First off, the show is very well made visually. As for plots - when it follows Gaiman's work, it's great. When it veers off on its own it becomes horrid. The writers are really, really untalented. Their dialogue is nothing but quips and pseudo intellectualism and it stands out compared to book dialogue like a sore thumb. Their original story lines are trash.
That's not what I wanted to write about, though. I was compelled to write the review because I gave up on the show after the constant politicizing became too much for me. And it's all intentional inserts on the part of the writers, because none of those scenes (listed below) are in the book.
American Gods is one of my favorite books. One of the reasons why is because it's apolitical. Or at least it ignores hot topic issues. Here is a list of things that don't exist in the books but were inserted into the show:
1)Black man being lynched. Including constant remarks from characters about the lynching. 2)Ignorant racist Czernobog 3)Anansi wearing 20th century clothing going on a civil rights rant in front of slaves on a slave boat. 4)Illigal immigrants' plight being lionized 5)Made up story of evil rednecks massacring illegals at the border 6)Illegals are the truly virtuous ones who carry Jesus with them. Jesus is in this, yes. 7)Evil white Christian rednecks shooting Jesus. So ironic! 8)Evil white American town that doesn't care about human life. 9)The true American spirit is evil and literally Nazi. I'm not misusing the word literally here by the way. 10)Stupid sexist leprechaun gets put in place by strong woman.
If you can stomach this kind of blatant, hamfisted condescending garbage from the smug writers, I guess you can give the show a try. It's certainly well made and acted, but the writers are terrible and I'm certain the quality will keep going down as they diverge more and more from the book and ignore Gaiman's writing in favor of their own.
Thanks for reading, if you did.
That's not what I wanted to write about, though. I was compelled to write the review because I gave up on the show after the constant politicizing became too much for me. And it's all intentional inserts on the part of the writers, because none of those scenes (listed below) are in the book.
American Gods is one of my favorite books. One of the reasons why is because it's apolitical. Or at least it ignores hot topic issues. Here is a list of things that don't exist in the books but were inserted into the show:
1)Black man being lynched. Including constant remarks from characters about the lynching. 2)Ignorant racist Czernobog 3)Anansi wearing 20th century clothing going on a civil rights rant in front of slaves on a slave boat. 4)Illigal immigrants' plight being lionized 5)Made up story of evil rednecks massacring illegals at the border 6)Illegals are the truly virtuous ones who carry Jesus with them. Jesus is in this, yes. 7)Evil white Christian rednecks shooting Jesus. So ironic! 8)Evil white American town that doesn't care about human life. 9)The true American spirit is evil and literally Nazi. I'm not misusing the word literally here by the way. 10)Stupid sexist leprechaun gets put in place by strong woman.
If you can stomach this kind of blatant, hamfisted condescending garbage from the smug writers, I guess you can give the show a try. It's certainly well made and acted, but the writers are terrible and I'm certain the quality will keep going down as they diverge more and more from the book and ignore Gaiman's writing in favor of their own.
Thanks for reading, if you did.