From Page to Screen - A Book to TV Comparison of Episode 2 of 'American Gods'

Written by Scott Murray

THIS IS THE EMERGENCY SPOILER ALERT SYSTEM...YOU ARE ADVISED TO READ AT YOUR OWN RISK...

First, a brief reminder: While I will freely discuss the events of the first two episodes and their counterparts in the book, I will not spoil anything from the book which has yet to appear in the show.
 
With episode 2, we finally begin to move away from introductions and world-building and into the meat and potatoes of the plot itself: the Old Gods and the New are diametrically opposed, and they are all interested in Shadow. I’m sorry to say this episode left me feeling a little lost, simply because it defied my book-based expectations in so many ways. After a bit of thought, it’s actually left me rather intrigued, but I couldn’t quite shake the feeling of foreignness overhanging the whole episode, and although it’s a welcome return of one of the feelings I got reading the book, it’s also a bit jarring in how confidently and dramatically it’s eschewed my expectations. What changes am I really thinking about?
Let’s begin.

One smaller example is the character Shadow passes in the Diner, with the strange glasses, confirmed in the credits as “The Jinn,” he appears in the book in one of the “Somewhere in America sections,” which is how our sexual predator/goddess Bilquis was introduced in the last episode. On the one hand, pulling this character forward for a momentary appearance seems almost pointless: they either lose out on his “Somewhere in America” section (which saves them time but would seem to do nothing else,) or include it anyway and give us information about a character who, so far, has no visible impact on our main story. In the end they only have so many episodes to work with and compacting or omitting things is going to be necessary, and removing one of the side-stories that serves as one of several examples of the state of the Old Gods makes far more sense than removing some part of Shadow’s story. Retaining him in such a trivial manner leaves me wondering why they bothered at all. What do we gain from leaving him in? That said, I’ll admit it is efficient, if unfortunate. As the Harry Potter films taught us, we can’t have everything on the screen.

Speaking of Bilquis, it seems the showrunners intend to do more with her than the book did. She appears on only a few occasions in the book and never gets the kind of focus she did in this episode. An important difference that occurred to me only after I finished writing last week is that, in the novel, she is a streetwalker, but in the show she is using modern dating apps for easy hookups. Any potential commentary on changing social norms aside, she struggles in the book to turn tricks and carefully selects her “worshippers” so as to avoid undue suspicion, and she limps by on whatever tribute she can scrounge up. Bilquis appears in the show to be having a much easier time of it, and to potentially be experiencing a return of some of her power. In addition to making me wonder if she’ll play a bigger role in the show than the book, it also creates a new and fascinating idea: that technology (which, remember, is one of the things opposed to the Old Gods,) has actually made life easier for this particular Old God. Where might her loyalties lie, then, as sides are chosen and battle lines are drawn? I’m excited to see where she’ll go from here, and delighted at this particular method of modernizing the book; while Technical Boy’s limo and digital trickery seemed to be an aesthetic modernization and nothing more, Bilquis’ new position feels natural and smart.

As far as “Coming to America” and “Somewhere in America” stories go, the one at the beginning of this episode, featuring the slaves on the ship, is almost completely different from its novel counterpart, but, by virtue of its only purpose being an introduction, avoids causing any problems. I always expected it to be shortened, since the book’s version is about eighteen pages long, but it has experienced some larger changes in its material as well. While it’s a bit more broad in scope in the book, serving as an example of the travels of gods and one of the ways they struggle in America, it’s used in the show to introduce us to another God…who has yet to actually appear in the main story. To that end, the segment serves its purpose, but I will say that this God’s character seems quite different from my conclusions based on his book description. Obviously we all imagine characters in different ways when we read books, and I won’t make the arrogant argument that my imaginings were definitive, but I can’t deny it felt discomfiting; unlike Bilquis' new methods this God doesn’t seem updated, just different.

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Shadow’s farewell to Eagle Point was largely original – in the book Shadow leaves Laura’s mother to sort out their home and presses on with Wednesday, but here it was a decent chunk of the episode which served to humanize and impart sympathy towards Shadow by making him literally pack away all the remnants of the life which had been taken from him. While adding this felt good for connecting us with Shadow, (and I particularly enjoyed the picture in the frame changing after he looked at Laura’s messages,) I must question the decision to take up such a chunk of time with this added material when it feels, at least to me, that they made very little forward progress in the overall plot. Normally I prefer a slower than typical pace myself, but knowing how far we still have to go makes me wonder if later things won’t feel rushed to make up lost time.  

Speaking of which, we get Shadow’s conversation with Lucy (the first appearance of the New God Media) much sooner than we do in the book. However, other than the change in timing and having the conversation in public rather than in a motel room, the interaction remains largely unchanged, and I was particularly pleased with Gillian Anderson’s performance; she seems to have taken to the role like a duck to water. I think everyone’s performances have been rock solid so far, but hers struck me as particularly excellent, as if the character had walked off the pages into the show. As a side note, I also noticed on Shadow’s shopping list some items used for something which I believe we will see next episode, and I greatly appreciate the little hint left for readers.

The conversation with Media does, however, lead into Shadow starting to wonder if he’s actually going crazy, which felt awfully out of place. Originally, the conversation takes place in the Motel America after his encounter with the Technical Boy and his night in the motel, but here, Shadow seems to take everything in stride…until the TV talks to him. Was the strange virtual limo not weird enough? He only thinks he’s going crazy now? I get the feeling this was another result of changes: specifically of their changing what happens to Shadow overnight in the motel. I can’t speak too much of the changes they made now since they involve something which I think may still occur or be revealed later in the show, but suffice to say that the withholding of those things leaves me eager to see where they end up coming in later, and I’m willing to accept an out-of-place conversation to facilitate a little extra suspense.

Lastly, Czernobog and the Zorya sisters. One of the best (or perhaps worst?) things about discussing this book with another reader was hearing the unique ways we all butchered the pronunciations of these characters’ names. Well we need butcher no longer as we finally have definitive pronunciations. As for the plot, there’s only one real significant change here, and it’s in having the sisters read Shadow’s fortune, rather than waiting and having him take a slip from a fortune-telling machine later on. (Then again, maybe he will take the machine fortune in a later episode; time will tell.) The fortune itself is quite different, as much as any one fortune could differ from another, and I don’t really know what to make of it yet. With the checkers game we did see Shadow begin to, finally, stop just traveling along with resignation and start to take an active hand in his journey, which tallies with the novel quite nicely. That said, ending the episode with Czernobog’s victory was surprising, and I feel like it’s either a result of running out of time because of the added segments earlier in the episode, or an attempt to create a cliffhanger. I say “attempt” because we’ve been told repeatedly and shown quite firmly that this is Shadow’s story, and so for it to end here, with only one more episode and his head crushed at sunrise, would be strange to say the least. Regardless of what Shadow’s ultimate fate may be, good or bad, it would seem almost certain that he will not die here and now. So, obviously, something will have to happen to, if not save him, at least delay the swing of Czernobog’s hammer. Even if I didn’t already know what was going to happen, I don’t think I would be too terribly concerned that Shadow would have his head crushed in episode 3.

Of course, so much has changed already, and in this episode in particular, that they’ve effectively shown that certain chunks of book-taken prior knowledge are useless here. Are these changes simply to shake reader’s faith in what we know, or to treat us to a new and exciting journey? How much can we rely on our own memories of the source material? Setting aside the somewhat jarring feeling of wondering where the things I was expecting have gone, STARZ has pulled off something magical: despite having read the book, and supposedly knowing what comes next, I have no idea what to expect from episode 3. They’ve changed things just enough that I get to experience it for the first time again, without changing them so much that it’s no longer American Gods.

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