Good Omens–both the novel and the new AMAZON Prime Video–remind me of an overstuff burrito. Too many characters, too many subplots, too many wacky diversions!
I read Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett’s Good Omens back when it was first published in 1990. I reread Good Omens in preparation for AMAZON Prime Video’s 6-episode mini-series with a screenplay written by Neil Gaiman. The Apocalypse is approaching as the armies of Hell and Heaven ready themselves for the Final Conflict. The Anti-Christ, an 11-year-old boy with his Hell Hound, will trigger the Apocalypse from a small town in England.
Standing in the way of the destruction of Earth and Humanity are Aziraphale, an Angel who has been on Earth with the mission of promoting Good Things. And, Crowley, a demon who has spent thousands of years promoting mayhem and mischief. David Tennant plays the demon Crowley with menace. Michael Sheen plays Aziraphale as a fussy, book-loving Angel. The Angel and the Demon have a secret cooperative relationship developed over the centuries. They are appalled and alarmed that the Divine Plan includes mass destruction and genocide.
I liked John Hamm as bossy Archangel Gabriel. I really liked Frances McDormand as the Voice of God as she provides narration for all six episodes of Good Omens. You have to be in the mood to embrace Excess if you want to enjoy Good Omens. GOOD OMENS [AMAZON Prime Video]: GRADE: A-. GOOD OMENS [Novel]: GRADE: B
I’m enjoying the miniseries. Tennant is a hoot and I love his car. As long as you don’t watch it back to back, it really isn’t too excessive. We watch an episode every other day.
Jeff, I watched one episode per day. Love Tennant’s car!
Much as I like David Tennant it’s just not very likely that I’ll get to this. We’ve all lived most of our lives with TBR stacks as high as an elephant’s eye. But increasingly, the number of things that I really want to watch is becoming truly overwhelming. Having to prioritize all the interesting stuff on Prime, Netflix, and Hulu makes me want to sit down and read a book.
So true. We try to rotate and generally watch about three shows a night. We started re-watching season three of DEADWOOD before we watch the new movie, but honestly, I don’t know if we’ll get through the whole thing again. May just skip to the last episode.
Jeff, I’m tempted to rewatch DEADWOOD, too. But, I’m busy with other stuff.
Michael, I know what you mean. A dozen interesting movies and series on Netflix and HULU and AMAZON Prime Video send out their Siren calls to us. So much to deal with!
Good Omens is definitely more Ann’s thing than mine, but I found enough in it to enjoy. Tenant walking into a church will live with me forever. We binged it in two nights.
Going to streaming has completely changed my viewing habits. Some of you know that I used to have this little list of shows — probably a hundred or so — and (through an amazingly complex system) rotated through them, generally being years behind on everything. (Being years behind never bothered me.)
Now Ann and I each pick a show, and we binge those two. Sometimes we stream through the entirety of a show (we watched *every* episode of NCIS late last year/early this year), sometimes the person whose pick it is will say let’s move onto something else. I imagine we’ll never get back to some of those hundred shows, but that’s the way it goes.
At the moment my show is Silent Witness, which we started at the beginning and are into series 14 now, and Ann’s is Elementary, which we picked up in the middle of the second season (which is how far we had gotten under the old system) and now we’re 2/3 of the way through season 4. (NCIS was Ann’s pick; it was something easy she felt she could handle after falling and suffering a concussion.)
Jeff, Diane and I watch some shows together and others separately. Diane watches a lot of HALLMARK movies. She says it calms her down in these times of Trump. I watch the DC shows–THE FLASH, SUPERGIRL, LEGIONS OF TOMRROW–and AGENTS OF SHIELD. Sometimes we will binge on some Netflix programs like JESSICA JONES.
I have to admit that as soon as I see “angels” or “demons” I’m no longer interested …
Rather OT:
An earlier version of John W. Campbell’s famous story (novella?) “Who goes there?” was just found in the archives and is being published as “Frozen Hell”.
That story was the base for John Carpenter’s famous movie “The Thing” which I clearly remember.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/43610618-frozen-hell
Wolf, I’ve read “Who Goes There” a couple times and seen at least two versions of THE THING. I’d be interested in reading that early version of Campbell’s classic story.
Have you seen this – almost unbelievable (for several reasons): 🙂
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/jun/20/petition-netflix-cancel-amazon-prime-good-omens-christian-neil-gaiman-terry-pratchett