Just watched the first episode on xfinity on demand. Not for the squeamish and be careful who you meet online–yes, they do that scene.
I hadn’t even heard that it got made: Last I heard (many years ago), they were still in production hell.
Who’d they cast?
Some young guy I’m not familiar with as Shadow; Ian McShane as Wednesday, Orlando Jones as Mr. Nancy, Gillian Anderson as Media, Kristin Chenoweth as Eostre, Peter Stormare as Czernobog… I haven’t seen it yet, but it sounds pretty good.
That’s some fine casting there. Especially McShane and Stormare.
Also have Crispin Glover as Mr. World and Cloris Leachman as Zorya.
Shadow is played by Ricky Whittle.
So how did they do that scene? I’ve been puzzling over the mechanics ever since I heard they were doing a show.
I mean, in the book it’s shown from the POV of Bilquis’s victim, and he has his eyes closed when he transitions from normal sex to getting, er, reverse-birthed. How is it shown on-screen?
A little CGI, obviously. But, damn if that guy didn’t die happy. In America, it turns out pussy eats you.
I believe the broadcast is tonight on Starz; I just happened to see that it was available on demand after midnight today.
A little CGI, obviously. But, damn if that guy didn’t die happy. In America, it turns out pussy eats you.
I believe the broadcast is tonight on Starz; I just happened to see that it was available on demand after midnight today.
I’ll say there is Bilquis nudity and sex, and the bloody graphic violence in the opening scene gives Game of Thrones a run for its money.
Right, but I meant what did it look like from the outside.
I liked it. The casting and performances from every character was everything I could have hoped for.
I think the tone and violence was a too heavy-handed in some scenes, particularly for the first episode. Certainly the book got there, but it started a lot more subtly and didn’t go straight to SPARTACUS BLOOD AND TITS AND BUCKETS OF GORE. Other things were more subtle in my mind: IMO the buffalo with burning eyes should have had embers behind the pupils, instead of a giant propane flame shooting out both sides of its head.
The soundtrack was also overwhelming for many scenes, with too much indistinct thrumming and droning. When I read the book, my head-soundtrack was mostly folk music played by an ancient man with a guitar, sitting on the porch of a collapsing bungalow.
Ah well, given that it’s on Starz I should probably just be thankful that they let any subtlety remain.
Well I liked it. It started out a little rough with the Viking scene but the rest of the episode came off pretty well. In particular some of the production shots of the characters and the bar were worrisome but it must have just been the lighting because they looked great in the show.
I’m looking most forward to the taxi driver story. And Easter but for the actress but the character.
I really liked the changes to Technical boy. Shadow was perfectly cast. Lowkey should have gotten a little more of an introduction. I had some minor quibbles and some of it felt a little green but overall a solid start. And I loved the opening title sequence. Tonally and aesthetically perfect.
The only thing I think the book did a little better was the transition from grounded to supernatural or maybe the ratio.
Going to digest it a little and watch again tomorrow. Wish it was Netflix so I could binge watch.
Also was it my imagination or during the Viking scene did one of the dismembered arms fly off the frame and into the black bars?
Exactly, a lot of the early parts of the book switched between hyper-mundane and supernatural. Part of Gaiman’s magic, to me, was how well he nailed the experience driving across middle America, and all the way mundane little roadside attractions can trigger flights of the imagination after the umpteenth hour on the road.
Do I have to have cable to catch it or does anyone know if it’s on Hulu et al?
Spoilers: The producers talk about it in the article:
Basically, their size ratio changes somewhat as he’s going in.
Starz so you need to pay money. Then you can access it through some streaming services (I use Amazon).
I will probably pay for a month or two of Starz to watch this and finish Evil Dead. I just finished the book for the second time in preparation, it’s been a spell since the first time.
That’s what I saw too! Until your post though I thought it must just have been my imagination. I should have done a “rewind” to double-check.
No, the sword definitely left the frame there for a bit. It was a nice visual acknowledgement of that part being a story-within-the-story.