“American Gods” arrived on Starz on April 30, 2017, with a premise built for television: an ex-con named Shadow Moon leaves prison early after his wife dies in a car accident, then takes a job with a conman called Mr. Wednesday who turns out to be the god Odin.
The show ran three seasons and 26 episodes, ending on March 21, 2021. In this review’s view, it never solved its central problem, but the first season came close enough to matter.
Ricky Whittle and Ian McShane
The casting is the reason to watch. Ricky Whittle plays Shadow Moon as a man who absorbs strange news without flinching, and Ian McShane gives Mr. Wednesday the charm of a grifter who has been running the same con for centuries. Emily Browning plays Laura Moon, Shadow’s dead wife, and Yetide Badaki plays Bilquis. Bruce Langley is Technical Boy.
The premise holds up because the stakes are small before they are cosmic. Shadow accepts the job as Wednesday’s driver, assistant and bodyguard only after learning the job waiting for him at home no longer exists. From there he enters a hidden world where magic is real and the Old Gods fear the New Gods, who include Technology and Media.
A Show That Kept Changing Hands
The production history is as unsettled as the plot. Bryan Fuller and Michael Green developed the series from Neil Gaiman’s 2001 novel and ran the first season. Jesse Alexander took over as showrunner for the second, and Charles H. Eglee ran the third.
| Season | Premiere | Showrunner |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | April 30, 2017 | Bryan Fuller, Michael Green |
| 2 | March 10, 2019 | Jesse Alexander |
| 3 | January 10, 2021 | Charles H. Eglee |
Starz renewed the series for a second season in May 2017 and for a third the week after season two premiered. In March 2021, the network canceled it.
This review’s judgment is that the turnover shows on screen: the first season has a visual confidence the later ones lose, and the first season drew the strongest critical praise.
The series received two Primetime Emmy nominations at the 69th awards, for Outstanding Main Title Design and Outstanding Special Visual Effects. It also received three nominations at the 8th Critics’ Choice Television Awards:
- Best Drama Series
- Best Actor in a Drama Series, for Ian McShane
- Best Supporting Actress in a Drama Series, for Gillian Anderson
Gaiman served as an executive producer throughout. The series was produced by Fremantle North America and distributed by Lionsgate Television.
In this review’s view, that churn is the clearest sign of what went wrong. A show about old powers losing ground to new ones kept swapping out the people who understood it.
The first season earns the score. The rest is a long argument about what the show was supposed to be.
7.7/10 (Metacritic 77/100).
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