go “Typical Madison, always thinking of yourself” literally right after she helps one of them. If you told me Madison was just stuck in another version of hell, I would believe you.
And then the resolution being everyone going back in time and coming back to life except Madison because…”she was a bitch”, despite literally allowing her head to blow up to save them, was one of the most unsatisfying things in the world. Madison Montgomery is a flawed character, but had she been in a better coven, she might not have needed to go to hell twice for them to maybe think about forgiving her. Madison is entitled, rude, and narcissistic. She tries to kill fellow witch Misty Day (who I hate, it’s not 2013 Tumblr anymore so I can say that freely now), and she isn’t really a girl’s girl, yet she still shows more empathy than any other witch in the coven, After she kills Kyle, she offers to help Zoey bring him back to life — albeit, through the lens of someone who is exceedingly entitled, but she offers to help because it would make Zoey happy. When she thinks she finally has made a friend in the former supreme, Fiona (Jessica Lange), we see her soften and open up to her, thinking she has finally found another kindred spirit with a ‘fuck it’ kind of attitude. And how does Fiona repay her? Saying she’s jealous of Madison and slitting her throat, and then giving the carcass to the butler to take advantage of.
And again I ask, I’m supposed to root against Madison?
They also create characters that we obviously should root for, like Misty in Coven or Mallory in Apocalypse. These characters are good at everything, and I’m talking from always making the right decision to witch powers. They’re “gifted unlike anyone else” and they’re also sweet and unassuming. They’re kind, and love animals and have this…hippie vibe that is all love and peace. They LOVE Stevie Nicks!!! They wear cool dresses and are super chill and everyone wants to be their BFFFFFFFL and how can they do all these magical things?! They’re SO special, they’re not like the other witches —
Like do you see what I mean? Yeah, Madison looks bad compared to your superpowered goodie two shoes. ANYONE would. Madison could have IBS and be cranky as her only faults and she would obviously come up short (she would also be me!) And nothing makes me want to root for a character LESS than the fact they’re perfect and can do no wrong. Give me a break. Mallory and Misty are two of the worst characters to ever come out of American Horror Story but I guess whatever Ryan says goes.
Madison is funny, stylish, and the only witch in that house with a discernible personality other than ‘good’ or ‘bitch we’re SUPPOSED to root for’. Emma Roberts nails this role, perfectly capturing the “bitch” while also making her kind of a weird girly. While in Apocalypse, she’s given more heartwarming scenes and more kind moments, there is always this underlying vibe that if Madison was paling around with characters Diablo Cody had written, she might have actually found her coven. Part of the reason Madison sticks out to me after all these years is because of how not Ryan Murphy she is. Everyone likes to compare her to Roberts’ other famous Ryan Murphy role, Chanel Oberlin, but Madison is so much more than another rich bitch. She’s entitled, sure, but she has a heart. She’s been through a lot and she’s hardened herself, but we see her break down multiple times throughout the series, crying only when she’s frustrated and in the safety of being alone. Madison feels unsafe constantly and reacts as such, and to have her be vilified for it when the rest of the characters barely even exist is so stupid.
I wish she existed outside of American Horror Story. I wish she could thrive somewhere else, somewhere where she could be not only loved but appreciated. If only she knew Jennifer Check and Lisa Swallows.
My girlies would be unstoppable.