American Gods

Qhue said:

Audrey is phenomenal. The whole scene with her finding Laura and then talking in the bathroom was excellent.

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Yeah it was. She sold the fuck out of that scene.

The grabbing of the phone and dropping it because it was still stuck to the charger was great.

damn.. I wish I had not gotten into this show until the season was over. The plot is moving so glacially slow, but the episodes are very well done.. it's just aggravating to wait a week for basically 5 minutes of plot and 45 minutes of filler, albeit some of the best filler ever. Then, we get effectively a flashback just when some interesting plot points seemed right around the corner. fuuuuuck..

It wouldn't be so bad if I was able to binge watch it, but now I'm interested and waiting for each episode. The graveyard scene was cool. Laura and Audrey in the bathroom was hilarious. Laura's character in general is kind of fascinating, with how bored and yet angry she is with life in general. Her whole outlook on the situation is so cerebral and un-emotional, it's just a different kind of character from most female stereotypes that makes kind of her intriguing to me despite not 'liking' her for fucking over Shadow. She's basically the male stereotype and Shadow is filling in for the emotional lovey-dovey role they normally write the female as.

But GOD (any of them) DAMN is this plot moving slow as fuck.

Well when reading the book it was clearly meant for a long narrative format. The pacing was very similar to Sandman in that effect and I could feel that it would have worked well as a comic. Even back then I felt that a TV series was the only way to do it justice and that in so doing lots of stuff would get fleshed out.

The central plot is decent enough, but the true fun of the novel, and indeed the series, in in the process of getting there. It's all about the renditions of various belief systems set against a background of quirky Americana.

The plot is moving slow as fuck because they've taken a one season book and [---------------stretch-------------stretch--------------stretch (The Hobbit) ------------stretch] stretched it out to be three seasons long.

That said, they can do that all they want if the extra material is as good as episode four.

(Spoiler: the extra material will not all be)

I'm waiting for at least majority of the season to be out, then I'll binge for that very reason.

Void said:

Let me expand upon that a little. The "one season book" was also slow as fuck. So we get three seasons of something that would have been boring and slow with only one season. Granted, I don't actually think they could have told a good version of the story with like half a season or anything, but in the entire book nothing *really* happens, until the end I suppose, but even what happens then isn't very exciting, nor does it make much sense.

The characters are fantastic though, so I'm actually enjoying this more than the book by quite a bit.

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They are doing a lot better job with the show, they have added a ton of new stuff and even if it is slow it's not nearly as slow at the book even getting dragged out 3 season, there is only 4 episodes left for season one and they have barely touched on anything.

The changes to Laura is a huge positive so far since I have been dreading her arrival/story

I figured what they were doing was expanding on the lore of the gods like Technical Boy, Bilquis, Media ect and tightening up the story which is very easy to do but it hasnt happened much so far

Void said:

Let me expand upon that a little. The "one season book" was also slow as fuck. So we get three seasons of something that would have been boring and slow with only one season. Granted, I don't actually think they could have told a good version of the story with like half a season or anything, but in the entire book nothing *really* happens, until the end I suppose, but even what happens then isn't very exciting, nor does it make much sense.

The characters are fantastic though, so I'm actually enjoying this more than the book by quite a bit.

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This, the book's story, lets face it, was shit. It was an extremely simplistic, and boring, story. The characters though were amazing, and it was interesting trying to figure out which gods they were and how they worked in modern society, and what they did.

The book wasn't really amazing, but Gaiman has a talent for coming up with great environment and characters but being really bad at telling a story with them. It reminds me of Miéville, who just loves his thesaurus and can't help himself but shove it down your throat, but the settings are mindblowing.

The series so far has started strong and getting slower with every episode, but it's held together by some great cinematography and acting/casting. I wonder how far into the book will they get, but for a tv series they have almost too much subtlety and if it wasn't based on a book, a lot of people would have trouble staying interested. Still works better than the book imo, the casting of every god and deity so far has been awesome, but basically fuckall has happened. I like the little details like computer guy's henchmen bursting into fatality after the smallest punch, you can tell this isn't phoned in, but you need a bit more for great TV.

My memory of the book is a bit hazy but

I took that scene to be showing that Laura was super strong. Did I misunderstand it and it was just that the henchmen were actually super fragile?

Enzee said:

I took that scene to be showing that Laura was super strong. Did I misunderstand it and it was just that the henchmen were actually super fragile?

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One of them split in two after a punch with spine rocketing skywards, it was definitely overdone a bit, but then later she had no problem dismantling the door, so maybe a little bit of both. Then there was the shot with one of them holding a crowbar ala Gordon Freeman, I think they had a lot of fun with the cinematography.

e: nvm it was kick in the balls, still think they did it deliberately, it would have sent him flying otherwise.

My memory of the book is a bit hazy but

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Zaphid said:

One of them split in two after a punch with spine rocketing skywards, it was definitely overdone a bit, but then later she had no problem dismantling the door, so maybe a little bit of both. Then there was the shot with one of them holding a crowbar ala Gordon Freeman, I think they had a lot of fun with the cinematography.

e: nvm it was kick in the balls, still think they did it deliberately, it would have sent him flying otherwise.

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Oh.. you are saying it was a reference to video game henchmen dying dramatically, and sure I can see that.. but I don't think they were fragile, or Shadow wouldn't have gotten punked by them so easily, it was that she was super strong. Maybe even more then normal, as she's filled with rage/emotion/whatever to save the 'light of her life'. Since Shadow is the reason she's still here, she may have extra powers when protecting him or around him.

Guess we lost the posts after the new episode..

I just watched it last night finally and HOLY SHIT was the scend at the end great. Thats what ive been waiting for, more of the gods showing they are really gods. Best episode yet, hope there is more to come now that shadow has seen whats up.

Yeah sad we lost those posts.

Crispin Glover delivered as only he can. I loved the 'making of' bit afterwards when they said they told the casting director they were looking for a "Crispin Glover type" and were told a couple days later that they had a meeting with him. I'd be terrified of that meeting

Zaphid said:

a tv series they have almost too much subtlety

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Bah, I just caught up and I love that they're keeping Shadow/the audience in the dark, and their powers start of under the auspices of magic tricks, it builds on the core theme being presented.

Reminds me of that line from the exorcist:

Demon: I'm not Regan.

Father Karras: Well, then let's introduce ourselves. I'm Damien Karras.

Demon: And I'm the Devil. Now kindly undo these straps.

Father Karras: If you're the Devil, why not make the straps disappear?

Demon: That's much too vulgar a display of power, Karras.

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This was probably the best episode yet. The pace is picking up and I think I could watch an entire series devoted to the adventures of Mad Sweeney and The Dead Wife.

As soon as Vulcan said the word "franchise" you knew he was a bought god.

Always think I have to wait until sunday to watch this. Also dead wife looks like she wears no make up and is still pretty.

much faster paced episode, Shadow had his best episode especially towards the end, Laura is so much better in this than the book.

I did like how the show acknowledged that when people fire weapons into the air, those bullets don't just magically disappear and eventually they come down hard. Good way to suffer a fatal head injury lol