Starz American drama "American Gods" season eight episodes have now been broadcast, compared with the original, the American drama version of "American Gods" has a considerable change, today Uncle Mei to talk to you about these adaptations:
*This article contains some spoilers, please use caution for allergies*
Compared with the original book, the biggest change is the character of Shadow's wife Laura (Played by Emily Browning). The American version of "American Gods" not only gave Laura a separate episode to explain her background and psychological changes, but also adapted her death into a conspiracy on Wednesday in the final episode. I have to say that The Laura played by Emily Browning is not disgusting (although a little bit at the beginning), but we feel that although the character is a little cold, it is a flesh and blood person, not just a silhouette, or a foil for the protagonist.
Laura is basically an expression throughout the first season, just like the picture above, slightly upturned lips, whether it is sad, angry, happy, basically the range of expression changes are not large, this is of course not her acting skills, but from the fourth episode of the first season we learn that she is a person who does not have much interest in anything.
In addition to Laura, Beeches (YeTidai Badak) has also been portrayed more in the American version, although many fans and friends think that this Sheba queen is really ugly, and her chest is still sagging...
In addition to the scene of eating people in the first episode, the last episode of the person who drank it was actually even more shocking.
Through the narration of Biqis in the final episode of the first season of "American Gods", we see the experience of an old god who has gone from the peak of power to loneliness step by step, from a king admired by everyone to a tramp. It is said that from frugality to luxury, from luxury to frugality, Beeches did not resist the temptation of the tech boy, and finally threw herself into the camp of the new gods. Unlike being killed by tech kid after a few appearances in the original, Beeches should be a key character in the second season.
Another character with a big change is Mad Swinnie. Unlike in the original book, Laura embarked on the road to find a husband, this time she had a companion. And to be honest, Uncle Mei feels that the collision between Swenny and Laura is more impressive than the collision between Shadow and Wednesday. In the original book, the madman Svenney did not get the coin and eventually froze to death on the street. In the American version, Swenny was obviously added more scenes, such as the coin falling out of Laura's body after the overturn, and Swenny struggled and finally put the coin back to Laura. This character is particularly annoying at first, but since he lost his coin, he has become the funny person in charge of the show. The moment he put the coin into Laura's body, the whole figure became plump.
As mentioned above, Wednesday's journey with Shadow is not as good as Swenny and Laura, of course, this is not the fault of the actors, because these two characters can be regarded as the two characters who are most loyal to the original book at present, and the reason why they are not brilliant is that these two people (especially Wednesday) have been playing the role of tour guides, and no matter where they go, their style will always be overshadowed by others, until the eighth episode of the first season of "American Gods", after Mr. Wednesday shouted out his string of titles that were almost comparable to the title of "Mother of Dragons" Daenerys. Only then do we see the true power of the king of the gods.
Viewers who have read the original book should know that as the main story progresses, many non-mainline related vignettes are inserted in the middle of the story, telling stories about how people arrived in the United States and the gods everywhere in the old times.
In the American version, almost every episode begins with a small story told before entering the main body of the plot, which helps the audience establish a concept of God, but also to expand the audience's perspective to the worldview outside the main characters.
In contrast, these episodes in the original version are easier to insert into the story, but at the same time they are easily ignored, because the audience will only notice the process that the shadow has gone through, perhaps because these passages appear only once in the book, but some characters in the American version reappear to intersect with the existing characters, just as Salim, who met the Fire Elf, reappears with Laura and the madman Swennie.
Another big change is the time when several new gods appear, Mr. World and the media goddess are both much earlier than the appearance of the original work, on the one hand, this makes the progress of the entire plot significantly accelerated, and the new god and old god meeting can create more contradictions, thereby accelerating the progress of the plot; on the other hand, Mr. World's premature floor has lost the mystery in the original work. And for friends who have not seen the original, Mr. World's repeated concessions on Wednesday are very puzzling.
Relative to Mr. World, the media goddess played by Gillian Anderson is very prominent in this drama, appearing in a classic media image every time she appears, watching the performance of the media goddess, like watching a parody show.
I believe that the second season of "American Gods" will be more exciting than this season, Beeches came to the cliff stone house, the cliff stone house that appeared in the fifth chapter of the original book was used in the American drama version for a whole season, the cliff stone house is a turning point, is the beginning of the battle of the gods. In the American version, it was placed in the home of the Easter goddess, and of course, Ostara appeared far earlier than the original.
A good adaptation is not to blindly be loyal to the original, appropriate adaptation will make the TV series more attractive, after all, books and television are two different carriers, the audience is also different, overall, Uncle Mei believes that the adaptation of the show is successful, from the first season of just eight episodes, "American Gods" has the potential to become a classic.