Review: 'American Gods' is a timely reminder of greatness

Posted Tuesday, October 17, 2017 at 4:10 PM Central
Last updated Tuesday, October 17, 2017 at 4:12 PM Central

by John Couture

When Starz gave the proverbial greenlight to an adaptation of Neil Gaiman's novel American Gods, they had no clue that it would debut in a world that not even the author's unique imagination could predict. And yet, American Gods is precisely the critique that we needed at the moment where our country is standing on a historical precipice.

Much like Mr. Wednesday, it's a battle between the old and new that plays out each day on our TV sets and Twitter feeds. No, Starz could not have asked for a better environment to debut American Gods and we should heed its message.

This review isn't going devolve into a politically-inspired rant on one side or the other, but rather I think both sides would do themselves a bit of good if they put aside their rhetoric and watched this series. My wife is a huge Neil Gaiman so she was particularly excited about this adaptation, while I have read a few of Neil Gaiman's works, but not this one.

Needless to say, American Gods blew me away.

The story follows Shadow Moon who is released from prison and recruited by a mysterious man, Mr. Wednesday, to be his bodyguard. Unbeknownst to Shadow, his free will is an illusion and away we go. In the vaguest terms possible, there's a war brewing between the old, traditional gods and the new gods, Technology and the Media.

The battleground for this war is America and it's not too big of a stretch to replace the "gods" with fundamentalism and fake news and you start to get an idea how perfectly this show plays in today's political reality. One of the more interesting aspects of the series is the little vignettes that show how each god ended up in America. These sequences mix in a healthy dose of history and fiction to show just how dangerous any belief system can become if it is unchecked for too long.

The series works thanks to the commitment from the impressive cast. Ian McShane headlines as Mr. Wednesday and TV vet Ricky Whittle shines as Shadow Moon. The supporting cast led by Emily Browning, Gillian Anderson, Peter Stormare and Orlando Jones elevate the project to another level and the end result is that American Gods feels less like a TV series and more an epic film trilogy.

My wife tells me that the series is a faithful retelling of the book which is surprising given the highly graphic source material. Of course, cable TV has long pushed the boundaries, so I'm not all that surprised. I guess there's something to be said there about the moral decay in society that perfectly mirrors the path that results in the events of American Gods.

But again, I'm not here to stir any political pots, no I just know really satisfying entertainment when I experience it and American Gods definitely fits the bill. Of course, that's not to say that American Gods is for everyone because that is certainly not the case. If you have a certain sensitivity to sex, violence and general debauchery, then you may want to take pass. If those things are cool with you, allow me to introduce you to the Crocodile Bar.

I do want to point out that perhaps the most impressive part of this Blu-ray collection was the extensive amount of bonus features that they included. It seems that many TV series offerings these days are skimping on the bonus features, but this definitely not the case with American Gods. There are at least eight featurettes with our favorites being the one that compared the book to the show and the origins of American Gods.

Looking around at the landscape of "TV" these days, it seems that more and more shows like American Gods are being optioned and this one proves that in the right hands and with the right cast, they can be successful. Despite what the series might portend, we do live in a wonderful time where our entertainment choices are nearly limitless. Of course, the challenge is maintaining the high level of execution that the subject matter demands. When that happens, you have the makings of a masterpiece much like American Gods.

American Gods is now available on DVD and Blu-ray.