A young girl Zoe is shattered to discover she possesses a strange genetic affliction tracing back to the dark days of Salem. Zoe is whisked away to Miss Robichauxs Academy for Exceptional Young Ladies a mysterious school in New Orleans devoted to safeguarding the few remaining descendants who share this unique bloodline. Harboring a secret agenda Fiona Goode the most powerful witch of their generation returns to town reigniting old rivalries with the Covens deadly enemies the Voodoo.
Review
The First Episode of Coven is primarily a set up episode. This pretty much introduces us to most of the characters but clearly after one episode a lot of questions are still up in the air and we have twelve more that are going to pull the curtain back a little bit each time. In this episode we see the addition of Kathy Bates to the regular cast of players as the notorious serial killer Delphine LaLaurie. Needless to say this is probably the most evil character that has been introduced to the series (and we've already had a Nazi and the Devil himself) Bates effortlessly pulls off LaLaurie's wickedness you can just see it in her eyes the amazement she has when she has done something so sick as to put a bull's head on a slaves body. It's a shame she's only got a couple scenes in this first episode but at least we know she's gotten into the present somehow. I'm not going to bother talking about the characters since this is primarily a setup episode and the summaries are relatively available online of who they are. I was impressed with Evan Peters as Kyle Spencer If only because he did nail the New Orleans accent you can especially here it when he talks about the "Ninth Ward". I feel as if Emma Roberts Jamie Brewer and Gabourey Sidibe are okay but they really don't have much material to work with in this episode. Briefly appearing in this episode is Frances Conroy as Myrtle Snow just from the few seconds of screen time she had it's clear this is going to be a fun character to watch. Of course I'll talk about Jessica Lange what do I need to say about her that hasn't already been said she gives another great performance. All in all a good start but let's see where it goes from here.