When Shadowmoon is offered a job as companion/bodyguard by Mr Wednesday there is no reasons not to accept. His wife has recently died, and Shadowmoon is fresh out of prison. Joining Wednesday, Shadowmoon finds himself embroiled in a war between the old and new gods, one fighting against irrelevance, the other seeking dominance over the new world...

American Gods: Season Two (2019. 8 eps x 1 hr approx) is a continuation of the show based on Neil Gaiman’s book of the same name, all of which are presented with a 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio. There are also English, French and German subtitles.

The Blu-ray set does come with two extras. New York Comic Con Panel 2018 (52 min, 05 sec). The panel includes many of the cast as well as Neil Gaiman. As these things go, they talk about the show in an upbeat manner. It’s interesting, if you have even attended one of these panels, there will be few surprises as to the type of content. Neil Gaiman’s America (4 min, 47 sec) where he talks about moving to America.

With the first season having been so well received, it was always going to be difficult to keep the impetus going for a second season, especially as this would be the difficult second act. While the season had to move its characters around for the final confrontation, which presumably will come with season three, it still had to provide interest in and of itself. That is not to say that there isn’t much to enjoy in season two.

The show presents a scatological narrative, mixing theological discussion, humour and personal drama. Shadowmoon (played by Ricky Whittle) continues his journey into a world of gods and magic, following Mr Wednesday (Ian McShane) around, mostly with a bemused expression on his face. Shane, likewise, continues to play the master manipulator, calling in all the debts owed, building up an army of the old gods to take on the new.

New characters are introduced, but the most interesting part of the show involves Laura Moon (Emily Browning) and Mad Sweeny’s (Pablo Schreiber) road trip across America looking for a way of bringing Laura back from the dead. Schreiber, especially, gives a powerful performance as a broken man, in love with someone he cannot have, who is slowly remembering his long and tragic past.

The production values for the show have not dropped at all and the sequences which show magic are, on occasion, just gorgeous to watch.

So, while this may be the difficult second season, the show only occasionally lets the pace drop too low. Nevertheless, it remains an impressive piece of television, complex and entertaining.

8

Charles Packer