American Horror Story: Asylum, the second season of the American FX horror television series American Horror Story, originally aired from October 17, 2012 to January 23, 2013. Announced on October 31, 2011, the premise of the second season marks a departure from that of the series' first season, featuring all new characters and a new location. Thus, American Horror Story has been deemed an anthology series. American Horror Story: Asylum begins in 1964 at the Briarcliff Mental Institution, following the stories of the patients, doctors and nuns who occupy it, and intercuts with events in the past and present.