American Gods is Starz’s newest show and is based on an award-winning book by prolific fantasy and sci-fi writer Neil Gaiman and stars Ricky Whittle (The 100), Ian McShane (Game of Thrones, Deadwood), and Gillian Anderson (The X-Files, Hannibal) among many other outstanding character actors. The show follows a recently released convict named Shadow Moon, played by Whittle in a breakout role, whose wife has recently died three days before he was scheduled to be released and goes to work as a bodyguard for the mysterious Mr. Wednesday. This is truly one of the best new shows to premiere in a long, long time and is completely different than everything else on television. Showrunners Bryan Fuller and Michael Green absolutely knock it out-of-the-park and have perfectly adapted Gaiman’s seminal book. Coming off the criminally underseen Hannibal, Fuller is right back to the top of his game with this show that since it is on Starz, allows him to go show any amount of blood, gore, and nudity that he wants.

This show is not for everybody because of the gore and sex that is in it, but none of this stuff is used gratuitously and it serves the story. The usage of blood on this show is unlike anything that I have ever seen outside of Hannibal and is among the most visceral things every put on the small screen. All of the characters in the pilot are rich and interesting, as there is not one that is underwritten. The only fault in this pilot is that the pacing of it is slow. It starts to pick up towards the middle of the episode, but I still found every second completely engrossing. If you are a fan of shows like Game of Thrones and Hannibal, then American Gods should be your next obsession.

American Gods: 9.5 out of 10

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