American Gods 1.04 “Git Gone”

The Rundown: In this adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s best-selling novel we get to see the wild world of America’s Gods, old and new, up close and personal.

After the cliffhanger reveal of a revived Laura Moon, this episode is the first to completely take place in the past. In “Git Gone” we get to see Laura Moon’s journey from bored Casino employee to undead waifu of our protagonist Shadow.

This episode’s premise is not only a departure from the series thus far, but it is also the first major departure from the events of the book. In the novel, Laura confronts Shadow in his hotel room the day after the funeral, still dressed in the clothes they buried her in. In this scene, she explains her affair with Robbie (who in the show is played by Dane Cook, who is simply too easy to hate, continuing the trend of perfect casting), and they address her dead-ness. The book portrays the whole thing as surreal and kind of spooky, another example of Gaiman invoking a kind of backwoods Americana to set the scene, with some absurdity mixed in for flavor.

Instead of a kind of mysterious air around the events that resurrect Laura, we are given every detail. I’m not sure how to feel about this. On one hand, it humanizes Laura in a way she’s never really given in the books, her entire undead character defined by her betrayal of Shadow and the amends she tries to make now that she’s dead. I feel like giving us this story firsthand from Laura’s point of view dilutes some of the punch of the opening. The idea that we won’t ever get a really deep look into why Laura did what she did, only second-hand in the form of a surreal conversation late at night in a motel on the side of the road, adds to the spookiness and legend that Shadow’s story is surrounded in.

Still, it is TV, and so giving us this story visually instead of having Laura tell it over makes sense in its way. It also sets Laura up to be more of a permanent presence in the show instead of the cameo role she plays in the books. As long as she doesn’t simply pal around with Shadow and Wednesday I think that can be a good direction. Giving Shadow a continued emotional arc revolving around not only acceptance of his wife’s death, but having to continually deal with her betrayal, makes for some good drama. We also get some more awesome scenes featuring Audrey (played exquisitely by Betty Gilpin) that are a real treat.

Overall, Bryan Fuller is doing a stellar job of portraying Gaiman’s work in its best possible light. His eye for visual artistry brings a spark to the series that I don’t think any other showrunner would do with such flair. Despite my misgivings about the flashy, supernatural nature of some of the scenes, I continue to be impressed by the artistry in each episode. I am confident that Fuller won’t disappoint when it comes to bringing the rest of Neil Gaiman’s fantastic vision to the screen.