American Horror Story
Directed by Ryan Murphy
FX (Cable Television)
Enlightened
Directed by Mike White
HBO
MEET THE HARMONS: Ben, wife Vivien, daughter Violet—good-natured folk who move from Boston to L.A. after buying, unwittingly, a popular stop known as the “Murder House” on a Hollywood house tour. Like so many before them, the ill-fated Harmons don’t know what kind of resident evil lurks within. The house itself figures as prominently as any character in American Horror Story, the new hit show from out TV mogul Ryan Murphy—of Glee and Nip/Tuck—who was busy mapping out the show’s first season well before Glee took flight. The payoff has been appreciable: with more than three million viewers in close to sixty countries, FX has a hit on its hands.