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Spoilers American Gods - Season 1

EmoBorg said:
For a few minutes i thought Mr Wednesday was planning to sacrifice Shadow.
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Nah, the moment we saw Vulcan standing over the vat, I knew he was going to be toast. So to speak. Nice concept of Vulcan getting worshippers through gun violence. Felt like a natural fit.

I really like the grouping of Laura, Mad Sweeney, and Salim. I could watch whole episodes of them just driving through the Midwest.

One problem with this show (for me): Gillian Anderson is so damn good that her absence is so strongly felt. I just want more.
 
It was nice to see Salim again. As his role is now significant expanded from the book his story and motives are unknown to those who have read the book.
 
Starz had the new episode A Prayer for Mad Sweeney early OnDemand and man, I'm still processing this one. However, I just gotta say this episode is just astoundingly beautiful, the production is really amazing and full-realized, worthy of a full-on movie. There is a metric fuckton of chemistry between Pablo Schreiber and Emily Browning which had to be a factor in how they decided to tell this tale.
 
From the perspective of the casual viewer unfamiliar with the book, this was a pretty daring episode narratively speaking, especially for a show that has only eight episodes in the first season. Half of the episode focuses on a tale that took past several centuries in the past and only has a cursory connection to one of the supporting characters, while at the same time completely omitting the lead character when focused on the present day. Hell, even for the book readers who are accustomed to the "Coming to America" side stories, this may come off as a bit jarring.

Yet the risk completely works because of the sizzling chemistry between Browning and Schreiber. The costuming and make-up for Essie was so good that I was briefly thrown that she was in fact played by Browning, but you can't hide those eyes.

I was pleasantly surprised to see Fionnula Flanagan turn up in the episode. Her presence always raises the quality of any episode that features her.

Considering the bunny rabbit deliberately hopped in front of the ice cream truck, I had expected Easter to show up in this episode. I guess they're saving Kristin Chenoweth for the finale.
 
Emh said:
The costuming and make-up for Essie was so good that I was briefly thrown that she was in fact played by Browning, but you can't hide those eyes.
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Speaking of being thrown I wasn't 100% sure initially that the quick flashback meant that Sweeney was presumably responsible for Laura's initial accident. It was so fast I wasn't sure if that was her or someone else.

I haven't read the book so it's interesting to see how all these players have been involved in what's happened with Shadow and Laura. I'm thinking of picking it up after the finale, I'm glad I went into the series fresh but I think now
that I have that I could read the book and still enjoy the series on its own terms.

I've never really followed a show via social media but all the showrunners and actors are really active with the show and it's been a lot of fun to check their twitters and instagrams and get their insights and thoughts.

Emh said:
Considering the bunny rabbit deliberately hopped in front of the ice cream truck, I had expected Easter to show up in this episode. I guess they're saving Kristin Chenoweth for the finale.
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With Kristin and Mr. Nancy and Bilquis there's a lot of players whose surface has just been scratched. This is one of the rare series of late that actually could use more episodes. In one sense, one could argue this was a filler episode and they could've done without it but it's hard when it was such a fine piece of work and important to the character of Sweeney.
 
As far as the book goes the Essie McGowan story is probably my favourite 'Coming to America' maybe because many of my ancestors arrived in Australia the same way as Essie arrived in America. The show kept very close to the story in the book, only omitting what happened to her sons.

I can't wait to see the House on the Rock.
 
I'm not sure about the Bilquis story coming right on the heels of the episode-long Coming to America segment last week. It worked better on rewatch but initially I was like "Get to the main story!". Still, Bilquis became the God of Tinder, lol. Bilquis seems so different from the real life Yetide Badaki going by interviews and BTS.

Before this episode I wouldn't have said I was a Kristin Chenowith fan but I am now, she makes a great Easter. Her live tweets during the episode were great as well just to cement the deal. I mentioned it before but this show has a great Twiiter presence. Because of that I can also tell you that Media is Judy Garland in Easter Parade and the faceless ones were Fred Astaire. Also, Technical Boy has a grill designed to look like a Faberge egg.

Alas, no more episodes this season. Next week starts season two of Preacher which is probably the next closest thing and helps to fill the hole.
 
That's probably the best use of "For Christ's sake" I've ever seen. :lol:

I loved how they tied Bilquis' lost of power with the Iranian Revolution, the AIDS epidemic and ISIS' wanton destruction of temples in the Middle East, as well as tying the resurrection of her power to social media. I don't remember how much of that is from the book (obviously not ISIS or social media) but it's a great revision for the show.

Kristin Chenoweth is always a divine revelation, so it's no surprise to me that she was superb as Easter. And, of course, Gillian Anderson continues to be utterly be sublime, although I didn't realize she was Judy Garland until about halfway through her appearance, even though I figured the faceless men were Fred Astaire.

What better way to conclude the season than to show the true power of the Old Gods, although "I need to speak with my husband" was an odd note to end the scene on.
 
Beagleman said:
I think that was implied, dude seemed kinda buzzed.
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Gah! I'd have to watch it again but that makes total sense, I think I'm probably being thick and not putting two-and-two together. And he did kind of have that Jim Morrison thing going on.

I had a really good time watching this series, I guess I probably should give Hannibal a shot. The thought of a Hannibal Lecter series never did anything for me and I wasn't really interested in seeing it but I know it's got a lot of good buzz and I'd like to check it out just because Fuller was involved in it.

It's a shame that he was not able to stay on at Star Trek Discovery but if it was too put more into American Gods I think the proof is in the pudding. I hope that those running the show now have as much commitment and eye to detail.
 
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Yeah, that song is very catchy, especially along with the visuals of that sequence. Thanks for tracking down the full version. :bolian:
 
Just binged this. Trying to decide if I can overlook the sometimes nauseating political correctness in some of the gods' introductory set pieces for Ian McShane.


Eh it's Ian McShane so of course I will.

I thought I read that Mad Sweeney's actor (Buile Shuibhne) is being replaced? If so I am pissed.
 
Oh, usually when I see someone mention an actor and then put a name in parenthesis like that, it's the actor's name in the parenthesis.
 
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