People who have been paying attention to American Gods might have noticed that Season 1 started up in 2017 while Season 2 started up in 2019. The time that passed between the two seasons wasn’t a coincidence. Instead, it was the product of a serious shakeup in the people responsible for making the show.
In short, the showrunners Bryan Fuller and Michael Green departed from the show in November of 2017. At the time, Fuller and Green had already written about half of the scripts needed for the second season of the show, meaning that their departure came at a very bad time indeed. Eventually, the two were replaced in February of 2018 by Jesse Alexander, who served in the role of showrunner while the novel’s author Neil Gaiman served as the co-showrunner. Due to this, production managed to start up on Season 2 of American Gods in April of 2018, though it took another hit when Alexander departed from his position as showrunner in September of 2018. This time around, the decision was made for the season to finish up under the guidance of the producing director as well as the line director, presumably because searching for another showrunner with another vision would have been too disruptive to be borne.
As for why these things happened, well, it is important to remember that those of us on the outside looking in can’t be sure because we don’t know everything that is relevant to the case. However, it seems that there were a couple of reasons for Fuller and Green’s departure. First, while what they produced made for great television, it was also very, very expensive, so much so that they went $30 million over budget in spite of the fact that they actually cancelled the ninth episode of the first season. Second, while the earlier reports suggested that Fuller and Green managed to get along well with Gaiman for the most part, there were later reports that claimed that Gaiman felt that they had diverged too much from the source material. Whatever the case, these factors were enough to get Fuller and Green fired from the show, though it is interesting to note that the network has always stopped short of stating matters thus.
Meanwhile, Alexander apparently managed to get the position of showrunner because his vision was more in-line with Gaiman’s novel. However, his take seems to have been too “conventional” for the network’s preferences, particularly after the tone set by Fuller and Green. Moreover, Alexander is said to have gotten into fights on the set, which makes it no wonder that he was fired as well. By this point, some people might wonder why Gaiman hasn’t take over the showrunner position, but if so, there is a very simple answer in that he is very busy. Certainly, Gaiman is already involved with the making of American Gods in a big way, as shown by his involvement in the writing. However, he is already responsible for another adaptation called Good Omens, meaning that he doesn’t have the additional time and effort needed to serve in said position.
What Are Five Ways that American Gods Can Recover?
There are a number of ways that American Gods can presumably be made better in the future. First, there needs to be a single vision at the helm, which should provide the show with an increased sense of coherence. Second, the network needs to make sure that it has chosen someone that it can trust to see things through, which at the current time, would be Charles Eglee for the already confirmed Season 3. Third, there needs to be less regurgitation of already covered material. Sure, some review can be useful at the start of a season, but too much of it can use up valuable screentime that could be put to better uses on something else. Fourth, one of the common complaints for the start of Season 2 is the too conventional nature of the dialogue, which is serviceable but not particularly impressive. Certainly, style is no match for substance, but in this case, there is neither style nor substance. Fifth, there are some shows that are fine with meandering on, but American Gods isn’t one of them. As such, there needs to be more events happening to make sure that the plot is actually moving forward.
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