Good Omens...but is it any good?

I read the book two or three years ago and thoroughly enjoyed it. It was at a time when I didn’t enjoy reading but at the same time missed enjoying reading. Thank you school! But that’s it’s own rabbit hole, which I won’t be delving into for today. A good friend of mine recommended it to me and it gripped me right from the very beginning. So when I heard they were making a series out of it I was sceptical. Too many books had been turned into films and ruined. The castings all wrong, they leave out major plot lines or people (I am still not over the fact that they left out Peeves in Harry Potter or who Voldermort dies in the last film!). A couple of my friends pointed out that series adaptations tend to do better than films, as they have more time to flesh things out. Plus I found out David Tennant was going to play my favourite character so I was starting to look forward to it.

I listened to David Tennant’s podcast with Michael Sheen (who, I am ashamed to say, I didn’t really know before any of this) and thought they worked rather well together and was looking forward to seeing the two on a screen together.

Sadly due to exams I had to (or more I made myself) wait a few weeks because when I start a series and like it, it’s very hard for me to stop myself from binging it. On top of that silly me couldn’t shut up about how David Tennant was in an adaptation of a book I really enjoy and so my parents really wanted to watch it too...so again I couldn’t just binge it even when exams were over! (I’m not really mad, I enjoyed watching it with them.)

So after all that I finally watched it. And I was not disappointed! Admittedly it’s been a few years since reading the book but it was all there and some. And not in a bad way! Michael Sheen and David Tennant couldn’t have done a better job. They were 100% believable, especially Michael as Aziraphale! Those puppy eyes! The innocents! The so badly wanting to do the right thing! I couldn’t get enough of him. I’m sorry to say it but although Crowley was my favourite character in the book I think my favourite character in the series is Aziraphale.

As from this point there will be SPOILERS (even for people who read the book) however, in short the points below are: amazing chemistry amongst the actors, great plot points that were in the book but also those that weren’t and last but most certainly not least the usage of the camera and effects. So go watch the series. I’m sure you’ll get a few laughs out of it and maybe a tear or two. And once you’ve done that you can come back and read the rest...I mean you don’t have to but it’d make me happy.

To end the point I was making before the SPOILER ALERT announcement I especially loved Crowley’s version of Aziraphale! He was so believable that up until the last few seconds of him entering the Hell Fire I was only slightly sceptical. Michael Sheen’s performance of Crowley playing Aziraphle was some of the best acting I’ve seen. Obviously David Tennant did a marvelous job of Aziraphale playing Crowley and was almost equally as believable. In my opinion there just should have been one or two more snappy remarks, which of course has nothing to do with David Tennant’s acting. One could of course counter that argument by saying that it would be harder to believe it was actually Aziraphale but that’s just my opinion on that matter.

I also can’t get over the amazing chemistry Michael Sheen and David Tennant have. In so many scenes they give the impression of being a couple. The longing looks, looking out for each other, making miracles happen for each other. The only thing is I can’t determine whether their acting like an elderly couple or young teenagers...not that it matters they can be a mixture of both!

As mentioned, I read the book but as it’s been a while and I was asking myself more than I’d like to admit whether certain plots were in the book or not. I knew about John Hamm’s character Gabriel and that he wasn’t in the book. I thought he was a nice addition and gave Heaven a face and the opportunity to express their (in my opinion pretty shit) values and thoughts about the ineffable plan. This made me love the scene with Gabriel and Beelzebub getting mad at Adam for rejecting his destiny even more. Throughout the whole series Gabriel had such an entitled and self-righteousness about him and to see that all be thwarted by an 11 year old child was a joyous experience. However, my favourite addition to the story has to be Aziraphale and Crowley switching bodies. It’s such an innovation! And amazingly executed by the actors, director and everyone else involved!

Lastly I’d like to comment on the camera work/ effects that they used. There’s just something about subtleties such as in (I believe it was) episode 2, where Aziraphale and Crowley are going to their respective headquarters and to get there they take an escalator. Crowley, of course going “down” to Hell is only seen in the reflection of the escalator in other words literally going down. Aziraphale on the other hand is not visible in the reflection again literally only going up. It was also nice to see them make fun of certain things many viewers take for granted when watching a film or TV. An example of this we find also in episode 2 (I believe) when we meet Newton Pulcifier for the first time. The camera starts off in the middle of the street in a birds-eye-view. It then proceeds to pan around to a specific window of one of the houses. Usually we would expect the camera to just float through an even closed window as cameras in films and TV don’t need to abide by physics. However, as the camera moves towards the window it bumps into it as the laws of physics would suggest should happen, making us, the viewer, aware of the voyeuristic behavior we are currently partaking in. The last thing I’d like to mention on this topic is the very up-close telephoto lens that is used with the angels in Heaven. This is an interesting choice as this gives a demonic effect. So we are given subtle - or depending on the viewers level of observantness not so subtle - hints, that the angels aren’t inherently good. Perhaps showing us that maybe nothing is 100% good and that we shouldn’t beat ourselves up when we aren’t.

Needless to say, I loved the book and the series. If you’ve read the book and aren’t sure whether to watch it or not, I say go for it. If you haven’t read the book definitely go for it!

Wishing you a lovely day

Shaura