Fun
Frisky
Nostalgic
Intense
Adventurous
Choked Up
Curious
Romantic
Weird
*SPOILER ALERT FOR AMERICAN GODS, the book and the Starz series*
When Hannibal mastermind Bryan Fuller announced that he was going to adapt Neil Gaiman’s American Gods for the small screen, there were some…questions. Namely, did he really intend to adapt the most outlandish, outrageous, and hyper-imaginative parts of Gaiman’s tome for the small screen? Okay, specifically: WAS HE REALLY GOING TO SHOW THE GODDESS BILQUIS DEVOURING A MAN WITH HER VAGINA?
The question came up in the press as early as September 2014. Den of Geek interviewed Fuller right after it was announced that he was even doing the show. He said of the book: “One of the most amazing sequences for me when I was reading it was the Goddess Bilquis eating a man with her vagina! I think it’s beautifully written in the novel…That came up in the Starz meeting, they were like, ‘how are you going to do that moment?’ and we said, ‘we’re going to do it exactly as written’.”
American Gods finally premieres on Starz this Sunday night and Decider has seen the first few episodes. So we can confirm that yes, Fuller made good on his promise. The scene unravels exactly as it does in Gaiman’s novel. Actress Yetide Bedaki brings a man (played by none other than Mad Men‘s Freddy Rumsen, Joel Murray) into her bedroom and then induces him to worship her…to the point of sacrificing his life to her. So fasten your seatbelts and gather your smelling salts: You’re about to see a woman’s vagina devour a full-grown man mid-coitus.
Shock value aside — and the scene is wonderfully shocking — the fact that Fuller and his team were able to pull this scene off is a testament to what American Gods is. It is an explosively beautiful show that brilliantly translates Neil Gaiman for the small screen. It’s visually arresting, chockfull of bright colors and exploding stars. It shares a similar style to FX’s Legion, but it makes that comic book adaptation look schlocky by comparison.
American Gods follows the adventures of an ex-con named Shadow Moon (played by the ridiculously beautiful Ricky Whittle). Don’t worry; They make fun of his name on the show, too (and nod to how good-looking he is). Shadow Moon is a man with the improbable luck to lose his wife in a car crash only a few days before his prison sentence is up. What’s worse is that she died while giving his best friend a blow job. The strange silver lining? This misfortune puts him in the path of the mysterious Mr. Wednesday (Ian McShane). The wily old man offers him a job and soon Shadow is having a bar brawl with a Leprechaun and a fight for his life versus a “new god” called “Technical Boy.”
American Gods is exploring what faith means in the New World. Here, we worship our television screens with as much gusto as we do our old deities. Shadow Moon is going to find himself smack in the middle of a war for religion’s future. And that man-eating vagina goddess? She’s just trying to adapt to the new order in her own way.
American Gods premieres on Starz this Sunday, April 30.
