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American Gods |OT| You Had Me At Bryan Fuller - Sundays on Starz

S

Siegcram

Member
I will say that for a show that doesn't have to consider ad breaks the editing seems a bit disjointed and abrupt sometimes.

The Magicians had the same problem this season, although that's on Syfy, so it's a bit more understandable.
 
M

metalslimer

Member
The djinn side story in this episode was so beautiful. Like it's a big compliment that they made a scene with dicks flopping around more interesting than just pseudo pornography. I'm so happy to have Fuller back on television. It does make me sad Hannibal couldn't have been a premiere show on a channel with a bigger budget.
 
S

SomTervo

Member
Watching Ep 3 at last - yeah, rushy intro, and dialogue for the Egyptian woman directly transposed from the novel - which doesn't work whatsoever in a moving picture. It DID feel Pizzolatto-level. '8 grandchildren each as smart as tables' - who would say that shit to themselves, at least filmed like that.

However, the cosmic Egypt scene worked surprisingly well (although i still hate the over-music). Almost felt like a televisation of Sandman, which is something I never knew I wanted.

Thennn it throws you rushing into another weird trippy scene with a person we've never seen before. The establishment with Shadow was barely enough and he just doesn't seem phased by any of it. Ugh.

Anyway, I'll quit it with the stream of consciousness.
 
Monocle

Monocle

Member
SomTervo said:
Nyehh. Half of the time AmGods was trying to convey warmth there was really attention-grabbing music over the top of it and weird editing with OTT cinematography - thus sucking all warmth there was out of it.

Also the mundane details of human society? Dafuq? The book captured that; the show doesn't. The show is like wild highlights from a really sexy psychedelic road trip. There's none of the boredom, the changing landscape, the stupid little stories and random normal people you meet on the road - all of which the book captures so perfectly.

Yes, Wednesday is great - indeed, elements of the show are great. And you know whose work is generally 'cold' with brilliant elements? Zack Snyder. There are things in Watchmen that Snyder totally got right - Rorscach's "being captured" scene and the Comedian, for instance. These moments felt 'warm'. But the whole thing was just pretty shit.

That last sentence is exactly how I feel about AmGods.

Again, I like the spectacle and there are things it gets right. I hope it picks up.

Handmaid's Tale is better tho.
Click to expand...
Have to disagree there. See, the wild psychedelic stuff is more attention grabbing and memorable, but the show isn't working on that level alone. The weird elements are grounded in a believable world full of realistic details.

Examples:

- the airport scene
- Wednesday in first class
- the bar lady selling Shadow the house chili
- Bilquist's date, before the bedroom
- the Russian sisters at home
- the salesman's whole chapter, on the streets of New York and with that stuffy secretary, up to the sex scene
- the old lady in her kitchen who's paid a visit by Anubis

There's a lot more than that. This show has a way of combining everyday settings with nuanced emotive performances to create situations that, to me, feel familiar and real. Even the way the camera lingers on everyday objects contributes to the effect. That way, when the fantastical elements appear, they have something to contrast against.

The commonplace TV aisle becomes the stage for a bizzarre conversation with an alt-universe Lucy. A cab ride with your typical Arab cab driver turns into a layered scene of human solidarity, and supernatural revelation, and finally passionate connection.

This kind of thing is beyond Snyder. If you asked him to take reality and show us a dark reflection where mythical beings walk among us, all of the human stuff would be shallow and perfunctory. He'd give you another Man of Steel.
 
S

SomTervo

Member
Monocle said:
Have to disagree there. See, the wild psychedelic stuff is more attention grabbing and memorable, but the show isn't working on that level alone. The weird elements are grounded in a believable world full of realistic details.

Examples:

- the airport scene
- Wednesday in first class
- the bar lady selling Shadow the house chili
- Bilquist's date, before the bedroom
- the Russian sisters at home
- the salesman's whole chapter, on the streets of New York and with that stuffy secretary, up to the sex scene
- the old lady in her kitchen who's paid a visit by Anubis

There's a lot more than that. This show has a way of combining everyday settings with nuanced emotive performances to create situations that, to me, feel familiar and real. Even the way the camera lingers on everyday objects contributes to the effect. That way, when the fantastical elements appear, they have something to contrast against.

The commonplace TV aisle becomes the stage for a bizzarre conversation with an alt-universe Lucy. A cab ride with your typical Arab cab driver turns into a layered scene of human solidarity, and supernatural revelation, and finally passionate connection.

This kind of thing is beyond Snyder. If you asked him to take reality and show us a dark reflection where mythical beings walk among us, all of the human stuff would be shallow and perfunctory. He'd give you another Man of Steel.
Click to expand...

I suppose the novel did a good job of capturing how very mundane those details are (thus making them feel real) while the show super stylises everything (thus making it feel special, focal and alien, to me).

You're probably right re Snyder not featuring or putting any emphasis on those details - however the character work (bar Wednesday and Audrey), editing and sumptuous visuals feels pretty much 1:1 with Snyder, for me. It's better executed for sure, but it still feels like how he'd approach some of these things.
 
J

jph139

Member
SomTervo said:
Watching Ep 3 at last - yeah, rushy intro, and dialogue for the Egyptian woman directly transposed from the novel - which doesn't work whatsoever in a moving picture. It DID feel Pizzolatto-level. '8 grandchildren each as smart as tables' - who would say that shit to themselves, at least filmed like that.
Click to expand...

I could be forgetting, but I'm pretty sure the opening scene was 100% made up for the show, actually.

I agree it was iffy. Probably the worst of the little vignettes so far.
 
K

Kazuhira

Member
I don't understand what happened with the djinn,did he just leave or something else happened?
I thought the guy turned into one.
 
Zoe

Zoe

Member
Napoleonthechimp said:
I'm surprised people missed this, or didn't pick up on the connection.
Click to expand...
The show has given us no reason to pay close attention to what the characters are wearing. The show has given us no reason to believe events are shown out of sequence.

If they had swapped last week's Bilquis sequence with the Djinn sequence, it would have been clearer.
 
L

Lee

Member
Kazuhira said:
I don't understand what happened with the djinn,did he just leave or something else happened?
I thought the guy turned into one.
Click to expand...

In the book,
they changed lives. The Djinn flew back to Oman, leaving his clothes and cab license behind which identity the other guy assumed, allowing him to escape the bullshit life of a salesman and the ire of his brother-in-law back home. Unless I'm mistaken, we don't see those characters again in the book.
According to this article, we'll see both characters again on the show so hopefully they will clear things up.
 
M

More_Badass

Member
SomTervo said:
Holy fuck, this is Fuller of Pushing Daisies and Dead Like Me? Why the fuck didn't I make that connection. (... Probably because I watched those shows at first airing, back when I didn't pay much attention to production.)

Honestly, this feels so awful in comparison to Dead Like Me and Pushing Daisies. Those shows had pace and build up with a dash of swagger and quirk - this is all swagger and quirk sans pace and build up.

Haven't watched Hannibal. Heard it starts a bit shit but gets great? Hopefully AmGods will do the same
Click to expand...
Hannibal is amazing. One of my favorite shows of the last decade

You'll wonder how it even existed on network TV
 
N

NotTheGuyYouKill

Member
More_Badass said:
Hannibal is amazing. One of my favorite shows of the last decade

You'll wonder how it even existed on network TV
Click to expand...

I hope we get some Hannibal event series on Starz if American Gods is a hit.

I need my Season 4 Bufallo Chill.

raul-esparza-on-hannibal.jpg
 
H

hydruxo

Member
SomTervo said:
Watching Ep 3 at last - yeah, rushy intro, and dialogue for the Egyptian woman directly transposed from the novel - which doesn't work whatsoever in a moving picture. It DID feel Pizzolatto-level. '8 grandchildren each as smart as tables' - who would say that shit to themselves, at least filmed like that.

However, the cosmic Egypt scene worked surprisingly well (although i still hate the over-music). Almost felt like a televisation of Sandman, which is something I never knew I wanted.

Thennn it throws you rushing into another weird trippy scene with a person we've never seen before. The establishment with Shadow was barely enough and he just doesn't seem phased by any of it. Ugh.

Anyway, I'll quit it with the stream of consciousness.
Click to expand...

It sounds like you really dislike the show so I'm wondering why you continue to put yourself through it.
 
S

SomTervo

Member
hydruxo said:
It sounds like you really dislike the show so I'm wondering why you continue to put yourself through it.
Click to expand...

If you've read all my posts you'll see that I think some elements are perfect and that visually it's great, even if I don't like how the visuals are strung together. (As already mentioned, pretty much how I feel about Snyder's best work (best being... like two films).)

I've got a feeling it'll come together a lot later in the season so I'm also waiting for that.

Moff said:
are the same people who are confused by american gods the ones who told you that hannibal starts "a bit shit"?
Click to expand...

The opposite. The person who told me Hannibal 'starts a bit shit' is the person who has not watched any of American Gods (or read the book) but loved Hannibal.

More_Badass said:
Hannibal is amazing. One of my favorite shows of the last decade

You'll wonder how it even existed on network TV
Click to expand...

Nice, will check it. The director on Organ Quarter said it was great so I should probably get on that ;)

jph139 said:
I could be forgetting, but I'm pretty sure the opening scene was 100% made up for the show, actually.

I agree it was iffy. Probably the worst of the little vignettes so far.
Click to expand...

Yeah the dialogue was so clunky (... like quite a lot of the show's dialogue) I assumed it was straight-from-novel.

Still liked the cosmic wrap-up. Was so damn Sandman, I still can't get over it.
 
R

RatskyWatsky

Hunky Nostradamus
Spuck-uk said:
All the dongs are CGI and/or prosthetics.
Click to expand...

We got on the phone and said, our intention was to do a beautiful love scene between two men, and he was like, ‘OK, as long as its not exploitational, and as long as you give me a beautiful cock.’ The funny part was somehow the visual effects guy got it in his head that it’s an 11-inch cock… We sent this 11-inch cock to Mousa with a note – ‘How’s it hanging?’ – expecting him to be like, ‘Jesus Christ!’ But his only response was, ‘It looks good, but should be darker!'”
Click to expand...

Ahhh, okay. Cool.
 
R

RatskyWatsky

Hunky Nostradamus
975K viewers for the premiere, which is p. good!
710K viewers for episode 2, which is still p. good.
716K viewers for episode 3, which is up a bit!
 
S

SomTervo

Member
Remiri said:
More like they just switched clothes and the guy took up being a taxi driver.

The guy was upset about his current life so the djinn gave him an opportunity to start anew. I don't think they actually body swapped.
Click to expand...

Yeah the implication is that the Djinn takes his clothes and leaves his taxi driver clothes behind.

Was am excellent, excellent bit. Best bit of the show so far probably.
 
Nikodemos

Nikodemos

Member
Ironically, the jinn did grant him one wish: to stop being a down-on-his-luck sample pusher. Of course, taxi driver isn't an enormous upgrade, but at least it's not a constant downwards spiral.
 
T

Technosteve

Banned
TwntyOneTwlv said:
It definitely won't be this season but I'm really curious to see how (book details)
the show handles the plot with the small town and the frozen lake and the old guy locking kids in the trunks of the cars
. That whole plot line gave off such a different vibe than the rest of the novel. It felt like a huge tonal shift.
Click to expand...

I CAN'T WAIT FOR THIS PART! MOST MEMORABLE PART OF THE NOVEL
 
L

Lee

Member
Nikodemos said:
Ironically, the jinn did grant him one wish: to stop being a down-on-his-luck sample pusher. Of course, taxi driver isn't an enormous upgrade, but at least it's not a constant downwards spiral.
Click to expand...

They don't get into it on the show but in the book his brother-in-law sent him to America with a bunch of cash and a briefcase full of samples and the whole family business is riding on his success. He's burned through the cash on hotels, food, meetings, taxis, with no sales to show for it when he meets the Djinn. So at that point he's about to fly home and face a lot of shame, abuse, failure, etc. The situation is more dire than we see in the show, in my reading of it, so being a taxi driver free from all of those ties is quite the upgrade.
 
M

Messofanego

Banned
Loving these immigrant stories, basically a big F U to Trump's America.

Very bold to have a tasteful gay muslim romance. Respect to Omid Abtahi and Mousa Kraish.
american_gods_gay_muslim_by_digi_matrix-db9nimd.jpg

There hasn't been a big profile one I'm familiar with in media since My Beautiful Laundrette.
Film_767_MyBeautifulLaundrette_original.jpg
 
D

Dynomutt

Member
Some interesting
book changes
episode 4. Can't wait to see what you all think! Oh and Emily Browning...Puppy Papi Pupi I'm still not sure but whew...
 
H

hydruxo

Member
Episode 4 spoilers:
I liked this one a lot. Probably the most coherent ep so far because of the whole episode revolving around Laura.

-The Audrey & Laura scenes were hilarious. "Oh fuck your feelings."
-People hated on the Dane Cook casting choice when it got announced, but he was a perfect Robbie.
-The Mr. Jacquel and Ibis stuff was cool. Anubis wasn't having any of Laura's bullshit lmao.
-Huginn & Munnin flying above Robbie's car before they crashed was a neat addition
 
Grizzlyjin

Grizzlyjin

Supersonic, idiotic, disconnecting, not respecting, who would really ever wanna go and top that
Episode 4 Early Watch Spoilers

- Eww, I don't like pre-prison Shadow at all. "Take me the fuck home." Get outta here, fuck boi! Sex scene was hot though.
- "Not much of a showman." Nice call back to what Wednesday said to him.
- Dane Cook sighting!
- So far this is the most straightforward episode. Even moreso than the book, at this point in the story.
- We iZombie Now!
- They're going to get super gross with the zombie stuff. I just know it....and she's shitting out embalming fluid. There it is.
- The mystery of Robbie's penis is solved!
 
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