INTO THE ASYLUM: 'AMERICAN HORROR STORY' SEASON TWO

Troubled Souls... Jessica Lange returns to head the cast of the innovative AMERICAN HORROR STORY: ASYLUM. Images: FX.

It looks like Louise Fletcher's Academy Award winning, unspeakably evil turn as Nurse Ratched is finally about to get some competition for potential all-round nastiness in the habit wearing shape of Jessica Lange as Sister Jude, a Nun with a difference in the second season of the splendidly chilling and oh-so-kinky goings on of Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk's splendid and perversely enjoyable horror anthology series, AMERICAN HORROR STORY, with the subtitle ASYLUM, returning for a bold and no doubt compelling new run this October on the US FOX channel, with a a UK premiere not too far off...

Having said goodbye to last years ambitious and mostly satisfying storyline with the pent up, ripe for self-destruction Harmon family in their horrific ex-abortion clinic home, in a series of fiery and blood-soaked events that would send shivers up the spines of even the most solid of residents in Amityville, this new season has an intriguing starting point, surely bringing diverse and chain clanking new life to a well-worn horror cliche, within the sterile and scream filled art deco wings of an East Coast based mental asylum, Briarcliff Manor, in a time frame far removed from the City of the Angeles sunny but equally doom-laden climes, with what looks like a diverse and equally disturbing, and surely also darkly humorous, set of new characters for the writers to unspool their wonderfully twisted imaginings on to, including new main casters Joseph Fiennes (playing a mind-warped Monsignor), Chloe Sevigny (as Shelley, a stockings clad nymphet) and the always welcome, on-screen creepy presence of James Cromwell as the ultimate hypodermic needle wielding psychiatrist/supervisor of the facility, and possibly former Nazi experimentalist, Dr. Arden. No doubt, though, that Lange's Mother Superior will be the sublimely stern and sadistic presence that glues it all together.

Black tears! No one can not accuse the shows behind the scenes team of scary creativity...

One trailer for the new series that Doris Day will definitely not be watching: American Horror Story: Asylum -- New video | Inside TV | EW.com

American Horror Story: Asylum Promo #2 - YouTube

Other creepy teaser trailers: ‘American Horror Story: Asylum’ Trailers Tease Season 2 Clues (Updated)

Also returning from the original series, but in all-new characters, will be STAR TREK and HEROES Zachary Quinto, previously playing a jealous and murderous partner last year and now adding the Hippocratic Oath to his new Doctor duties as Thredson, Sarah Paulson as committed lesbian journalist Lana, Evan Peters and Lily Rabe, along with Frances Conroy, no longer the popular ageing servant Frannie and apparently playing a character described as "the ultimate angel"! Expect other strong guest stars, including Clea DuVall and Franka Potente, to make appearances throughout the thirteen episode run... 

Set to give Alexandra Breckenridge a sexy run for her money this year, Chloe Sevigny as inmate Shelley.

Certainly one of the most striking and repellent memories of last year was the ghostly S and M wearing figure terrorising the family in the most unexpected and surreally grim moments. This new season promises a worthy successor tormenting our incarcerated characters: the scarred and disfigured form of Bloody Face (more here: New American Horror Story pics expose a bloody new villain | Blastr). Never more so will explorations of the dark side of our soul and sanity be keenly felt through such foreboding and haunting inter-actions. 

More info here: 'American Horror Story: Asylum' Unveils First Look at Characters and New Teasers

With all this darkness clouding them, Nuns have had a pretty bad time of it in horror films and TV over the last few years. I think its time for someone to do Nuns versus Zombies, so as to give things a bit of positive and heroic counterbalance...

POWER AND PRINCIPALITY: "CAMELOT"

High stakes for Arthur (Jamie Campbell Bower) and Morgan (Eva Green) in the new interpretation of CAMELOT. Image: STARZ

Just in time to cash in on the heavy dollops of sex and swordplay on offer in the hugely successful GAME OF THRONES HBO adaptation comes the US STARZ channel's ambitious new series CAMELOT to CHANNEL 4 this Saturday evening, based on, you guessed it, the birth and evolution of the Arthur legend (isn't it great that the UK has produced so many iconic characters and legendary heroes ripe for continual re-imagining? If there had been a publicist like Max Clifford back in the day when all these heroes, villains and myths were being formulated and perpetuated-passed through the generations- the film and TV purchasing rights would have been enormous!). It all looks glossy and enjoyable in its own way, with the fresh acting blood of Jamie Campbell Bower in the title role of the young man who will be king, and, as its produced by the people behind THE TUDORS, its more than likely to contradict, for its own story needs, everything that's ever been iconized about the character/saviour of the Dark Ages -if such a man could ever have existed- and his noble part in Ye Olde England's history. Whether such dramatic license will prove to be a good thing, and whether it can even top the likes of such quality works on the subject as John Boorman's superb and enchanting movie, EXCALIBUR, remains to be seen. I think we'll probably end up with a version of the tale one step up from Richard Gere and Sean Connery's 1995 attempt, KING ARTHUR, but with a bit more gritty realism, lots of gore and violence and the aforementioned bed hopping...

Watch your back, Arthur: that Morgan's a deadly lady!

There's definitely one major difference, however, between this and any other prior versions of the Arthur and Merlin legend: namely that it's got the rather lovely Eva Green in it, surely one of the most popular of James Bond girls in recent years after her performance as 007's doomed love Vesper Lynd in the hit Daniel Craig premiere CASINO ROYALE, and she's an actress with the kind of hypnotic and sexually beguiling, dangerous look in her eyes that's absolutely perfect for this kind of storytelling. She plays the important role of Morgan, the series principal antagonist, ambitious to claim the rightful throne that once belonged to her late father, King Uther. No doubt, as the series goes on, she'll make Helen Mirren's sultry and vindictive version of the role in EXCALIBUR look like a convent girl!

Joseph Fiennes as a slightly revised version of Merlin.

Arthur puts his point across to the masses...

The kind of all-star cast needed to propel this series into the public eye, described in the press publicity as being heavy on drama, politics and idealism, continues with the addition of FLASH FORWARD's Joseph Fiennes as a younger and more action heroic version of Merlin than we've been previously accustomed to, Claire Forlani as Arthur's mother Igraine, ROME's James Purefoy, lovely Tamsin Egerton as Arthur's tragic love Guinevere, Sean Pertwee and the always dependable action-hero Vincent Regan, so I'm sure they'll be enough eye candy to be enjoyed by both girls and boys as the story unfolds amongst the no doubt beautiful location backdrops of Ireland and Canada.

Trailer: YouTube - "Camelot" - NEW, long trailer STARZ

Fire and blood make their bedfellows with Arthur as he becomes King of England.

However many seasons it ultimately goes to, will CAMELOT make the kind of long term phenomenal impact that GAME OF THRONES has so quickly reached? Unlikely, I think (and English scripter Chris Chibnall, whose previous credits include LAW AND ORDER UK, DOCTOR WHO and TORCHWOOD, has hardly proved himself as one of the all-time great TV writers yet), but I certainly reckon it will have a good innings existence for the next few years at least across the world's digital TV platforms, their channels always desperate to have well made series in their schedules so as to bolster out their portfolios and viewing figures.

King Arthur remains an immortally interesting and enduring character across the world, and I have no doubts that this won't be the last time we'll see another romanticised series bearing either his name or legacy...