AMERICAN GODS: Spellbinding, murky, magical, maddening _ this Starz series from Neil Gaiman's novel doesn't reveal its secrets easily, yet it's almost impossible to look away. Set today, it's also a hallucinatory trip through history, as old-time "gods" prepare to battle newbies. Ricky Whittle's mystified human ex-con gets pulled into "impossible things" when he's recruited to join Ian McShane's hyper-articulate cypher, taking a pre-battle Cadillac road trip through the Midwest. Also involved in myriad strange ways: Pablo Schreiber, Cloris Leachman, Peter Stormare, Kristin Chenoweth, Orlando Jones, Gillian Anderson. (Even those between-chapter vignettes are here!) Visuals dazzle, audio hard-kicks your subwoofer, repeated rewatching feels required.
EXTRAS: Not sure what's going on? Get walked through it by showrunners/scripters Bryan Fuller ("Hannibal," "Pushing Daisies") and Michael Green ("Blade Runner 2049"), headlining an essential 2 {-hour making-of that's packed with other interviews. Also: "gods" featurettes, first-episode commentaries, cast video commentary on finale. (Starz expects to cover Gaiman's entire bestseller over 3 seasons.)
LIST PRICE: $35 DVD/$40 Blu-ray+digital, out this week from Lionsgate.
THE GOOD PLACE: Kristen Bell and Ted Danson's NBC heaven/hell trip finally gets season 1 on disc, with bonus effects peek, table read, commentaries; $20 DVD, Shout.
