American Gods Season 2 Review | Road Rash Reviews

3 stars of good but slightly disappointing follow up.

American Gods is based on the popular fantasy novel written by Neil Gaiman (Neverwhere, Good Omens). This release is Season 2 and comprises episodes 9-16. The usual spoiler alerts apply here, this is well into the story so don’t read on unless you’ve watched Season 1.

“It is real. We’re just backstage. Waiting in the wings, inside Wednesday’s memories.”

The story of American Gods revolves around the character of Shadow Moon (Ricky Whittle – The 100, Hollyoaks), an ex convict who was released from prison early to attend the funeral of his dead wife, Laura (The Host, The Affair). On the flight heading there, he meets the enigmatic Mr. Wednesday (Ian McShane – John Wick, Kung Fu Panda), who persuades him to take a job as his bodyguard.

From then on, everything changes for Shadow. A chance encounter with a leprechaun called Mad Sweeney (Pablo Schreiber – Orange is the New Black, 13 Hours) leads to the accidental re-animation of his wife and he begins to realise that he has become embroiled in a massive oncoming upheaval.

He has discovered a world where Gods really do exist. As different races arrived in America, they brought with them their Gods and now they are trying to survive their dwindling numbers of believers. Replacing them are the New Gods, Mr. World (Crispin Glover – Back to the Future), Technical Boy (Bruce Langley – Your Move) and New Media (Kahyun Kim – Austin and Ally) among many others.

Now that war has officially been declared, Mr. Wednesday must try to rally the Old Gods together in order to fight the growing menace of the New Gods, while Shadow is taken by the enemy, and Laura tries everything to bring herself back to life as everyone begins to converge on the Funeral Home in Cairo.

Season 1 of this show was absolutely amazing, which is I suppose why this one is a little disappointing. There was a delay to the start of this series due to various factors, including a change in showrunners and it definitely has a different feel about it. It lacks some of the creativity and cohesion of the first series, seeming a bit confused about it’s direction every now and again.

Don’t get me wrong, the acting is still brilliant and the script is good, as are the special effects (there’s lots of graphic violence and gore) and everything is very psychedelic, as you would expect. It finishes on a heck of a cliff hanger and I can’t wait for Season 3, when the show changes hands yet again. It has plenty going for it and I would recommend it, I just feel it could have been better.

“I need to put the fear of me into some Old Gods. Let them feel shock and horror, pain and grief. Let them know what real sacrifice feels like.”