The Rapture of Burning

Why in the world do writers include extended sex scenes in this day and age? It doesn't move the story along and if viewers are really interested in sex, they can find anything they are curios about on their favorite porn site. Even worse in this particular episode, way too much time was spent trying to make some point about sexual orientation rather than entertaining. I'm not a prude, I just don't appreciate the clumsy message delivery. A couple ideas for the future writers and editors of the world. Verify the a sex scene really adds something, or cut it. If you want to make a point, do it in an interesting way and don't preach. Inclusive messages could be entertaining if .... you ain't lazy.

This episode really gave us a lot of time to spend with Laura and Salim, building their characters, motivations, and fulfilling Salim's seasonal arc in the most American Gods way possible. On top of that we got an amazing, epic, beautifully filmed, well-choreographed God showdown with Wednesday, and that alone made the episode worthwhile, let alone the rest of the rich character building stuff we got with Laura, Salim, and Technical Boy, along with some great LGBTQ+ representation (although the exact scene we're all thinking of is a little drawn out and could've been cut down a bit). Hyped for the next coming weeks to see how this season pays off!

It's true this season is moving slowly towards something. And it's true that so far, the visual story telling is not as hot as it was in the first season. But I have invested a fair amount in this production and I'm quite satisfied with it. But now, this episode has lay bare Laura's complex character, her drive, and her most vulnerable side. Why the hate?

Seven stars. Maybe only six. Sure, why not the Rabbit God? The more the merrier, right? And it gives us a milieu to deal with Salim in a way that makes some sense. It also leads to Laura's connection with Sweeney Junior. Liam's okay, I guess. And Iwan Rheon is a good actor. But he's such a bland come-down after Sweeney. Tyr's play is revealed, to no surprize if anyone was paying attention. And the confrontation between Tyr and Odin plays out exactly as one would guess, given the participants. The Technical Boy/Bilquis hallucination was awesome! The story is aiming at a sort of synthesis of Old and New that Gaiman never considered in the text. And I think that's a cool development. The big problem is that it's new development that's cropping up when we've only got two more episodes to go. Too little, too late? 14 March 2024.

Not a tremendous amount of plot advancement, but that's nothing new for this season. What we do get, however, is a sweet and tender interlude about identity and moving past grief and trauma to discover who we really are... and both how hard that choice can be, and how freeing it can be when you finally make it. Some truly great acting from Salim and Laura are a cherry on top.