American Gods review, Episode 301: “A Winter’s Tale”

After a few years of tumultuous drama, the American Gods season 3 premiere reminds us why we fell in love with the show in the first place.

Americans Gods, based on the novel of the same name by Neil Gaiman, had an amazing freshman season, but cast and crew turnover behind the scenes resulted in a lackluster sophomore outing.

Now the show is back, and I’m happy to report that the season 3 premiere revives that sense of excitement and enthusiasm we got from season 1. Sure, there are some bumps along the way, but things are much improved from the mess we got last season.

“A Winter’s Tale” kicks off with an early 2000s throwback as Marilyn Manson takes the stage in all his frightening glory, as Johan. What we’re led to believe is a production of Swan Lake turns into a fright fest as the dancing ballerinas are revealed to demons in tutus. Johan’s heavy metal concert is an ode to Odin (Ian McShane), who is watching from the balcony as his followers bellow his name.

We quickly check in with Laura Moon (Emily Browning), who is reeling from the death of Mad Sweeney (Pablo Schrieber). This is the part of the premiere that I could have really done without. Three seasons in, I think we’re over the both of them dying and coming back to life.

However, I think we’ve finally come to the end of that particular road. Laura takes out the lucky coin keeping her alive, hoping it will fall into Sweeney and bring him back. Instead, she turns to dust, and the coin misses Sweeney’s body, leaving them both very much dead…or at least I hope so.

This bodes well for the New Gods, who have undergone a bit of a makeover in the wake of all the season 2 drama. Instead of Crispin Glover’s Mr. World, we now have Ms. World played by Pose’s Dominque Jackson. Technical Boy (Bruce Langley) is still trying to convince Bilquis (Yetide Badaki) to join the New Gods, but she remains neutral. We’ll have to wait very patiently to see how this story develops.

I wanted to get through all of that to discuss the real heart and soul of this premiere: Odin and Shadow Moon. At the end of season 2, Shadow was meant to head to Lakeside, Wisconsin under a new name and identity, Mike Ainsley. However, he heads to Milwaukee instead, seemingly trying to start over without any of these pesky gods insisting he take a side.

But we all know that’s not likely to happen, and it isn’t long before Odin shows up and takes Shadow with him on a father/son road trip to gather the Gods. They come across Whiskey Jack (Graham Greene), who remind Odin that the white men who came to America believing in him spent centuries killing Jack’s people. Even with that being a bust, Odin is determined to keep going,, but Shadow puts his foot down and refuses to join him.

It doesn’t take Shadow long to realize that Odin giving in so easily to him was only code for “you can never escape me.” When trying to travel onward, Shadow “runs into issues” when every bus ticket is sold out for every city…except Lakeside. Shadow gives in and heads to Lakeside, and is greeted with kindness by a local store owner. But things take a turn at episode’s end, with Shadow trying to get into his apartment as someone holds a gun to his head from behind.

And with all that, we wrap up the American Gods season 3 premiere, which gives me confidence that the show is headed in the right direction. Here’s hoping the momentum keeps up!

Until, next week!

Grade: B

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