Having been told, before I even started watching the show, that the conventional wisdom was that this second season wasn't very good, I had expectations duly lowered. Perhaps because of that, overall I enjoyed it - but I do feel that the lack of story momentum is holding the show back.
Both the old gods and the new ones continue to try and marshal forces to join their sides for the upcoming battle. Aside from soldiers, Mr Wednesday (Ian McShane) also needs someone to repair Gungnir, his fearsome battle spear. The new Gods are evolving though, with Media becoming New Media (Kahyun Kim) the embodiment of all encompassing, instant gratification, Social media. They look to take advantage of the technological advances to aid their hunt for Mr Wednesday. Shadow Moon (Ricky Whittle) remains a pawn in the game.
Losing Bryan Fuller as a showrunner does, for me, appear to have hurt the show in this second season. The first was a visual masterpiece (if it too progresses through the story at a slow pace), this feels like someone occasionally trying to ape his artistic style, which slowing the pace even more. I don't want to give the impression that I didn't enjoy this season, I did. What's there, I liked. It's just that "what's there" is a number of detours, back stories and diversions. I'm not sure that there was more than an episodes worth of plot that drove forward the actually narrative thrust across the whole season. All of which pushes me towards my main concern, which is that the show will be cancelled before it manages to get to the end of the story. I know the third season is confirmed, but at the rate it's going that won't take us to the conclusion either. So then we have, what I would imagine is, an expensive show with an in-demand cast, that has had repeated issues with the production team. It hardly seems like a huge stretch for the third season to become the last.
I still love the performances, the production and the style (though that will decrease with the loss of Orlando Jones for the third run) and I'll be back for that when it appears on Amazon - but as mentioned above. I'm concerned about the future of the series.
Both the old gods and the new ones continue to try and marshal forces to join their sides for the upcoming battle. Aside from soldiers, Mr Wednesday (Ian McShane) also needs someone to repair Gungnir, his fearsome battle spear. The new Gods are evolving though, with Media becoming New Media (Kahyun Kim) the embodiment of all encompassing, instant gratification, Social media. They look to take advantage of the technological advances to aid their hunt for Mr Wednesday. Shadow Moon (Ricky Whittle) remains a pawn in the game.
Losing Bryan Fuller as a showrunner does, for me, appear to have hurt the show in this second season. The first was a visual masterpiece (if it too progresses through the story at a slow pace), this feels like someone occasionally trying to ape his artistic style, which slowing the pace even more. I don't want to give the impression that I didn't enjoy this season, I did. What's there, I liked. It's just that "what's there" is a number of detours, back stories and diversions. I'm not sure that there was more than an episodes worth of plot that drove forward the actually narrative thrust across the whole season. All of which pushes me towards my main concern, which is that the show will be cancelled before it manages to get to the end of the story. I know the third season is confirmed, but at the rate it's going that won't take us to the conclusion either. So then we have, what I would imagine is, an expensive show with an in-demand cast, that has had repeated issues with the production team. It hardly seems like a huge stretch for the third season to become the last.
I still love the performances, the production and the style (though that will decrease with the loss of Orlando Jones for the third run) and I'll be back for that when it appears on Amazon - but as mentioned above. I'm concerned about the future of the series.