American Gods (TV series)

As opposed to, you know, me and people like me. Thank me very much.

So anyway, based on the Neil Gaiman book, Bryan Fuller as showrunner, etc. etc. Trailer's been out for a bit, and now they've released the opening titles, because that's a thing now.

http://deadline.com/2017/03/american-gods-starz-opening-title-1202055991/

I'm pumped for this, there are quite a few scenes from the book I'm eager to see from Bryan Fuller's perspective

Well, what do y'all think? I enjoyed it. McShane is the best. It was SO OTT violent that my wife may already be out, which sucks. Seems like Starz has an amped-up version of the HBO rule (tits n' violence), which I could do without. Still, I'm in for McShane, and all of his philosophizin'.

love love love, I am all in, all the way after 1 ep

Fuller throwing everything at the wall now & it's exactly what the show needs. No-one's better than him at waking surrealness. idk if it's same creative crew top to bottom that he used in Hannibal but i know the artistic director is the same guy & they are a badass dream team imo

Casting A+ so far, McShane just rolls right into Wednesday so effortlessly, and I like the actor playing Shadow

YAY

the severed arm flying through the air out of & ~over top~ of the frame was <3

I liked the pilot, all who have seen the screeners agree that ep 4 is where it ~gets real~ so that's pretty promising if this was second or third gear

and yeah this is p much the full Hannibal crew AFAICT, Slade directing the pilot, Reitzell scoring, etc. tbh I'd prefer they stay on this than attempt to revive Hannibal, which ran out of steam for me in the second half of that last season (I realize this is not a consensus opinion lol)

Yeah this is about as good as I could've hoped for. Seems pretty faithful to the book so far, as well.

The Bilquis scene was something else.

Yeah it's actually kinda toned down from the book, if you can believe it.
Joel Murray was a great casting choice

the bilquis scene was toned down, I mean.

Peter Stormare really is the only living person who could play Czernobog

lotta penises in this ep :D

well, two

but still

erect penises!

god bless bryan fuller <3

I'll consider myself forewarned - we were watching the Bilquis scene with kids in the other fricking room, thank fuck they didnt walk in.

lol yeah, i would say maybe blanket warning for the entire series based on these 2 eps

I lol'd at the dick-in-a-frame

after watching episode 3 all I can say is daaaaaaamn <3

Episode 3 was amazing, especially that intro sequence with Anubis and the old woman

I recognise that old woman but haven't got around to looking her up.
Is she known from something else where she appears much younger.

the effects and stuff look incredible in this.

I loved that old woman dying scene. I'd like to go that way. It sort of reminded me also of Terry Pratchett's Death.

the guy who plays anubis has the smoothest voice i've ever heard on tv

yeah i love him

Don't know if we really needed a Laura backstory but then again, she was an awful (and awfully-written) character in the book so it's nice to see her a little more er, fleshed out. Also lol, perfect Dane Cook casting.

Felt like the most coherent episode so far too - I enjoyed the first three but structurally, they were a bit of a mess with a few awesome set-pieces thrown in.

i'm still not sure i'm bought in -- every scene is so PORTENTOUS -- but i'll watch mcshane forever and if we get a few more supporting performances at stormare's and jones' level i'll be satisfied

tbf i'm also not a huge fan of the source material. gaiman is a master of making the obvious pass for "smart"

Gaiman's schtick: boring nice guy finds himself changed by magical/scary world that's hiding just behind the real world.

He can't write a decent plot either - his books always start out really strong but I can't think of a single one with a memorable ending, this one included. I'm mostly hoping Bryan Fuller will be able to do something more with it (as he did with Hannibal) but he seems to be sticking fairly closely to the book for now.

If they want more than maybe 2 seasons they'll have to diverge at some point...

I'm enjoying it fine, it's well acted and visually arresting mostly (occasionally a little cheap looking). Episode 4 is the first one which has amounted to much more than a series of setpieces - my girlfriend quite likes it because she doesn't really have to pay attention to the plot to enjoy it.

Gaiman's schtick: boring nice guy finds himself changed by magical/scary world that's hiding just behind the real world.

That's 99% of fantasy, though! Even if it's set in a fantasy world.

nah, Roz is OTM there, though it's often more "boring nice guy blinks owlishly at the realisaation that..." rather than "changed by"

If they want more than maybe 2 seasons they'll have to diverge at some point...

First season goes to about 1/3 of the way through the book, apparently they plan to diverge more extensively in the second season

his books always start out really strong but I can't think of a single one with a memorable ending, this one included

Good Omens and Anansi Boys have solid endings.

Oh, are they not going to do the whole book in one season? That's irritating. I thought they were taking their time...

loose anthology vibe is absolutely the main draw

Haven't watched E5 yet but this is getting better...Audrey + Laura pairing should have been a full episode (at least).

the whole Media/Mr World thing feels so much cornier on tv than it did in the book; i dunno if it's partly because it's such a 90's book, or what but I kinda cringe with all of that stuff now.

Dana Scully makes a nice Bowie though :)

Just watched episode 6 and thought it was mainly annoying. Everything about it just seemed murky and poorly defined, and not in an appealing way. It'd be nice if they got Shadow to do something other than look concerned - maybe have a word with that fucking saxophonist on the soundtrack who won't pipe down. To be fair on the show, all of the other episodes have been better.

But Shadow can't act. At all. He's good looking, though.

Used to be in Hollyoaks, apparently.

He's imposing and handsome but with a weathered everyman quality, which as he really needs.

Last night's ep was probably their best so far

"loose anthology vibe is absolutely the main draw"

I think that is quite an astute comment on why I like this, the plot of this series is really bad and if you were to think about it too much you might give up on it - but Fuller is having much more fun with this than that last shit season of Hannibal.

"Last night's ep was probably their best so far"

some great use of music in it as well!

found the musical cues mostly irritating tbh. this ep was good mostly bc more pablo schreiber is always good, but seemed a weird pause before the season finale. like oh, hey, this ends next week? i'm not exactly on pins and needles but i hope that means we'll see peter stormare again...

couldn't get past the Titanic soundtrack and those accents (nobody from Cork has ever spoken like that), maybe there was a good episode in there somewhere but idk

bunnies > ravens

i am an episode behind, but last week's kinda threw me. i was annoyed bc the whole ep was mostly narrated but the more i thought about the actual story and what happened the more i liked it

i super-love pablo schrieber

looking forward to kristin chenoweth, will watch finale tonight

I like this show but it has really turned out to be exactly the sum of its parts, and nothing greater. it's missing something.

yeah it's sort of like watching the book

which is fine but I agree it's missing something

Fuller has a boringly reverent streak in him. it stained the second half of Hannibal s3 for me.

but he makes such beautiful tv

meh. everything is LIT LIKE THIS and shot in SLOOOOO MO. it's all very DO YOU SEE and yet yeah, do i see and all i know is we didn't get any more peter stormare and his scenes felt like the only time this show even woke up.

oh fine, anubis and the old lady too

https://io9.gizmodo.com/report-american-gods-showrunners-are-leaving-the-hit-s-1820858533

This is a bummer, but the production always seemed like a mess ($100 million for a non-GOT show is a LOT). I hope they'll get their act together for another couple of seasons.

ugh this sucks. Fuller & Green bring so much creativity...i mean, they’re why Hannibal was so ott great too

yeah they're irreplaceable as far as I can tell, not sure who else they could bring in without the show feeling like a poor imitation

omg they spent 100 million on this? lmao must have sunk it all into suuuuper slooooo-mo

sup veg

https://66.media.tumblr.com/568f3c9d121a4c612d8a998854fee040/tumblr_pmueocX6cP1qgcmbyo2_r1_1280.jpg

:D

:D

:D

<3

Season 2 is getting less than stellar reviews

can it be worse than season 1?

Bryan Fuller seems like a pain to work with but his shows almost always goes to shit once he's gone - I still remember the huge drop-off in quality after Heroes' first season when he left to do Pushing Daisies. (Dead Like Me might be the exception, but I think that was because he left relatively early in the process.)

ugh, i'm still gonna watch out of devotion to the source material. it's honestly malpractice that they didn't get to the house on the rock in season 1

I just watched the first episode (first season) and McShane’s as fun to watch as ever but I thought a lot of it was pretty bad - lots of awful dialogue and I hate the CGI slo-mo gore. I liked the book and I want to see Gillian Anderson but I don’t know...

I didn't dislike season one. I didn't care for the main actors, but there was some good stuff in there.

I don't like McShane at all.

i'm out. can't take any more of this. i stuck with True Detective even after the second season, but i've had enough of this.

i quit 3 eps into s2, it’s unpleasant to watch now

I didn't bother at all w/ S2 after seeing how "tumultuous" the production was

the lush visual style of S1 was its main draw anyway sooo

There were a handful of high points, nearly all featuring Mad Sweeney and especially his role in the second last ep. The vaudeville episode was pretty good too, I thought.

The final ep was pretty good all round, until the plot petered out with 10 minutes to go and multiple maguffins were pulled to leave everything open enough to continue - although to be honest there were so many of them that I can't actually remember what the final state of the characters is, or care enough to look it up.

Was Odin really this obnoxious in the book? I don't recall him being so (although I haven't read it since it came out) and he's now cast to the point there's absolutely no reason why anyone would follow him.

Agree with all of aldo's points. Good performances from so many people, particularly the Mad Sweeney actor and no-nonsense Emily Browning. Remembering Orlando Jones on Sound FX, I enjoy his character a lot. But two seasons with one shoot-up and "war is /still/ coming" is too deconstructed for me.

The Rook looks intriguing, tangenting to another Starz show coming this year.

The thing that undid me was the way it looked like a bad imitation of Fuller. But totally joyless. For the whole first ep of the second season everyone stood around explaining themselves like it was a network tv pilot.

the whole Media/Mr World thing feels so much cornier on tv than it did in the book; i dunno if it's partly because it's such a 90's book, or what but I kinda cringe with all of that stuff now.

Dana Scully makes a nice Bowie though :)

― Yoni Loves Chocha (VegemiteGrrl), Monday, 29 May 2017 23:48 (two years ago) bookmarkflaglink

Just watched episode 6 and thought it was mainly annoying. Everything about it just seemed murky and poorly defined, and not in an appealing way. It'd be nice if they got Shadow to do something other than look concerned - maybe have a word with that fucking saxophonist on the soundtrack who won't pipe down. To be fair on the show, all of the other episodes have been better.

― chap, Monday, 12 June 2017 14:36 (two years ago) bookmarkflaglink

im this far and impressed so far, tone is so hard to get right for anything like this and i dont know if you couldve asked for much more, rly

but these two posts are very otm

its like listening to lethal weapon at times!

I didn't bother at all w/ S2 after seeing how "tumultuous" the production was

the lush visual style of S1 was its main draw anyway sooo

i think we watched maybe 2 eps of s2? i just couldnt

that quoted badly

has anyone stuck with the show? i jumped shop when they canned fuller, but i’ve heard rumblings that it’s gotten good again

I was well warned to enjoy season one and step a mile away tbh

i’m sure season 2 is rocky to say the least, but as a book reader i could prob jump into s3 with no problem if it’s worth it

I think I've enjoyed it more than the other seasons but it might as well be Fargo at this point.