American Gods - Episodes 1-2 Review

Hey guys, welcome back to the channel, and we're going to review the long-anticipated American Gods written by Neil Gaiman. And, uh, um, I, I did get a chance to read some of the book, um, and I can tell you that American Gods, although it airs on the Starz Network It's on par with what we've gotten with HBO productions as far as the quality of the show. Very reminiscent of quality of shows like we've seen with Game of Thrones and Westworld. And American Gods was a best-selling book written over a decade ago. And if you don't know about Neil Gaiman, he did the Sandman series for, I believe, Marvel. So he's involved in the comic book world. And, you know, We also have with American Gods, we have Bryan Fuller on board with this as well. So we got some very talented people, got a great story. And right off, what we get with American Gods, what came to mind as I watched the first few episodes which we'll be covering here. We won't go deep into it. It's been a lot of great reviews done on, you know, the various deeper meanings in association with American Gods. But since I haven't finished the books, I'm just gonna deal just with the TV subject here. And what I'm gonna attempt to do is just give my review of what coming into this, what I immediately picked up, and, you know, what the show meant to me and how it affected me. And like I said, guys, the show, for it to be airing on the Starz network— Starz is really starting to catch up, you know, to the level of quality of HBO production. So HBO better watch out. They hit a home run here with the American Gods story. But, you know, if you don't know anything about American Gods, uh, you know, you know, of course what will probably pull you in first is the title American Gods. You know, what are the American Gods? Um, and, you know, um, you know, as, as the show opened up, we got to understand that our culture started out in religion and Belief in deities, it started off with groups of people who believed certain deities affected their way of life. You know, the sun rose, the wind blew. There wasn't an understanding back then of how these things occurred, so people would try to explain them as best they could. And this is how, you know, basically they came up with a lot of ideas about deities controlling the weather. When it would storm, you would have gods over the weather. When food wouldn't grow, you would have gods who, you know, were geared toward agriculture and all these very important things to keep life going. You know, so, you know, as we open up, we get to see these various groups of people as they immigrate immigrant, or immigrated rather, they bring in their various cultures and deities and beliefs with them, you know, as they came to the New World. The New World being America. And, you know, just like the title, from what I know about the Arthur Neal Gaiman through the books, this is an exploration of places in America, all across the continental US, and basically across the United States. So this is a traveling story as well, and we get to see various parts of the United States. We get to see what our main character here, Shadow Moon, and as we got introduced to Mr. Wednesday, them traveling across the United States. But what, you know, but what, but what, what this is also a story of is just like the title American Gods is, you know, the deities of old now being faced with the new deities. And what are the new deities? We got to learn from the show that the new deities were things we use every day— media, TV, the internet. And we got to see this personification of these deities, uh, and you know what I just found, what pulled me in, is this show seems to just be a metaphor. A metaphor for— it seems that human beings, we always have to believe in something and worship something, you know, no matter what belief system we have, whether it be religion or what we believe in, we always need, or we always pull our sacrifices and worship and attention to something. And it may not be you're sitting in a chair along pearly gates, but it's something. And it might, whether it be media or celebrities or technology or science. And this show is play, a metaphorical play on those things that we will always worship. And if we go back to the days of old when people would worship, uh, to try to explain the world around them, various gods, various belief systems and things like that, they would create these pantheons of gods and things like that, uh, to explain the world around them. Um, we do a similar thing today, you know, uh, and, uh, you know, with our media, with, you know, with what we see, who we follow, who we aim to, uh, you know, imitate, and people, you know, what we, what we aim to be, you know, what we see as successful, things like that. And so, you know, from this story we get this entire play on that that is very interesting, to the point that The situation that's going on with the actual deities, you know, obviously we're starting to discover that the new deities that are being personified in technology and the various ones that we're meeting versus the gods of old, you know, that although they kind of seem to have this battle going on, that, you know, basically at the end of the day, this is just a play on human beings. In my, you know, this is what I'm taking from it, is really just this metaphorical play on, you know, what we worship, where we make our sacrifices, and where we put our attention. So in a sense, American Gods, the concept of the gods themselves are almost secondary, I think, to the heart of the story, because this is a story in many ways about American culture. And you know, when we define culture from the idea of culture, or one thing that enters into culture is belief, religion, and things like that. You know, what we believe. And also what I find very interesting about this metaphorical play on the show American Gods is that Belief is very important to these deities now, and it seems almost without belief they seem to lose their abilities, or they seem to diminish, or they don't seem as powerful as they were. You can kind of see through the series here that, uh, many of these deities are doing normal things, you know, they're running clubs or businesses or, you know, and just doing things normal human beings would do. And they all seem to reflect back on days of old when they were worshiped as gods. And, um, you know, they're no longer worshiped today. People don't believe in them anymore. And so you see them all kind of having these— well, some of them having these flashback sequences and, uh, you know, kind of reflecting on when they were these powerful worshiped deities that they no longer are. So I think that's very important you know, with the idea of this show, because it seems to be split in two. It seems to be the idea of the literal, um, uh, old gods versus the literal new gods. And then it seems to be the idea of the metaphorical idea of out with the old, in with the new. And you know what, today has taken the place of our human nature to want to explain the universe and the world around us. And so now it's become clear that we rely a lot more on a physical materialistic approach, many of us, than, you know, what people of, you know, the old did, antiquity did. They maybe relied more on the spiritual metaphysical explanation, interpretation in many ways. And whereas today we rely more on sensory equipment, technology, and, uh, you know, the data that gets produced from that, with the exception of data that gets produced that we can't explain. So just all very interesting. I love what they've done with this show. I learned how it's making think about where I fit into this, you know, where, where is my worship going? Is it going to the internet? Is it going to the television? Or is it going to the media? Is it going to some deity of old? Uh, and, uh, you know, belief, uh, I thought about that, and in a literal sense of the show American Gods, when we deal with the idea of belief and what's going on with the series and these characters. To these old gods, belief seems to be a necessary thing for them. I mean, it must be some type of conduit of energy, um, you know, for them to feed off of. But one thing is sure, uh, or certain, is that belief is needed with these deities. And really, if even in the metaphorical sense, belief is needed for things to, uh, you know, be of importance to us. Like if we— if you take the idea of maybe a celebrity today, uh, you know, we see how some celebrities are worshiped, you know, we see how people emulate them and things like that. But we also have seen what happens to celebrities who have been left, you know, who are no longer seen as iconic or important. We see what happens to their lives. They diminish, they lose power, they lose influence. So similar, it seems to be, this is what happens to these deities in the American Gods series. Without belief, without worship, they seem to fizzle away and seem to have no power. But, you know, great show, um, you know, great concept, you know, the characters we get introduced to— Shadow Moon throughout the series, um, and Mr. Wednesday, um, you know, just a, you know, just fantastic acting. And we seem to be getting introduced through the series to various old gods and new gods, um, and, uh, uh, you know, by the time we get to episode 2, um, you know, we're dealing with, um, you know, a more introduction of the old gods. We get to meet Anansi, who's the trickster god, I believe, and he just has a great— on a slave ship, you know, really, uh, and I'm looking, you know, you know Looking forward to seeing more of Anansi. We got to meet Bilquis, the Queen of Sheba, who's actually a goddess as well, and Zernobab, I believe, who's a Slavic god, you know, by the time we get to episode 2. American Gods is, you know, just awesome. You know, it's been awesome so far. I have read some of the books. I kind of you know, came in a little bit different with American Gods than with Game of Thrones. With Game of Thrones, I got to see the first two seasons before I even finished the book series. And with American Gods, I actually got to read a lot more into American Gods. So I don't want to give anything away. I don't want— I definitely don't want to do that, but I wanted to try to contrast, you know, what American Gods is about and what I've been getting these first few episodes. And, uh, I'm looking forward to what we're going to get in episode 3. We were left with this awesome cliffhanger, um, you know, with Shadow Moon, you know, who plays this very, uh, you know, a character who's been hit by tragedy, uh, coming out of prison, and, you know, it seems almost still to be in some type of shock. Know, when he's, uh, you know, uh, in the company and introduced to these guys and everything seems to be moving with him almost like he's in some kind of dream or, you know, non-reality. But, you know, anyway, guys, so far I think this is an awesome series. Uh, I'm looking forward to it. It definitely looks like it's going to be in my top 10. It's going to make it into my top 10. And, uh, looking forward to covering the next episode on American Gods. Let me know, guys, what you thought about American Gods so far, what type of show you think this is. You know, is it just, you know, a literal, uh, this literal, uh, you know, show about old gods versus new gods? Or, you know, you know, is it— are you more seeing this metaphorical exchange with the idea of, you know, where we fit into this? But anyway, guys, I hope you've enjoyed this review. Uh, if you like content like this, don't forget to like and subscribe. And until next time, guys, take care.