American Horror Story: Asylum usually ranks near the top of most fan-favorite lists, but technically speaking, it is the strongest season of the series.
Fans of Ryan Murphy's long-running anthology series tend to be divided in terms of which season is best, worst, scariest, and the like. There are some that tend to make the top of most people's lists, considering both audience and critical scores, and overlap tends to be pretty standard from source to source. Likewise, fans of the series tend to be in agreement about the top five, by and large. The earlier seasons of the show racked up many prestigious awards and nominations, bringing horror into a critical spotlight in a big way. Even the weakest seasons have a place of esteem since, on the whole, the show has done wonderful things for visibility on television by playing a valuable part in bringing horror to a mainstream audience.
Since it's so hard to choose a best season based on more subjective terms, and audience and critic scores tend to vary with most types of opinion-based media, it's best to take a critical lens in order to determine a clear victor.
AHS: Asylum Was A Master Class In Acting
Asylum provided standout roles for lead actors Jessica Lange, Evan Peters, and Sarah Paulson. Paulson had a significantly smaller role in the previous season, Murder House, but her promotion was welcome. Lange, a veteran actress, took the role of Sister Jude, the brains behind operations at Briarcliff, a Catholic-run institution. Murphy wrote hefty roles for Peters and Paulson, challenging them with heavy storylines that dealt with interracial marriage, racism, and homophobia. Paulson played Lana Winters, a hard-hitting journalist who was in a secret relationship with her same-sex partner, Wendy (Clea DuVall). Paulson's storyline covered conversion therapy during her stay at Briarcliff, and eventually put her in the clutches of a serial killer named Bloody Face (Zachary Quinto). Lana ended up pregnant, and tried to abort the baby herself with a coat hanger. As an out member of the LGBTQ community, this storyline was likely emotionally tasking for Paulson, who told Lana's story bravely, and refused to pan away from real-life horrors.
Peters played Kit Walker, a blue-collar gas station attendant with a kind heart who was hiding a secret relationship of his own; he was married to a black woman, Alma (Britne Oldford) , during a time when interracial marriage was still illegal. After being visited by aliens, Alma disappeared and Kit was blamed for her murder, along with the murders of two other women despite being innocent. Demonic possession, Nazis, human experiments, and the seedy underbelly of the Catholic Church were also touched upon in Asylum, rounding out the season's thematic gut-punch. It was clear every actor in the principal cast tormented themselves to tell these stories. American Horror Story: Asylum gave a grim look into what was a tipping point in American history that ensured those in the modern era could not forget how far society has come in only a few decades.
Asylum's Numerous Awards Speak For Themselves
Another aspect that solidifies Asylum's dominion over other seasons of American Horror Story are the numerous awards it won. Overall, Asylum was nominated for 89 awards and won 28. It is the most winning season of the series by a landslide. The season that follows, which typically differs in rank on fan lists is Freak Show, with 76 nominations and 21 wins. Freak Show was Jessica Lange's last season, though she did briefly reprise her role as Fiona Goode (Coven) in Apocalypse. American Horror Story: Coven is typically the season seen most often against American Horror Story: Asylum for fan acclaim, but only received 74 nominations and 14 wins during its award season, putting it toward the middle of the pack overall.