It must be Christmas, this month the far too long-awaited American Gods television show has reached our screens. Published in 2001, the novel by Neil Gaiman is a magnum opus. It is everything that I look for in a book, bleak, sprawling, fiercely imaginative, darkly fantastical and bittersweet. The book was Gaiman’s attempt to write a massive story about the heart and soul of America. The book's plot is vast and meandering. Not only are we told the story of Shadow, an ex-con recently released from prison who is hired by the mysterious and charismatic Mr Wednesday but it also features shorter stories about the immigrants who built America who brought their faith in Gods with them to the New World. It is a book which attempts to capture and to say something about the heart of America, the things that make it tick, the things that the American people identify with and strive to become. It is a story about gifting, a story about love, a murder mystery and, of course, it is a work of epic fantasy.
The arrival of the American Gods television show is timely, as Neil Gaiman has recently stated, it says something of Trump’s America. I believe he meant something along the lines of "it is a reminder of where the people of America come from." Everyone's an immigrant if you go back far enough and Trump's isolationist policies are somewhat anti-American in that regard. It is a reminder of the different cultures that make up the American people - Irish, Scandinavian, African, Middle Eastern, Japanese, French, Spanish, and of course, the Native Americans - it is relevant therefore that the protagonist is the bi-racial Shadow Moon, but more on him later. The election of Donald Trump to the White House last year was like a chapter in Gaiman's surreal, horrifying novel. The America that he paints is ruled by ritual and misplaced cases of human worship. Donald Trump works as a metaphor and the embodiment of a sickness in America. He preaches on a platform of ignorance and intolerance and he represents all of those who strive for wealth for wealth’s sake. Orange-skinned, decrepit Trump is manly because he says he is, successful because he says he is, worthy of being President not because of his abilities as a businessman or a politician but because of his abilities as a salesman. He worships himself and sells that faith to his followers. He is a reality television star who won the greatest reality television show - the American presidential election. He is, like the Gods in American Gods powerful because people believe that he is powerful.
The title credits for the show speak to the lurid, tasteless America which foisted Trump into power. Neon lights, reminiscent of a Las Vegas street, turn idols of Buddah, Pyramids of the Egyptians and Christ’s crucifix into sinister, hollow symbols of the cultures which united in America. The symbols are piled on top of each other to support the eagle with wings outstretched in a sight which is reminiscent of the totem pole. Old and new come together (as with the crucified astronaut) to create something familiar but uncanny. It is with discomfort that the audience sees these symbols which may once have represented peace, charity or progress, come together to support the American belief in America. It’s the greatest country in the world… because it says it is.
Neil Gaiman once asked in an essay entitled How Dare You: On America and Writing About It why no one had ever asked “How dare he?”
Certainly, like the analysis in my previous paragraph suggests, the view he captures of the country is not always entirely flattering. He has good reason to question himself. One of the things that most excited me about the television adaptation of American Gods was the potential that the American creators' voices would bring out aspects of the story that reflected their personal views of their homeland. Brian Fuller, the show-runner is a success story for fans of cult television. Pushing Daisies was a short lived show but fiercely loved and his adaptation of the Thomas Harris novels, Hannibal, has a burning, passionate hard core of fans too. I’m not familiar with his work, except for the first series of Hannibal which shares American Gods’ eye catching visuals and slow, thoughtful pace. It is too early in the show’s run to tell if Fuller is going to breath new life and insight into the story as the first episode adapt the introductory beats of the novel faithfully, but there is still much to see and I’ll be interested to experience it as it comes.
"How dare you, an Englishman, try to write a book about America, about American myths and the American soul? How dare you write about what makes America special, as a country, as a nation, as an idea?"
Certainly, like the analysis in my previous paragraph suggests, the view he captures of the country is not always entirely flattering. He has good reason to question himself. One of the things that most excited me about the television adaptation of American Gods was the potential that the American creators' voices would bring out aspects of the story that reflected their personal views of their homeland. Brian Fuller, the show-runner is a success story for fans of cult television. Pushing Daisies was a short lived show but fiercely loved and his adaptation of the Thomas Harris novels, Hannibal, has a burning, passionate hard core of fans too. I’m not familiar with his work, except for the first series of Hannibal which shares American Gods’ eye catching visuals and slow, thoughtful pace. It is too early in the show’s run to tell if Fuller is going to breath new life and insight into the story as the first episode adapt the introductory beats of the novel faithfully, but there is still much to see and I’ll be interested to experience it as it comes.
I am pleased to see the series remaining loyal to the book’s tendency to veer off on unexpected tangents. The “Coming to America” short stories are often harrowing but they stay with the reader as flashes of vivid images and pangs of regret for their character's fates. The opening scenes of the series show the as-of-yet unidentified Mr Ibis chronicling the first appearance of Odin in America, worshipped to life by a group of lost vikings. The scene is gratuitous but beautiful. It sets the tone for the series, promising that it will be both “gritty” and ludicrously over the top. The sight of blood raining down when the vikings break out in battle and the sight of more arrows being shot into their leader than could possibly be believed tease the viewers away from their reality into a world that is created by and remembered through stories.
The second episode got this Gaiman-fan's heart racing as it began with the coming of Anansi, the trickster God of West Africa and the Carribean, to America's shores. The scene, set on a Dutch slave ship, is original to the series and I hope to see many new scenes like it. Anansi comes to life in Gaiman's prose and is such a glorious character that Gaiman even wrote a lengthy spin-off novel to American Gods which featured Anansi's sons. Anansi Boys is available as an audio-book performed by Lenny Henry in his most versatile and memorable performance ever. Henry switches between the accents of London, America and a fictional island of Saint Andrews with a charisma and cheek that matches "Mr Nancy" the American embodiment of the God. When Henry drawls with Carribean inflections "Let me tell ya'a tale aboudAnansi" it sends shivers down the spine and so I knew that the show would have to hire a perfect actor to represent this character. Orlando Jones combines the charm of Anansi, a salesman-come-megachurch pastor who has that underlying callousness that would belong to the bloodthirsty deities of old.
The second episode got this Gaiman-fan's heart racing as it began with the coming of Anansi, the trickster God of West Africa and the Carribean, to America's shores. The scene, set on a Dutch slave ship, is original to the series and I hope to see many new scenes like it. Anansi comes to life in Gaiman's prose and is such a glorious character that Gaiman even wrote a lengthy spin-off novel to American Gods which featured Anansi's sons. Anansi Boys is available as an audio-book performed by Lenny Henry in his most versatile and memorable performance ever. Henry switches between the accents of London, America and a fictional island of Saint Andrews with a charisma and cheek that matches "Mr Nancy" the American embodiment of the God. When Henry drawls with Carribean inflections "Let me tell ya'a tale aboudAnansi" it sends shivers down the spine and so I knew that the show would have to hire a perfect actor to represent this character. Orlando Jones combines the charm of Anansi, a salesman-come-megachurch pastor who has that underlying callousness that would belong to the bloodthirsty deities of old.
American Gods was a long time in pre-production. I went to see Neil Gaiman when he attended the Edinburgh Book Festival in 2011 and he announced that the show had been picked up for a television adaptation. Back then Game of Thrones was fresh, inspiring (and still good) and everyone in the audience was very excited by the potential for something very special to be created. Six long years have passed since then. I left high school, completed four years of university and moved to China but I don’t think there was ever a time like the present for a show like this to come out. The strands of the show's DNA have come together from all sorts of different places in popular culture. The show’s distinctive production and short (for America) run are in the mould of all sorts of contemporary shows which represent the golden age of television… or something. The Netflix/ HBO age of artist-run as opposed to what-a-producer-thinks-most-audience-members-will-like-run shows is full of programming which will appeal more strongly to a smaller number of people and American Gods with its violence and weirdness fits into this genre of programming. Ian McShane as Mr Wednesday comes straight from Deadwood whilst the hustler, con man story is reminiscent of the Slippin’ Jimmy cons from Better Call Saul. Norse Gods popularity is at an all-time high, with the Rick Riordan generation growing up and with the Thor characters playing such a large role in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Neil Gaiman’s own book on Norse Mythology was released in February to a storming reception and so a show which weaves them into the playground of current day America seems calculated and wise.
As for our main characters, Shadow and Mr Wednesday, I was never in any doubt that the actors would bring something sparkling to the small screen. From the moment Ian McShane as Wednesday announces in the trailer “Today is my day” something special was promised. McShane is a beloved actor anyway, one of those actors who seems to have a larger reputation than list of films which you have seen. His role is the main attraction of the show, at least for those people who aren’t already fans of the book. He plays Wednesday, a hustler and vagabond. The prestigious actor’s casting makes him, from a marketing perspective, bound to become a fan favourite much like Charles Dance as Tywin in Game of Thrones or Anthony Hopkins in Westworld. His presence lends the fantasy concept gravitas and makes it OK for snobs to see it as more than just kid’s stuff. He lives up to the promise.
Leading the show is ex Hollyoaks actor Ricky Whittle who had a great deal to live up to in my mind. Shadow is, to me one of the greatest fantasy heroes in literature. I adore him. His character is summed up perfectly by a line from Wednesday in their first scene together “There’s always work for a big guy who’s smart enough to know that he’s better off letting people think he’s dumb.” Shadow is a very still character. He’s imposing to those around him because of his stature but beneath his silent exterior is a shrewd mind that understands far more than he lets on. Shadow’s behaviour is odd in the opening scenes of the book, he is curiously accepting of the strange new world that he has come to inhabit. The reader might find this off putting until they consider that this reaction is to the grief that he is feeling for the death of his wife. Shadow’s character is reserved and most of what he experiences is internal. In a way he is cut off from the rest of the world as someone experiencing depression is. He is so different from the empty-headed thug that people perceive him to be that it would always be difficult to translate him onto screen without making him a dull protagonist who is difficult to relate to or empathise with. As such, Ricky Whittle’s shadow is a rather different creature from the one in the book. Shadow’s grief and confusion are writ large in his performance. He is raw and emotional and deeply engaging. He’s something new but that’s nothing to complain about.
American Gods is set to become a favourite of mine. Every moment of the first two episodes were electrifying. A sense of wonder and dread permeate throughout every minute. Its going to be fascinating to see how the new voices and minds involved take this 16 year old novel and plunge it into the modern age.
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