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Goodbye Jesus

American Gods (series on Starz)


Fuego

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I saw the first episode and was impressed with it. I have not read the book, so can't comment on accuracy, but the author is the exec producer.

 

The notion that the gods mingle with mortals is common in the non-Judeo/Christian religions. Odin (or Woden, from whom we name the day of the week Wednesday, Woden's Day) would appear like an old man on a path to test mortals in how they react to his behaviors. And he liked to fuck. So did Zeus and Poseidon, etc. This basically starts with that concept, that the gods still mingle with mortals both for private, lustful, ego worship motives and to shape the lives of people and nations, introduces a few such deities and the mortals they choose. And the gods like to mess with each other and the mortals are played like pawns. But mortal choice is always regarded as important.

 

I just began the 2nd episode, but found that I had to figure out how to turn on closed captioning because I can't always understand important points of dialogue.

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  • 3 weeks later...

I'm really enjoying this show. The last one was very interesting from the point of view of someone who was raised a believer but figured out it was baloney. But she is fairly dead inside, no real love, no joy, no anything, just living until she dies. Then shit hits the fan, and she is forcibly put on a road encountering things way outside of her previous views. I'm curious to see where they take this. It was also a very funny episode towards the end.

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Ok, you convinced me to give it a try. I've never liked anything on Starz that I can recall and I thought it was a superhero show, so avoided it. 

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Neil Gaiman is very familiar with the various myths, and crafts the gods of many lands into characters for his stories. They have mentioned Jesus (the white Jesus, the black Jesus, the Indian Jesus, etc), and Odin said something like "They need a lot of him to go around". They have powers, but seem limited, they squabble and mess with each other. I assume that his own views will color how the story plays out, though some writers say that their characters take on a life of their own and stories can go in directions they didn't consciously predict or plan.

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Sounds interesting. Will check it out!

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Having a little trouble getting into it. I've watched the first two. I found myself FF through a lot and feeling like it's going nowhere. It might be cool to watch while high. 

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  • 1 month later...

I genuinely loved episode 8 and watched it three times for the ending. My sis-in-law bought me the book and I'm a third of the way through it in just a couple of days. Quite different than the television version, but with overlaps.

True, the TV version took a long time to get going, and was a bit confusing. I think that was on purpose because the main human character was being kept in the dark until episode 8. There are two more seasons planned, and they are stretching out the book storyline a LOT.

(Though the really weird show right now is Twin Peaks. I was "What the hell did I just watch? How do I get that hour of my life back?" Others I know love it.)

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I've been watching this with my husband, who is a big fan of the book. His main complaint is that the series is moving too slowly to be engaging. For me, I love the opening montage and the idea of it, but the execution is dragging a bit.

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Yes, compared to the book, it is draaaaggggging. And it is taking a very different approach to the characters than the book. Ep8 of the series is a minor blip in the book, and Ep6 didn't happen in the book at all. Kind of glad I saw the TV series first. Just now finishing the book and can't yet tell if the series will end the same way. My wife didn't like the special effects, thought they were cheesy, but thought the story was ok.

 

I don't know why stories of the gods enthrall me so. There is something about the old gods that feels like home. My wife thinks we've all been here thousands of times, so what I feel are echoes of the past. I don't know. There is a hint of that in the book where Shadow climbs a mountain of skulls to reach the buffalo-man (also shown in the TV show), but then he realizes whose skulls they are.

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  • 11 months later...

Holding out hope for the 2nd season. Delayed until next year, and unfortunately new writers. I can't fathom why they wouldn't pay them well for doing a good job. Gillian Anderson left with the writers, and Kristin Chenoweth is considering leaving also. Stupid corporate drones in charge! Same types that ruined a good run of Twin Peaks, the original by making Lynch reveal the killer.

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