Good Omens (2019)

With this miniseries, I ran afoul of the So Many Shows, So Little Time conundrum. I love both David Tennant and Michael Sheen, I’ve enjoyed everything of Neil Gaiman’s that I’ve read or seen (and while I don’t have much experience with Terry Pratchett, he comes highly recommended from the nerdiest of my brothers,) and the trailer looked super. Sadly, I just didn’t get around to it until now, a circumstance that was most unfortunate but now rectified (premise spoilers.)

Aziraphale and Crowley, angel and demon respectively, have been on Earth for thousands of years at the behest of their respective “sides” – Aziraphale is there to inspire humans toward goodness, Crowley to tempt them toward evil, that kind of thing. However, the birth of the Antichrist and the impending apocalypse promises a war between heaven and hell and the destruction of the Earth as we know it. Crowley, having gone somewhat “native” over the years, proposes that he and Aziraphale team up to stop the end of the world.

There’s a particular type of humor that is just so delightfully, intrinsically British, and this show taps a deep veins of that. The miniseries is fantastically funny in the most conversational, quirky way. From the oddball characters to the sly references to London traffic being the apparent work of hell itself, the series hits all the right notes.

At the same time, though, it has interesting points to make about heaven, hell, and humanity. This isn’t the first story to take a lot of irreverent jabs at Christianity, but I feel Good Omens does it coming from a genuine place, even if I can’t quite say where that place is exactly. For all that it makes obvious moves to irritate evangelicals (like having God voiced by a woman – Frances McDormand, to be precise,) it also examines questions of free will vs. fate, the nature of good and evil, and the struggle of questioning one’s faith. At one point, Crowley, stressed out by hell’s expectations of him, laments that he became a demon back when all you had to do to be “fallen” was ask questions. That really stuck out to me. I mean, yes, this is a miniseries with a crackpot modern-day witchfinder who’s constantly asking how many nipples people have, but it’s also a miniseries with lines like that, lines that demonstrate a real understanding and something to say.

The series is stylishly produced, whimsical with just the right dash of cool (albeit with some hilariously-cheap-looking CGI.) And the cast? Where do I begin? In roles of assorted size, we have Brian Cox, Anna Maxwell-Martin (who I loved as Esther in Bleak House,) Jon Hamm, the aforementioned voice of Frances McDormand, Benedict Cumberbatch, Michael McKean, Miranda Richardson, and Bill Paterson. Everyone commits to the wild goings-on and throws themselves wholeheartedly into the proceedings.

But at the center of it all, of course, are Michael Sheen as Aziraphale and David Tennant as Crowley. I’m well aware that the Internet has already said everything there is to say about these two, but I’ll go ahead and add that both are just wonderful. I especially love Sheen as the fussy, timidly-hopeful angel, but Tennant is also aces as the cynical, Queen-loving demon. They’re by far the heart and soul of the series, taking it to another level beyond how preposterous and lovely it already is.

Warnings

Violence, disturbing images, sexual content, language, drinking/smoking, and strong thematic elements.