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American Gods on Starz


Mark Antony

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Anubis was great, as was Zorya Polunochnaya. Great, by-the-book adaptation of the robbery too. However, the meeting with Czernobog and the Zoryas in Chicago should have only been one episode. I'm afraid we'll get a dragging pace at times if the showrunners are stretching this out for multiple seasons.

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8 hours ago, Astromech said:

Anubis was great, as was Zorya Polunochnaya. Great, by-the-book adaptation of the robbery too. However, the meeting with Czernobog and the Zoryas in Chicago should have only been one episode. I'm afraid we'll get a dragging pace at times if the showrunners are stretching this out for multiple seasons.

Agreed on the pacing still. It's feel like a sketch show in the form of a drama at times.

Anubis was excellent though - I loved the transition up the fire escape into the egyptian afterlife - that was beautiful.

The fragments with Ian Mcshane are still a joy as well when he's in full swing at least. His lines about Jesus were great.

There seems to be a lack of the "new gods" so far. We've had tech boy in episode one and Gillian Anderson in episode two. What we haven't had is any real insight into how old and new gods are at odds which I think is probably a dis-service to people only watching the show. Hopefully we'll get some openers on how the modern gods operate too. This is where most of my interest is in the show - although I'm learning the hard way that I also want this as part of an overall narrative rather than "here's 5 mins of this god/angel/demon".

2 hours ago, GallowKnight said:

Damn, that Djinn was packing some heat.

He was rubbed the right way. This show is so far appearing to be equal opportunities with sex scenes so far - I'd love to see how uncomfortable that made some viewers. M/F and F/F prior to that but M/M may have caused an upset. Wasn't entirely sure what the conclusion of that scene was

was it that the ifrit possessed the salesman or was it that the ifrit granted him a wish by giving him a job as a taxi driver? I actually just read a review saying the taxi was the djinn's "bottle" meaning he's now free.

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Do I need to spoiler this?  Anyways, re Djinn and Salim and the next morning:

Spoiler

We saw the Djinn last week in Salim's suit in the diner walking past Shadow. He took Salim's clothes/identity and left Salim his. 

 

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That sex scene was beautiful.

As KP said the Djinn was wearing the suit in episode 2. How it fit him I guess is the magic. It wasn't literally granting a wish, but it was giving him what he wanted. Presumably as well the Djinn has done it before, as the guy in the license is definitely not either of them.

Anubis was perfect.

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Now I really want to re-read the book because I had forgot about the djinn scene when it began (started to come back to me when he spoke about selling touristy shit though). Wonderful scene.

I'm really enjoying the show but think it's probably best viewed as one long production rather than episodic, because each episode isn't self-contained with a complete arc. 

The bank robbery scene was great. Ian McShane is wonderful in this role. 

Looking forward to properly meeting Laura next week.

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Quote

I'll probably watch this, and should probably stop reading here soon, but that it isn't episodic can only be a pro right?

It's a pro for me, yes. I think the criticism is that it doesn't seem to have a clear season arc, either. There's the war holding everything together and that's pretty much it, and it's taking it's time to get anywhere. I'm perfectly fine with this, since it's just an amazing show. Might be the best thing on TV right now. I love the opening visuals with the totem pole as well.

Great episode. I'm really glad they did the bank robbery scene. And how Shadow is left wondering if he caused the snow. Cruel joke to play on a non believer.

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1 hour ago, Mikael said:

I'll probably watch this, and should probably stop reading here soon, but that it isn't episodic can only be a pro right?

It's not a criticism for me, I don't mind that. But I know that's not really for everyone 

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I'm curious about how the story goes from here, compared to the book, because (spoilers for both, but I'm keeping them vague)

Gaiman has said that in the show it won't get quite as far as The House on the Rock in season 1; but in the book that happens right after the bank robbery. It does make a bit more sense, if they are stretching out for five seasons as they're supposedly planning, to go on a bit more of an introductory tour and make the HotR meeting a bigger deal than in the book (though tbh it'd also make sense to make it the climax of season 1- I wonder what will end up being). But there's going to have to be a lot of additions and diversions.

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I think the coming to America sections are meant to take up a lot of space, and similar, the Anubis scene didn't further the plot, but was clearly an important part of the world. Not reading the book I don't know where things are overall going, but I like the way things are allowed to breathe, I don't need everything to be happening all the time. I read an interview with the makers that the Coming to America segment of 4 is going to be very long.

Vague book spoilers:

Spoiler

I think it's something to do with an Irish spirit, and Laura's resurrection/rebirth.

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@polishgenius (can't quote spoiler tags, sorry) Based on stuff outside the episode, with cast interviews etc. It seems like they will be mixing up chronology and also expanding various roles (Bilquis, Mad Sweeny and Laura among them).

As for where it ends, I feel like I read an interview a while back saying the carousel, so maybe it does end there, but can't for the life of me find it, so maybe I'm wrong. I recently heard that Easter is introduced in episode 6 so maybe that's a clue.

Though I guess they could end with the Carousel ride, and start the next season with the scenes after that

 

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Well, pacing will be slow if they extend the book over that many seasons. I just hope the filler is something more than the countless road trips in the book. Some cool possibilities exist though.

Spoiler

Oh, I forgot about the addition of Vulcan to the adaptation. I'm wondering how large of a role he will play.

 

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Never read the book...

What would happen if that woman had refused to go to Anubis' afterlife?  Doesn't she actually have to believe in the particular god to be taken by him?  What if she had said, no thanks I prefer Jesus?  The scene made it seem like she heard a few stories of Egyptian mythology once, not that she was a true believer.

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I'm getting a bit sick of certain replies never posting on the forum at the moment. I seem to get locked out and it's usually a day before I can post or I simply give up replying.

In the old school "you can watch any episode you want as there's no continuity" then yes it's a pro. In the "is there any attempt to make this a 1 hour chunk of viewing with a thematic beginning, middle or end" then it's a massive no. If you watch it in an 8 hour sitting it might work as a great long movie but cut into little chunks with no obvious stop point (in fairness they always have a distinct start) other than it's an hour into the episode) it becomes a chore. A bit like webisodes that are actually an episode of something cut into four pieces.

There's enough good - especially this week to keep me watching at a weekly pace (someone else made a good point of bingeing this show could warp your mind/senses) so I'm pleased I gave it another chance but this increasing trend of 60 minutes of an ongoing story with little effort of making it possible to ever say "remember the episode when". So far I don't have a favourite episode, merely a collection of cool scenes. In a few months time I could easily be saying my favourite episode was the one where Wednesday robbed a bank, Anansi sunk a slave ship and Bilquis ingested a guy while having sex with him. Because all three could have easily happened in the same episode and it wouldn't have altered the story at all.

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not quoting seems to make a massive difference!

so, in response to the poster pointing out the Ifrit had the salesman's suit

I remember seeing the ifrit in the previous episode but didn't recall the suit. Good catch. I guess this means that we can't trust the chronology of anything we are seeing either? Obviously the ancient past is in the past but I'd always assumed the "elsewhere in America" segments were concurrent. Clearly not meaning the Bilquis scenes could be happening before, during or after the scenes we are seeing with Shadow?

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6 hours ago, SpaceChampion said:

Never read the book...

What would happen if that woman had refused to go to Anubis' afterlife?  Doesn't she actually have to believe in the particular god to be taken by him?  What if she had said, no thanks I prefer Jesus?  The scene made it seem like she heard a few stories of Egyptian mythology once, not that she was a true believer.

The way I took it was that she didn't really beleive in Islam but she did beleive in the Egyptian stories as a child. That's still a huge can of worms as I guess kids are more likely to believe in gods (of any kind) while adults can be a bit more broad in whether they beleive in gods or not.

I think it kind of plays into the "modern" gods that we've glimpsed. I don't think anyone has to beleive in a god of tv they just need to worship it. I guess some people beleive TV characters are "real". Maybe the woman inadvertently worshipped the egyptian gods by maintaing an interest in them?

I do think/expect that someone who is genuinely devout in their belief eg any of the extant major religions wouldn't even get a visit from these other gods when something as major as the afterlife exists. I could imagine Bacchus turning up to see a christian wine farmer with a lot of kids though as that's just a point in their life - not eternity.

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