"The Beguiling Man" – American Gods S02E02 Review

Well, things livened up a bit this week on American Gods. No thanks to Shadow, who hangs around in a torture harness and gets interrogated by Mr. Town (Dean Winters) who looks a bit like Andrew Sensenig from Powers et al. Is that just me?

As I noted in my last review, we get a bit of Shadow's back story that as a young boy (Gabriel Darku) he came to America from France with his unnamed mother (Oluniké Adeliyi). Shadow got beat up a bit by locals and hauled in by the police, but his mother said he should see things from their side and never forget he gives off the light she gave him. And then she dies of cancer. It's all very sad, but it doesn't tell us anything about Shadow. He does meet someone who is presumably Wednesday, who sets Shadow on the path of... rolling a coin across his fingers. So there's that.

What's happening in the present is more interesting. Wednesday breaks the team up for various assignments. He has Mama-Ji prepare to go to war (her "I will lop heads and drink blood. If I can get someone to cover my shift at the motel" is the funniest line of the episode), tells the Djinn get his war spear Gungnir from the Corn Palace, passive-aggressively sends Laura and Sweeney to rescue Shadow, and goes on... another road trip. With Nancy. Orlando Jones as Nancy is still the funniest part of the current show. I like his calling shotgun, and later his reaction when he discovers Wednesday has bought him a bucket of fried chicken.

Salim convinces the Djinn to take him along since the Djinn needs his belief. I'm no expert on praying to Mecca, but does that belief sustain the Djinn as well? I like Omid Abtahi as Salim: he's pretty much the only "normal" human in the group, and Salim is just following the man he loves. I do wish the Djinn would show a little more reason for Salim to love him.

Laura and Sweeney drive a lot, have bad luck and blow out a tire, and finally Sweeney takes Laura through a "shortcut" to Shadow. Who is being transported on a train. Laura and Sweeney enter the train, kill Mr. Town's agents, Laura crushes a man's skull with her boot, and tells Shadow she had to do it to save him.

Wednesday ends up sacrificing his car by parking it on the railroad tracks and letting the train with Shadow run it over. This is all mixed in with the Young Shadow flashbacks.

We also get World telling Bisquil she'd better pick a side--and it'd better be his--or she's likely to be considered an enemy by both sides. And Technical Boy goes hunting for Media. We don't see Gillian Anderson, but we do see Media "talking" to Technical Boy through the media. It ends inconclusively with Technical Boy giving her some time to get her act together, and then come back to World for the coming war.

There's also some talk of Zorya coming back in a new incarnation. But there may or may not be enough believers to make that a reality.

After a season one of road trips, season rwo brings us... more road trips. Watching Wednesday and Nancy, and Laura and Sweeney buddy up makes the road trips entertaining but the creative team doesn't seem to be in any hurry to get anywhere or advance the plot. The first season was spent gearing up for the war between old and new gods, with a clueless Shadow. And the second season is... everyone gearing up for war between old and new gods, with a not-so-clueless Shadow. It's entertaining, but it's frustrating. Maybe it's a case of the alleged chaos behind the scenes: the show keeps getting handed off from creative team to creative team, and the new team seems to be setting up their own path. But then, they've already been relieved so we'll get the same thing next season.

I wish the new creative team would stop trying to set up its own plots, and just do the plots. Or here's a thought: just do what the previous team spent season one setting up. I know it's all the rage for creative teams to make their shows all about them, but in this case it feels like their efforts are hurting American Gods. Rather like how the new creative team on Doctor Who spent so much time making their own vision of Doctor Who, and spent all of their time looking forward and not much of it incorporating what had gone before.

But that's just my opinion, I could be wrong. What do you think?