Good Omens (Season 1)

I've never really delved too deeply into Neil Gaiman. Clearly based on this premise as well as other properties, he clearly has an incredibly unique imagination. But my exposure to him has been pretty limited because the premises are so unique that it almost feels to me like you need to get totally immersed in it to really enjoy it. It just feels very heady and almost intangible that I feel like I need to be in a totally set head space to embark on that deep dive. But I was watching The Good Place and I was kind of in the mood for some philosophical, religious fantasy that I thought I'd knock out Good Omens and finally get an opinion on this show that has dogged me since May.

So there's a lot going on in Good Omens and I'll get to that, but the main center of the story is on an Angel named Aziraphale (played by Michael Sheen) and a demon named Crowly (played by David Tennant). While on either side of the spiritual war between heaven and hell, both of them live on Earth blessing and tempting humanity. Through the millennium of years they've been doing what is akin to Cold War Spy warfare but on a spiritual level, the two have built almost a friendly relationship and have become comfortable with their way of life.

That changes when Crowly is given the job to deliver the Anti-Christ to the couple that will be his earthly parents before he comes of age and brings about Armageddon. (The Earthly father they choose is an America diplomat played by Nick Offerman and he's criminally underutilized).

However, a series of events messes up the delivery and the anti-Christ is actually sent to live with a humble English family in a small village outside of London.

What follows is a pretty wacky bout involving angels, demons, witches, witch hunters, the Anti-Christ as a young boy (played by Sam Taylor Buck), his friends, his dog, the four horsemen of the apocalypse, aliens, Atlantis, world history... the list goes on and honestly its a bit much.

Seriously this show covers so many bases and while I have to applaud Gaiman for not really handcuffing himself to the tradition elements of a religious fiction story like God, Angels, the Devil, Demons, and the Anti-Christ, I feel like there was more than enough there. By episode two they're throwing in witches that can tell the future, witch hunters that are bad with computers, and the four horsemen of the apocalypse and I was thinking to myself, I've got enough food on my plate and you're shoveling on more?

It's easy to break this show down into segments, although those segments have their own branches.

First you've got Crowly and Aziraphale. But that brings in their respective teams like the Angel Gabriel (played by Jon Hamm) and another demon named Hastur (played by Ned Dennehy) to name a few.

Then you've got the Anti-Christ Adam and his friends.

Then you've got what I call the hot people witch plot line with Adria Arjona and Jack Whitehall playing a witch and a witch finder respectively who are the hot people in the show. But they're tagged with Michael McKean and Miranda Richardson.

On top of that you've got the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse being gathered, the voice of God (Francis McDormand) narrating the whole thing, and a lot of other smaller characters. Honestly any one of the segments I've mentioned above could have their own miniseries or movie.

Clearly the selling point of this show was David Tennant and Michael Sheen and yeah, from the beginning these two are wildly entertaining. I love the themes and analogies made in this series that the forces of Heaven and Hell want the apocalypse to occur and Crowly and Aziraphale have been on Earth long enough to understand its value.

It has a lot of fun with the concept of good and evil, angels and demons, in almost a Paradise Lost style narrative. I will say that there are probably a lot of references that probably flew over my head and would be eaten up by religious studies majors, but overall when these two are on screen, especially in Episode 3 where it lays out their relationship over the course of human history, the show is really great.

And that's not to say that the other parts of the show aren't good, but when the show is just being tossed in so many different directions, it just feels aimless at a certain point.

And honestly, the show doesn't really use its time very well.

The first three episodes feel like A LOT of set up with a TON of background thrown at you. And again, episode three is really good, but there were a couple of points in the show where I just had to stop and realize that NOTHING was happening.

And the opposite problem happens in the last three episodes in that a lot happens but all in the course of one or maybe two days. It's a weird juxtaposition especially when the show is jumping from Aziraphale and Crowly to the four horsemen of the Apocalypse, to Adam the Anti-Christ, and so on. The story seems very grand and epic, but still wants to dive into these really person stories and relationships. The result kind of feels half assed, especially if its not Michael Sheen and David Tennant.

A great example is that of Adam the Anti-Christ. The narration says that he's the leader of this group of children but they never really explain what he's like, what his relationship with his parents is like, and so on. And while you may say that's not important, the whole premise of the show is built on the fact that there is a mix up and Adam was supposed to be born into a different family.

There's a question of nature versus nurture. Are you born evil as the anti-Christ? Or are you raised to be evil, for example as the son of an American diplomat?

But the show doesn't really seem to be interested in that question and Adam goes from a boy we don't know a whole lot about to having demon eyes and being a dick for about an episode and a half for no reason besides the fact that he's the anti-Christ. Again, this could be a whole movie in itself, kind of like a comedic The Omen, especially in the relationship he has with the Hell Hound named Dog.

Even for having only six episodes, the show takes quite a bit of time to get going and I don't feel like its paced very well.

The main takeaway is that Good Omens has some great performances, especially from Sheen and Tennant. It's clearly a really unique premise and I'm even considering checking out the book(s?) as I'm on a reading kick lately. The show doesn't shy away from throwing all the wacky elements of the show into the fold. On top of all of that, the costume design is absolutely fantastic.

But I do feel like Amazon dumped out all the toys in their Neil Gaiman toy chest and I'm not sure they really knew what to do with them. For good reason, the show feels like the machinations of a child with a great imagination throwing everything into the story but not tying it up as neatly as it could be. Clearly there's something trying to be said, but it gets drowned out by a confused and slow paced plot.

If you are interested in Good Omens, I'd say watch it but know that its a little bit of a mess and those 6 episodes might feel kind of long. There's a lot of good in the show, but its not always utilized correctly.

But those are my thoughts on Good Omens. What did you think? What are your thoughts on Amazon Prime original TV shows in general? Do they feel slow to anybody else? Comment and Discuss below! You can also send me your thoughts on Twitter @MovieSymposium as well as send me your requests for films and TV shows I should review in the future. If you follow me on Twitter, you can get updates on future movie news and reviews coming out of this blog.

Thanks for reading!