MR WEDNESDAY

The god is in the details for American Gods’ Allfather

UK Broadcast Amazon, available now

US Broadcast Starz, finished

When a guy who takes pleasure in bashing people’s brains out with a giant hammer describes you as “the worst man I have ever seen”, there’s a good chance you are – at best – a divisive figure. But then ambiguity is American Gods’s Mr Wednesday’s modus operandi – and he probably doesn’t much care what you think of him anyway.

He plays on the idea he can be anything to anybody: a charming father figure one moment, shameless conman the next. Yet, considering he’s actually Norse god Odin – the Allfather, top dog in Valhalla – he does it in a remarkably low-key way.

No fire, brimstone or bolts of lightning here – just the gift of the gab and an absolute refusal to take no for an answer. Just look at the way he robs a bank via the cleverly thought-out ruse of dressing as a security guard, pretending the night deposit box is broken and taking the cash for himself. No need for godly powers, just an old-school hustle brilliantly executed – with the bonus that Wednesday enjoys playing the game as much as the result.

He thrives on chaos and conflict – he was first summoned to America by Vikings kicking the crap out of each other, after all – and sees other people’s welfare as a triviality. Indeed, after lifetimes of being worshipped, he doesn’t feel like blind faith and devotion are too much to ask for. He’s also avowedly old-school. While Mr World, Media and the other new gods respect him (enough to name a North Korea-bound missile Odin in his honour), he sees them as vulgar, crass and inferior. That’s why he’s so determined to make America take notice of him and the other Old World deities again. “The only thing that scares me is being forgotten,” he admits to Shadow. “I can survive most things but not that.”