The American Gods TV Series Isn’t Afraid to Go Full-On Weird, and That’s What Makes It Great

sunshinetoday:

Gillian Anderson is also great as neo-goddess Media, channeling the hypnotic allure of modern entertainment’s glowing screens and disembodied voices with a wry Southern Belle affectation that seems to reference Mae West.

American Gods gets shot in a hyper-stylized mode that feels slightly distended at times: the colors flirt with being too intense and some camera angles will make you want to tilt your head to better understand the visual data. It exhibits much of the same whimsy seen in other shows where executive producer Bryan Fuller was involved.

The American Gods TV Series Isn’t Afraid to Go Full-On Weird, and That’s What Makes It Great

Reconnection

Gillovny RPF

Thank you so so much to @sembell for her excellent beta-reading! I love you!

(Slightly NSFW)


How did the time pass so quickly, she wonders. It feels like he crossed the door three seconds ago, but here they are, at four in the morning, in the massive garden of her rental house, surrounded by the noises of the nature, monkeys hiding in the trees, invisible insects singing in their ears and probably one snake or two crawling nearby.

It’s been a few weeks since they’ve seen each other. In other circumstances, they would be in bed already, trying to shush each other not to wake up all the children sleeping everywhere in the house. Maybe they’re getting old, she thinks. He has invited her to have a last drink outside, after dinner, after the boys went to bed, and the older ones went out. He wanted to enjoy the silence, just with her, for a couple of minutes before they “reconnected”. That’s the way they call their endless love making after a long period of separation.

But the couple of minutes became an hour, the hour turned into three, and the last drink turned into the whole bottle of Costa Rica red wine. She doesn’t drink, except when she’s at ease with someone she trusts more than herself, which means no one but him. Two glasses are usually enough to get her tipsy, so he happily drank the rest of the bottle. Finally, after six years of a complicated but beautiful relationship, they’ve found another way to “reconnect”.

She tells him about her difficulties with her boys. They’re getting older, tiny little men, as he likes to call them. They demand more independence but they’re still her babies, and it’s tough for her to find her place in their lives. He tells her about West, his struggles between allowing her to make her own mistakes and preventing her from the dangers all teenagers her age are confronted with. He told her he wished her daughter would have come with him. She reassures him. She knows what it’s like to raise a girl. She knows there’s a complicated phase, but it’s just a phase. It passes.

As the discussion goes, time passes. Piper and her friends come back and go straight to bed, avoiding the judgmental look Gillian would have given them if they stood too close to her, smelling their breath or seeing their eyes.

The moon is bright and high in the sky, and it’s so late that even the animals around them have gone silent.

It’s time to get up and go to bed, she thinks. Time for the old fashion way of reconnecting. But her head spins and his back hurts after sitting for such a long time. They’re indeed getting old.

As soon as she lays down, her eyes close and sleep invades her. She doesn’t need more anyway. She feels warm and safe knowing he’s just here besides her. Smelling his scent and hearing him breathing is enough for tonight. She feels his large arm enveloping her waist, a soft kiss being dropped on her bare shoulder, and a muffled “I love you” is whispered into her ear. She’s falling asleep.

Is someone knocking at the door? Is it for real, or only in her dream? Why is he moving? She felt so good with her body pressed against his and her nose buried into his neck. Who is he talking to? She can’t proceed right now. What time is it anyway? 6? 9? Noon? Whoever you are, go away, close the door behind you and let me lay on top of him for the rest of my life, she thinks. Maybe they hear her. The door closes. “Go back to sleep, bird” she hears him say. That she can do.

He’s moving again. It’s sunny outside, she can feel it through her eyelid. The nature has woken up, and so does he, apparently. His lips trace the soft line of her neck to her collarbone and his large hands roam along the side of her thighs. She keeps her eyes closed, she doesn’t want to wake up yet. She fears if she moves he’ll stop, and she doesn’t want him to stop. He licks her stomach, just under her pierced navel, making her shiver. The kiss he drops on her center, over the lace of her panties, was unexpected and deeply appreciated, making her jump a little and finally, she opens her eyes.

His hair is messy, sticking out in every direction and the soft beard he grew during the night makes him look younger. Sexier. She helps him removing her underwear, lifting her butt from the mattress with a smirk and her eyes lock with his.

“What time is it?” she suddenly worries.

“They’re all gone to the beach, we’re alone.” he doesn’t answer her question and bites the insides of her thighs.

She doesn’t regret they didn’t do that last night. They would have had to be silent and careful when the only thing she wants is to lose herself in his mouth. She hadn’t known her back could contort itself like that before. Only the back of her head and the flat of her feet are in contact with the mattress. Her whole body levitates with pleasure as he devours her, swallowing every drop of her femininity. He raises on his knees between her thighs. He couldn’t be more handsome than this morning, lit by the rays of sunshine piercing through the shutters, naked and hard in every sense. His thick cock stands strong, pulsing and twitching as her eyes rove over it, and she bites her lower lip in anticipation and desire. He slides between her lips, presses against her oversensitive clit, and effortlessly slips inside her. She watches him moving, his muscles are contracted in ridges and his jaw is clenched. He’s already holding back, she can tell. He’s beautiful. She feels him inside her, but she wants to feel him all around her. She wants his heaviness above her, she needs his mouth, his tongue, his neck. She wants her hands on his skin, and his on hers. She pulls on his arms to drag him closer, and he speeds up once his face is buried in the crook between her neck and her shoulder. The friction of his groin on her clit sends her in heaven. No doubt she would have woken up everyone with the loud scream that now escapes her throat as she comes all around him, soon followed by his deep grunt and her “fucking Christ” chuckled against his cheek as he pulls out.

She kisses him just like she breathes. Without thinking about it, but needing it to survive. Her tongue melts with his, and her fingers caress the skin of his ribs.

“You okay?” he asks, probably tasting the tears that are running down her cheeks to die in their kisses.

“Yes,” she lies. “I’m sorry.”

He asks what’s happening without a word, just by raising her chin with his index finger and a piercing gaze.

“I missed you,”, she whispers, and the tears run faster. She hadn’t wanted that to happen. She has promised herself to hold back, at least for a few days before breaking down. But the shock of her strong orgasm has hit a nerve and her brain has shut down to allow her emotions, her hormones and her heart, to take the wheel. It’s never a good thing.

“I’m just tired missing you,” she sobs against his chest.

He tells her he knows, he tells her he misses her too. He holds her tight and reassures her as much as he can, but something breaks inside her when he says “soon”.

“Two more years. We can make it.”

Maybe he can, but she can’t. She doesn’t even want to. Spending two more years missing him, two more years of painful goodbyes and weeks of loneliness. Two more years of long-distance fights and desperate night calls.

She agrees anyway. It’s the beginning of the vacation, she can’t ruin it on the first day. She can’t do that to him. To them. But she knows, deep down, it could be their last one if they don’t come up with a better plan for their future.

She’s lost in her thoughts. She hasn’t noticed that he’s fumbling behind her back,making a racket with the nightstand.

“What are you doing?” she asks, wiping the tears from her eyes and shifts onto her back underneath him.

He doesn’t answer, but has finally found what he was looking for.

“Got it!” he exclaims with a shy smile on his face. Without more words puts a tiny, black velvet box on her naked stomach.

Your other anon got me to rewatch NYCC too and omg! They are just so funny, relaxed, and letting their chemistry show during that panel. Everyone in the youtube comments says how they think they were high, drunk or just got done having some great sex and i have to agree that it does seem like one or all of the above was true. But i sure know which one my little gillovny self is hoping was true. I so wish i had been a fan in 2013. Seems like such a great time in gillovny history!

NYCC and Panel are everything! I don’t think they were high or drunk either, I just think they were giddy and happy to be together in front of a hysterical crowd. It’s just what happens when they’re together in public. I don’t think they were high or drunk on Kimmel either, but look what happened? They just have that effect on each others and I love it!

Someone I used to talk to sometimes from that other side got angry at me but I don’t understand the thinking they have. She got mad because I was trying to explain how Peter could use some positive press and fans and that Gillian has that so hey showing up with him is P.R. The person for mad and said that’s insulting and demeaning to Gillian. But she and a lot of others think everything between Gillian and David was only PR. Don’t they realize how hypocrites they are? So much Double Standards!

That’s because there’s a misconception of what “PR” means. I had a conversation a few days ago with someone who believe Gillian is with PM, and I told her the same as you did. It started to become electric but only because she thought I was accusing Gillian to “whore herself” for a role, and to be in a showmance with PM. The electricity between us vanished when she understood my real point of view, which is that it is networking, and there’s nothing disgraceful in networking. We all do it, we know Gillian does it too, we know she sometimes have to do things she doesn’t want to in the name of networking (ahem, Russian dude in Florence), we all do. That’s life. 

I know we tend to put Gillian on a pedestal here, to glorify her, seeing her like a perfect goddess who can have any role she wants because she’s really talented, she can achieve everything she wants, and she can snap her fingers and win a best actress Oscar tomorrow, but it’s not what the reality is. If you pay attention to what she says in interviews, she struggles to get roles that she wants, she’s not getting any younger, she wants an Oscar, but except for The XF, she doesn’t work much in Hollywood. She is talented enough to have people like Bryan Fuller who always want to work with her, and I’m sure American Gods will be a hit, but she still have a small part in it. So yes, I think she’s networking like she has always been, because if you don’t do it in this business, you’re screwed. That’s how it works. She’s a British actress, PM is winning every possible awards as best writer lately, his show is a hit, the biggest European Netflix show ever, who wouldn’t want to work with him? 

I’m not really happy about it, I don’t care about this show, but in real life, Gillian being casted in The Crown is a huge opportunity for her career. If people want to believe actresses only can get role due to their talents or their skills in bed, what can I do? But I think talent isn’t enough, and bed skills are unecessary. Networking is the key. 

Okay, this could totally just be me really wanting another Gillovny moment, but i know you’re on top of all things regarding this, so had to run it by you. I read somewhere that DD announced his separation originally on the day GA had Felix. Did some google searching, saw it was true. Considering the way they announced their divorces/separations (on each other’s birthdays in subsequent years), does that make me overly crazy or are they still fucking with us?! I need to know if Gillovny is true!

I still don’t know what to make of their separations announcements. I didn’t know David and Téa announced their separation on Felix’ birth, are you sure it happened this way? I knew their divorced was announced on Gillian’s birthday and Gillian and Mark’s separation was announced on David’s birthday. 

The way I see it is that Gillian and Gillian’s people didn’t pay much attention to what they were doing and when, and because Gillian is Gillian and she’s used to put her foot in her mouth and to goof up, of course, her breakup with Mark was announced on David’s birthday! I think it’s pure coincidence, the kind of coincidence that would make Gillian shake her head in disbelief and facepalm for the rest of her life.

David and Téa’s divorce was announced by TMZ on Gillian’s birthday too. It’s different, because they didn’t chose to announce it themselves, or at least, that’s not what’s in the TMZ article. TMZ said they “found out” they have divorced. I’m assuming they didn’t “found out” randomly. I assume David or Téa’s wanted to release the news, and their people, somehow found a way to tell TMZ. Even if I think David and Gillian were already together when it was announced, I don’t think that’s the kind of “gift” David would do to Gillian. I can’t see him being so disrespectful towards Téa. So maybe TMZ wanted to fuck around, and thought it was a good joke. Or maybe it’s another facepalm coincidence. 

To sum it up, I don’t believe David and Gillian wanted to fuck with us. Not with their private life, and certainly not with something as important as a separation and a divorce, and breaking families apart. I can’t believe they would have “gifted” each other with such an announcement, it would be weird, most of all to their former partners, even more if you’re assuming that they’ve played a role in each other’s separation. So I’d go with the coincidence theory… But I’m shaking my head and facepalming every time I think about it. Seriously, though!

(anon submission) If Gillian goes to work at the crown then the most sensible fandom and those who have some kind of information because they know someone from the industry and said from the first moment that it was only PR had all the reason. So the PR agreements work, so Gillian started to write tweets about TC and went to the GG, it’s called publicity, and even, the rumor of page six could be agreed by the parties … he realized that that tabloid Did he never mention the alleged relationship between PM and GA? And does not it mean that Gillian has done something immoral to get that role, by God, so many years and do not know? Both TC and PM and GA benefit from PR. PM since 2008 had problems for certain statements so that somehow needed to clean his image, what better time than the airing of his series? Gillian with the support of many people for her book, including the renowned PM, and a role in the series, who does not like a good job? Is not selling, is just seize opportunities, and that is the bread of every day in the industry, everyone does it ok? All including David, including Tea, including Angelina Joliè, all. Excuse me, my language is not English.