Good Omens Discussion Post

[soc_puppet]

Welcome to the official Queerly Beloved Good Omens Discussion Post! Here, you can discuss all things Good Omens: The book, the audiobook, the radio play, the in-progress Kickstarter for the graphic novel, and everything related to the TV show, seasons one and two. I imagine that the TV show in particular will be on everyone's mind, as the second season was just released two weeks ago, and people are still watching. As such, please be aware that there will be spoilers for all of it, so if you wish to remain unspoiled, this is probably not the post for you.

Please do your best to keep discussion peaceful! Remember that no representation is going to work for everyone; a form of representation that one person finds healing, another person might find harmful, and vice versa. This is a great opportunity to learn other perspectives on various elements of the various incarnations of Good Omens. While they may not change how you feel about the pieces in question, you may at least understand why someone else finds them helpful or hurtful.

As a last note, Neil Gaiman has confirmed that if Amazon doesn't renew the show for a third season, he is prepared to write it as a novel, so the ending of the story that he and the late Sir Terry Pratchett had planned will be released someday, in one form or another. (He also reports that the closed captions have been fixed for Season 2, so if you've been holding off on watching because you need them, you should be good to go!)

That's all I have to say for now; have at it!

Comments

[feurioo]

Thank you so much for making this post!

I'm probably an outlier because a) I've never finished the book (tried the audiobook, and will try the cast recording), b) I didn't particularly love the first season, and c) I wasn't very interested in the second season until I heard about a certain spoiler a couple of weeks ago. As such, obviously, I am not particularly invested in the whole thing but I absolutely adore the fandom's overall excitement and creativity.

I thought the season was okay, nothing more and nothing less. Wouldn't include it in my personal list of this year's best shows, simply because it didn't particularly impress me story-wise. To me, the pacing felt way off, the conclusion of the Gabriel mystery was way too rushed (I love a well-done mystery, and this, for me, wasn't it), and I just didn't feel that the overall tone lived up to the wit that made the first season a standout. Maggie/Nina also seemed severely undercooked. In a way, this makes sense because they were only A/C proxies, but their story/characters still should've been a bit more fun and/or fleshed-out in order to make me actually care, IMHO.

That said, I loved the Aziraphale/Crowley bits and the Tennant/Sheen chemistry remains off the charts. I loved the queerness and the trans rep. I even loved the ending because it delivered intriguing stakes for a potential third season. I guess I just wish that, overall, it had been more consistent because now I'm waiting for all that potential, satisfying payoff without *actually* getting the impression that this season offered me a whole, well-prepared meal to enjoy.

I will rewatch the entire show at some point to reassess the opinions above but it probably won't happen in the immediate future. (And definitely not before it gets officially renewed!) That said, I have already read interesting meta-analyses that have softened my view of the second season. I also follow some discussions about the (possibly) revisionist way Neil Gaiman now approaches and advertises the Aziraphale/Crowley ship because, even as somebody who hasn't followed the fandom for long, I do remember that there was a time when he wasn't as open and positive about the idea of A/C in a romantic relationship.

[matsushima]

I loved the book as a teenager [mid-00s] and I enjoyed S1 very much. (I did not enjoy the flame war so I avoided the fandom.) I started S2 but stopped when I heard that it ended on a cliffhanger - I don't enjoy that, so I'll wait until S3 or Neil Gaiman's novel is ready. I was really pleased that they cast disabled actors as angels and the angel who uses a power chair can also stand and walk a few steps - there's always so much "they'll be whole [nondisabled] in heaven!" rhetoric when a famous disabled person dies and seeing that the angels - literally God's perfect creatures - could be disabled was really nice. (Aziraphale does need to get a ramp for his bookstore. I know he's trying to keep people from actually buying the books but everyone should be equally inconvenienced.)

After S1, I went back and [tried to] reread the book and… S1 is definitely better than the book. There's a lot that didn't age well (if anyone remembers Newt's car…) and I thought the modern update worked very well. I think it kept the spirit of the story, and the humor, and got rid of the yucky stuff.

[bedes]

I feel like I'm the outlier here, because I am the only one who has 1) read the books and 2) also absolutely loved the latest season. Don't ask me about it, I Will give you a lengthy response. I suppose that's just my taste in media, though; I love seeing queer people (and I have considered Aziraphale and Crowley canonically queer ever since Neil confirmed it) just doing silly little domestic things, because it feels like that kind of media has been out of our reach for so long. It wasn't plot-heavy, I suppose, but I don't mind that. I even like it, because I know that season 3 is going to be another near-apocalypse. It makes sense to have a nice slow-down in the middle.