Review by southdavid

I wasn't quite as down on the second season of "American Gods" as was the conventional wisdom - though I'd be hard pushed to argue against the idea that a lack of forward momentum hurt that run. The third season, though still seeming like it's a long way away from the promised cataclysmic battle, does adapt a memorable section from the source novel and regains some of the narrative thrust from the first season.

Moved by prophecies and some unsubtle persuasion from his father, Shadow Moon (Ricky Whittle) heads to Lakeside, an idyllic Wisconsin town heading into a winter season, but tragedy soon follows him. The all father himself (Ian McShane) continues his recruitment drive, starting with death metal legions but then focusing on his great love Demeter (Blythe Danner). Laura Moon (Emily Browning) guilty from the loss of Mad Sweeney attempts to resurrect him, but her plans go awry, and she soon decides on a new goal and makes a dangerous alliance.

Again, the hallmarks of the previous seasons return here in that the show is beautiful to look at, if nothing else. Poetic in its imagery, its foreshadowing and callbacks I'm not sure there's ever been a show that puts as much into its aesthetics. There are performances from the actors to match too. There are a couple of big misses in this run, both Pablo Schreiber and Orlando Jones don't return. Instead there's more time spent with Demore Barnes' Mr Ibis character and the introduction of Ashley Reyes as Wednesday's new assistant Cordelia. Ricky Whittle really is great in this series though, particularly in the last couple of episodes and it's strange to think that just 10 years ago he was still in "Hollyoaks".

Admittedly, it's still fairly slow moving and its pretty brave work to not move the plot along more when a fourth (and presumably, based on where they are in the book, final) season hasn't actually been commissioned. But I really hope they do get the chance to finish the story.