Hoping 'American Horror Story' season 3 is better

“American Horror Story” will return for a third season on FX in October but my hopes are low after a disappointing second year.
This year the popular television show will focus on witches, with themes of race, oppression and family. It sounds interesting enough but will it fall into the same traps the second season did?
In it’s first season the show had an engaging story with interesting characters and kept a clear direction throughout its run. That all changed when it came to Season 2, which went off the deep end.
In the second year there were too many ideas. It felt as if the writers wanted to include everything they thought of — and they did. There was a Dr. Frankenstein character, aliens, a serial killer, even the Angel of Death. If you can’t understand how these things fit together, don’t worry, because no one could. It was a jumbled mess with no clear direction. For me, season two was a huge disappointment.
Now, with season three right around the corner, we have to hope the writers have learned from their missteps and bring back the style of season one.
I want a story with characters I can identify with. I want to see them focus on one thing and make that one thing work. In season one they focused on ghosts, so why can’t they just focus on the witches and leave it that. Less is more.
I also would like them tone down the violence. “American Horror Story” doesn’t need the over-the-top gore, its stories should be strong and scary on their own. The crew and writers need to have more faith in their work.
Season three of “American Horror Story” will premiere October 9 on FX.

‘Star Wars: Episode VII’ going back to the basics

“Star Wars: Episode VII” producer, Kathleen Kennedy, indicates that the next chapter will resurrect some former story lines, characters and practical effects.
This news is exciting as those film-making elements were missing from the “Star Wars” prequels. Those movies overused CGI, had underdeveloped characters and wooden performances that ultimately destroyed two of the three films.
What George Lucas failed to realize with the prequels was that special effects were not what made the “Star Wars” brand. That is something that the team behind “Star Wars: Episode VII” seems to grasp.
The original “Star Wars” trilogy was great because it took advantage of filming on location and only used special effects to enhance the brand.
“Looking at all the Star Wars movies and getting a feel for what even some of the early films did, combining real locations and special effects, that’s something we’re looking very seriously at,” Kennedy says
The films also took risks with the storylines. There were character and plot twists in the original films that were noticably absent in the prequels.
“And if you don’t spend the time you need on developing characters, and finding stories — complicated stories — the audience gets tired because they think they’re seeing the same thing again and again,” Kennedy empasizes.
It seems like Kennedy has her head on straight and can return this franchise to the basics.
Now, the next news I would like to hear, like everyone else, is what story are they doing? Will they do a something from the expanded universe or are they creating an original story?
I hope that with anything they do, they remain true to the spirit of the original trilogy.