[netcan]

Yep... but does this work in practice?

Whether or not you need to see season 1 to get season 4, do people who haven't watched earlier seasons generally watch a season 4?

[leetcrew]

I think they do if they understand the anthology format. I actually started watching AHS in season 3 and then went back to watch the previous seasons.

[Izkata]

Used to be normal for that answer to be "yes" - series were largely episodic so you could jump in at any point, with the longer plots lightly threaded through the episodes. Then, later in the season once people had settled in to their weekly shows, those longer plots could become more prominent and get resolved in/around the season finale.