Channel4s-JonSnow Posted July 16, 2017 Share Posted July 16, 2017 That is a good point, the book is quite loose and it's central plot feels almost secondary to displaying the idea of old gods in America and what that means. Unfortunately the show doesn't always do a good job of that looseness. It tries to play on its sense of mystery and the feeling like it's going somewhere. Then when you have reveals like Odin it feels very underwhelming. The show is a good adaptation of a difficult book Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
red snow Posted August 5, 2017 Share Posted August 5, 2017 On 16/07/2017 at 7:07 PM, Channel4s-JonSnow said: That is a good point, the book is quite loose and it's central plot feels almost secondary to displaying the idea of old gods in America and what that means. Unfortunately the show doesn't always do a good job of that looseness. It tries to play on its sense of mystery and the feeling like it's going somewhere. Then when you have reveals like Odin it feels very underwhelming. The show is a good adaptation of a difficult book I finally watched the remaining 5 episodes. Episode 4 was actually really good probably because it was a focused story. Emily Browning captured the character really well in that she has a distant "going through the motions" presence. Her character is a tricky one to work but I did find myself empathising with her despite her surface-level selfishness. A pretty effective portrayal of depression for a fantasy TV show - someone who just feels life isn't what they expected. The other elements I'm still not entirely sure about. Mcshane and Whittle are great in their roles but I just found the main story a bit of a drag. It's a bit worrying when the adventures of deadwife and leprechaun are more engaging and enjoyable. The episode charting the life of the girl who believed in irish folk lore was also more entertaining. I think this is largely because I desperately want some form of narrative to cling onto. Maybe the show would have been better served dedicating 50% plus of each episode to charting a gods journey? The sex goddess character may have benefitted from this rather than having her story scattered throughout the series. I also think the show was far too coy with the concept a lot of the time. Although it sort of fits with the finale with the suggestion the old gods have been holding back on their power. This doesn't really make sense to me - I think Odin should be generally lacking in power unless he's still sapping energy from sacrifices made in all the wars currently going on. Easter made sense in that it was on Easter Sunday she pulled off her move. While I liked the multiple Jesus idea (because it also stops him from being too powerful) I felt that also was a contradiction. Wednesday spends half a minute listing all his names - yet he's just one god. Why not several in his case? I'd argue that there's probably more differences in his versions than there are between people's sense of who Jesus is. Jesus' story is the same afterall. I think it would have been more fun to actually have some versions of Jesus be new gods. It seems the power of the new gods is in rebranding and as they hint with Easter, Christianity has rebranded a lot of pagan deities. One example could have been that white european Jesus is actually Thor because the germanic tribes certainly transformed Jesus into a warrior prophet and the hammer sigil was close enough to a cross that it was easy to swap. But I can't condemn a show only for not being exactly what I'd like it to be. Ultimately it's an uneven show with great performances and visuals but let down by uneven pacing and focus. Hopefully they can iron some of these issues out (if they choose) for the second season. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The BlackBear Posted August 5, 2017 Share Posted August 5, 2017 15 minutes ago, red snow said: While I liked the multiple Jesus idea (because it also stops him from being too powerful) I felt that also was a contradiction. Wednesday spends half a minute listing all his names - yet he's just one god. Why not several in his case? I'd argue that there's probably more differences in his versions than there are between people's sense of who Jesus is. Jesus' story is the same afterall. I think it would have been more fun to actually have some versions of Jesus be new gods. It seems the power of the new gods is in rebranding and as they hint with Easter, Christianity has rebranded a lot of pagan deities. One example could have been that white european Jesus is actually Thor because the germanic tribes certainly transformed Jesus into a warrior prophet and the hammer sigil was close enough to a cross that it was easy to swap. I dunno maybe something to do with Jesus' being a man, it's kind of his whole thing that he was the mortal son of god. Odin is a God, no mucking around. Book spoilers: Spoiler Shadow is Odin's son and gets some powers from that, but he isn't a God. Maybe the Jesus' are like that? As for Odin's power, he's the American Odin, not just Odin. So presumably can't draw power from foreign conflicts. Spoiler The Icelandic Odin (Odin Prime?) Is doing an awful lot better than Mr Wednesday. And that Hindu(?) Goddess Mama-Ji makes reference to how well her Indian counterpart is doing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
red snow Posted August 5, 2017 Share Posted August 5, 2017 2 hours ago, The BlackBear said: I dunno maybe something to do with Jesus' being a man, it's kind of his whole thing that he was the mortal son of god. Odin is a God, no mucking around. Book spoilers: Hide contents Shadow is Odin's son and gets some powers from that, but he isn't a God. Maybe the Jesus' are like that? As for Odin's power, he's the American Odin, not just Odin. So presumably can't draw power from foreign conflicts. Hide contents The Icelandic Odin (Odin Prime?) Is doing an awful lot better than Mr Wednesday. And that Hindu(?) Goddess Mama-Ji makes reference to how well her Indian counterpart is doing. I guess it depends on which branch of christianity it is regarding whether he's just a man or god. Although there's a reason the trinity has been argued and debated since the birth of christianity. So American Odin is pretty weak if the war has to be on his soil. He'd be ok if it was just americans involved in war abroad But I guess if there are multiple gods for multiple countries, they are actually the same as Jesus. It's just Jesus has multiple american versions of himself. Sort of makes sense now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChuckM Posted August 11, 2017 Share Posted August 11, 2017 Just bought the book, unlike GOT, I won't read or watch anything about the show before I finish it. So I guess I ll be back soon... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nictarion Posted November 30, 2017 Share Posted November 30, 2017 Fuller out as showrunner. Not good... http://variety.com/2017/tv/news/american-gods-1202626402/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Theda Baratheon Posted November 30, 2017 Share Posted November 30, 2017 Finally started watching. 5 eps in and I think it'it's absolutely fantastic TV. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eggegg Posted November 30, 2017 Share Posted November 30, 2017 8 hours ago, Nictarion said: Fuller out as showrunner. Not good... http://variety.com/2017/tv/news/american-gods-1202626402/ Thats a big shame, his visual flair was a big factor on the shows success. Having said that, he's not the greatest at putting together a cohesive and tight narrative and tends to get overly concerned with making things look pretty, so might not be so big a loss. S1 certainly had a lot of moments where the plot just slowed to a crawl to take some time to look at a scene Fuller deemed visually interesting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr. Pepper Posted November 30, 2017 Share Posted November 30, 2017 I figure I'll probably like the show better now that Fuller is out. The story captured me right away, but Fuller's flying blood fetish annoyed me so much I wasn't going to tune in to season 2. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eggegg Posted November 30, 2017 Share Posted November 30, 2017 7 minutes ago, Dr. Pepper said: I figure I'll probably like the show better now that Fuller is out. The story captured me right away, but Fuller's flying blood fetish annoyed me so much I wasn't going to tune in to season 2. Oh god, yeah Hannibal was awful for that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Unborn Posted November 30, 2017 Share Posted November 30, 2017 I don't know if it's a good thing or a bad thing that Fuller is out. I LOVED Hannibal, but I can't say the same for American Gods. It was a show that was pretty, had good acting/actiors, but I felt like I was trying to like the show for whatever reasons but really didn't, and I don't know if it's Fuller's fault or simply the material. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
williamjm Posted November 30, 2017 Share Posted November 30, 2017 9 hours ago, Eggegg said: Thats a big shame, his visual flair was a big factor on the shows success. Having said that, he's not the greatest at putting together a cohesive and tight narrative and tends to get overly concerned with making things look pretty, so might not be so big a loss. S1 certainly had a lot of moments where the plot just slowed to a crawl to take some time to look at a scene Fuller deemed visually interesting. To be fair to Fuller, some of the narrative issues come from Gaiman. While I liked the book, the plot did meander quite a lot and Gaiman sometimes seemed more interested in the side stories than Shadow's story. I think Fuller may have added even more digressions from the main plot, but it's not an entirely new issue. I was probably willing to tolerate it a bit more in the show because I was expecting it. Overall, I don't think Fuller stepping down is a good thing, while the show wasn't flawless it did have a unique and memorable style and I hope that isn't lost. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Annara Snow Posted November 30, 2017 Share Posted November 30, 2017 Fuller's style - in addition to interesting ideas from Gaiman - is what I liked the best about the show (even though both the book and the show have the same weakness of being very loose narratively), so this is certainly not good news for me. People are saying that the reason Fuller is leaving is that he went over the budget. But if making a show within the budget (and in short time) is the main requirement for a showrunner...well, that's how Scott Buck keeps getting hired, and then you get Inhumans and Iron Fist S1 as a result. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martell Spy Posted December 2, 2017 Share Posted December 2, 2017 Well, that's unfortunate. I loved the first season. Hopefully the show doesn't tank now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Iskaral Pust Posted December 26, 2017 Share Posted December 26, 2017 I finally got around to watching this. I’m only up to episode 4, so I had to skip the last few pages of this thread (for now) to avoid spoilers. I’m really enjoying this adaptation of a great book, which I re-read many times. This expansion of the original is a bonus but it will be frustrating to wait years for it to be complete. At first it was just expanded dialogue but then the explicit back-story for Laura in ep 4 added a huge amount of new material, plus each episode showed in detail things the book only alluded to in passing. The direction is excessively stylized. Mostly I enjoy it and it suits the weird unreality of the story, but occasionally it’s frustratingly overwrought. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Iskaral Pust Posted December 29, 2017 Share Posted December 29, 2017 OK, finished S1 and ready to share some reaction. This will probably go unread until S2 approaches. LIKES: - Expanded POVs. In the book, we only see Shadow’s POV of the main story and get glimpses of other characters as they interact with him. But here we see especially Laura and Mad Sweeney as POVs who were off-screen in the book. And their characters add a lot of humor and variety to the plodding passivity of Shadow’s arc. - Visual style matches the unreality. - Really strong cast. Although, as much as I like Ian McShane, he’s too short for the Wednesday character and his wheedling style is less bluff/gruff than the book, and Anansi should be older and more of a trickster than a firebrand — but their contribution is great despite not tracking the book closely. Laura, Sweeney, Ibis, Anubis, Mr. World, Media, Technical Boy and Easter were all great. - A more plausible offer from the new gods that competes with Wednesday’s desire for war. The book made it seem like the old gods had to fight or else fade way, not fight or else compromise and adapt to change. We also see Vulcan and Easter used more directly to preface war — the book had a slower boil on the sense of building conflict. - very true to the spirit of the book and retains the side stories of thematic connection, albeit no plot connection. DISLIKES: - While I can live with the overall slow pacing, the self-indulgent drawn-out scenes to beat us over the head with the visuals — the lynching, every buckets-of-blood scene, etc — seriously need some trimming. - Bilquis is a terrible character used to indulge in gratuitous sex scenes to pander to a certain audience. The idea of a goddess suppressed by patriarchial society is worthy, but would have been better suited to Isis/Ishtar. And the retconned Bilquis cosmos of ecstasy is a flimsy pretext to make a serial killer a sympathetic character. - Multiple Jesus in America allows for a nice point about everyone having their own god/America/universe in their head, but it’s absolutely inconsistent with all of the other gods having only a single instance in any given country. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Unborn Posted January 7, 2018 Share Posted January 7, 2018 Gillian Anderson won't be back for season 2 as Media Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HexMachina Posted January 7, 2018 Share Posted January 7, 2018 Ouch. Chenoweth also not sure if she will be back. This makes me doubtful of the show’s future Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr. Pepper Posted January 8, 2018 Share Posted January 8, 2018 It's too bad they can't just start over now that Fuller is back. I'd really like to see a take on it from someone who isn't the blood-flying-loving-Fuller. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the hound of sansa Posted January 8, 2018 Share Posted January 8, 2018 Wow, what is going on? Is the whole show going to derail? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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