REVIEWED: SEASON 2 (ALL EPISODES) | WHERE TO WATCH: AMAZON PRIME VIDEO
American Gods is Neil Gaiman’s greatest novel. Bryan Fuller and Michael Green took on the mammoth task of adapting the novel, and developed the first series for Starz with considerable success. Season Two continues to follow Shadow Moon (Ricky Whittle) who has been released from prison and taken into the employ of Mr. Wednesday (Ian McShane).
However, Shadow soon learns he is in the midst of a great war between the Old Gods of the religions that arrived in the US with generations of immigration, led by Wednesday, who is revealed to be Norse God Odin, and the New Gods, based around modern obsessions with media, technology and conspiracy theories, led by Mr. World (Crispin Glover) and colluding with Old God, Bilquis (Yetide Badaki). The war is escalated significantly, and it results in the abduction of Shadow, who is then pursued by his previously dead wife Laura. However, when Shadow begins to recall his childhood under duress, he begins to question whether he can really trust Wednesday.
American Gods has stepped up its game in its second season. Massive credit to Ricky Whittle who has come into his own as Shadow; he was a bit lost amongst the Godly characters in the first season, but this time he grabs the attention he deserves. Away from performance, the series offers some incredibly psychedelic set pieces, giving the viewer a true taste of what the gods can do. With this in mind there are some music choices in the earlier episodes that drown out what the actors say, but these a few and far between.
Overall, the series doesn’t quite pack the same punch as the first, but still is in the spirit of Neil Gaiman’s original work.
