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more on Good Omens
I can't stop thinking about how MUCH I loved the Good Omens miniseries, my god. Here's a random list of things:
* Crowley and Aziraphale are the main characters! They weren't, in the book; you could probably call them the principal elements of an ensemble cast, but they never have as much screentime as I remember. But it works a million times better with the two of them as the emotional lynchpin of the story, and their relationship with each other makes me so happy.
* The quite homophobic stuff in the book is gone. At the time I read it in the early 2000s I didn't think so and hadn't anyway had much experience of queer-made queer media, but the joke, in the book, is that people think Aziraphale is gay. It's meant to be funny that people think that. In this year of our Lord 2019, I don't like it. And in the miniseries I could have actually done with it being an articulated romance - the other two het couples get theirs expressed as such - but it's so nice anyway, so loving, tender, and devastatingly understated! my HEART.
* And ridiculously well-acted, of course. "You go too fast for me, Crowley," may be my favourite thing I've seen on TV in forever.
* Ridiculously well-acted, yes, and written and shot. So crisp and effortless that I didn't even notice it, if that makes sense. I wasn't quite sure what to expect of the cast, but they were all wonderful. Also, Sanjeev Bhaskar as the lawyer was my FAVOURITE, aaaaah, I shrieked.
* I also really liked the choice to make Anathema and her mum Latina. I liked that Adam and Eve were black - they're the first humans, they must be - and so was Sister Mary Loquacious and lovely Pepper was mixed-race. Agnes Nutter and Adultery Pulsifer have proper Lancashire accents. All tiny grace notes that were really good for my heart. Also, Pollution as nonbinary is so weird and kind of amazing! It's so rare you get an actual "they" pronoun on TV!
* I loved the delivery man scenes with Pollution, War, and Famine, and particularly Death (even though Death's voice didn't quite work for me); I really got what the book was trying to do with them, for the first time. I actually think - shhhh - that in some ways, this is better than the book. The story works cinematically in a way that just wasn't possible in print.
* the kraken. The sherbet lemon nuclear reactor. The minister is mid-ill-advised-sex when they call him. The aliens have come to preach cosmic harmony and they don't know why! The unhappy Tibetan guy who is supposed to be running his radio repair shop in Lhasa! I'd say this are the bits of the novel that have dated least well - especially as Anathema doesn't actually espouse any mad conspiracy theories; she's perfectly right about nuclear power and climate change - but they were delightful anyway.
* All the extra bits. What a work of superb genius to give Aziraphale and Crowley their own TWENTY-EIGHT-MINUTE pre-credit sequence. The holy water subplot is not at all plot relevant but who cares, it's perfect and I want to rewatch it a million times. And, actually, it may not be plot relevant but it's so important to the characters and it all comes together in that devastating scene on the bandstand, which I adored. The setting - the stark light, the bare trees - and the emotion and the perfect dialogue and aaaah. (Similarly, the other substantial extra bit - the bodyswap at the end - was wonderful. So clever and surprising and still in keeping with everything that came before.)
* Another favourite thing: Aziraphale's sword is War's sword. I think that's not in the book? If it is, I've missed it until now, but it worked SO well for me - such a brilliant thematic bridge from beginning to end, and so perfectly sweetened by the fact Aziraphale can't find the sword at the end because he's sitting on it. I love him.
* yeah, I still love Aziraphale, it turns out. Here is a thing about him I think I also missed until just now? He is the only person who begins the story with an act of compassion: not God or Crowley, not Adam or Eve or Lucifer or anyone else. His is the first kindness in history. And he's so fussy, and sweet, and ridiculous, and I love him. No one is surprised.
* Oh, and, it's all places I know! I'm working at St James's Park, of course, but also - I said this on Twitter - Shadwell and Madame Tracy live in a flat that A. and I nearly bought in 2016, and Aziraphale and Crowley at the end are sitting on a park bench at my departmental fire evacuation point.
I will probably think of another half-dozen things! tl;dr I am in LOVE.
* Crowley and Aziraphale are the main characters! They weren't, in the book; you could probably call them the principal elements of an ensemble cast, but they never have as much screentime as I remember. But it works a million times better with the two of them as the emotional lynchpin of the story, and their relationship with each other makes me so happy.
* The quite homophobic stuff in the book is gone. At the time I read it in the early 2000s I didn't think so and hadn't anyway had much experience of queer-made queer media, but the joke, in the book, is that people think Aziraphale is gay. It's meant to be funny that people think that. In this year of our Lord 2019, I don't like it. And in the miniseries I could have actually done with it being an articulated romance - the other two het couples get theirs expressed as such - but it's so nice anyway, so loving, tender, and devastatingly understated! my HEART.
* And ridiculously well-acted, of course. "You go too fast for me, Crowley," may be my favourite thing I've seen on TV in forever.
* Ridiculously well-acted, yes, and written and shot. So crisp and effortless that I didn't even notice it, if that makes sense. I wasn't quite sure what to expect of the cast, but they were all wonderful. Also, Sanjeev Bhaskar as the lawyer was my FAVOURITE, aaaaah, I shrieked.
* I also really liked the choice to make Anathema and her mum Latina. I liked that Adam and Eve were black - they're the first humans, they must be - and so was Sister Mary Loquacious and lovely Pepper was mixed-race. Agnes Nutter and Adultery Pulsifer have proper Lancashire accents. All tiny grace notes that were really good for my heart. Also, Pollution as nonbinary is so weird and kind of amazing! It's so rare you get an actual "they" pronoun on TV!
* I loved the delivery man scenes with Pollution, War, and Famine, and particularly Death (even though Death's voice didn't quite work for me); I really got what the book was trying to do with them, for the first time. I actually think - shhhh - that in some ways, this is better than the book. The story works cinematically in a way that just wasn't possible in print.
* the kraken. The sherbet lemon nuclear reactor. The minister is mid-ill-advised-sex when they call him. The aliens have come to preach cosmic harmony and they don't know why! The unhappy Tibetan guy who is supposed to be running his radio repair shop in Lhasa! I'd say this are the bits of the novel that have dated least well - especially as Anathema doesn't actually espouse any mad conspiracy theories; she's perfectly right about nuclear power and climate change - but they were delightful anyway.
* All the extra bits. What a work of superb genius to give Aziraphale and Crowley their own TWENTY-EIGHT-MINUTE pre-credit sequence. The holy water subplot is not at all plot relevant but who cares, it's perfect and I want to rewatch it a million times. And, actually, it may not be plot relevant but it's so important to the characters and it all comes together in that devastating scene on the bandstand, which I adored. The setting - the stark light, the bare trees - and the emotion and the perfect dialogue and aaaah. (Similarly, the other substantial extra bit - the bodyswap at the end - was wonderful. So clever and surprising and still in keeping with everything that came before.)
* Another favourite thing: Aziraphale's sword is War's sword. I think that's not in the book? If it is, I've missed it until now, but it worked SO well for me - such a brilliant thematic bridge from beginning to end, and so perfectly sweetened by the fact Aziraphale can't find the sword at the end because he's sitting on it. I love him.
* yeah, I still love Aziraphale, it turns out. Here is a thing about him I think I also missed until just now? He is the only person who begins the story with an act of compassion: not God or Crowley, not Adam or Eve or Lucifer or anyone else. His is the first kindness in history. And he's so fussy, and sweet, and ridiculous, and I love him. No one is surprised.
* Oh, and, it's all places I know! I'm working at St James's Park, of course, but also - I said this on Twitter - Shadwell and Madame Tracy live in a flat that A. and I nearly bought in 2016, and Aziraphale and Crowley at the end are sitting on a park bench at my departmental fire evacuation point.
I will probably think of another half-dozen things! tl;dr I am in LOVE.
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Aziraphale's sword being War's sword isn't in the book, but him sitting on it is. :D
Here is a thing about him I think I also missed until just now? He is the only person who begins the story with an act of compassion: not God or Crowley, not Adam or Eve or Lucifer or anyone else. His is the first kindness in history.
Ohhhhh. It really is, isn't it.
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<3<3<3
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He is the only person who begins the story with an act of compassion: not God or Crowley, not Adam or Eve or Lucifer or anyone else. His is the first kindness in history.
This is such a good observation. When he says "she's expecting" was the moment when I was like, yes, this is the perfect casting for Aziraphale, good, I am so happy.
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Oh <3 this is a wonderful observation.
RIDICULOUSLY WELL-ACTED. I'm one-third into my third viewing now (with Slon, who hadn't seen it yet) and eery time I watch it there are new bits that make me want to throw things at the TV. So far, two eps into view no. 3, the lines that have stood out to me as needing to be taught in drama schools are the way Michael Sheen says 'it's ineffable' in ep 1, and in ep 2 the way DT says 'oh hello, we're a pair of supernatural beings looking for the son of satan, I wonder if you can help us with our enquiries'.
Also just agree with EVERYTHING you say here. (my heart it is so full I cannot)
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(Though of course that comes at the cost of less focus on the others, and especially the Them could have used more screen time to really work well, but I'm so happy about Crowley and Aziraphale that I care little.)
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the plot thread with the holy water might have been creating context for the final punishment attempt for the two of them, i think.
re: the performances, i am really and truly blown away - by all, but especially michael sheen, because it is SO EASY to slip into parody or exaggeration when playing someone so innocent. (zhu yinlong does an equally incredible job with young!shen wei, i feel.)
the bandstand, omg. i might need to go watch it again.
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I am already watching it again. aaaaaah. <3
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I keep thinking about how the TV show, taken all in all, very strongly implies that the whole point of the apocalypse fake-out in the ineffable plan was, in fact, to get these three couples together, and especially Crowley and Aziraphale.
I loved Pollution so much! The four horsemen were the part of the show that stuck out as the most Pratchett to me, and especially Death--in the show Death is basically Death of Discworld, right down to the voice, which I didn't dislike but didn't love.
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I am also rewatching it this week. I have a feeling I'm going to be doing that a few times.