HeвЂ™s Odin, the Norse All-Father - and also ShadowвЂ™s IRL dad. Wednesday is not just some impossible boss. Instead, itвЂ™s concerned with rebuilding itself and doing the fascinating work of making a season thatвЂ™s equal parts a total do-over and a straightforward continuation of the story that started in episode one.ДЄnd so we are reintroduced to Shadow Moon (Ricky Whittle), a man living under an alias after a falling out with his employer, Mr.

American Gods is no longer interested in that sort of thing. There are no fiery monologues, mind-bending sex scenes, or powerful vignettes that evoke the immigrant experience and humanityвЂ™s relationship with faith. Season 3 also doesnвЂ™t resemble what drew many to American Gods in the first place. ( Allegations surrounding JonesвЂ™ dismissal are troubling.) This makes the third season more surprising: after all that chaos, itвЂ™s turned out totally fine. Between the second season finale and the premiere of the latest season, the showвЂ™s new management fired Orlando Jones, whose fiery portrayal of the trickster god Anansi was beloved and one of the showвЂ™s brightest stars.

The Starz drama was a special kind of disaster: it premiered to considerable acclaim only to fall to pieces in between its first and second seasons, losing its high-profile showrunners and several cast members. Which is why itвЂ™s a pretty big story when something as large as American Gods goes awry. There are a lot of places to mess up! And yet we hear about so few mistakes. First consider the countless people working across departments and disciplines needed to make a single episode happen and then consider that they all have to do it anywhere between eight and 20-ish times a year, and that the result has to make sense to millions of people who cannot wait to be unimpressed. One of the miracles of any good television show is that it even works at all.

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