Neil Gaiman's American Gods

Last time when the number seasons was mentioned, Gaiman himself said that the book would take about five seasons to finish.

I just realized that once American Gods gets into later seasons, it will contain a character with a Tomboyish Name, like all Bryan Fuller shows: Samantha "Sam" Black Crow. Now that is an amazing coincidence.

I was about to ask about Hannibal, but then I remembered: Fredricka 'Freddie' Lounds.

So, uh...was Scott Thompson actually playing Jimmy Price from Hannibal? Because he mentions being x many years sober, and I seem to remember Jimmy having a drinking habit/problem And Gretchen Speck showed up on Hannibal, so I'm wondering if maybe this was that same coy sort of cameo.

edited 15th May '17 11:53:11 PM by Unsung

Fuller does have a habit of tying his shows together with cameos. When it's Wonderfalls and Pushing Daisies, it's one thing, but if Hannibal and American Gods are in there too, it gets kind of weird. Although if Pushing Daisies and American Gods share a universe, maybe that explains Ned's powers?

I think each one of his shows has similar characters, but each takes place in a different universe. For example, Dead Like Me had Georgia "George" Lass, who died and became a Grim Reaper. But then in Hannibal, the same actress plays Georgia Madchen (German for "lass"), who has a disorder where she believes she's dead.

They didn't do it a lot, or anything, but Gretchen Speck from Wonderfalls does show up in the second episode of Hannibal (and Georgia Madchen's Cotard.delusion as a very dark revisiting of George Lass's Reaperness was pretty great) They didn't mention Scott Thompson's Hannibal character by name (he's just credited as Kind Man), but I wouldn't be surprised if that's a deliberate connection, kept deliberately ambiguous. Unless Scott Thompson comes back later in the season. I didn't look, don't tell me.

edited 16th May '17 12:36:11 PM by Unsung

Dead Girl Walking.

So Laura's got a much more major role in this show. That's pretty awesome. Also interesting: she meets Jacquel and Ibis before Shadow does, and we get a nice little payoff to seeing Anubis's scales in the previous episode. We're also finding out that Shadow's relationship with Laura was shitty a lot earlier in the story, and between her shitty life and ultra-gory superpowers, I'm really starting to see how they intend to divert from the book.

Audrey's still sort of my favourite character on this show, though.

Liked the episode, but I would have liked more detail on the effects of atheism in this world. What I would like to think is that Laura's problem wasn't her atheism, it's that she literally believed in nothing. Not anything supernatural, not herself, not her husband. I'd like to see an atheist get escorted by Anubis into a happier afterlife because they lived a good life and believed in their friends and family and all that.

Think you've hit the nail on the head. Bryan Fuller is an atheist, as I recall. And atheism isn't the same as merely not believing there's a god, it's a belief that there definitely isn't one. That distinction probably matters for the purposes of this show. Laura seems like she's about to get the afterlife she seems to believe she deserves on some level: darkness without peace, oblivion but not rest.

Damn, that was one of my favorite lines of the show so far:

"There will be darkness."
"And peace?"
"There will be darkness."

Anubis doesn't coddle.

Gillian Anderson as Ziggy Stardust.

That's awesome.

I think it's interesting that they're essentially pitching Laura as having been an Empty Shell even before she died, at least in some regards. I think in some ways it's good that they're making her a more substantial character, (but still an asshole) but I couldn't help cringing a bit at the way they tried to turn her and Shadow meeting into a Meet Cute.

Pro tip guys: if an admitted criminal three times a woman's size is hanging out in the parking lot for them after work, her reaction is probably not going to be "Hey, I should totally invite this criminal who is much bigger and stronger than me over to my house, where if he doesn't kill me right away he might stalk or harass me around my own home later."

More likely the reaction would be to run back inside, preferably get someone she knows, and make sure she's not alone with the potentially dangerous muscle man.

I mean, it's helped somewhat by showing how dead Laura is inside and due to her depression she might be like "Meh, fuck it. I'm already trying to kill myself, so what's the worst that can happen?"

Even so, it reminded me of that old not-really-a-joke thing that says "Men's fear that women will laugh at and reject them. Women fear that men will fucking kill them" and that the scene was written by a man who'd never heard or considered that.

That sort of plays into the damaging stereotype that all men must be presumed rapists until proven otherwise. I'm definitely not saying women shouldn't be careful or that women who are on guard are wrong for feeling that way, but I don't think it's wildly unrealistic for a female character to meet a man and not simply assume that's going to be the case. She did talk to him, and people can still exercise some judgment based on their personal estimation of a person's character. Sometimes that judgment is faulty, but that kind of thing does still happen. Not every woman screens their phone calls and only dates guys they've met vetted online.

Although I think the idea that Shadow was attractive and, possibly more significantly, obviously attracted to her might have also played into Laura's decision-making there. The way she lives her life (or, more accurately, doesn't live it) means that the danger doesn't matter to her, but the possibility of a connection, however fleeting, does. It's not a simple reaction, Laura's not a simple character, but I think the writers were, if anything, very aware of the gender politics at play here. They specifically wanted to portray a flawed female character, of the sort that doesn't often get much screentime.

edited 16th Jul '17 3:36:43 PM by Unsung

Everything in this episode that didn't involve Laura felt kind of disjointed. Like things were just happening, rather than progressing.

Also, Mr World's smiles were downright Jokerian

edited 28th May '17 9:47:15 AM by Eagal

I've finally caught up and oh wow, Crispin Glover's Mr. World is goddamn outstanding, Man makes every line sound eerie and unnatural. Is the entire goddamn cast going to be nominated for an emmy? Because at this pace I'm getting a sense they deserve to.

Just like the book, Anubis is my second favorite character after Czernabog. "There will be darkness" indeed.

In another completely random and absurd Wild Mass Guessing on my part: Mr. World and Low-Key Lyesmith may be actual different people in this adaptation.

With regards to Atheism: By what Anubis says, I'm going to guess a regular, psychologically healthy atheist would just cease to exist, as that'd be what they believed would happen after death.

edited 30th May '17 5:34:47 PM by Gaon

Considering Loki's proclivity towards shapeshifting, I'm not going to rule out the possibility that they're still the same guy. Though in that case, it does bring in some Fridge Logic, re: why Loki's even bothering with Wednesday's plan. What with Adaptational Badass moving him from head mook to Big Bad, he's clearly found a new niche to occupy that gives him plenty of power, so he has no reason to work with Wednesday.

edited 30th May '17 6:08:44 PM by Eagal

Perhaps there was a real Mister World and Loki merely took his place, but he can't maintain the illusion for very long. Or perhaps Loki simply wants to cause trouble — after all, he is a trickster god. His power doesn't exactly come from "globalization" like Mister World's — Loki's power was always in chaos.

Loki having the shapeshifting abilities is most likely what happened, but it's curious that the show chose to not have the identifying traits novel or myth (the mouth scars and the same eyecolor as the shapeshifting signifiers, like Odin missing an eye) in Mr. World. The change in Mr. World from head mook to Big Bad also makes it weird, as well as his extended purview and powerset (becoming the avatar of globalization now) makes it curious. Like, Loki (the god of trickery) would have no actual business being The Omniscient with the knowledge of modernity as Mr. World seems to be in the show.

It's a complete shot in the dark and mostly a hunch, but I'm guessing that might be the case for this adaptation, that Mr. World and Low-Key are differently people. Hell, as far as characterization goes, I can more easily see Media (god of trickery and whatnot) turning out to be Loki than Mr. World in this adaptation

I know it's just speculation, but I wish I could unknow that last spoiler tag. Mostly because I think it's actually a pretty good guess, but I hadn't thought of it, and now if it turns out to be right, I won't get to be as surprised :( Nice catch, though, preemptively, if it turns out you're right.

Not sure I like Mr.World's bigger role since I already know what the twist with him is.

Also has there been any explanation about how modern day Anansi talked to people in the past ?

I think that was just the past Mr Nancy being able to catch a glimpse of his own future and use it to his advantage. And as they've shown with Laura and now Mr World's truce, this series is going to diverge from the books in some fairly major ways.

To be duly noted this is Mr. Ibis's recording of what happened, not exactlly what happened.

@unsung: Thanks. We'll see how it goes. Since you can't unknow what you know, let me add on a bit more Media's interaction with Technical Boy in the white limo is a lot closer to the interactions between Mr. World and Boy in the book. I don't have the book with me right now, but I think Media directly lifts a few phrases that Mr. World says to Technical Boy.

Have to admit somewhat losing interest but hope to catch up.

In terms of the Anansi scene, I'd hand wave it as a story about Anansi told about Anansi (presumably by a modern person) coming to America, rather than the actual "history" of how Anansi got to America. Because Anansi is a/the "God of Stories" and because it is at odds with the book Anansi to seek blood sacrifice.

RE Mr. World, my thought right now is that he and Low-key are one and the same. They have some of the same tics and right now I'm thinking it will ultimately be revealed that his powers are either "faked" or done with Wednesday's help.

Yeah, I also think Mr. World and Low-Key are the same in this adaptation as well.

The actor of former uses too much effort to mug in a similar way to the actor of latter.

How you gonna kill a god of the forge with his own forge? Does not compute.