While Shadow and Mr. Wednesday take a secret meeting in St. Louis, Bilquis arrives at the funeral home in Cairo, where she engages in a debate with Mr. Nancy and Mr. Ibis.

After episode 3 felt like we were getting back on track again (as far as the book’s narrative was concerned anyway) there’s signs that we’re beginning to falter again, and the success of this season would appear to rest upon your willingness to accept the substantial addition of so much new material.

While not played exactly as it’s chronicled in Neil Gaiman’s novel, we get to see Shadow and Wednesday’s reunion, a decent introduction to Mr Ibis at the funeral parlour, and a great dream sequence where Bast the cat licks wounds clean in the form of a human seductress. We also get to meet CEO (Andrew Koji) who as a child prodigy was Tech Boy’s first worshipper, and now is in charge of giant corporation Xie Comm.

Bilquis still hasn’t found her way forward and has a fascinating encounter with Mr Nancy, and I also enjoyed Wednesday and Mr World (Crispin Glover) locking antlers in front of Blade Runner’s The Bookkeeper, decked out in Wall Street broker’s striped shirt and power braces, but not willing to release capital.

It’s all ok, but none of this feels essential, and with an eight-episode run, comedy moments like the girl scouts refusing to give Shadow some candy just feel frivolous. The Old Gods are gathering their troops, as are the New Gods, and it just lurches forwards a bit further… but not that far.

Verdict: It’s the pairings of the characters that continues to keep the interest as the pace begins to slow, losing any of the momentum built up so far this year. There’s a lot of talk about doing stuff but precious little delivery. 6/10

Nick Joy