Oh My American Gods....
Jul. 10th, 2017 09:32 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
davidgillon Spoiler warnings, plus content warnings for: violence, eye-related violence, and attempted suicide.
I binge-watched the first four episodes of American Gods on Amazon over the weekend. OMG, it's spectacular, right from the opening credits, which brings together disparate elements we eventually realise make up a totem pole topped by a neon cowboy, a crucified astronaut, and an American eagle as the thunderbird. There's a surreal element that possibly surpasses Twin Peaks, but actually knows what it's doing. Think white buffalo with horns of flame and someone being literally filled full of arrows. It also has sex scenes that don't just approach pornography, but take a step beyond it.
The opening scene is a Viking landing in America, but they are unable to penetrate beyond the beach - see literally filled full of arrows. Becalmed and unable to escape (the oars were there for a reason, guys) they decide a blood sacrifice to a carved idol of Wotan is needed. This makes for the most brutal piece of TV I recall seeing. The eye-scream is acute, and then it gets worse. I literally couldn't watch. They escape, but leave behind the idol.
We then switch to the main narrative, with Shadow Moon (Ricky Whittle) being released from prison 5 days early because his wife Laura (Emily Browning) has died in a car crash. He later meets the peculiarly charismatic Mr Wednesday (Ian McShane, who has grown interestingly wrinkled) who hires him as a bodyguard at the second attempt. An encounter with Mad Sweeney the Leprechaun leads to a bar fight in which Shadow wins a lucky coin. At his wife's funeral Shadow learns, from her best friend Audrey, that Laura died while having oral sex with his best friend, and Audrey's husband, Robbie, who was also killed. Audrey tries to have revenge sex with Shadow on Laura's grave, but Shadow rejects her and walks away, though not before tossing his coin onto the grave. Walking back into town, Shadow is abducted by Technical Boy who demands to know what Wednesday is doing, then orders his constructs to lynch Shadow when he can't/won't answer. Shadow is saved by an unknown, but extremely violent force. In a separate thread, Bilquis, a middle-aged Afro-American woman has a sexual encounter which ends with her literally consuming her lover.
Episode 2 opens on a slave-ship, with one of the slaves summoning up a zoot-suited Anansi, who tells them they're already dead, so they might as well burn the ship and kill those Dutch motherfuckers up top. Anansi, as spider, drifts ashore on a plank of wood. Meanwhile Bilquis consumes several lovers of both sexes. En route to Chicago with Wednesday, Shadow has an encounter with Media in the form of Lucy Ricardo (Gillian Anderson). Arriving in Chicago, Wednesday takes Shadow to visit the Zorya sisters, who live with Chernebog, who works on the killing floor of a slaughterhouse, but misses the old day when he used a sledgehammer, not a bolt gun. While Wednesday flirts with Zorya Verchernaya (Cloris Leachman), Chernebog challenges Shadow to a game of checkers. If Shadow wins, Chernebog will do what Wednesday wants, if Chernebog wins, he gets to use his sledgehammer on Shadow. Shadow loses.
Episode 3 opens with Anubis coming for an old Egyptian woman. He weighs her heart against a feather, and finds it light enough to send her to the afterlife. Back in Chicago, Shadow encounters Zorya Polunochnaya, the youngest of the Zorya, who exchanges a kiss for the Moon in the form of a coin. Shadow challenges Chernbog to a second game, which he wins. Wednesday informs Shadow he plans to rob a bank, and does. Meanwhile Salim, a newly arrived Omani salesman, has a sexual encounter with an ifrit/taxi driver, and they exchange lives. Mad Sweeney, having narrowly survived a car crash, tracks down Shadow and demands his coin back, Shadow tells him he left it on Laura's grave, but when Sweeny excavates the grave, he finds it empty with a coin-sized hole burnt in the lid. Meanwhile, Shadow find someone waiting in his hotel room.
Episode 4 is Laura's story. Unhappy with her life as a croupier in an Egyptian-themed casino, she attempts suicide in a half-hearted way. Then she encounters Shadow when he tries to scam the casino and warns him off. They marry, but she is still unhappy and devises the perfect plan to rob the casino. Shadow is jailed and she starts an affair with Robbie, they die. Anubis attempts to weigh her heart, over her objections, and she is suddenly plucked back to her body. Escaping the grave, she stumbles on Shadow being lynched and destroys Technical Boy's constructs in an extremely bloody manner, a fight which leaves her lugging around her detached right arm for most of the episode. She seeks out Audrey's help to reattach her arm and find Shadow, but then encounters Anubis and his associate, Mr Ibis, who run a funeral parlour, and help her take care of her body, ready for her meeting with Shadow.
Compared to most TV fantasy, this really is breathtakingly audacious. The casting is perfect, and not only is it regularly surreal, but it is making no effort to spoonfeed us the story, we're just as lost in Wednesday's world as Shadow is. Definitely recommended.
I binge-watched the first four episodes of American Gods on Amazon over the weekend. OMG, it's spectacular, right from the opening credits, which brings together disparate elements we eventually realise make up a totem pole topped by a neon cowboy, a crucified astronaut, and an American eagle as the thunderbird. There's a surreal element that possibly surpasses Twin Peaks, but actually knows what it's doing. Think white buffalo with horns of flame and someone being literally filled full of arrows. It also has sex scenes that don't just approach pornography, but take a step beyond it.
The opening scene is a Viking landing in America, but they are unable to penetrate beyond the beach - see literally filled full of arrows. Becalmed and unable to escape (the oars were there for a reason, guys) they decide a blood sacrifice to a carved idol of Wotan is needed. This makes for the most brutal piece of TV I recall seeing. The eye-scream is acute, and then it gets worse. I literally couldn't watch. They escape, but leave behind the idol.
We then switch to the main narrative, with Shadow Moon (Ricky Whittle) being released from prison 5 days early because his wife Laura (Emily Browning) has died in a car crash. He later meets the peculiarly charismatic Mr Wednesday (Ian McShane, who has grown interestingly wrinkled) who hires him as a bodyguard at the second attempt. An encounter with Mad Sweeney the Leprechaun leads to a bar fight in which Shadow wins a lucky coin. At his wife's funeral Shadow learns, from her best friend Audrey, that Laura died while having oral sex with his best friend, and Audrey's husband, Robbie, who was also killed. Audrey tries to have revenge sex with Shadow on Laura's grave, but Shadow rejects her and walks away, though not before tossing his coin onto the grave. Walking back into town, Shadow is abducted by Technical Boy who demands to know what Wednesday is doing, then orders his constructs to lynch Shadow when he can't/won't answer. Shadow is saved by an unknown, but extremely violent force. In a separate thread, Bilquis, a middle-aged Afro-American woman has a sexual encounter which ends with her literally consuming her lover.
Episode 2 opens on a slave-ship, with one of the slaves summoning up a zoot-suited Anansi, who tells them they're already dead, so they might as well burn the ship and kill those Dutch motherfuckers up top. Anansi, as spider, drifts ashore on a plank of wood. Meanwhile Bilquis consumes several lovers of both sexes. En route to Chicago with Wednesday, Shadow has an encounter with Media in the form of Lucy Ricardo (Gillian Anderson). Arriving in Chicago, Wednesday takes Shadow to visit the Zorya sisters, who live with Chernebog, who works on the killing floor of a slaughterhouse, but misses the old day when he used a sledgehammer, not a bolt gun. While Wednesday flirts with Zorya Verchernaya (Cloris Leachman), Chernebog challenges Shadow to a game of checkers. If Shadow wins, Chernebog will do what Wednesday wants, if Chernebog wins, he gets to use his sledgehammer on Shadow. Shadow loses.
Episode 3 opens with Anubis coming for an old Egyptian woman. He weighs her heart against a feather, and finds it light enough to send her to the afterlife. Back in Chicago, Shadow encounters Zorya Polunochnaya, the youngest of the Zorya, who exchanges a kiss for the Moon in the form of a coin. Shadow challenges Chernbog to a second game, which he wins. Wednesday informs Shadow he plans to rob a bank, and does. Meanwhile Salim, a newly arrived Omani salesman, has a sexual encounter with an ifrit/taxi driver, and they exchange lives. Mad Sweeney, having narrowly survived a car crash, tracks down Shadow and demands his coin back, Shadow tells him he left it on Laura's grave, but when Sweeny excavates the grave, he finds it empty with a coin-sized hole burnt in the lid. Meanwhile, Shadow find someone waiting in his hotel room.
Episode 4 is Laura's story. Unhappy with her life as a croupier in an Egyptian-themed casino, she attempts suicide in a half-hearted way. Then she encounters Shadow when he tries to scam the casino and warns him off. They marry, but she is still unhappy and devises the perfect plan to rob the casino. Shadow is jailed and she starts an affair with Robbie, they die. Anubis attempts to weigh her heart, over her objections, and she is suddenly plucked back to her body. Escaping the grave, she stumbles on Shadow being lynched and destroys Technical Boy's constructs in an extremely bloody manner, a fight which leaves her lugging around her detached right arm for most of the episode. She seeks out Audrey's help to reattach her arm and find Shadow, but then encounters Anubis and his associate, Mr Ibis, who run a funeral parlour, and help her take care of her body, ready for her meeting with Shadow.
Compared to most TV fantasy, this really is breathtakingly audacious. The casting is perfect, and not only is it regularly surreal, but it is making no effort to spoonfeed us the story, we're just as lost in Wednesday's world as Shadow is. Definitely recommended.
no subject
Date: 2017-07-10 11:14 am (UTC)I don't know why that detail in particular struck me as wonderful, but it is. You're dead: you're not just going to grow another arm: but you're not just going to leave your arm behind if you can help it. And look, you get it back anyway. That sounds like the first thing that goes right for Laura all episode.
no subject
Date: 2017-07-12 03:06 pm (UTC)