I Watch TV: American Gods

 

American Gods

Based on the Neil Gaiman novel of the same name, the premise of this TV series that people moving to America bring their gods with them. In an early vignette, a Norse ship that washes up and is trapped, performs sacrifices for a fair wind. The narrator (the Egyptian god Ibis, who runs a funeral parlour in Cairo Illinois) notes that the next time Norse sailors arrived in America they found a god there to greet them.

Shadow Moon is released from prison early when his wife is killed. He meets the mysterious Mr Wednesday and is recruited by him. Wednesday is travelling America, meeting Old Gods. He plans to fight the New Gods (Media, The Technical Boy, Mr World etc) but most of them are unwilling, wanting to keep their quiet retirement.

Mad Sweeney, a leprechaun, accidentally gives Shadow his lucky coin, and Shadow puts it in his wife’s grave. She rises as an undead being and tries to follow Shadow, also find a way to come back to life. Sweeney wants his coin back, so the two have strange adventures.

There are others too, Bilquis, an ancient goddess of love and desire who has made a deal with the New Gods. Salim is an ordinary man who falls in love with a Jinn, who in turn owes Wednesday a debt. Mr Nancy (Anansi) is an ally of Wednesday, though for his own reasons, one of the themes arising in the wake of the show’s continuing talk of immigration, being race and the legacy of slavery.

There’s occasionally some quite grotesque and horrible stuff, and also sex scenes, and full frontal nudity. They cancelled it after three seasons, just as the outline sketch of what the end was going to do came into focus.

Watch This: Some very cool set pieces with thoughts about what America as a melting pot means
Don’t Watch This: It just circles, with betrayals and people refusing to join causes, and cons, and then never finishes