During quarantine, I found myself buying an Amazon Prime subscription so that I could finally watch a bunch of shows I’ve been dying to catch up on, and American Gods was at the top of my list (along with The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, The Boys, and Good Omens, all of which I will inevitably review in the future!). Naturally, two weeks into my Prime binge, I had already watched the full two seasons of the show. And while I absolutely loved Season 1, I can’t necessarily say the same thing about Season 2. Here’s why. (Warning: major spoilers for both seasons of American Gods below! Read at your own risk!)
Season 1
American Gods, based off the novel of the same name by Neil Gaiman, graced the small screen with its first season back in 2017. And I think almost anyone who watched it can agree that it started off with a bang.
The pilot season of the show had everything that I look for in a series: it had a captivating plotline, it pushed boundaries in its narrative explorations and visual choices, its PoC and LGBTQ+ characters were at the forefront of the show, and every single episode had me absolutely hooked. There was no trace of frivolous fluff in any episode—this was prestige television. Season 1 was comprised of an artfully crafted eight episodes, creating a cohesive story that simultaneously delved into a diverse set of characters’ stories. Plus (and Neil Gaiman himself is to thank for this one), I’ve always been a fan of any medium that delves into mythological lore and religious themes, so it was incredibly exciting to see a show do exactly that, and with a huge variety to boot. In this season alone we see Norse, West African, Egyptian, Irish, Roman, Slavic, Islamic, and Pagan deities and figures explored. (And that’s not even including the personifications of the “New Gods”, which take on the form of Media, Technology, and others).
All of these amazing themes were made better by Season 1 showrunners Bryan Fuller and Michael Green. I was personally most excited about Fuller’s involvement, who’s known for writing and producing brilliant shows like Hannibal and Pushing Daisies, and executive producing Star Trek series’ Deep Space Nine, Voyager, and Discovery. Though I haven’t necessarily watched all of these shows, I’ve seen enough to know that Fuller’s work is auteuristic by nature. When you watch a Bryan Fuller show, you know you’re in for stunning visuals and artful cinematography. As well, Fuller almost always uses his work to break barriers that many others are too afraid to broach. Having Green onboard was also an exciting choice, as he has worked as a writer and producer for many shows and films, some of the most popular being Logan, Alien: Covenant and Blade Runner 2049.
What particularly kept me engaged with Season 1 was not just its cohesiveness, but the specific ways in which representation for its various diverse characters were shown. Our main character, Shadow Moon (played by Ricky Whittle) is a black man, and prominent characters like trickster god Anansi (called Mr. Nancy), the Queen of Shiba (Bilquis), and Egyptian gods Anubis and Thoth (called Mr. Jacquel and Mr. Ibis, respectively) are also played by black actors. Then we have Salim, a gay Muslim man, played by Iranian actor Omid Abtahi, and the Jinn/Ifrit, Salim’s love interest who is played by Arab actor Mousa Kraish. In a show where there are so many characters, Fuller and Green were still able to ensure that each of these PoC and queer characters were given enough screen time to properly explore their arcs.
I want to take a moment to highlight what was probably the most revolutionary scene of the Season, and this is the one that happens in S1E3 between Salim and the Jinn. The sexual (and later romantic) relationship showed viewers a representational pairing that is almost never explored onscreen, and that is one between two Middle Eastern men (and to top it off, Salim is Muslim, and the Jinn is a supernatural being in Islamic mythology. So, you can imagine how “taboo” this pairing is). As it is, PoC queerness is only something that is explored more in the mainstream recently, so this scene was particularly amazing. The scene itself is tender and artful, balancing a powerful beauty amidst an explicit depiction of sex. I also loved that Salim’s character was explored through the rest of the season, which was a welcome deviation from the book (wherein Salim is not seen again after the encounter). Seeing a Muslim PoC queer man on mainstream television is not something we see often, but it’s definitely something I want to see more of. Starz is also one of the few networks that emphasizes equality between males and females when it comes to full frontal sex scenes. This is shockingly (but not that shockingly) an inequality issue that still runs rampant on almost every other network and platform, wherein female nudity is almost always full-frontal, but male nudity is what I like to call full-frontal Lite. I admit, even I was a little jarred to see how unabashedly American Gods portrays sex scenes, but this was quickly followed up with an appreciation for the empowering nature of these depictions. Because if it’s fine to show the entirety of the female body, then the male body should be shown entirely, too.
Other standout characters/scene stealers of the season include Pablo Schreiber as Mad Sweeney, Emily Browning as Laura Moon, Ian McShane as Mr. Wednesday, and Orlando Jones as Mr. Nancy. Over a course of eight episodes, the pacing of Season 1 was fast enough to keep me on the edge of my seat, but steady enough to ensure that enough attention was paid to each storyline and not just being skated over. One of the main highlights for me was the “Coming to America” segments that opened each episode, which explained how various gods and goddesses quite literally came to America. Each one of these segments were pieces of art in themselves, striking a gorgeous dichotomy between past and present.
The way Season 1 culminated made it apparent that each plot point was carefully premeditated, in order to build up to the final scene when all the characters end up in the same place (at the Easter celebration). Laura, now a revenant, finally finds Shadow and also discovers that her untimely death was because of Wednesday. The Old Gods officially declare their war on the New Gods. Shadow finally has something to believe in. And Ostara uses her powers to take away Spring. The final scene shows an angry Laura Moon finding Shadow and telling him they need to talk, inevitably about the fact that Shadow’s new idol, Mr. Wednesday (who is Norse god Odin) is the one who killed her. It was an excellent, epic setup for a finale, and left me insanely excited to see what was to come next.
But then…Season 2 happened.
Season 2
Unfortunately, Fuller and Green, the very lifeblood of the show’s excellence, exited from the show after Season 1, which resulted in a tonal shift that was immediately evident. First, it’s important to note that Season 2 aired a full two years after Season 1. Fans of the show likely know about the fair share of drama that went down behind the scenes, beginning with Fuller and Green leaving after disagreements over budgetary allotment. It probably also didn’t help matters that Gaiman himself was less involved in Season 2‘s production, as he was working on Good Omens at the time.
I knew as soon as I started watching that something felt off, though I still gave it the benefit of the doubt. However, I soon realized what it was: the rich diversity and representation that I loved so much from Season 1 was just not present in the same way whatsoever. It was particularly characters like Mr. Nancy, Ifrit, and Salim—who were at the forefront in Season 1—that suddenly became C-level characters. The previously thought-provoking Mr. Nancy, who served as a sociopolitical mouthpiece in Season 1, was now primarily used for quippy banter and comic relief. The Salim/Jinn storyline that rocked the first season so deeply was only explored in tidbits, barely showing us enough to see a progressing relationship.
Orlando Jones, who played Mr. Nancy, has made it no secret that he drew attention to the writers about the lack of meaningful dialogue for these PoC characters, and had to take on much of the writing himself. Unfortunately, Jones was fired after Season 2 and will not be back to reprise his role as Mr. Nancy. The production company and showrunners owe it to a number of vague (and frankly, BS) reasons, but the most reputable of reasons comes from Jones himself, who says he was told that his character sent “the wrong message for Black America”. Mousa Kraish’s Jinn will also not be back for Season 3, which is a major disappointment for those of us who were so intrigued and invested by Salim and Jinn’s storyline in Season 1. It feels as if the representation that Fuller and Green brought to the screen initially is being erased, which is extremely problematic and frankly a huge disappointment especially for us PoC viewers.
It wasn’t just that, though: the characterization was weak on almost all fronts. Characters like Shadow who had made so much progress in Season 1 felt flat in this season, feeling like his storyline was simply a repurposed version what we’d seen before. And though characters like Laura and Sweeney were still highlights, particularly because their dynamic is so compelling, it felt like their arcs were stalling too. It took me until a few episodes in to realize that there was no clear vision or overarching theme for Season 2. The well-thought-out structure of Season 1 was not present, and it felt as if the original showrunners’ vision and foundation that was so fully realized in Season 1 was completely ignored. For example, it baffled me that S2E1 starts with Laura and Shadow sitting in the same car, and yet she doesn’t tell him about Wednesday being the reason for her death. Shadow doesn’t actually find out about this huge piece of news until S2E8, which is bizarre to me. Other arcs like Easter taking back Spring were brushed off, and it was things like this that made Season 2 immediately feel like an ersatz version of its former self.
No one is more disappointed than I to make that statement. But ultimately, the first season introduced us to the world of American Gods and with it, maintained a certain level of mystery. It felt as if we were discovering this world alongside Shadow Moon, marvelling at every twist and turn. Every character had their own unique journey and purpose. But with Season 2 opening with an episode that blatantly ignored important follow through, it became increasingly clear that with Fuller and Green’s exit, the artistic vision had shifted.
Though there were definitely highlights amidst the season (I particularly liked Bilquis’ character exploration, as well as scenes with Laura and Sweeney), unfortunately it was more convoluted and slow in pace than it was compelling. It was primarily its half-baked attempts at showing diversity on a whole, as well as a notable lack of follow through from the events of the previous season, that led to a weak Season 2.
I will say, however, that the main standout episode for me was S2E7, which delved into Mad Sweeney’s backstory. (An interesting little tidbit I found out through later research, but Sweeney’s second iteration is based on an old Irish tale called Buile Shuibhne, which roughly translates to the “Madness of Suibhne [pronunced Swee-nee]”; thus the name Mad Sweeney.) The height of this episode’s poetry comes with the connection between Sweeney’s origin as King Lugh –whose skill with his spear earned him the name “of the long arm”– and the moment he attempts to kill Wednesday with his own spear Gungnir. It is also mere moments after this that Mad Sweeney is killed by Shadow, and while I can appreciate the tragic juxtaposition of Sweeney remembering who he was just before his life ends, I also think it was a bad idea on the showrunners’ part to kill off one of the only characters who carried the show.
After all, it was predominantly Schreiber’s Sweeney and Browning’s Laura who carried the show for much of Season 2. The fiery dynamic between the two is unbeatable, and in fact is so good that this whole dynamic is a deviation from the book, because in the book Sweeney and Laura don’t ever meet. So ultimately, I have no clue how they are going to fill the huge gap that Sweeney has left. With Sweeney, Mr. Nancy, and the Jinn being gone from the next season, I think American Gods will be hard pressed to ever get back to the level it once was at.
The Final Consensus
The whole ugliness and behind-the-scenes drama leading up to Season 2 unfortunately translated onto the screen. While it was still a decent overall season which had its highlights, it mostly left me racking my brain as to what momentous events even took place over eight episodes. Where Season 1 was a fully realized masterpiece, Season 2 was mostly convoluted.
Viewers can come away from Season 2 understanding the importance of establishing a clear vision for a series—and how messy it can be if there isn’t one. If you think about what the overarching theme was for Season 1, it was to make Shadow believe in something outside of his own realm of reality. But with Season 2, there wasn’t any one clear theme. If anything, the storyline about Shadow discovering his past (as the potential son of Wednesday) felt injected in rather than organically written.
The juxtaposition between Season 1 and Season 2 is, unfortunately, quite jarring. Because there was nothing slow about Season 1: every episode was brimming with adventure, intrigue, and rich plot. And then, Season 2 hit a stasis, with various characters going in circles, or not really going anywhere. In Season 1, every character’s storyline synthesized with one another’s, but in Season 2, it felt as if everyone simply existed alongside each other. From a narrative perspective, there was massive tonal shift, one that could simply not be ignored.
Ultimately, while Season 2 lacked the same finesse of Season 1, and though the visuals tried hard to imitate the wonderment that Fuller and Green brought to Season 1, it never quite got there. Because that’s the thing with auteurism – it is often an entire package associated with a particular creator (or in this case, set of creators), and that’s not something that can be emulated. Fuller and Green brought us a show richly saturated with imagination, a truly visceral experience with an unashamed emphasis on sociopolitical themes, and a predominant focus on letting the light shine on marginalized groups. And unfortunately, the same could not be said for Season 2.
Believe me, I want nothing more than for the upcoming Season 3 to blow me out of the water and subvert my expectations. But as it currently stands? I’m not holding my breath.
~ Z ~
