making the grave mistake of letting AHS hurt me again after the last two seasons put me so far off

let me be clear, AHS is not a good TV show

basically every season turns into an aimless, underplotted trainwreck

but after Cult was unwatchably horrible and Apocalypse seemed too self referential for me to care

1984 just seems like a fun homage to 80s slashers

the first episode is camp af and I'm still expecting some kind of Cabin in the Woods twist by like episode 4 but for now it feels refreshingly uncomplicated

I feel the same, honestly. It's not good, but it just became unwatchable during Freakshow and Hotel was abysmal. Just a rehash of Murder House with plot points from Asylum. We gave up... but saw the first ep of 1984 and it's... better?

I dunno if they're cashing in on the 1980's nostalgia opened up by Stranger Things (the music suggests it -- there's a lot of other directions they could have gone with that instead of down the same route as ST) or if they just stopped getting high off the smell of their own farts, but it's... yeah, refreshingly uncomplicated.

it just seems like it's own thing, compared to recent seasons

Yup. Maybe they got the crossoverd out of their system with Apocalypse