American Gods (TV Series)
add a link
American Gods Review: Strong Cast, High Style Make Drama a Divine Delight
American Gods Review: Strong Cast, High Style Make Drama a Divine Delight
Starz’s American Gods takes on a daunting — let’s call it Goliath-sized — task in adapting Neil Gaiman’s sweeping ফ্যান্টাসি novel for the small screen.
মূলশব্দ: american gods, season 1, starz, review
|
I remember visiting this website once...
It was called ‘American Gods’ Review: Starz Adaptation of Neil Gaiman Novel | TVLine
Here's some stuff I remembered seeing:
takes on a daunting — let’s call it Goliath-sized — task in adapting Neil Gaiman’s sweeping fantasy novel for the small screen. After all, the cult-favorite book is a road-trip tale, an examination of the nature of belief, one man’s journey toward enlightenment
That’s a lot to fit into an hour each week. Does the freshman drama, which premieres April 20, make it work? Let the congregation say: Amen.
American Gods Trailer: Shadow Moon Gets Mixed Up in ‘Some Really Weird $#*!’ in First Look at Starz Drama
Fans of Gaiman’s 2001 work will be pleased to know that any changes to the narrative have been made mainly to expand, not abridge, the narrative. (It helps that the author is an executive producer on the project.) The story still follows ex-convict Shadow Moon (played by
‘s Ricky Whittle), who makes the acquaintance of the mysterious Mr. Wednesday (
‘s Ian McShane) and soon finds himself accompanying the older man on a cross-country odyssey.
What Wednesday knows, and Shadow soon cottons to, is that Old World gods (think mythology) and New World gods (think technology) are gearing up for a battle. The coveted spoils: human attention/devotion, because without it, deities tend to fade into irrelevancy.
embraces the hugeness of its source material by decking out the action in equally large style. Bryan Fuller (
) are its writers and showrunners, and Fuller’s fingerprints, especially, are easily visible all over the series. For instance, an Episode 2 scene featuring heavy blood spray and strings on the soundtrack will feel so familiar to
fans, you’ll half expect Dr. Lecter to make a surprise cameo.
RELATEDThe White Princess: 5 Things to Know About Starz’s White Queen Sequel
Speaking of blood, the series’ moments of physical brutality are as highly stylized as the rest of it, with copious amounts of the red stuff flying in slo-mo a la
. The effect adds to the drama’s slick, surreal feel; on occasion, scenes feature bodily damage so egregious that all you can do is laugh. (You wouldn’t think that death via hundreds of simultaneously launched arrows could cause a chuckle. As Episode 1 teaches us, you’d be wrong.)
‘ humor, though, comes from the glorious McShane. His Mr. Wednesday is every bit the slippery, conniving, perplexing con man of Gaiman’s imagination. Yet the
alum gives Wednesday a lightness and charm that makes him downright riveting. And in scenes where Shadow plays the straight man to Wednesday’s shenanigans, McShane and Whittle are never better.
That central partnership is important to the success of the series, and
nails it, but the rest of the cast contains some gems, as well. Pablo Schreiber (
) brings scrappy fire to the role of bellicose, literally down-on-his-luck leprechaun Mad Sweeney. Cloris Leachman (
) is perfectly cast as wise, unimpressed Russian Zorya Vechernyaya. Gillian Anderson (
), showing up as a twisted Lucille Ball, owns her saucy Episode 2 introduction as the god of Media. And in an episode focusing on Shadow’s marriage (one of the aforementioned departures from the source material), Emily Browning (
toilet humor in a way that makes you like Laura Moon more than you probably should.
is not without its rough patches. The biggest stumble in the four episodes Starz made available to the press is that the hours at the beginning of Shadow and Wednesday’s trip — especially an interlude in Chicago — drag in spots. It takes until Episode 3 for everything to gel fully, and that wait may feel interminable to those who haven’t read the book and can’t anticipate what’s ahead.
Viewers who are familiar with the work, however, will be happy to know that the novel’s interstitial segments — which offer snapshots of gods at work in the lives of ordinary people — not only have survived the adaptation but provide some of the richest moments in the first part of the season. The one that sticks with me the most is the meeting of a struggling salesman from Oman and a
taxi driver, which is acted and shot with simple sensuality and could stand alone as a one-act play. The interlude is a prime example of why the marriage of Fuller and Green’s sensibilities and Gaiman’s prose is a holy thing, indeed.
THE TVLINE BOTTOM LINE: Though it’s slow to hit its groove,
worships at the altar of big story, told stylishly, by a cast in which you can have faith.
If you like TVLine, you\'ll LOVE our weekly newsletter. Click here to subscribe.
SNL: Melissa McCarthy Returns as \'Spicey\' to Atone for Hitler Gaffe
SNL\'s Trump Fires Steve Bannon, Promotes Fallon\'s Mute Jared Kushner
Once Upon a Time Cast Shake-Up: Finale Will Accommodate Any Changes, No Story Will Feel \'Incomplete\'
SNL: Jimmy Fallon Sings David Bowie, Harry Styles Moves Like Jagger & More
2017 Renewal Scorecard: What\'s Coming Back? What\'s Getting Cancelled? What\'s on the Bubble?
3Scandal Recap: Was the 100th Episode a Perfect Dream or Total…63
4Did Scandal\'s 100th Have a Point? How Did Riverdale Forget…40
5The Originals Recap: Klaus Mikaelson and the Deathly Hollow38
Stayin' Alive: A Grammy Salute to the Music of the Bee Gees
read more
মতামত দিতে ফ্যানপপে প্রবেশ করুন বা যোগ দিন