AMERICAN GODS
Reinventing the Neil
Season one of the visually stunning Neil Gaiman adaptation is now on shiny disc.
released 31 JUlY 2017 | 18 | Blu-ray/dVd/download
Creators Neil Gaiman, Bryan Fuller, Michael Green
Cast ricky Whittle, Ian Mcshane, emily Browning, Pablo schreiber, Gillian anderson
Neil Gaiman’s tale of ancient deities relocated to the US has long been described as unfilmable. This epic TV adaptation does little to disprove the theory.
While showrunners Bryan Fuller and Michael Green impressively capture the themes and tone of the novel, they also pull it apart and reassemble it in such a radical way that it feels like an entirely new creature. They casually introduce new characters and reinvent the storylines of others – to the point where people who’ve read the book will be almost as in the dark about what’s going on as those who haven’t.
But American Gods is also utterly captivating, a visually stunning road trip into the dark underbelly of the American dream that hooks you from the moment ex-con Shadow Moon (Ricky Whittle) hooks up with the enigmatic Mr Wednesday (Ian McShane). Landing in the middle of the war between gods from the old world and newer objects of worship like technology, it hops around time and space – in fact, the central story isn’t so much punctuated by flashbacks, dream sequences and parallel plotlines as subservient to them.
As has become the norm for event TV, the cast is uniformly excellent: Hollyoaks graduate Whittle channels bewilderment brilliantly, while McShane has a ball as grifter-supreme Wednesday, Emily Browning makes the most of the muchexpanded role of Shadow’s late wife Laura, and Gillian Anderson steals the show channelling Lucille Ball, glam-era David Bowie and other 20th century icons as the chameleon-like Media.
The problem is, in expanding the novel and beefing up the supporting characters, American Gods often feels a bit aimless – a criticism you could also level at the book. Taken in isolation, each of the eight episodes is brilliant, but by the time the season wraps up, there have been so many sidesteps and meanders it doesn’t feel like the story has progressed. It’s already weird, taboo-breaking and inventive enough to feel like one of TV’s essential fantasy worlds – but season two really needs to work out where it’s going and put its foot on the gas.
Extras In the excellent “American Gods Origins” (15 minutes), Gaiman travels back to Iceland to explain how it helped him fulfil his desire to write a novel about America – it’s a wonderful insight into the writer’s mind. Four interviews with assorted cast (42 minutes in total) are refreshingly in-depth and perceptive, though the four featurettes (20 minutes’ worth, with subjects including the gods, and the differences between novel and adaptation) tell you little you wouldn’t know after watching the series. You also get the show’s San Diego Comic-Con panel from 2016 (53 minutes).
Roman fire god Vulcan doesn’t appear in the book. He was introduced as a way to address America’s gun control debate.