"American Gods" season 2 episode 8
First, I LOVE THIS SERIES!!!! Gorgeous visuals, much like the graphic novel, it is a work of art. The intro alone is an easter egg heaven. I must say, the “lore, folktale, mythology nerd girl” in me is truly pleased with what has been done with this series. Now, on to the actual episode, we really see Mr. World truly unveiling the depths of his control. Of course, we get tidbits of his madness in almost every episode, however, this episode highlights that madness, the type of control he seeks, and how he gets it. Kind of terrifying stuff if you think too deeply about it, which of course I always do lol. The fun thing about Neil Gaiman and those he works with, is that they plant seeds, they give you just enough background to either grow or hang yourself (I encourage all of us to do the former, rather than the latter). We have our lovely boy Shadow Moon digging deeper into himself, slowly putting the pieces together. And I do mean slowly, yes, our boy shadow is a bit slow on every.single.take. I have yelled many times at the good Shadow Moon, and of course it makes no difference. Finally, we get “technical boy”, who seems to be having a bit of a crisis of his one (I think if you watch the series, you kind of saw this one coming). Overall, this was a smashing season finale for their second season.
"American Gods" Season 3 Episode 10
So, I have had to redo this review several times for various reasons, mostly due to re-watching and finding even more reason to appreciate what has been done with this project. However, this recent change is due to some disturbing news that the show has been canceled. One of the reasons I loved the show was because of the exploration of the side characters. They gave us so much story for each of the gods, it was fantastic to see it played out on a screen. They truly used the gods (especially the new gods) to tackle social issues and issues experienced by marginalized people, from Salim, Not Salim to Bilquis, to the technical boy, and with Mr. World, who transformed into both a female and then two different races. The show was doing a lot within that hour time slot. Despite them taking a detour from the original story, the exploration of these gods, I feel completes one of the goals of the original works and that was to be inclusive of all the things/people/ideas that make America what it is. When you explore the original work, the graphic novel, and the TV series, you see America for what it is. For better or for worse, it is a beautiful tale.
Raven T.