Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		5.0
Overall		4.5

American Gods: Season 1 Blu-ray Movie Review

Say your prayers.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman October 14, 2017

Note: If you’re not already up to speed with one of the central conceits of American Gods (i.e., the meaning behind the show’s very title), I’d recommend skipping the main part of the review, since even general plot points described below could be considered spoiler material. Part of the intrigue of the show is being in the dark along with the appropriately named focal character Shadow for at least the first few episodes.

The etymologies of the various names of the days of the week are a study in aspects as variant as history, nationality and even astronomy. As most people probably realize, all of the days of the week are named after various planets or other orbs in the sky, with some days like Saturday, Sunday and Monday having their referents be fairly self-evident, though the actual referents are the gods and/or goddesses associated with those "heavenly" objects. Things are a little more masked with regard to Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, though there are at least hints in some of the Romance languages, where, for example, the French version of Tuesday, Mardi, at least hints at Mars, and similarly the French version of Wednesday, Mercredi, at least hints at Mercury. But how to account for the names Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, and what exactly do those names reference? Those particular appellations come down to us through a long and rather circuitous course which includes Old English, but which shows vestiges of other cultures, notably Norse. In much the same way that Christianity appropriated various pagan traditions and made them its own, with some notable changes along the way, English speakers took characters from Norse and Germanic mythic traditions and pretty much pasted them on the existing Roman deities and/or planets associated with the various days. Therefore, Tuesday’s Mars, the god of war, became associated with Tiw, the Norse god of duels. Thursday’s Roman counterpart was Jupiter, the god of the sky and thunder, which made him a doppelgänger of sorts for Thor (so to speak). Wednesday and Friday are two of the more interesting examples, with Friday deriving its current English name from the Norse goddess Frigg (or Freya), though the Roman counterpart is Venus (interestingly, the French kind of smartly combined the “ven” of Venus with the French verb for selling, “vendre”, to create their word Vendredi, since Friday was often the day to visit the local market and stock up). Which leaves us with Wednesday, one of the weirder names of the week, and one which many modern day English speakers tend to pronounce “whens-day”, skipping over the all important “d” which is in fact a remnant of its etymological link to the Norse god Odin. All of this is to say those armed with this kind of knowledge may have a leg up on an ex-con named Shadow Moon (Ricky Whittle) who upon his release from prison finds himself stalked (more or less) by an enigmatic man who identifies himself as Mr. Wednesday (Ian McShane). Wednesday seems to know an awful lot about Shadow, and also seems intent on hiring him for — well, that turns out to be the lynchpin around which much of the fascinating if intentionally provocative American Gods hinges.

American Gods is culled from a novel by the redoubtable Neil Gaiman, a writer whose work frequently delves into the mythic and fantastic (Lucifer, Neverwhere, Marvel Knights: Eternals, Coraline). American Gods isn’t so much “high concept” as it is postiviely stratospheric, ultimately revealing that gods of the ancient world still exist today because of their few remaining believers, with many of them taking up residence in unlikely ways throughout the United States. Mr. Wednesday of course turns out to be an incarnation of Odin, and he is on a mission which seems to turn some elements of Sir James George Frazer’s iconic work on religion and mythology, The Golden Bough, on its veritable head, with the “old king” (meaning Odin) attempting to kill the “new king” (which in this case means all sorts of modern day “gods” like mass media and drugs). It’s an absolutely fascinating premise, and one which the television version approaches a little discursively at first, meaning that a certain amount of patience is necessary before the full impact of the series’ plot dynamics kick in.

The show’s creative staff is a who’s who of film and television heavyweights, and includes co-creator and co-writer Bryan Fuller (Hannibal: The Complete Series, Star Trek: Discovery) and director David Slade (The Twilight Saga: Eclipse, Breaking Bad: The Complete Series), and as a result the show’s technical aspects are often jaw dropping. With the intersection of the “human” and the “divine” regularly on display, American Gods is often a near hallucinatory experience, with visuals that will certainly appeal to anyone with a penchant for psychedelics. But it’s the vast array of characters that really make this show work. Shadow’s backstory is slowly filled in as the season progresses, detailing his erstwhile “career” as a con man, something that brought him into contact with his wife Laura (Emily Browning), a character who is supposedly snuffed early in the series but who turns out to be “not quite dead yet”. Other highlights are Gillian Anderson as the “new” goddess Media, who delights in contacting Shadow as various iconic figures like Lucille Ball in her I Love Lucy persona. Some of the most provocative material comes courtesy of depictions of Bilquis (Yetide Badaki), otherwise known as the Queen of Sheba, a kind of vampiristic lover who consumes her paramours whole cloth in order to stay looking young, but not with her mouth (I’ll let you figure that one out).

The whole premise of American Gods is so fascinating that occasional narrative hurdles the show encounters are fairly easily overcome. Whittle makes for an appealingly complex hero, and the large cast of “elder” gods is often riveting, with McShane looking like he’s having a field day playing the enigmatic Wednesday. There are any number of fun turns by the large supporting cast, which includes such notables as Kristin Chenoweth, Cloris Leachman, Peter Stormare and Orlando Jones (if I were handing out Emmys for guest star performances, I'd happily throw one Jones' way for his first scabrously hilarious monologue as Anansi, delivered to a ship full of slaves in the 17th century, alerting them to what the next several hundred years of the black experience in America is going to be like). The show doesn’t shirk from some fairly challenging material, dealing with everything from slavery to drug abuse and offering some at least subtextual social critiques along the way. The writing is uniformly sharp, though those wary of pretty trenchant language might want to steel themselves. Some of the depictions of various behaviors are also intentionally disturbing, with several sequences featuring Bilquis being almost hyperbolically salacious.

American Gods: Season 1 Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

American Gods: Season 1 is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Starz and Lionsgate Film with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer largely in 1.78:1, but with regular interstitials in 2.39:1 (as can be seen in several of the screenshots accompanying this review). This is a rather interesting looking series, one with what appears to be pushed contrast and boosted blacks at times, something that gives it an appropriately otherwordly appearance (though I have to say some of the interview segments on the supplements also looked uncharacteristically dark to me, so I'll be curious to see what those who saw this broadcast — which I did not — will say about this set of transfers). The series regularly exhibits excellent detail levels even with the palette radically skewed at times. There's a glut of quite interesting CGI, some of which is not especially "realistic" looking, but which contributes to an often hallucinatory ambience. There's an emphasis on blood throughout this season, and pops of deep reds or scarlets regularly show up, helping to overcome what is at times a slightly desaturated look.

Update: A member alerted me to the fact that evidently not all versions of this release contain a Digital HD code. My review copy came with "Digital HD" on the cover and the usual insert inside with the code, but in checking on Amazon after receiving a Private Message, I see the current Amazon listing just lists Blu-ray discs as part of the release.

American Gods: Season 1 Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

American Gods: Season 1 features a nice sounding Dolby TrueHD 5.1 track. Immersion is consistent throughout all of the episodes of this season, drawing on elements like Shadow's seeming "waking dreams", where he's accosted by all sorts of supernatural phenomena, or even more mundane elements like some of the early scenes in the jail courtyard. Some of this season plays almost like a "road trip" featuring Shadow and Wednesday, and the variety of locations regularly offers good placement of ambient environmental effects. Some winning score choices also waft through the surround channels quite winningly. The series' conceit of being written by an unidentified author comes accompanied by occasional narration, which sounds fine, and dialogue also is rendered cleanly and clearly on this problem free track.

American Gods: Season 1 Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Disc One

• Audio Commentaries

  The Bone Orchard

  Audio Commentary by Creators/Writers Bryan Fuller and Michael Green and director David Slade

  Audio Commentary by Actors Ian McShane and Ricky Whittle

  Note: In a bit of what I consider to be clunky authoring, these are found under the Episodes submenu, and you can't tell if any given episode has a commentary until you click on it. From my reckoning, only this premiere episode features audio commentary tracks.

Disc Two

• American Gods: Origins (1080p; 15:40) is an interesting piece featuring Neil Gaiman talking about the project.


• Old Gods (1080p; 7:43) profiles some of the "town elders" in the context of the series' overall plot.


• New Gods (1080p; 5:28) does much the same service for the young 'uns.


• What Is American Gods (1080p; 4:56) is a brief overview of both the book and the series in terms of how to describe it, and of course includes some spoilers.


• Book vs. Show (1080p; 4:29) is another interesting piece looking at some of the differences between the media.


• Explore the Crocodile Bar in 360 Degrees with Commentary by Cast and Crew (1080p; 5:38) is a fun tour that includes some interesting tidbits on the production design.

Disc Three

• The Road to American Gods (1080p; 2:26:32) is a fantastic, eight part documentary that goes into incredible depth on the whole project from inception to production, with lots of behind the scenes footage and interviews.


• Title Gods (1080p; 7:39) focuses on the series' evocative credits sequence.


• Episode 108 God Squad Video Commentary (1080p; 1:00:07) is a PiP piece featuring several cast members in a small window in the bottom right corner of the screen opining as the episode plays. This is a pretty noisy, chaotic affair, but it's kind of fun to watch.

American Gods: Season 1 Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

My wife was extremely excited to see American Gods: Season 1 show up in my review queue since she had read Gaiman's novel (which I haven't), and it was interesting to hear her talk about some of the differences between the novel and the treatment of Gaiman's source in this opening season. Not being armed with that "insider" knowledge, I just kind of went with the flow of American Gods and I have to say this may well be my favorite new television series. It's smart, provocative and often slyly funny, and it comes replete with some astounding visuals and topnotch performances. This Blu-ray release sports excellent technical merits and some very well done supplements, and comes Highly recommended.