Good Omens
I waited a quarter of a century for this. Twenty-five years from reading the amazing novel by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett to seeing it brought to stellar life, shepherded by Gaiman himself in tribute to his late co-author.
And wow it was worth the wait. Just go watch it. Watch all of it and meet me back here.
Did you… no? Okay, let’s see what else I can tell you… How can I… what part of this show wasn’t a delight? Certainly not the casting. Given a century to think about it I couldn’t come up with better actors to play the lead angel and demon, Aziraphale and Crowley, than Michael Sheen and David Tennant. They are perfect. From minute one. They’re great individually, even better as a double-act when they meet up. They could carry this entire show, but they hardly need to, because the rest of the cast is brilliant as well.
Right, watch all six episodes and come back.
Still no? Really. Okay… The addition of Frances McDormand as the voice of God, aka the narrator, helps them keep so much of the book’s narration, where a lot of the best jokes lived. Not all of it, no… not some of the better footnotes, like the explanation of old-time British currency, or the secret of Greasy Johnson… but that’s fine. I wouldn’t have the excuse to re-read the book if Gaiman had squeezed in every word.
Did you notice, when you were watching the whole– Really. Still. Okay… It’s wonderfully inclusive. Witch and would-be apocalypse stopper Anathema Device is Latina now; Aziraphale and Crowley can swap genders without it being a joke; one of the four horsemen is gender-neutral (like… not an ideal character for enbies to identify with, but hey), Adam and Eve aren’t white… so many little touches to delight many and anger white supremacists, both of which I endorse.
I love so much about Good Omens. It should be competing with Chernobyl for every limited series Emmy. My only real issue is that I had to spend six hours watching it instead of experiencing every second of it all at once, just marinating in the entire story all together, but Gaiman and his team can hardly be blamed for the existence of linear time.
Just watch it. You’ll thank me. Then let’s meet back here for more tales of European adventures.
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