Starz has unveiled a new clip from the fifth episode of their hit series American Gods, which brings the show into the back half of this eight-episode first season, based on Neil Gaiman's iconic novel. This clip features a new glimpse at the colorful God known as Media (Gillian Anderson), who seemingly take a different appearance each time she's seen. After her first appearance in the second episode, where she resembled Lucille Ball, her appearance in this episode has her paying homage to Ziggy Stardust himself, the late great David Bowie.
The clip, which comes courtesy of Starz, features Gillian Anderson's Media having a little sit-down with one of the new gods, known as Technical Boy (Bruce Langley), telling him that he has an image problem, and that he has to think about how he wants the world to see him. She also brings up an incident from the series premiere, where Technical Boy attempted to hang Shadow Moon (Ricky Whittle) from a tree. Technical Boy defends this attempted lynching by saying that "he was f---ing with me," and he told Shadow Moon not to f--in with him.
This rationale doesn't sit well with Media, who states that he's a "good kid," but he isn't good with meeting people he doesn't already know, telling Technical Boy to apologize. Reluctantly, he tells her to pass on his "most sincere apologies" to Mr. World (Crispin Glover), but that wasn't the right play. Media tells Technical Boy that Mr. World doesn't want his apology, however, he would like to "re-gift" the apology to Mr. Wednesday (Ian McShane) and his man Shadow Moon. While this enrages Technical Boy, Media makes it clear that Mr. World wants his apology to Wednesday and Shadow Moon to be just as authentic as if he was apologizing to Mr. World, which leaves Technical Boy dumbfounded.
It hasn't been confirmed how many more episodes Gillian Anderson's Media will be appearing in this season, but since Starz renewed American Gods for Season 2 a few weeks ago, there certainly is the potential for Media to show up again, most likely arriving in the guise of another iconic pop culture figure. The official description of the Media character from Starz reveals that, "Media assumes whatever form will deliver her message most effectively and is often personified by iconic celebrities."
The 2001 Neil Gaiman novel has been translated into over 30 languages and earned numerous accolades including Hugo, Nebula and Bram Stoker Awards for Best Novel. The plot posits a war brewing between old and new gods: the traditional gods of biblical and mythological roots from around the world steadily losing believers to an upstart pantheon of gods reflecting society's modern love of money, technology, media, celebrity and drugs. Its protagonist, Shadow Moon, is an ex-con who becomes bodyguard and traveling partner to Mr. Wednesday, a conman but in reality one of the older gods, on a cross-country mission to gather his forces in preparation to battle the new deities. Take a look at this new clip from this weekend's new episode of American Gods, airing Sunday, May 28 on Starz.
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