TV Show of the Week: Good Omens

I have to be honest here; I only started watching this show because it has David Tennant, who is one of my favourite actors. He nails every role he’s been in. Some might say his acting is over the top, but that just makes the character he’s playing jump off the screen so much more. I am also a fan of the writer, Neil Gaiman, who likes to focus on Gods, or indeed what we perceive as Gods. Good Omens isn’t a new book that was adapted, it came out in the 1990s and struggled to be adapted. It was at first planned to be a film, but that fell through. After many years later, a TV show was created, fronted by Neil Gaiman himself.

I went in completely blind, not knowing anything at all about the show, other than the fact it starred David Tennant and was written by Neil Gaiman. Last weekend I watched the entire 6-episode series almost in one go, only stopping to get some sleep as it was getting late and I was falling asleep in my chair. The next morning, after making myself some breakfast, I sat down and watched the final two episodes, and I absolutely enjoyed it all. I loved the humour, starting off with the two main characters who have the ability to do basically whatever they want, and have been on Earth ever since Adam and Eve were, Crowley and Aziraphale (played by David Tennant and Michael Sheen). David plays the demon and Michael plays the angel, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. When David is playing a character who likes to have fun, that’s when his acting is superb. During the flashback sequence in one of the episodes, we saw their lives throughout the thousands of years and whilst of course they had to remain inconspicuous to the public, you could clearly see both Michael and David having a blast with their characters, especially David.

The story throughout the six episodes is about the demon and the angel attempting to prevent the end of the world at the hands of the antichrist, Adam Young. The series saw a bunch of recognisable names, including David Morrissey, Johnny Vegas, and Andy Hamilton to name a few, each playing their characters with their own respectable vigour.

From what I can understand after seeing all six episodes, is (maybe) the reason for why it never was made into a film. With a film, you’re always going to have to condense the story down, whereas with a TV show, you have the opportunity to pad the story out further, and add bits and pieces which you simply could not in the film. The flashback sequence wouldn’t have been packed with as much detail about their lives together on Earth – but would have instead been just a couple of quick scenes. Don’t get me wrong, if Neil Gaiman was in charge of the script, I’m sure he’ll do his very best to make it work in the walls of a film, but the TV show allowed everyone involved to really get their teeth stuck into the source material and create a funny, energetic, celestial TV show.

I certainly recommend watching this and I wouldn’t at all be surprised if you found yourself watching it all in one sitting.

Thanks for reading

Antony Hudson

(TonyHadNouns)