The battle of new and old gods

Why "American gods" based on the novel Neil Gaiman is the most anticipated series of spring

At the Festival of Music, Cinema and Media Technologies, South BY Southwest (SXSW) in Texas showed the first series of “American Gods” - the adaptation of the cult novel Nile Gaiman. Medusa observer Yegor Moskvitin visited the pilot’s premiere and decided that the fantasy “American Gods” is the most anticipated series of spring. The American Starz channel will begin to show the series on April 30.

Viking steps on American land - and a hundred arrows fly into it. His comrades immediately pushing their eyes to the glory of Odin and clean up. The black woman completely devours the man with her vagina. The two-meter thug-Irishman seems to be a leprecone and takes a coin from the air. A vile teenager is dissected on the American outback on the limousine - the god of technology. He is accompanied by faceless thugs in futuristic costumes. And yes, we repeat, the woman devours the man vagina.

All of the above - a tenth of the pilot of the “American gods”, shot so that you want to watch it on a huge screen. At the South by Southwest festival in Austin, the hall began to applaud without waiting for the credits - each viewer behaved as if he was looking at the novelty of the house. And among the series of recent times, it is difficult to recall another show that would turn so quickly into an old friend, by whose stories you constantly miss.

The reason for such a warm welcome is that the “American gods” have been waiting for the century. Roman Nila Gaiman was released in 2001, when the reasoning that the Internet, media and banks took over the functions of the demiurges were not yet a common place. The perspicacious Briton came up with an elegant conflict: supposedly on the territory of modern America new technocrats are not only flourishing, but also the old ones are faded-those who were brought to this land by fugitives from all over the world. Among the creatures are Loki and one, Slavic idols and African monsters, gin and lepreecons. But people no longer believe in them, and in order to remind themselves, the old gods call new ones to the last battle.

Neil Gaiman uses the confrontation of the gods to figure out whether America has preserved the spirit of the pilgrims, and if not, then what values ​​replaced the American dream. Instead of a stinging report from his ocean, however, he is a sincere recognition of love. And between America of the Gentiles and the America of the Internet, median land arises. Gamean’s documentary portrait is working with a way that has already developed. He describes on paper exactly what they did on the big screen films like “Counselide by midnight” and the series “Twin Pix”. The most beautiful America of all possible. With the Graihand buses, neon diners, small towns with a brick town hall, rented cadillacs, friendly sheriffs and banks, which cannot be passed by so as not to rob.

The NVO channel for a very long time was preparing for the filming of the series for the “American gods”, but in the end, something did not grow together-the project went to the Starz channel, which always tries to take away his championship belt from the NVO. The STARZ track record includes a lot of successful shows and as many failed ones. On the one hand - balancing on the verge of porn (but doing it much more beautiful than, for example, the "Arena" Timur Bekmambetov) "Spartak". On the other hand, the political drama “Boss”, closed before the viewer realized that she was no more stupid than “House of Cards”.

"American gods" take the best of these projects. There is expressiveness, brutality and sexuality of Spartak, but dramaturgy is deeper than in the “boss”. True, spectators who have not read the book may not understand so many hints - but until April 30, when the show will begin, there is still time.

And the fact that the series reached small screens only in 2017 is actually not a miscalculation, but the luck of the channel. At the panel conference after showing the pilot, the creators and actors pressed the most relevant buttons for America. Thanks to the new president, their story ceased to be fantasy and turned almost into a journalistic investigation. What does it mean to be an immigrant? Where are the media moving? How to act women? When the series is released, the liberal media will definitely meet it very warmly.

Finally, the last reason to consider the “American gods” the strongest premiere of spring (at least until Twin Pixes release on May 21) is an acting ensemble. There are few large stars here: Ian Makshin, familiar from the series of NVO, did not appear in the pilot Gillian Anderson and disappeared from the screens Emily Browning. But on secondary roles, real tricsters and rogues are occupied, perfectly fit into the images of werewolves, similar to people or the gods. First of all, it is worth looking at Jonathan Tucker - a joker and a muzzle from the fighting series "Kingdom". And the actor Rick Wittl, who plays the main role, differs from the hero of the book with the color of the skin, but so far it very accurately conveys his character. Finally, he has a very expressive texture-something between wine diesel and Idris Elbo. A few more Superoprofs remain behind the scenes: the first series was shot by the director of the Thriller “Lollipop” and the Vampire comic book “30 Days of the Night” David Slade, and the author of “Himirera” Vincenzo Natalie will receive a relay wand.

So far, only a few scenes that were different from the novel appeared in the pilot, but Showranner Brian Fuller (Hannibal) and Michael Green (co -author of such films of this year as Logan, Running Blade 2049, Alien: Ark and Murder in Eastern Express) promise to expand the role of women in history and more and more about how to talk about how Old gods fell into America. Judging by the rhythm of the pilot, even without these additions, the series should be enough for several seasons. And now it is clear that between these seasons we will be sad.

Egor Moskvitin , Austin