If one were to hear from a random stranger sitting next to them on a plane that they were living in a world inhabited by deities and other mythological figures, would their reaction be fight or flight? This is exactly the scenario Shadow Moon (Ricky Whittle, “The 100”) finds himself in as he meets Mr. Wednesday (Ian McShane, “Game of Thrones”) in the pilot episode of “American Gods.”

Based on the popular book written in 2001 by Neil Gaiman, “American Gods” is yet another story of gods interacting with mankind, with Moon finding himself in the middle of a war between the Old Gods and the New Gods, personifications of modern-day fixations, such as money and technology. The thing that made these characters so interesting, not at all like the larger-than-life figures that most of us have grown up knowing them to be, is that they feel like regular people. It is one of the many elements that helped make the book and, by default, the first season of the show so special and relatable.

In 2017, Starz released the first season. Consisting of eight episodes, the show was created by Bryan Fuller (“Hannibal”) and Michael Green (“Logan”). The two promptly walked away from the show after the first season due to budgetary restraints and further studio meddling. Gaiman officially took the title of executive producer afterward, with Jesse Alexander coming on to replace Fuller as main showrunner and writer. 

The first episode picks up shortly after the finale of the previous season, with Shadow, Wednesday, Laura Moon (Emily Browning, “Golden Exits”) and Mad Sweeney (Pablo Schreiber, “First Man”) on their way to the House on the Rock, the place where Wednesday instructed the rest of the Old Gods they met the previous season to meet them. They reach the place, where they meet up with several other characters from the previous season, including Bilquis (Yetide Badaki, “Aquarius”), the Djinn (Mousa Kraish, “Echo Park”), Mr. Nancy (Orlando Jones, “Madiba”) and Salim (Omid Abtahi, “We Bare Bears”). Meanwhile, Mr. World (Crispin Glover, “Texas Rising”), the leader of the New Gods and the chief antagonist, sends Technical Boy (Bruce Langley) to find Media, who was last seen semi-destroyed by Wednesday.

Upon the opening scene of the episode, something feels off. That is not to say the episode is bad. As far as the story goes, it is still interesting. The Old Gods are still preparing for war against the New Gods, and the inklings of betrayal are sprinkled in to make it seem like the New Gods may not be the antagonists the audience has come to believe. That is all there, and that stuff is all good. 

The best description that comes to mind, however, with the word choice is the meeting of the Old Gods within the episode. This is a meeting of every single age-old deity from every corner of mythology from over the years: Norse, Russian, African, Eastern European, Asian, etc. Because Fuller had such a distinct style, a scene like this should feel epic and awe inspiring, but instead, it just feels like a bunch of flashy CGI with some really messy color pallets put over it. It does not feel like it has weight or substance to it. The brilliance of the first season came from making these larger-than-life characters feel down to earth and humanized, but while watching them, one would get the sense their power came from how old they were, the fact these beings had been alive for generations and had seen all of mankind evolve to where it is today. It was subtle yet poignant, and that feeling was missing from the episode. We will see where things go from there, but as far as pilot episodes go in terms of determining the quality of the overall season, expect another sophomore slump from this one.

Image from Starz via YouTube