American Gods: Season 3 – A Review

Hey y’all!
Welcome to another TV show review. Today I want to talk about season 3 of American Gods. After the clusterfuck that was season two, I put off watching this for a while. I finally made it, so let’s see if season 3 was an improvement!

The Plot (according to Rotten Tomatoes):

“American Gods” is the epic story of an inevitable war building between the Old Gods of mythology and our New Gods of technology. Ricky Whittle (“The 100,” Nappily Ever After) stars as ex-con Shadow Moon, a man pulled into the service of the mysterious Mr. Wednesday, played by Ian McShane (“Deadwood,” John Wick) — only to discover that not only is his charismatic but un-trustable boss actually the Norse All-Father god Odin, he’s also… Shadow’s father. In Season Three, Shadow angrily pushes this apparent destiny away, and settles in the idyllic snowy town of Lakeside, Wisconsin — to make his own path, guided by the gods of his black ancestors, the Orishas. However, he’ll soon discover that this town’s still waters run deep, and dark, and bloody, and that you don’t get to simply reject being a god. The only choice — and a choice you have to make — is what kind of god you’re going to be.

American Gods on RT

The Rating:

I have some rather mixed feelings about this one. As I mentioned before, season 2 didn’t do anything for me. It was loud, annoying and confusing. However, the final episode did promise some improvement, so I just had to give season 3 a shot as well. You know what? It all started out pretty well! The first half of this season managed to reel me back in and I was binging the show.

However, there are still several bones I have to pick with the show. As this will include a bunch of spoilers, only click on read more if you don’t mind that!

The first thing that was a letdown was Mad Sweeney. He was one of the most intriguing characters on the show and his story in the final episodes of season 2 was the only thing that made me want to watch more. The only thing he gets to play in this season, however, is a corpse. They only have him in this season to lie on a stone slab for a hot minute and that’s it. I really was hoping for more with that, but alas it was a disappointment. Ultimately, he was just a device to further Laura’s story. While she’s slowly growing on me as she’s getting a bit more depth, I still don’t care to much about her entire angle. She’s so rude and pisses me off a great deal. Just get a fucking grip woman.

Shadow Moon on the other hand is great this season. It’s nice to see him acting somewhat independently from Wednesday a bit even if it’s just for a few episodes. I was stoked that we’d finally get the plot concerning Lakeside. It’s a quaint and prosperous town Shadow moves to for a bit. Well, it’s only doing so well because a human is sacrificed every year. Shadow soon figures out the dark secret and is horrified. Interestingly the orchestrator of all that is an old lady in the show. If I remember correctly in the book is was an old man. I’d love to know why that change was made.

We’re still dealing with the new Gods and as much as I appreciate the idea, they are just so fucking annoying I cannot deal with them. Especially Techboy just needs to die. I see where they are coming from with this character, I liked that they tried to give him more backstory but ultimately it just doesn’t work for me.

So, while the season started out strong, it just got weird as it progressed. I’m heartbroken about Demeter, pissed at Wednesday, somewhat confused about Bilquis and I just want to yeet the new Gods out of a damn window. The finale was intriguing enough for me to want to see more (which won’t happen ’cause the show got cancelled). But ultimately I found it underdeveloped and a bit underexplained in terms of motives and motivations. Something was just lacking and the show just can’t seem to get back to the intensity the first season had.

Even though season 3 was definitely better than season 2, it is still plagued by a lot of weaknesses. While visually stunning, the plot often can’t keep up and you end up disappointed. To be honest, I’m kind of glad that the show got cancelled after this season as they just can’t seem to make it work properly anymore. I wouldn’t want to watch another season like that.

Did you watch the season? Let me know in the comments what you think!

Follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Bloglovin‘, Tumblr, Goodreads or Letterboxd and Instagram!