As the Old Gods gather at the House on the Rock, Shadow and Wednesday try to galvanise them for the coming storm as American Gods returns for a second season.

When we left American Gods at the end of Season 1 in June 2018 things weren’t looking great for both the protagonists and the show itself. After a truncated first season (8 eps instead of 10) things really come to a head when show runners Bryan Fuller and Michael Green departed, along with some of their cast, notably Gillian Anderson (Media) and Kristin Chenoweth (Easter). Questions were raised whether Amazon Prime’s adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s opus would return at all, but here it is, 21 months later, and it just about gets away with it.

The greatest achievement here is that the show actually got made, but is certainly a shadow (pun intended) of its former self. The narrative is strong, helped by original author Gaiman co-writing his first script for the show. He shares duties with Jesse Alexander (Hannibal, Star Trek: Discovery), who was co-showrunner at one point, but has also since left! The House on the Rock is a key location in the novel, and this is a good jumping on point for new viewers (aided by a lengthy ‘previously on’) recap, but the show is lacking that ‘out there’ fantastical weirdness that it showed under the stewardship of Fuller and Green. This feels like very ‘nuts and bolts’ TV, workmanlike without being exceptional.

Ian McShane continues to be great fun as Wednesday/Odin and Orlando Jones camps up Mr Nancy to great comedic effect. Unfortunately, Ricky Whittle’s Shadow isn’t back firing on all cylinders yet, and while his relationship with dead, cheating wife Laura (Emily Browning) was always going to be strained, there’s little sign of any rekindled chemistry. A bloody massacre and the kidnapping of Shadow leaves the episode ending on a high, promising big things to come .

Verdict: The troubled show returns to TV nearly two years after its first episode aired, but it isn’t hitting the highs of that exciting year. Maybe the show just needs time to hit its stride again, but considering the fantastic elements at their disposal, the programme makers have delivered a pedestrian 52 minutes. 7/10

Nick Joy