Stick around for that fourth episode of “American Gods.” It’s as good an hour of television as I’ve ever seen. I didn’t want it to end.
Starz is on a roll, lately knocking out top-notch series like “Ash Vs. Evil Dead,” “The Girlfriend Experience” and now “Gods,” the series version of Neil Gaiman’s 2001 novel from writer-producers Bryan Fuller (“Dead Like Me,” “Wonderfalls,” “Pushing Daisies,” “Hannibal,” “Star Trek: Discovery”) and Michael Green (“Green Lantern,” “Logan,” “Alien Covenant”).
There’s a great deal to recommend “Gods.” It’s funny and different. “X-Files” icon Gillian Anderson turns up as Lucy Ricardo. Cloris Leachman almost reprises Frau Blucher from “Young Frankenstein.” Bill Murray’s younger brother gets swallowed up in a vagina.
You’ll have to wait another three weeks for episode four, “Git Gone,” which unexpectedly focuses on a dead blackjack dealer named Laura Moon (Emily Browning) who gets much less screen time in episodes one through three.
“Git” pushes the series out of the agreeable strange column and into the genius column. It reminds a lot of Fuller’s “Dead Like Me” and “Wonderfalls,” which followed other hilariously deadpan everywomen as they found their lives consumed by the supernatural.
“Gods” 1.4 reminds me also of “The Leftovers” 1.3, which unexpectedly turned its focus to a little-seen background character named Rev. Matt Jamison. It turned out to be the best episode of that first season.
Four episodes in, I’ve still little idea what “American Gods” is driving at. There seems to be a war brewing between the deities once worshipped by the Egyptians, Vikings, Romans and so on and new gods like drugs, money, media and tech. Can the old gods possibly win a contest like that?
Ian McShane (“Kings,” “John Wick,” “Game of Thrones”) and Ricky Whittle (“The 100”) – as an Old God and his newly acquired ex-con bodyguard – seem to play the main characters, but they disappear from the narrative for long stretches. This may or may not owe to the 8-episode first season of the Starz series only covering the first fifth or so of Gaiman’s novel.
Some of the other better-known actors in the cast include Jeremy Davies (“Lost,” “Justified,” “Hannibal”), Crispin Glover (“Back To The Future,” “Charlie’s Angels”), Peter Stormare (“Fargo,” “The Big Lebowski”), Kristin Chenoweth (“The West Wing,” “Pushing Daisies”), Jonathan Tucker (“Justified”), Orlando Jones (“Sleepy Hollow”), Dane Cook (“Employee of the Month”), Corbin Bernsen (“L.A. Law”) and Pablo Schreiber (“The Wire,” “Orange Is The New Black,” “The Brink”).
... Based on what we see of Mr. Wednesday and the others, the best they’ve been able to manage is simple survival, but the series captures the grandeur of who and what they once were, and can occasionally still be if they can find enough suckers to believe in them again. It’s a blast. …
... The elusive narrative threads of “American Gods” make a kind of structural sense: Shadow, plunged without warning into the gods’ realm, is bewildered by everything he sees, and we’re experiencing his bewilderment. Whether you take to the show will depend on whether you’re as patient as Shadow when it comes to getting a clue. …
... one of the best supernatural Season 1 debuts since HBO’s vampire saga, “True Blood.”… The result is a wonderfully eclectic mix of gory bloodlust and fairy whimsy, ethereal beauty and tenement apartment realism. …
... Long on concept and short on momentum … Viewers can perhaps look at “American Gods” more easily than follow it, with some faint reassurance that things will make sense soon enough. (It’s premium cable! Sooner or later, all of these shows have to make some sense.) … Unless it’s intended solely for a niche audience, “American Gods” could stand to work harder on its accessibility issues.
The San Francisco Chronicle says:
... Like the Wachowskis’ “Sense8,” you are prompted to suspend disbelief not by a convincing narrative but by hypnotic visuals — here augmented by extraordinary performances.…
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette says:
... “American Gods” comes back down to earth literally and narratively and invests in its human characters in episode four — an hour devoted to the back story of Shadow and Laura that encourages viewers to continue watching “American Gods” in a way earlier episodes had not. …
... While the four episodes presented to critics for preview offered just enough bearings to determine that bearings are of limited use in the universe of “American Gods,” it’s safe to say even this early that it’s one of the most imaginative, adventurous, and deeply weird experiments on television — an entrancingly trippy metaphorical melee that elevates an investigation of American identity to a supernatural plane. …
... Visually spectacular but initially lumbering series adaptation. …
... Producer Bryan Fuller is known for his exquisite visual and unconventional narrative touches (see NBC's "Hannibal"), but this disjointed attempt to execute Neil Gaiman's weird, sweeping supernatural novel feels like a half-cooked meal. …
... they’re taking us on a road trip with no destination or clear purpose in sight. But the scenery is startling and the company’s great. And for fans of the book or Fuller, that is likely to be enough. …
... its creators' wild ambition is running a bit amok and interfering with its execution, leaving the tone of the series haphazard and the narrative direction something of a mystery — which could make it a tough sell to those who haven't read the book. …
... The result is a sprawling, beautiful show that is fascinating, brilliantly executed, and rather hard to follow. There’s a narrator who never is introduced, a series of gods who do not take the trouble to introduce themselves, and a sense of electric possibility in a landscape that is otherwise dull beyond belief. …
9 p.m. Sunday. Starz.
