Having incidentally read American Gods earlier this year, the prospect of a serial adaptation picked at my curiosity. From the looks of things, my curiosity is soon to depart.
Problems with the show arise within the first sequence, a prologue of sorts which is supposed to show the arrival on US shores of the Norse God Odin. This scene, as depicted in the book, foreshadows events which are to come while also analogizing events of Norse mythology in a way which is consistent with the book's theme of Gods (and their mythology) reshaping themselves around the time and place and circumstances of the believer. In the show, this scene is reduced to a generic sequence of hyper-stylized violence which serves to undermine what is essential for ushering viewers into the show's world: a sense of reality.
Instead, what continues even after we meet the series protagonist, Shadow, is a barrage of surrealist imagery and occasional movie violence which never lets us feel that what we are watching could be happening in our world, but rather which tells us persistently that this is happening in another world altogether. Perhaps it is the producers' intention to transform this story into just another urban fantasy which follows the fashions of modern television, perhaps the decision makers feared that establishing a familiar world would risk boring a frisson-addicted audience, but whatever the reasons, this decision actually defuses potential tension associated with the idea of deities living in our world, and is a first step for placing this show into the great hall of the forgotten.
Though I question how coherent is the story in this first episode to those unfamiliar with it, I was able to follow it despite the ostentatious foreshadowing which transitions nearly every scene to the next. The actors are mostly believable in their parts, though McShane's doddering old man at the airport is not quite believable, and Ricky Whittle seems to be unclear in how to portray the consistent stoicism of Shadow. The visuals are nice, as is the production design, but the producers seem inspired by the Zach Snyder approach of visuals at the expense of good storytelling.
Overall, this first episode indicates a series too interested in the superficial to be worth following to its finale.
Problems with the show arise within the first sequence, a prologue of sorts which is supposed to show the arrival on US shores of the Norse God Odin. This scene, as depicted in the book, foreshadows events which are to come while also analogizing events of Norse mythology in a way which is consistent with the book's theme of Gods (and their mythology) reshaping themselves around the time and place and circumstances of the believer. In the show, this scene is reduced to a generic sequence of hyper-stylized violence which serves to undermine what is essential for ushering viewers into the show's world: a sense of reality.
Instead, what continues even after we meet the series protagonist, Shadow, is a barrage of surrealist imagery and occasional movie violence which never lets us feel that what we are watching could be happening in our world, but rather which tells us persistently that this is happening in another world altogether. Perhaps it is the producers' intention to transform this story into just another urban fantasy which follows the fashions of modern television, perhaps the decision makers feared that establishing a familiar world would risk boring a frisson-addicted audience, but whatever the reasons, this decision actually defuses potential tension associated with the idea of deities living in our world, and is a first step for placing this show into the great hall of the forgotten.
Though I question how coherent is the story in this first episode to those unfamiliar with it, I was able to follow it despite the ostentatious foreshadowing which transitions nearly every scene to the next. The actors are mostly believable in their parts, though McShane's doddering old man at the airport is not quite believable, and Ricky Whittle seems to be unclear in how to portray the consistent stoicism of Shadow. The visuals are nice, as is the production design, but the producers seem inspired by the Zach Snyder approach of visuals at the expense of good storytelling.
Overall, this first episode indicates a series too interested in the superficial to be worth following to its finale.