A wildly exotic and wonderful experience. this first series only goes about halfway through the novel as I recall and while I cannot say to what extent it is a true representation of the book, the ‘vibe’ and feel of it is wonderful and very Gaiman. It deals with and covers Gods from all ages and cultures who are now lost and abandoned in the USA - a specific location but perhaps more a one symbolic pf the whole world, given the influence of American ideas and culture. these aspects are wittily represented by the ‘new’ gods - those of Media and Business World etc etc and in this first series we have now reached a moment when, it seems, there is going to be ‘the final battle’ to decide who will finally have dominance in this modern world.
the performances are superb - a mixture of unknown and very well knowns - the main ‘mortal’ leads are superb but Ian McShane is wonderful as Wednesday (you know who that is) as is Pablo Schreiber as Mad Sweeney, am insanely violent 7’ tall leprechaun! Of the modern gods, Gillian Anderson is characteristically superb as Media, taking on the forms of David Bowie, Lucille Ball and Marilyn Monroe amongst others. And its also fun to spot the other stars as well - Kristen Chenoweth for example, and Cloris Leachman amongst others.
Being made of Amazon, it is not inhibited by the rules of USA middle American TV so it is very explicit, violently and sexually, but it takes these aspects seriously.
I am looking forward to seeing if the second series lives up to this; friends have said it was not so well received but, we will see.