American Gods Season 2

The second season of American Gods finally started on Starz after nearly two years of production troubles. I’ve seen comments that this season is supposedly going to be more plot driven, which strikes me as a good thing after the slow meandering of the first season. I figured a thread might be welcome, so here it is.

we binged season 1 a week or so ago, and the intro to season 2 contained a couple of things I don’t recall.

That being said - while I am abit confused at the moment - we enjoyed the opener and its definitely starting things off with a bang.

I haven’t read the book(s), and as I said in the OP the show seemed to go off on near-tangents that had little to do with what appears to be the main storyline. So I welcome a more focused season. Now, book readers may tell me that those asides were important, and I’ll believe them, but if all I (and some other viewers) know is what is on the screen the producers need to make the other things pay off.

Haven’t watched the new season yet, but I liked the meandering of season 1. I find this weird, wonderful world very interesting and amusing to watch, and probably more so than the actual plot. I want to see more weird gods doing weird things.

So Social Media and fatuous blogging have stymied the unlimited potential and purity of brilliant technical innovation. But on what basis does Loki accuse the Technical Boy of arguing his own obsolescence? Surely, using smart phones and media apps to track and manipulate people would not get off the ground without the technology and infrastructure that make it all possible, not to mention the advanced algorithms to analyse the big data.

The series is barely similar to the book at all. And it isn’t one of those adaptations that improve on the source material.

Eh, spoilers on that. He’s not Loki, he’s Mr. World and he’s waging war on the old gods.

I was a little worried about this season after all the behind the scenes drama and mixed early reviews. But Star Trek survived the departure of Fuller, and I’m enjoying this season so far.

As far as the meandering…I feel like people are talking about two different things. One is adding stuff to the main narrative not in the novel in order to pad things out for series length. Which, some of it worked well, and some didn’t, but I feel like that’s part of the process.

I do like that we are following more characters than just Shadow. Laura is a much more interesting character here than in the novel. And it makes so much sense pairing her up with Mad Sweeney. And I’m really glad to see more of Salim and Jinn. Bilquis though, except for her origin story, isn’t quite gelling yet.

The other thing is the Somewhere in America vignettes. I really love these, though strictly speaking, some of the flashbacks don’t directly deal with gods immigrating, neither did they in the novel. There was some talk of not having them this season. They do seem to be slightly less prominent, and with a slightly different focus.

I liked this episodes vignette with the computer musician a lot. But I too was confused about his later interaction with Technical Boy. TBs speech was so… something that I was unable to tune into what he was getting at. I assume it had something to do with replacing Argus, but I don’t get what he was going on about, or how it argued for his own obsclescence. Or how Mr World showing him a pretty screen saver did anything. Or why TB would get trapped in his own VRbot. The flower speakers were cool though.

And I also was not entirely sure what was going on with the Corn Palace scene in the last episode.

Also found it a little bit odd that while most of the show tries to expand on the novel, this episode cuts short Shadow’s stay at the funeral parlour.

I love the Somewhere in America vignettes, as well. In fact, I think I would watch the Mr. Ibis show.

Maybe I shouldn’t have rewatched season one in anticipation of season two because so far it’s really not holding up. If you’re going to hire Bryan Fuller and his unique vision and lens then you really ought to just shut up and trust the guy because he’s the only one who can do what he do. When he walks out of one of his weird and wonderful creations it usually falls flat like a bad souffle–at best it just meanders on like a zombie but so far I’ve never seen a show actually improve when Fuller left. This might be the most blatant example, though, especially since the defection of Gillian Anderson and Kristin Chenoweth was a pair of nuclear nut kicks. New Media suuuuuuuuuuucks especially.

I miss Old Media/Gillian Anderson, can’t stand New Media at all, i find myself almost bonding with TB due to my irritation by new media.

As for the book ive read it twice, the 10th anniversary version. Neil Gaiman writes out of all the versions of the book and each one is a little different that the 10th anniversary version is his favorite, He go’s into detail of how he ended up with different versions of the same book.

I enjoy the book and show so much I don’t care if it’s not exactly the same or actually it’s gone a good ways off the book that I read, but I still enjoy it so much. You can put these characters in various situations and I’m pretty sure I’d enjoy it. I’m along for the ride and it’s been such a good ride so far.

American Gods skillfully avoids legal issues with Marvel while poking fun at them with Donar Odinson, God of Hammers.

I binged Season 1 a while back, but I stopped during the first episode of Season 2. The series seemed to back up a half-step from the finale, with Shadow’s wife not telling him that Mr. Wednesday both sent him to prison and killed her, and Easter disappearing because he killed some bunnies despite that happening before she’d agreed to help him in the finale. I get that they had production problems, but these seem like crappy solutions.

Can Marvel copyright a actual Deity?

Because somewhere there was a jesus comic, so…

Although I enjoy the introductions of various new gods and spirits, I think it would be nice if they somehow had the look and feel of the culture they originated from. I was especially disappointed and yes, I even cringed when a native American trickster spirit was depicted as a redneck. Just felt wrong.

I have yet to watch the last two episodes.

Neil Gaiman announcing there’s a Season 4 just took the wind out of my sails as a fan. This season has been walking in circles doing very little to advance the plot. I can’t imagine another two years of the same. :frowning:

I can, and will watch happily, since Gaiman is introducing new stuff all the time.

The spider got stomped.

Two episodes in and I’m baffled. I really don’t know where the show is going and why. Ok, so its been a while since I watched the first season, but a lot of Fullers style kept me going with that…

It seems that Fuller has largely stopped doing anything. He did seem quite successful in the short term critically, and then usually leaves after a season. He was the reason I tried the show, I was a Gaimen fan back in the days of 1-30 of Sandman, but he disappeared up his own arse with that, and I’m seeing a lot of that in the American Gods: a lot of characters across a wide range of influences effectively doing nothing and going nowhere.

https://www.denofgeek.com/tv/american-gods-season-2-bryan-fuller-confirms-he-was-fired/

I LOVED the first season, then the 2nd season stunk on ice. Season 3 seems to be better than 2 so far, I guess, which is a low bar. I wish they had just kept things as they were and not cut the budget/fired Fuller.