This post contains spoilers for Episode
3 of American Gods.
Again we were introduced to a couple of
new characters: Death, the djinn, the moon lady, and revisited an old
friend, namely Mad Sweeney. The opening scene was everything that the
audience has come to expect from the series, with portentous
overtones, the perfect juxtaposition of the mundane and the sublime
with the deceased ascending to heaven up a vertiginous set of fire
escape stairs outside her Queens apartment. There was always going to
be some welching on the deal struck with Czernobog last week, but it
was disappointing that it came down to a simple rematch. There is
still little clear notion of why they are all heading to Wisconsin
and this week we didn't see any of the technological gods set up
previously. All in all it felt like things had stalled a little with
many things having little impact on the major plot (aside from the
final moments). Large amounts of set up for later events in the
series I suspect.
I felt that things started to fall
apart a little with the difficulties in balancing the various
characters and stories. For one we didn't see anything of Bilquis
this week, making her scenes in the first two episodes a set up that
we are still waiting to be paid off. Likewise Anansi from last week. Occasionally, as with the djinn
in this episode, the show is too mysterious and gives you too little
motivation to really understand the characters. It is not that it is
a problem that you are waiting for a resolution, but more that you
are not even sure what the significance of what you've witnessed is.
Mad Sweeney likewise gets such a short amount of screen time that it
feels that they are skipping over a lot of stuff that should be
important. Whereas in a book you spend a little more time with
characters and get to know them, here there are so many walk-on parts
that are hard to form any kind of relationship.
There is still plenty to enjoy about
the show. The writing is strong with great individual scenes and I
especially still enjoy Shadow and Mr. Wednesday's interactions where
they discuss the line between fantasy and reality. The sudden bursts
of extreme violence is also still there, which will please fans of
exploitation cinema. The reaction to seeing a man speared through the
head with a construction pole is one that can only come of such a
peculiar show as this. Part horror, shock at the grotesque nature of
his death, and amusement when considering Mad Sweeney's bad luck.
Again the cinematography and special
effects were incredible. I especially liked the slow motion
snowflakes forming and the miniature car driving over the
marshmellows. They are sometimes in danger of appearing like the sort
of blandly generic CG montages you see in various commercials, they
do help to push the shows theme of everyday magic and beauty of the
world around us. It sometimes struggles with more surreal imagery. I
am thinking particularly of the flaming eyes of the djinn, which
would be amazing when written down, but looks a little cheap when
they attempt to show it on screen. The show has its own unique style
that is part advertisement. I don't know whether this is some
meta-commentary on television itself as a sort of modern deity (but
perhaps I am thinking too hard about it).
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