• Home
  • Movies
  • Music
  • TV
  • Video Games
  • Wrestling
  • Topics
  • Latest Comments on Cult of Whatever
Search
Cult of Whatever logo
  • Movies
    Featured
    • The Living Daylights: Timothy Dalton as James Bond

      The Living Daylights is still awesome, thirty-five years later

      By Matthew Martin
      | March 28, 2022
      Movie Blogs
    Recent
    • The Muppet Christmas Carol: Michael Caine as Scrooge

      The Muppet’s Christmas Carol remains the gold standard for the book

      By Matthew Martin
      | December 20, 2022
    • Nightmare Before Christmas 1993 1

      2022’s Christmas Movie Watchlist!

      By Matthew Martin
      | December 18, 2022
    • Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio Poster

      REVIEW: GDT’s Pinocchio is my favorite film of the year!

      By Matthew Martin
      | December 14, 2022
    • Troll: Ine Marie Wilmann as Nora

      REVIEWS: TROLL and TROLL HUNTER -A giant creature double feature!

      By Matthew Martin
      | December 5, 2022
    • Harry with The Hendersons

      Harry and the Hendersons is still awesome, thirty-five years later

      By Matthew Martin
      | December 1, 2022
    • Fantastic Four Poster

      The five best “rogues galleries” in superherodom! (part 3)

      By Matthew Martin
      | November 28, 2022
  • Music
    Random
    • Sam Phillips Sun Records

      On Sam and Sun and the nativity scene of rock and roll

      By Matthew Martin
      | December 18, 2017
      Music Blogs
    Recent
    • The Beatles: Get Back

      What GET BACK reveals about the Beatles

      By Matthew Martin
      | December 15, 2021
    • Simon And Garfunkel at Feyenoord Stadium in Rotterdam1982

      The Boxer is a song about being conned

      By Matthew Martin
      | July 4, 2021
    • Lady Gaga: Chromatica Album Cover

      Lady Gaga’s discography is totally out of order

      By Matthew Martin
      | June 3, 2021
    • Michael Jackson Thriller Album Cover

      Thirty years ago music fans said “Nevermind” to Michael Jackson

      By Matthew Martin
      | March 21, 2021
    • Queen II Album Cover

      On Queen’s The Miracle, and the importance of track ordering

      By Matthew Martin
      | February 16, 2021
    • Linda Paul Mccartney 1976

      50 years ago, McCartney dropped “Lennon” and went solo…

      By Matthew Martin
      | June 5, 2020
  • TV
    Featured
    • Big Sky S03e05: Kylie Bunbury, J. Anthony Pena and Katheryn Winnick as Cassie Dewell, Mo Poppernak and Jenny Hoyt

      Big Sky S03E05 Review: Flesh and Blood - Glamping!

      By Salome G
      | October 22, 2022
      TV Blogs
    Recent
    • Big Sky S03e10: Gang

      Big Sky S03E10 Review: A Thin Layer of Rock – Break time…

      By Salome G
      | December 11, 2022
    • Rick And Morty: S01e03

      Is Beth from Rick and Morty a bigger sociopath than Rick?

      By Jason Collins
      | December 7, 2022
    • Big Sky S03e09: Dedee Pfeiffer and Cree as Denise and Emily

      Big Sky S03E09: Where There’s Smoke There’s Fire – Stalling

      By Salome G
      | December 1, 2022
    • The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special: Dave Bautista and Pom Klementieff as Drax and Mantis

      REVIEW: The GOTG Holiday Special is a sweet prelude to next year’s finale

      By Matthew Martin
      | November 27, 2022
    • The Midnight Club S01: The Gang

      The Midnight Club S1 Review – A series of unfortunate events

      By Salome G
      | November 24, 2022
    • Big Sky S03e08: Reba McEntire as Sunny Barnes

      Big Sky S03E08 Review: Duck Hunting – I love a weirdo.

      By Salome G
      | November 19, 2022
  • Video Games
    Featured
    • Arkham Knight

      Batman: Arkham Knight - A fitting end to a trilogy

      By Tom Farr
      | July 18, 2015
      Video Game Reviews
    Recent
    • Splatoon 3 Screenshot

      A trio of Nintendo Switch reviews!

      By Matthew Martin
      | September 28, 2022
    • Nintendo Switch Logo

      Looking ahead to the Switch 2: Predictions and Wants

      By Matthew Martin
      | August 15, 2022
    • Legend Of Zelda

      Can a Legend of Zelda movie work?

      By Matthew Martin
      | April 6, 2022
    • Super Mario 64

      Which system had the better launch: A battle of four Nintendo consoles

      By Matthew Martin
      | December 1, 2021
    • Luigi's Mansion

      Happy twentieth to Nintendo’s underrated gem, the Gamecube

      By Matthew Martin
      | November 18, 2021
    • Metroid Dread

      Metroid Dread – Post Game analysis and sequel needs

      By Matthew Martin
      | October 29, 2021
  • Wrestling
    Featured
    • AEW All Out 2022: Keith Lee. Anthony Bowens, Max Caster and Billy Gunn

      AEW All Out 2022 - Review and (wild) Speculation!

      By Matthew Martin
      | September 5, 2022
      AEW
    Recent
    • WWE WrestleMania 38: Cody Rhodes vs. Seth Rollins

      Was 2022 the wildest year in wrestling history?

      By Matthew Martin
      | January 4, 2023
    • AEW Full Gear 2022: Young Bucks and Kenny Omega Elite Entrance

      AEW Full Gear 2022 – A needed reset at the end of a tough year

      By Matthew Martin
      | November 22, 2022
    • WWE Survivor Series 1997: Bret Hart

      The Montreal Screwjob – Twenty Five Years Later

      By Matthew Martin
      | November 8, 2022
    • AEW Grand Slam 2022: Jungle Boy and Rey Fenix

      AEW GRANDSLAM 2022 showcased the present and future of the promotion

      By Matthew Martin
      | September 25, 2022
    • AEW All Out 2022: CM Punk

      AEW All Out Fall Out: All the CM Punk drama that’s fit to print!

      By Matthew Martin
      | September 5, 2022
    • AEW Dark: Ricky Starks (22/09/20)

      The future of the AEW World Championship

      By Matthew Martin
      | August 14, 2022
  • Topics
    • site logo
    Latest
    • Was 2022 the wildest year in wrestling history?
    • The Muppet's Christmas Carol remains the gold standard for the book
    • 2022's Christmas Movie Watchlist!
    • REVIEW: GDT's Pinocchio is my favorite film of the year!
    • Big Sky S03E10 Review: A Thin Layer of Rock - Break time...
    • Is Beth from Rick and Morty a bigger sociopath than Rick?

    American Gods S01E01: The Bone Orchard – An ambitious, accomplished premiere

    By Kevin Boyle
    | May 1, 2017
    TV Blogs

    In which hustlers, liars, and cheats are the ones that hear your prayers

    If anything in TV land that can sum up the power of belief its American Gods. Neil Gaiman’s multiple award-wining novel has been on the adaptation pile from the moment it was first published in 2001, with its epic tale of old gods versus new gods told through the travels of ex con Shadow Moon being the stuff that fantasy dreams are made of. After 16 years, and an HBO adaptation that hit the skids a few years ago, Starz, along with writers Bryan Fuller, and Michael Green have finally brought this celestial tale to the small screen.

    American Gods Poster

    What’s most striking about American Gods first episode, The Bone Orchard, is how faithful this adaptation is. Shadow Moon, played by the impressive Rickie Whittle, is an ex con released from prison early due to the death of his wife. On his way to her funeral he repeatedly runs into Mr Wednesday (Ian McShane) who seems to know more than he should about Shadow, and offers him a vague job to be “his man”. Shadow refuses many times, with his journey back to his dead wife getting stranger and stranger, as he finally gives in to Wednesday and agrees to work with him.

    American Gods S1e1 Ian Mcshane Ricky Whittle

    Yes, there are little additions, slight updates, and some narrative streamlining, but this episode is basically a reproduction of the novels early chapters. Some adaptations, Zack Snyder’s Watchmen is a popular example, can be so faithful to the source material that they end up losing the opportunity to create their own distinct identity, something that American Gods avoids with ease. As a fan of the novel, I have no problem with this amount of reverence since it’s supplemented by the singular style of everyone involved.

    Which brings me to the Hannibal connection. American Gods shares four crucial similarities with Hannibal: its writer/creator Bryan Fuller, David Slade who directed both this episode and Hannibal’s pilot, and Brian Rittzel, who was responsible for the score. Bryan Fuller has made a career with these types of projects, hyper stylised forays into internal and external beliefs delivered in a fantastical way. David Slade is the director that helps him do that. The fourth similarity is one of content. The central relationship of American Gods is oddly reminiscent of that of Hannibal and Will Graham. The details may be different, but both are a tale of broken men who are taken under the wing of shady new acquaintances that have darker ulterior motives.

    American Gods S1e1 Ian Mcshane Ricky Whittle 2

    Let’s not forget Michael Green’s contribution as co-writer and showrunner. While Green doesn’t have the same pedigree on the small screen as Fuller he is uniquely qualified to tell this kind of story thanks to his work on Logan. After all what is Logan but a run-down god-like figure fuelled by the faith of better people than himself that he can be a hero?

    The Bone Orchard is an episode about the power of seduction which makes sense since that is the point of a pilot. The first episode of a television show is designed to seduce the viewer, to show him/her tricks they have never seen, float the promise of greater entertainments to come, basically trying to be the best you’ve ever had. All of this is prevalent in the episode: Wednesday promises Shadow a mountain of benefits, not limited to being king of America, in order to work for him, the Viking at the start go through many horrible sacrifices in order for Odin to send the wind to their be-calmed boat, and Bilquis seduces and consumes men so they can worship her. It’s like Shadow’s, and Mad Sweeny’s coin tricks, seduction is about inspiring awe to hide your own motives. It distracts us from asking questions like why Wednesday would need Shadow in the first place, or why is Shadow drinking mead in order to seal the deal? It’s significant in that it suggests the strangeness of what’s going on, but Slade’s camera distracts us from it with Mad Sweeny’s coin tricks and his multipole dart throws despite the fact that he only has three darts and doesn’t once remove them from the board.

    American Gods S1e1 Yetide Badaki

    American Gods S1e1 Bruce Langley

    American Gods S1e1 2

    This is an intensely weird show, with lots of stylistic flourishes that threaten to overwhelm at any point, but like Gaiman’s novel, the characters, and in this case the performances help anchor us. Whittle is perfect as a more emotive Shadow than the book, and McShane is sublime as Mr Wednesday, playing up the con man aspect by pummelling us with information laced with roguish charm. The highlight though is Pablo Schreiber as Mad Sweeny the too tall leprechaun that laughs in the face of stereotypes. Schreiber cuts a much more charming, and threatening figure than his counterpart in the novel, with the promise of a bigger role in the show, his introduction is the best of the episode. Special mention for Betty Gilpin as Audrey who spectacularly portrayed a woman whose life has been shattered by the death and betrayal of the two people she loved the most, with all of the anger, sadness and contradictions that bridge those emotions coming through in a handful of scenes.

    So, has American Gods seduced you? Has the perplexing images of a talking Buffalo with fire coming out of its eyes left you wanting more? It’s certainly worked for me, I’m seduced, I believe it’s easier to just pick coins out of the air.

    9/10 – An ambitious, accomplished premiere that set up the requisite mysteries but also enjoyed the overall weirdness of the world of American Gods. It’s definitely a world worth exploring.

    Share this article:

    Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on Pinterest Share on Reddit

    Tags

    American Gods

    COMMENTS

    Please read our Commenting Policy before you join in with the discussion.

    Note: If you have email notifications enabled, please check your email spam folders to ensure emails are not missed.

    Subscribe
    Connect withD
    I allow to create an account
    When you login first time using a Social Login button, we collect your account public profile information shared by Social Login provider, based on your privacy settings. We also get your email address to automatically create an account for you in our website. Once your account is created, you'll be logged-in to this account.
    DisagreeAgree
    Notify of
    guest

    Connect withD
    I allow to create an account
    When you login first time using a Social Login button, we collect your account public profile information shared by Social Login provider, based on your privacy settings. We also get your email address to automatically create an account for you in our website. Once your account is created, you'll be logged-in to this account.
    DisagreeAgree
    guest

    0 Comments
    Inline Feedbacks
    View all comments

    You might also like

    • Legion S01E01: Chapter 1 – Just like its hero Legion has many interesting layers

      By Kevin Boyle
      | February 11, 2017
    • Preacher S01E01: Pilot – It’s the time of the Preacher in AMC’s hilariously blasphemous new show.

      By Kevin Boyle
      | May 23, 2016
    • Outcast S01E01 Review: Pilot

      By Salome G
      | June 5, 2016
    • Penny Dreadful S03E01 Review: The Day Tennyson Died

      By Salome G
      | May 3, 2016
    • Game of Thrones: What to expect from Season 7?

      By Kevin Boyle
      | July 14, 2016

    FIND THE TOPICS YOU WANT...

    TV Topics

    Recommended for you

    • Big Sky S03E10 Review: A Thin Layer of Rock – Break time…

      By Salome G
      | December 11, 2022
    • Is Beth from Rick and Morty a bigger sociopath than Rick?

      By Jason Collins
      | December 7, 2022
    • REVIEW: The GOTG Holiday Special is a sweet prelude to next year’s finale

      By Matthew Martin
      | November 27, 2022
    • The Midnight Club S1 Review – A series of unfortunate events

      By Salome G
      | November 24, 2022
    • Doctor Who 2022 October Special Review: The Power of the Doctor – Lackluster

      By Jason Collins
      | October 25, 2022
    • Can the Doctor regenerate into a previous incarnation?

      By Jason Collins
      | October 23, 2022
    • Is the Tardis more sentient plant or machine?

      By Jason Collins
      | October 10, 2022
    • Star Trek Strange New Worlds – Season two wishlist!

      By Matthew Martin
      | September 14, 2022
    • Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Every episode ranked! (Part 5/5)

      By Matthew Martin
      | May 30, 2022
    • About Us
    • Contact Us
    • Privacy Policy
    • Affiliate Disclosure
    • Cookie Policy and Settings
    • Terms of Use
    • Photo Credits
    • RSS
    All Cult of Whatever articles, logos, illustrations and graphics are copyright CultOfWhatever.com. All other trademarks, logos and copyrights are the property of their respective owners. © 2021 CultOfWhatever. All Rights Reserved.
    • facebook
    • twitter
    wpDiscuz