Though I have been a huge fan of “American Horror Story” (AHS) and rewatched the series an uncountable amount of times, the disappointment of last season, “AHS: NYC,” made me lose all faith in the show. “AHS” has always been a hit or miss amongst its audience, but “AHS: NYC” made me realize how far gone the series was. Once promotion material for season 12, “American Horror Story: Delicate,” began releasing, though, the glamorous aesthetic piqued my interest, but my opinion didn’t budge. 

That was until I started getting ads for the season on Tik Tok.

“AHS: Delicate” released its first episode Sept. 20, with new episodes airing every Wednesday on FX and available for streaming on Hulu the following day. The season is based on the novel “Delicate Condition” by Danielle Valentine and follows ambitious actress Anna Victoria Alcott (Emma Roberts) as she navigates rising to fame and a difficult journey of getting pregnant through in vitro fertilization. Though I had never read or heard of “Delicate Condition,” I gave the show another try — a mistake I should’ve known not to make. 

The episode opens with an intriguing scene, in which Anna wakes up, frightened in the middle of the night, finding an intruder in her room. Once she gets up, her most recent ultrasound is found ripped up on the floor and her hands become covered in blood. The scene then ends, rewinding the episode to show everything that led to this shocking moment. From this bit alone, I found all my previous doubts for the season fading away, as such an action-packed opening scene must be a great representation for the rest of the episode. 

I couldn’t have been more wrong. 

As Anna goes through her most recent attempt of IVF, she begins experiencing paranoia, fears of being stalked and, weirdest of all, spiderwebs growing out of her head as if it was hair. Though all these aspects seemed it would make for a unique concept, this first episode was nothing more than underwhelming and predictable. 

Aside from the opening scene, there weren’t any other thrilling and memorable unsettling moments, which was discouraging as someone who loves “AHS” due to how weird and shockingly disturbing it can get. In comparison to past opening episodes, such as  “AHS: Cult,” “AHS: Coven” or “AHS: Hotel,” season 12 has little in it to stand out. 

Additionally, the show follows stereotypical tropes such as the “crazy and paranoid pregnant woman,” and though that in itself doesn’t make it bad, it’s not done uniquely. Every single scene and its aftermath playing into the trope was already predictable, and it’s already been used in the show multiple times (most recently in “AHS: Double Feature.”)

I was more than stunned to see the plethora of positive reviews flooding in for this season. The only reason people are so pleased from the first episode is because everyone’s expectations were already so low from repeatedly being let down in the past. 

While I will give it to the creators that “AHS: Delicate” is a huge step up from “AHS: NYC,” that only means this season is off to a start of being promisingly mediocre as opposed to outright horrible.