American Gods (2017-Present)

I first heard about this series back when it came out.  I mean, Bryan Fuller (Dead Like Me, Wonderfalls, Pushing Daisies, Hannibal,) and Michael Green (Kings) making a show based on a Neil Gaiman book?  Are you kidding me?  However, the fact that it’s on STARZ meant I wasn’t able to check out its first season until it came out on DVD.  Thankfully, though, I’ve now had a chance to sink my teeth into this amazing show.

Upon getting out of jail, Shadow Moon meets Mr. Wednesday, a mysterious man who keeps strange company and claims to be a god.  Mr. Wednesday offers Shadow a job as his driver and all-purpose assistant while he (Wednesday) embarks on a cross-country mission.  He’s spoiling for a showdown between the old and new gods and enlists Shadow’s help as he rallies as many old gods to his side as he can.

Oh man, this show is a treat.  It takes elements of Full, Green, and Gaiman’s talents to create a visually-arresting, thought-provoking series with beautiful dialogue and truly inventive ideas.  Fair warning, it’s a very slow series, in which the journey is just as important as the destination, but I love every tangent, sidetrack, and story break.  It’s packed with so much awesomeness and creativity, and I’ll happily follow these compelling characters anywhere they go.

I just love the idea of gods immigrating to American along with the people of the countries they’re from, of America shaping and changing the gods by being there.  All the old gods – ex:  Anansi, Anubis, Ostera (Easter) – have assimilated to various degrees, and changes in worship/offerings/sacrifice over the ages have made a difference as well.  Additionally, we have the new gods, those who were born out of America itself, such as Media and Technology.  I love seeing them all, and the different forms their divinity takes.

It’s not all about the gods, though.  Shadow offers us a vantage point through the lens of the human world, someone who’s seeing these increasingly-insane things and yet still doesn’t know if he truly believes in anything.  He helps us get at the questions of humanity and gods.  What happens to a god when people stop worshipping them?  As all-powerful as they are, do gods need us more than we need them?

And the cast, goodness gracious!  Both showrunners have brought some of “their” people to the proceedings.  On the Michael Green side, we have heavy-hitter Ian McShane (Silas from Kings) as Mr. Wednesday.  For Bryan Fuller, we have appearances by Gillian Anderson, Kristin Chenoweth, Beth Grant, and Tracie Thoms.  Just for added awesomeness, we also get Emily Browning (Violet Baudelaire from the movie version of A Series of Unfortunate Events,) Pablo Schreiber (“Pornstache” from Orange is the New Black,) Crispin Glover, Orlando Jones (he did appear in an episode of Pushing Daisies, but I know him best as Irving from Sleepy Hollow,) and Omid Abtahi (Mockingjay.)  Needless to say, everyone is fantastic.

Warnings

Graphic violence and sexual content, swearing, drinking/smoking, disturbing images, and strong thematic elements.