More sparks of the show’s great premise alight in its quieter moments. The carousel scene in the House on the Rock, pulled directly from a fan favorite passage in Gaiman’s book, is an expensive looking and fabulous adaptation of a transcendental experience, but nearly everything that surrounds it is bogged down with godly monologues and hasty verbal recaps of each character’s conflicts and powers. There are glimpses of American Gods’ former glory in some of Season 2’s grander moments. This from the man who is sitting in a car with his wife’s reanimated dead body, a leprechaun who can pull gold from thin air, and a man who can talk to birds. Seriously, Shadow Moon witnessed a woman steal the entire season of spring, watched his boss’s face appear in the sky like Mufasa, and literally met Jesus, and still his reaction to being asked if he believes in gods is “eh, I don’t know.” Most frustratingly, Shadow Moon still has no idea what’s going on around him at any time, which has to get him on a list of the densest television characters ever written.
Mad Sweeney loses his luck, just as he did in Season 1, and is followed by a series of mishaps as he tries to get it back.
Mister World must again reign the impulsive Technical Boy in and send him on a goddess hunt to keep him out of the way. That feeling of resetting the plot bleeds into other elements of Season 2. Now, instead of proceeding towards war the old gods are depicted marshalling their forces and somehow still arguing over whether fighting the new gods is worth their time. The first episode of Season 2 explains why Ostara is missing with a quick joke, but no quip could disguise the fact that Chenowith’s absence resets the plot significantly.
Chenoweth quit the show after former showrunner Bryan Fuller left the project, which meant that Season 2 had to proceed without Ostara and the rest of her planned plotline. Part of what makes the opening acts of Season 2 feel so strange is the obvious fact that the climax of Season 1 has been negated by necessity - when Kristin Chenoweth’s character Ostara used her goddess powers to drain the fertility of America’s flora and farmland, it was meant to serve as the first overture of war between the old and new gods. If anyone asked how one could detect the switch, it would be difficult to point out what exactly felt wrong. Watching the new episodes feels like a very good friend has been suddenly and noticeably replaced with that friend’s identical twin sibling. It’s hard to pinpoint what exactly Season 2 gets wrong. 'American Gods' Season 2 trailer sets up a war of godly proportions