Why American Horror Stories doesn't contain the "baggage" from previous seasons of American Horror Story

TheWrap

"While (the premiere) 'Rubber (Wo)man' may rely on AHS lore — and the viewer’s existing knowledge of how things work in the Murder House — this is a fully self-contained story here, without any baggage from previous narratives," explain The Wrap's Jennifer Maas and Phil Owen. "Obviously, the house is still trapping everybody who dies in it, condemning them to live there for eternity. The rules of the house remain. But don’t go looking for any story connections. Because there aren’t any. Which is how executive producers Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk wanted it.  Multiple individuals with knowledge of the 20th Television-produced AHS spinoff told TheWrap that Falchuk and Murphy hoped to distinguish the new anthology series from the original with a story that was fully separate from what came before. That idea might seem initially confusing because, again, 'Rubber (Wo)man' is centered on stuff from AHS. But the logic does make sense. It’s not as though the in-universe history of the Murder House is limited to what we’ve seen before. What we have here is essentially a Tales From the Murder House kind of story. It’s just another bad thing that happened in that very bad place." ALSO: American Horror Stories' premiere doesn’t do enough to show off the versatility of its concept and to differentiate itself from what’s come before it.