Immediately stands out as the hotel’s bartender, offering a soulful and witty performance that becomes the heart of the season.
Critics at the time, such as those at Rotten Tomatoes , praised the episode's "ambitious aesthetics" but noted the "style over substance" approach common in Murphy's premieres. While The A.V. Club highlighted the episode's extreme gore and sexual content, many fans found the shift toward "horror-glamour" to be a refreshing evolution for the series.
" Checking In ," the season five premiere of American Horror Story: Hotel , is a visually stunning, ultra-violent, and decadent return to form that successfully resets the anthology's atmosphere after the more campy Freak Show .
"Checking In" is a sensory overload. It sacrifices narrative clarity for pure, unadulterated mood, making it one of the most memorable—and polarizing—premieres in the show's history.
Delivers a grim, weary performance as the front desk manager, trapped by her devotion to her son, Donovan (Matt Bomer). Critical Reception
