Curious about gods? Well, try American Gods.
We meet Shadow, our guy, who just got out of prison to the news of his wife’s death. On his way to her funeral, Shadow met Mr. Wednesday, a cunning man who offered him a job to be an errand boy. For some unknown reasons, Wednesday seemed to know Shadow better than Shadow knew himself.
After discovering that not only his wife died but also his best friend as well, Shadow decided to take Wednesday’s job offer.
Strange things started happening the moment Shadow accepted the offer.
He met Mad Sweeney, accidentally brought his dead wife back to life, got beaten up by a kid in a limo, and started having weird dreams. Wednesday also kept taking Shadow to meet ‘special’ people he wanted to recruit, and these people had weird vibes to them.
Like they weren’t normal human beings.
As if they were something else.
Eventually Shadow learned that there was a war going on, between the older people he’d encountered, and the kid in the limo with his team. He couldn’t put a finger on what they were to be exact, but his guts kept telling him that they might have been gods.
Did you read the book? If you did, then you’d notice the changes done in the show. You might have liked them, or hated them.
I personally liked them.
Neil Gaiman is a master of story telling. His books are beautifully haunting, and if you’re a fan of his, you know what I mean.
And what the show did was oddly effective, despite taking turns from Gaiman’s plot. Even though… I was hoping to see Sam, and I wonder if Sam would even be on the show.
Still, it works though. For instance, the solid relationships in the show weren’t of those who should’ve had them. And the strongest pair so far had been Laura and Mad Sweeney. I had never imagined myself liking Laura, or being interested in her story, but the show gave me that and I took it. Pretty well too, actually.
The opening of every episode is brilliant, and possibly my favorite part every single time I watched an episode. We’re shown the history, the different sides and tales of the gods, and how they ended up in America. The history part is way more interesting to me than what’s currently going on. Except for Bilquis because she’s ridiculously enchanting.
But every episode starts out with an introduction and it draws me into wondering, “What more is there?”
*I am currently debating whether I should buy Gaiman’s Norse Mythology or not…*
The casting is good, I actually didn’t know how I’d imagine Shadow to look like because I wasn’t that invested in his character when I was reading the book… but Ricky Whittle does the role some justice.
I am happy with Ian McShane as Wednesday, and I couldn’t picture anyone else to play the role. When he was on Game of Thrones (for like two seconds… WHY!) I was weeping because he could’ve taken a much bigger role, and possibly a role with a lot of power. With that kind of charisma, you can go far.
As far as Odin can go.
Well American Gods got a 7/10 from me. I’d watch the episodes again, for sure. And I recommend it to anyone who is bored and needs some good show before Game of Thrones is back. There aren’t many episodes anyway, so it’ll be a short marathon.
OpinionHuis 