American Gods: Moon Shadow   Books Included 
April 30, 2019 7:38 AM - Season 2, Episode 8 - Subscribe

Wednesday leaves Cairo, while Mr. World and New Media spread fear, with Mr. Wednesday and Shadow as targets. Nancy and Ibis discuss revolution versus patience, and Bilquis makes Shadow an offer. Laura Moon walks off, carrying her own burden. [Books included; season finale]

American Gods Season 2 Episode 8 Review: Moon Shadow -- The American Gods season 2 finale has Shadow learning about his true self, War of the Worlds 2.0, and lots of Crispin Glover. (Ron Hogan for Den of Geek)
If nothing else, it's clear that the gloves are coming off, and that the pleasant-ish diversion in Cairo is over, and Cairo itself seems to have been burned for Wednesday's purposes. That's just as well, American Gods the book is a road novel, and it's necessary for the show to be a road show, too. The show was at its best when it was on the move in the first season, and settling in Cairo seemed to take some of the sparkle out of things (as well as stretched belief in how quickly characters traveled from Cairo to New Orleans, for example; that's an 8-hour drive, which seems like a long drive for a day trip).
Music of the episode from Tunefind
posted by filthy light thief (7 comments total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
I found this episode boring. The initial long spiel with Mr World. I was just waiting for it to end. I love Crispin, but I've had enough of him and his soliloquies.

Despite spending a lot more time with the New Gods, we haven't gotten anymore character development of them then we got from the book. If you're not gonna expand their characters giving them more screen time is just plain boring. Tech Boy is back, but with EVEN LESS CHARACTER. Color me impressed.

It does look as if we're going to get the Hinzelmann story line so we will be getting some new characters and many of them will be actually human so that may give show a bit of help as we've been stuck with the same gods for an entire season.
posted by miss-lapin at 9:01 AM on April 30, 2019 [3 favorites]


American Gods post-mortem: Neil Gaiman on Shadow's discovery and Lakeside details for season 3 (Piya Sinha-Roy for Entertainment Weekly)
The brooding, handsome Shadow Moon spent a lot of season 1 in confusion about the world of American Gods that he had suddenly been thrust into when he agreed to become Wednesday’s right-hand man. After discovering that gods are indeed real, he enters season 2 as a believer but his world is rocked again at the end as he learns that his roguish Norse God employer is actually his father and caused his wife’s death.

“Part of the fun of taking Shadow through the journey he’s come through in this season is he’s waking up,” Gaiman said. “He’s learned a certain amount of belief — in season 1, Shadow was saying ‘I don’t understand, this is impossible.’ Season 2 is him saying ‘I may not get all the stuff is happening but I believe this is happening.'”

In the book, Shadow doesn’t learn that Odin is his father until much later in his journey. “It’s the nice thing that American Gods does where it always rewards people who have read the book but also tries to surprise people who have read the book,” Gaiman said.
The article goes on to reference Lakeside and Hinzelmann, and
Gaiman says that the one thing he and Eglee definitely want to do with Shadow in season 3 is a romance. “We haven’t seen Shadow awkwardly dating, he hasn’t until now had to deal with anyone except Laura.”
And there are some teasers about Laura and Mad Sweeney, which are a definite diversion from the book.

Also:
Season 3 will be helmed by Charles “Chic” Eglee (The Shield, Dexter), who is already plotting ahead to the fourth season and how to conclude the book’s narrative within the show.
So, we should expect this story to get stretched out another two seasons? Hmm. At least we might get the aliens next season.
posted by filthy light thief at 10:33 AM on April 30, 2019 [2 favorites]


I'm guessing next season will be mostly Hinzelmann, with s4 the war being s4 (seems kinda thin). I'm not thrilled about the Laura/Sweeney romance continuing and less thrilled with Shadow having a new romance, but I guess you gotta fill the season with something.

And I do wish they would do better by the New Gods. If you're gonna give them so much screen time, maybe character development? Please?
posted by miss-lapin at 10:48 AM on April 30, 2019


> Despite spending a lot more time with the New Gods, we haven't gotten anymore character development of them then we got from the book. If you're not gonna expand their characters giving them more screen time is just plain boring. Tech Boy is back, but with EVEN LESS CHARACTER. Color me impressed.

I was hoping the TV series would give us more New Gods than the triumvirate by bringing in some of the characters seen in the book who never got developed, like the god of cancer ("Technical Boy speaks with a New God during Chapter Seventeen, described as 'massive' and 'scalpel blades jutted from its face and its fingers' and has a 'cancerous' face, implying this deity is a god of cancer.")

At least they made Mr. Wood more interesting. Speaking of whom, in the scenes from previous episodes at the beginning they showed a scene with Mr. Wood, and I took that to mean that when Yggdrasil attacks Shadow, that was actually Mr. Wood who had taken over the mini World Tree. Did anyone else have that impression?

I also wouldn't mind seeing Columbia again, who would probably be aligned with the New Gods if for no other reason than retribution against Odin.

And speaking of Odin, this is my favorite image of him from the series.
posted by homunculus at 1:07 PM on April 30, 2019 [2 favorites]


American Gods Season 2 Episode 8 Review: Moon Shadow. "One of the biggest moments in mass media history has never even been hinted at on American Gods... War of the Worlds"

Nitpick: Gillian Anderson as Media as David Bowie mentioned it in season 1 when she was talking to Tech Boy in the limo.
posted by homunculus at 1:30 PM on April 30, 2019 [1 favorite]


It occurs to me that Mr. World gave the audience a clue as to who he really is in his last monologue when he slyly said that the natural state of things is chaos. The god of globalization should be invested in order, chaos is the domain of tricksters.
posted by homunculus at 1:08 PM on May 1, 2019


A rigged game is the easiest to win. ;)
posted by miss-lapin at 10:17 PM on May 1, 2019 [1 favorite]


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