A long-time viewer criticized American Horror Story Season 13 for being too short, resulting in insufficient buildup for character relationships, identity reveals, and conflict resolution, with the final two episodes feeling particularly rushed. This is a viewer comment, not an announcement from the show's producers regarding adjustments to future plans.
The author believes that this season originally had the conditions to attract returning viewers, with the original cast and popular characters reuniting. The promotion positioned it as a celebration of the entire series, setting up large-scale threats and suspense in the early episodes. However, in the subsequent plot, Satan suddenly abandons his plan, some characters die or fall in love hastily, character relationships are revealed abruptly, and the main threat is easily resolved, failing to sustain the sense of danger previously established.
The article attributes the issue to the episode length of this season: all 13 episodes are generally only about 30 minutes long, with some even shorter. The author believes that while the story itself lacks no ideas, the limited runtime makes it difficult to handle a large cast, cross-season connections, and multiple subplots simultaneously.
The author uses Roanoke, with its approximately 40-minute episodes and pacing better suited to the subject matter, as a counterpoint, emphasizing that not every episode needs to be an hour long; the key is letting the format serve the story. Ryan Murphy has expressed his willingness to continue producing the series, and Season 14 has been confirmed; therefore, the author calls on the creative team to reassess the story scale, number of episodes, and runtime before starting production.