Feminista Is Watching This So You Don't Have To: Grotesquerie

By Michelle B. Taylor

Have you ever watched something and got so excited about it that you wanted to tell anyone who would listen that they must see it? That doesn’t often happen to me, but when it does, I can’t shut up about it! Grotesquerie, a new series by Ryan Murphy (American Horror Story, Pose), made me lean forward in my seat and utter “Wow” as my jaw dropped. I need you all to understand that I was so thoroughly engrossed in the multiple layers of this show that I sputtered a few times, not knowing what to make of what I was watching.

Grotesquerie is a 10-episode horror show starring the incomparable Niecy Nash-Betts (Claws, Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story) as brilliant and intuitive detective Lois Tryon, who is facing the most horrific case of her career. A serial killer is terrorizing a community and it appears she may be the target of the killer’s intentions. All signs point to Tryon’s connection to what’s happening, but the audience isn’t quite sure what it is.

She teams up with a young nun, Sister Megan  (Michaela Diamond), who also seems to have the gift of intuition when figuring out the killer’s intentions. This perpetrator’s message is religious and the murders are delightfully disgusting. Make no mistake: the “Grotesque” in the title is real and not for the faint of heart. But even if you get a bit squeamish during certain gory scenes and have to look away, I hope you’ll power through. There is so much more going on with this show than it seems at first, and it’s worth your time even if you aren’t a horror fan.

My research focuses on depictions of Black mothers in film and television and this show is a dream case study!! Lois is essentially a single mother, as her husband (played by the iconic Courtney B. Vance), is in a coma. Lois is addicted to alcohol and relies heavily on it to achieve her highest brain power. That may not make sense to people who have never experienced substance addiction, but I think it’s an important discussion (The Resident also highlighted this issue). She drinks heavily throughout the show and is only “strange” when she is sober. Alcohol is essential to her ability to function both professionally and as a mother.

Raven Goodwyn, a rising star who needs to be on your “Ones to Watch” list, plays her daughter, Merritt, a young woman with an eating disorder seeking validation from the world because her parents offer little in the way of love, attention, and support. Lois and Merritt’s relationship is unlike anything we have seen on television before--it is clear that there is love there but also immense trauma and the negotiations they are forced to make to remain mother and daughter are intense and incredibly fascinating. I remember screaming “Holy shit!” during one important scene (you’ll know it when you see it--think “Last Supper”) and thinking, “When have we ever seen a relationship dynamic between a Black mother and daughter like this one?” 

As far as the gore goes, we get a lot of deliciously nasty scenarios throughout. The killer is keen on shock value, so the murder scenes are among the most unhinged you can imagine. Boiling a baby in a stock pot? Making a Frankenstein-like body by using various body parts of sex workers? Ryan Murphy’s mind intrigues me so much! I’ve said he’s a 21st-century Wes Craven in that he seems so “normal” but you know he is a disturbed man...and I love it!

This is not the first time Murphy and Nash-Betts have teamed up. She won an Emmy for her role as Glenda Cleveland in Murphy’s Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story. She and Vance also serve as executive producers for this series, which is another rare achievement--we don’t see too many African Americans as producers of horror films and television shows. Even Travis Kelce, the NFL superstar and Taylor Swift’s boo thang, makes a memorable appearance, if that matters to you.

Like most of Murphy’s productions, this series addresses myriad existential questions and provides commentary on some of society’s most pressing issues. The most obvious is our societal decay and the role of religion in controlling shaping how people understand what is “good” and what is “evil.” The killer has deeply held religious beliefs that are not unlike those espoused by conservative evangelicals in the United States, which suggests Murphy is commenting on the dangers of religious extremism. Another issue that deserves more conversation is the gendered difference in caretaking that happens when a spouse falls ill. I get the sense that there is a challenge issued to women to get them to question their loyalty to men who have proven to be less than loyal because that same level of care seems to fade away when the situation is reversed and a man’s wife falls ill—but I could be reading too much into things. Also, as a plus-sized woman who was diagnosed with anorexia several years ago, I appreciated the depictions of a plus-sized Black woman with an eating disorder because it challenges the prevailing narrative that only fragile white women live with them. When we say representation matters, this is what we mean.

I don’t want to ruin the show for you but know that it may take you until episode 3 or 4 to start figuring things out (that’s how long it took me). Or not, and in that case, enjoy the ride! Fans of the film, Se7en, will like this series. With this one, Murphy may be paying homage to that classic religious thriller. Honestly, what more can you ask for in this age of endless streaming channels? Add it to your list if you haven’t yet seen it. I won’t spoil it much more, but I do want to read your thoughts.