Gaga checks into the FX drama’s darkest ‘American Horror Story’ yet

And to think, there was a time when the worst thing you had to worry about finding in your hotel room were those bodily fluids that shows like “Dateline” kept exposing with their fancy black lights.

Now that “American Horror Story” co-creators Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk have Fox’s loopily ridiculous “Scream Queens” to pour some of their sillier, bitchier ideas into, they’ve made “AHS: Hotel” (10 p.m. Wednesday, FX) the drama’s darkest season yet.

As twisted as it is, it’s also the most realistic.

I don’t know about you, but I’ve never accidentally purchased a murder house, spent time in a ‘60s-era sanitarium, been involved with witches in New Orleans or wandered anywhere near a 1950s freak show.

I have, though, stayed in some sketchy hotels. Which makes “AHS: Hotel” feel a little too close for comfort.

Murphy and Falchuk waste little time ushering in the depravity early on in tonight’s premiere. Without spoiling anything, there’s a scene involving “New Girl’s” Max Greenfield that I wish I could unsee. Give me a time machine and, right after stopping Hitler, my next stop would be destroying my screener before I could watch it.

There is some beauty in this season, though, thanks to the show’s sprawling, art deco set. To bring downtown L.A.’s fictional Hotel Cortez to life, FX must have poured the departed Jessica Lange’s entire salary into that lobby.

Even without Lange, “Hotel” retains a killer cast -- literally -- made up of “AHS” repertory players Kathy Bates, Angela Bassett, Sarah Paulson, Evan Peters, Matt Bomer, Denis O’Hare and Wes Bentley.

But it’s the new blood, if you will, that’s making all the news. While no one would accuse Lady Gaga’s acting of being in the same league as Lange’s, the singer adds a dose of star quality that a series like this needs. And, again without spoiling anything, she proves more than capable of being the Hotel Cortez’s main attraction.

I just don’t know how much more of her performance I can watch on an ongoing basis. Because if “Hotel” starts out this sadistic, I’m afraid of where it may end up.

Contact Christopher Lawrence at clawrence@reviewjournal.com. Find him on Twitter: @Life_OnTheCouch