Wossname -- June 2019 -- Good Omens Special Edition

[News and reviews about the works of Sir Terry Pratchett]

Wossname
Newsletter of the Klatchian Foreign Legion
Good Omens Special Edition
June 2019 (Volume 22, Issue 6, Post 1)

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WOSSNAME is a free publication offering news, reviews, and all the other 
stuff-that-fits pertaining to the works of Sir Terry Pratchett. 
Originally founded by the late, great Joe Schaumburger for members of 
the worldwide Klatchian Foreign Legion and its affiliates, including the 
North American Discworld Society and other continental groups, Wossname 
is now for Discworld and Pratchett fans everywhere in Roundworld.
********************************************************************

Editor in Chief: Annie Mac
News Editor: Vera P
Newshounds: Mogg, Sir J of Croydon Below, the Shadow, Mss C, Alison not 
Aliss
Staff Writers: Asti, Pitt the Elder, Evil Steven Dread, Mrs Wynn-Jones
Staff Technomancer: Jason Parlevliet
Book Reviews: Annie Mac, Drusilla D'Afanguin, Your Name Here
Puzzle Editor: Tiff (still out there somewhere)
Bard in Residence: Weird Alice Lancrevic
Emergency Staff: Steven D'Aprano, Jason Parlevliet
World Membership Director: Steven D'Aprano (in his copious spare time)

oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

INDEX:

01) QUOTES OF THE MONTH
02) EDITOR'S LETTER
03) GOOD OMENS NEWS
04) ODDS AND SODS
05) IMAGES OF THE MONTH
06) CLOSE

oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

01) QUOTES OF THE MONTH

"I'd like to think Pratchett is smiling in some version of an afterlife 
at what his great friend and writing partner has wrought."
– web journalist Jennifer Ouelette

"Throughout it all, I kept wishing that Terry Pratchett was there. 
Whenever I got stuck, I wanted to call Terry and say, 'What do I do 
now?' And whenever I did something clever, I wanted to call him and say, 
'I did it, I figured it out!'"
– Neil Gaiman, speaking at the London red-carpet premiere of Good Omens

"When people have lived with these characters and this story that means 
so much to them, you don't want to be responsible for breaking it. I 
hope I don't live to regret this, but I feel relatively comfortable that 
we're on the right side of it."
– David Tennant, speaking to The Independent

"While the plot doesn't quite take a backseat to anything – it is 
Armageddon – Aziraphale and Crowley are the magic that made Good Omens 
such a beloved work of writing from two of the most loved to put word to 
page. Staying true to the source material, at least in this first 
episode, with the help of Tenant[sic] and Sheen, that magic is 
redirected on the small screen in a way that captures the spirit, if not 
the intent, of Gaiman and Pratchett"
– Darryl Jasper for ScienceFiction.com

"Good Omens is a farce, a cheeky lark, as stylish as it is stylized, 
macabre and endlessly inventive. It moves like a demon in a burning car."
– web journalist Alex Saveliev

"If these are the End Times, at least we're going out in style."
– journalist Fiona Carr

"That voice adds color and texture that somehow makes it fly."
– Neil Gaiman gives his rationale for the narration in the Good Omens 
miniseries, in an interview with Film Independent curator Elvis Mitchell

"I knew this was a lot like Michelangelo phoning you up and saying, 'Do 
you want to do a ceiling this weekend?'"
– ... and recalls his reaction when Pterry first suggested they 
collaborate on what became Good Omens the novel

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

02) A LETTER FROM YOUR EDITOR

The BBC/Amazon Prime miniseries of Good Omens has certainly made its 
mark. There have been so many pre- and post-broadcast reviews, 
interviews and behind-the-scenes stories that Your Editor has been run 
ragged trying to collect and sort them all... and write her own... and 
the size of the resultant text mountain, even in cut-down form, is why 
there will be two issues of Wossname this month. Many thanks to the 
various Newshounds who have also sent in links – and hey, O Readers, if 
any of you want to write and share your own review, do feel free to send 
it along! As always, the address is wossname-owner at pearwood.info

The series had its cinematic world premiere in London at the end of last 
month (28th May), featuring a big-budget-film-worthy red carpet and the 
presence of Neil Gaiman, director Douglas Mackinnon, and various cast 
members. Apart from the flash and fury of glam, glitter and glitz, there 
was a small poignant presence – one seat in the front row had been kept 
empty because it was reserved for the original novel's co-author. But it 
wasn't *quite* empty. Yes, Sir Pterry's seat was occupied by The Hat. 
And if that gives you a frisson of simultaneous delight and sadness, 
you're not alone.

Department of Some People Just Don't Get It: "As religious experiences 
go, Good Omens reveals more about star power than sky piloting. Anyone 
who still refuses to believe in the ability of big-name actors to work 
miracles on screen will be instantly converted after even momentary 
exposure to this convoluted and plodding effort at a comedy of cosmic 
errors. Without the semblance of wit and charm provided by its luminous 
A-list cast, after all, the six-part series would be little more than a 
litany of tired biblical gags and theology school smart-aleckry – holy 
hokum at its corniest." – so said critic Liam Fay in The Times, thereby 
becoming a front runner for this month's Joe Queenan Missed The Point 
award. I understand that people's tastes vary, but when a critic is so 
divorced from even a modicum of critiquing savvy... nah. I'm sticking 
with "Dude, here's your award. Now go forth and bother us no more."

And now, on with the show!

– Annie Mac, Editor

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

03) GOOD OMENS REVIEWS

3.1 SYMPATHY FOR THE DEVIL(S)... AND ONE ANGEL: A WOSSNAME REVIEW OF 
GOOD OMENS, THE MINISERIES

By Annie Mac

First, as to what Good Omens got right: nearly everything.

Good Omens the miniseries is faithful to the book. Very faithful, apart 
from a few cultural updates (none of which feel forced) and a number of 
new parts that were either derived from the two authors' notes for a 
possible sequel or newly created (pretty much likewise) by Neil Gaiman 
while looking over his shoulder for the possible disapproving shake of a 
behatted ghostly head. Faithful beyond necessity in some instances? 
Perhaps, but after all the original novel's millions of fans had been 
waiting for more than a generation to see them translated from text to 
screen, so that faithfulness is well justified.

The title sequence, half-animated in a style that owes much to Yellow 
Submarine and Monty Python, absolutely sparkles. I normally get 
frustrated by repeated viewings of a title sequence that's become 
familiar, but in the case of Good Omens I never itched to press a 
real-world fast forward button each time the opening credits rolled.

The music, by veteran score composer David Arnold, is particularly 
noteworthy. Other reviewers, when they mention the music at all, seem to 
focus only on the Queen track extracts and references, without noticing 
that the theme and incidental music is simply marvellous. The main theme 
itself, a deliciously derivative confection stretching in its influences 
from Für Elise to The Teddy Bears' Picnic by way of Delilah and Chim 
Chim Cher-ee, is as earwormy as an earwormy thing. I've found that even 
after a week, it's still circling round in the back of my mind... and 
I've no complaints about that.

The set design, costume design and general mise-en-scène: yep. No balls 
dropped there. All excellent.

The acting... ah yes, the acting. Let me start by saying that David 
Tennant was always as close as a human actor could get to being "my" 
Crowley. Several years ago, when he co-starred in the rollicking remake 
of Fright Night, I even described his performance in it as "his audition 
for Good Omens if they ever make a film of it... and his audition for 
Greebo too, if they ever film Witches Abroad," so there was no way he 
was likely to disappoint, and oh how he so very, very did NOT 
disappoint. Michael Sheen *wasn't* "my" Aziraphale by a long chalk, but 
I have to say he won me over in a relatively short time. Much of that 
was down to the core of the series being about the relationship between 
Crowley and Aziraphale down through the millennia, and much of *that*, 
it has to be said, was down to Neil Gaiman's script, that beautifully 
defined and showed the depth of a love-hate/hate-love relationship that 
was only hinted at (and that only barely) in the book. Watching the two 
of them verbally sparring and dancing around their respective 
Issues(TM), watching them doing their best to hoodwink their respective 
line managers and Chief Holy (or Unholy) Officers as their earthly 
duties unfolded, watching them slowly come to realise that the only 
entity who had either back, ultimately, was the opposite number and 
supposed enemy – most poignantly of all, watching both of them begin to 
doubt the wisdom, ineffable or otherwise, of their very purposes... yes, 
it was easy to think "Apocalypse? What Apocalypse?" and almost resent 
the appearance of the rest of the characters.

But that's not to say that the other characters weren't well played. 
Quite the opposite. Standouts for me in the rest of the cast were 
Michael McKean as Shadwell, bringing the old fool's dedication, passion, 
lunacy and rambling accent perfectly to life, and Miranda Richardson's 
ever so believable take on Madame Tracy. As for Jon Hamm's Gabriel, I 
know that everyone seems to be raving about his performance, but I found 
it merely quite good – if you want to see Hamm *really* acting a storm, 
see Baby Driver; still, quite good is well good enough. Adria Arjona's 
Anathema was given a creditable backstory: after all, in the course of 
more than three centuries of family that separated her from Agnes 
Nutter, it's quite reasonable to imagine that some of Agnes' 
"professional descendants" might have migrated to sunnier parts of the 
globe. I enjoyed Jack Whitehall as Newt, and The Them were perfectly 
adequate even though they didn't get as much screen time as the Crowley 
and Aziraphale Show. Sam Taylor Buck didn't look like I imagined Adam 
would from the book's description, but as several people I know have 
pointed out, he looked very much like a pre-teen Mick Jagger, so every 
time he was on screen as the story progressed, I was happy to add the 
Rolling Stones' classic Sympathy For the Devil to my mental soundtrack. 
Bill Paterson's RP Tyler was bang on the money – I wish we could have 
seen even more of him. And kudos to Nina Sosanya for making Sister Mary 
Loquacious a shining, sweet Satanist who made the early baby-swap 
segment and the later corporate-retreat segment shine.

The flow of the story was smooth. The episodes each built nicely to a 
climax. Oh, and there's a positively toothsome twist at the end, but 
I'll not mention the details here apart from saying "well done, Team Omens!"

So what, in my opinion, did Good Omens *not* get right?

Well, very little. I have one major cavil and a few minor ones; the 
major cavil being the casting and direction of Frances McDormand as the 
Voice of God. That's a cavil of two halves – one, there was far too much 
superfluous narration, much of which could either have been dispensed 
with altogether or slotted in with minimal effort to the live action; 
and two, the narrator was, in my opinion, grievously miscast. I've 
admired McDormand for years as an *onscreen* actor of great ability, but 
as Good Omens' unseen Big Boss Godsplaining to the masses, I found her 
delivery so "whiny American mom exhausted by her bratty hyperactive 
kids" that it threw me right out of the flow on a fair few occasions. 
And no, I don't think this is a matter of my knowing Good 
Omens-the-novel so well. I remember going to see Fellowship of the Ring 
in a party of six, half of whom knew the source material and half of 
whom who didn't, and while the three of us who'd read Lord of the Rings 
found the opening narration a bit wearisome, the newbies all said they 
would have been lost without it. And of course there's the Book in the 
Hitchhiker's Guide, which in the audio and visual versions was utterly 
indispensable.

Re McDormand, I was interested to see that more than a few reviewers 
agreed with me, although none of them offered any if-only alternatives. 
For what it's worth, my own if-only alternative suggestion would have 
been a less obtrusive narration by an African-sounding female analogue 
of James Earl Jones – because the series got the Garden of Eden scene 
spot-on, and as the God of Good Omens created humankind in Her image, 
that kind of voice would have been appropriate. Ah well, we all can dream.

Lesser cavils: the Horsemen seemed somewhat lacklustre to me, and I 
think casting a tall, catwalk-slim black woman as Dr Raven Sable 
(Famine) and sticking with a book-version sleazy late-teenage white male 
grunge punk as Pollution would have worked better. And Brian Cox, an 
actor who normally gives value for money, seemed pale – the wrong kind 
of pale! – as Death, especially when compared to Christopher Lee's 
definitive rendering of THE DEATH VOICE. Mireille Enos as War also felt 
a bit try-hard to me. Not a poor performance by any means, but not as 
vital and sensually dangerous as I hoped she would be. Also, I think 
Anna Maxwell Martin as Beelzebub and Doon Mackichan as the Archangel 
Michael were, sorry to say it, simply mediocre. But these cavils are 
small indeed, and I have to emphasise that Good Omens on the whole was 
an absolute triumph and I hope millions of viewers love it the way I do.

I'll be counting the days until Good Omens comes out on DVD. Meanwhile, 
the magical theme music plays on in my head...

p.s. I'm moved to share a link to the opening credits, with the theme 
music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BsrPO8qslBE

3.2 ...AND THE REST

By Flora Carr for the Radio Times:

"The true triumph is the casting. Michael Sheen shines (quite literally, 
in some scenes) as the angel Aziraphale, a celestial field agent who 
teams up with his opposite number, the stylish demon Crowley – played 
with a Bill Nighy-esque swagger by David Tennant – in order to prevent 
Armageddon. It's this pairing that proves to be the beating heart of the 
series. Crowley and Aziraphale have been on Earth since the very 
beginning, and in their own ways they've both 'gone native'. Aziraphale 
owns a Soho bookshop, and likes gravlax salmon with dill sauce. Crowley 
drives a pristine 1926 Bentley and listens to Queen. They've formed a 
professional agreement not to meddle in each other's affairs, and in 
their spare time they've enjoyed a series of rather nice clandestine 
lunches. Every time either actor appears onscreen, you can almost hear 
the costume department's (and fandom's) squeals of joy. David Tennant in 
snakeskin boots! Michael Sheen with artfully tousled bleached hair! A 
tartan bow tie! Tennant also sports appropriately flame-red hair (not in 
the books, but worth it for Doctor Who fans' realisation that the Tenth 
Doctor finally got his wish) that frequently changes style. In one 
particularly memorable moment during episode one, Crowley disguises 
himself as a bobbed-haired nanny, a Satanic crossover between Nanny 
McPhee and Mrs Doubtfire... Various sets are also new for the TV show: 
Heaven is now a vast corporate headquarters, while Hell resembles an 
overcrowded basement office. A rather gloomier version of The IT Crowd, 
if you will. Some of the show's special effects can feel a bit hammy 
(think Russell T Davies-era Doctor Who with a couple of rubber frogs 
thrown in), but the scene depicting the entrances to both Heaven and 
Hell features a pretty cool bit of cinematography, including a mirror 
effect and an upside-down Tennant..."

https://bit.ly/2X4M11m

By Lucy Mangan for The Guardian:

"Both Sheen and (a miraculously non-manic, given the potential of his 
part) David Tennant as the demon Crowley are wonderful in the six-part 
adaptation by Neil Gaiman of the much-loved fantasy novel he co-wrote 
with Terry Pratchett in 1990. Their chemistry is a joy, even if the 
banter they are given is often stale or overegged... Off we go into a 
maelstrom of adventures, misunderstandings and tangles with witches and 
witchcraft, involving Gilliamesque levels of invention, puppetry 
stylings, disguises, pyrotechnics, extravagant costumes, CGI curlicues 
and a general sense that neither kit nor caboodle has been spared in the 
construction of this entertainment. It doesn't quite work, because it 
doesn't quite disguise the fact that beneath the razzle-dazzle, every 
character apart from the main two is tissue-paper thin... That sense 
isn't helped by the perpetual signposting of gags, overly faithful 
reproductions of the original dialogue (what skips along when read 
becomes laborious when spoken) and the repetitive nature of many scenes..."

https://bit.ly/2IDOdng

By Tristram Fane Saunders in The Telegraph:

"Gaiman's screenplay is utterly faithful to the novel. But is 'faithful' 
really the best thing for a blasphemous comedy to be? This reverential 
approach feels at odds with the book's innate playfulness. The success 
of the book had less to do with its plot – a sprawling tangle of 
witchfinders and apocalyptic horsemen – than its rich comic prose, in a 
quintessentially English style that owed much to PG Wodehouse and 
Douglas Adams. In an attempt to translate that to the screen, the show 
falls back on voiceover narration (from Oscar-winner Frances McDormand). 
This technique is always a danger when an author is allowed to adapt his 
own work; it gives him an excuse to cram in all his favourite 
descriptive passages at the expense of visual storytelling. Here, it's a 
distracting and unnecessary irritant... That screenwriting chestnut, 
'show, don't tell', has rarely felt more apt. Combined with heavily 
signposted comic beats, that storybook narration has an unfortunate 
effect on the overall tone; it often plays like a children's programme, 
though it's not billed as one. Oddly, young Sam Taylor Buck, who pops up 
in the closing minutes as the Just William-esque antichrist, is 
virtually the only cast member who isn't taking the stage school 
approach of broad-acting-for-kids. Salvation comes from the comic 
chemistry between the show's pair of scenery-chewing stars, David 
Tennant and Michael Sheen. They light up the screen as Crowley and 
Aziraphale..."

https://bit.ly/2I62hH3 (requires registration)

By Nicholas Barber for BBC online:

"Gaiman has made some shrewd changes to his and Pratchett's original 
narrative... He develops the unlikely bromance between Aziraphale and 
Crowley, so that these celestial beings' friendship is more touching 
and, well, human, than it is on paper. Sheen is especially lovable as 
the anxious, bow-tied angel who would love to stick to God's ineffable 
plan, but who can't bear the thought of an eternity without Stephen 
Sondheim musicals and tea at the Ritz. Tennant's louche, rock'n'roll 
demon may sometimes come across as a Bill Nighy impersonator, but anyone 
who warmed to his swaggering Doctor Who persona will relish seeing what 
that same persona would be like with the addition of a bottle of 
bourbon. Gaiman also bumps up the number of other angels and demons 
(most notably the archangel Gabriel, played by Hamm as a bumptious 
corporate boss) who pop into Aziraphale's vintage bookshop and Crowley's 
bachelor pad to keep them on their toes... The tangential structure 
won't put off the book's devotees, who adore it not for its plot but for 
its studenty jokes, its mischievous commentary on Christianity, and its 
leaps from continent to continent, and from century to century. But 
everybody else will be asking if it was strictly necessary for the 
series to ramble on like this for six hours..."

http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20190521-tv-review-good-omens

By Sophie Gilbert for The Atlantic:

"In Good Omens, Gaiman's creativity seems almost entirely unfettered – 
by possibility, by structure, or by budgets... The dynamic between 
Tennant's Crowley and Sheen's Aziraphale is what makes Good Omens, which 
in its finest moments feels like a gay-ish, biblical When Harry Met 
Sally. The third episode's pre-credits sequence, which runs a stonking 
30 minutes long, details the encounters the pair have had over the 
years: an early run-in as Noah is constructing his ark, a meet-cute at 
the Crucifixion, a rendezvous during the French Revolution. It's in 
foggy Arthurian England that they finally figure out why they're always 
in the same place at the same time, each trying to shift the balance of 
good and evil on Earth during pivotal historic moments, and only 
canceling out each other's efforts... It's a kind of storytelling so 
maximal that the same 57-minute episode can contain a tangential alien 
invasion and a physics lesson explaining how angels and demons can 
shrink and grow in size (featuring multiple Sheens dancing the gavotte 
and multiple Tennants getting down to disco). The blessing of the 
streaming-TV era is that Gaiman seems to have been given the go-ahead to 
manifest literally anything; the curse is that the story itself is 
better suited to a two-hour movie than a meandering six-hour trip 
through time and space. It takes an awful lot to make Armageddon feel 
anticlimactic, and yet, after the travails everyone in Good Omens has 
endured through millennia, things conclude with what feels awfully like 
a whimper. Even the Four Horsemen, whose actors include Mireille Enos 
and Brian Cox, can't live up to the hype that precedes them... What sets 
the series apart is the relationship between two polar opposites who end 
up realizing, as the best antagonists do, that they're not that 
different after all. The funniest moments in their history – such as 
Crowley hopping over consecrated ground to save his friend like a person 
walking barefoot on hot sand—are also the most endearing..."

https://bit.ly/2wNgYsk

By Mike Hale for the New York Times:

"It's taken a long time for 'Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate 
Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch,' Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett's 
1990 end-of-days fantasy novel, to reach the screen. Long enough for 
Gaiman, then a promising comics writer and Duran Duran biographer, to 
become an industry... And there have been other auspicious changes. When 
Gaiman and Pratchett made a Queen greatest-hits CD a leitmotif in their 
book – it's the preferred driving music of one of the heroes, a demon 
named Crowley – it was a joke about the bombastic songs' late-1980s 
inescapability. Now it gives the mini-series a soundtrack of pop 
classics. But what makes the diverting and mostly pleasurable 'Good 
Omens' especially timely is something that hasn't much changed: 
Armageddon seems as real a possibility now as it did three decades ago. 
The story's hopeful universalism and ecological consciousness, which 
played well against the backdrop of the late Cold War and the ozone 
hole, feel just as necessary. A line like 'your polar ice caps are below 
regulation size for a planet of this category' can go right from book to 
screenplay, and it has... The BBC Studios production is studded with 
piquant performances by veteran actors, mostly British. The great Bill 
Paterson is at his bemused best as Adam's exasperated neighbor, and 
Michael McKean and Miranda Richardson are fun to watch as the aging 
witchfinder, Shadwell, and his accommodating landlady, Madame Tracy. 
Sanjeev Bhaskar of 'Unforgotten' is pleasingly oily as the libidinous 
lawyer, Baddicombe, and Derek Jacobi, no less, has a cameo as God's 
spokesman, Metatron. Gaiman's tweaks to the plot, along with explanatory 
animations and an unfortunately obtrusive narration by Frances McDormand 
as God, make the story more straightforward and – take this as a 
description, not a judgment – more cartoony, less writerly..."

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/31/arts/television/good-omens-review.html

By Aja Romano for Vox:

"Directed by veteran Doctor Who director Douglas Mackinnon, it's a 
funny, warm treat that fans of the book will find familiar and 
endearing, from the strong ensemble cast – Michael Sheen in particular 
shines as the fusty, fastidious angel – to the slightly kitschy 
production design, which flits between a litany of pleasantly clichéd 
English aesthetics, from P.G. Wodehouse to Harry Potter. The loving 
craft and extended runtime aside, though, the miniseries ultimately 
feels less substantive than I had hoped. But if it also carries a few of 
the books' flaws with it, such as a few pancake-flat characters and 
stagnant bits of pacing here and there – well, like Aziraphale, we're 
good at forgiving small sins... As the black-clad, snake-eyed, 
Bentley-driving Crowley, David Tennant should own the show – but his 
performance is a bit erratic, and the weird litany of bad hairpieces and 
occasional strange CGI he's dealt doesn't help. We're never quite sure 
if Crowley is supposed to be legitimately cool or if he simply believes 
he's a badass. By contrast, Michael Sheen is near-perfect as the 
bookish, overeager, and gleefully queer Aziraphale. But if anything, 
he's too good, in the holy sense: we never really get a glimpse of the 
Aziraphale that Crowley fondly describes as being a bit of a bastard. 
When they're together, however, Tennant and Sheen's chemistry shines, 
and the series twirls around their transition from an all-too-human 
complacence to a growing horror over the coming apocalypse – and the 
possible end of their long, star-crossed relationship... With Gaiman at 
the helm, and with an ample amount of time to do the book's nuances 
justice, Good Omens succeeds much better than any recent Gaiman (or 
Pratchett) adaptation in memory. But we're still ultimately left with a 
screenplay that faithfully emphasizes Good Omens' plot rather than its 
profundities or literary flourishes. There's no attempt, for example, to 
recreate the book's famous footnotes, though the addition of Frances 
McDormand as the voice of God is a nice, if largely wasted, touch..."

https://bit.ly/2F1ZDR4

By Ben Travers on Indiewire:

"Though Neil Gaiman's adaptation of his own 1990 novel (co-written with 
Terry Pratchett) would have fared better had it reached for the heavens 
(and cut its extraneous, tedious material) or sullied itself in the 
fires of hell (and embraced a more chaotic, subversive religious 
satire), the six-episode Amazon and BBC co-production is still a 
colorful, amusing piece of big-budgeted, middle-minded adventure-comedy 
that will likely please fans and even win over a few skeptics. Anyone 
willing to forgive its hodgepodge of plotting and dearth of dynamic 
characters will have a bit of fun with the two crackling leads; it's 
just with such lofty potential, it's hard not to be disappointed in the 
flawed results... It helps that Sheen and Tennant build chemistry to 
spare, with the 'Masters of Sex' star going all wide-eyed and innocent 
while the former 'Doctor (Who)' relishes the chance to shout, snarl, and 
snap at every other sentence. But they're also given plenty to chew on; 
Gaiman (who wrote each episode) never excuses their innate disparity in 
order to make things easier on them or the audience. They fight, split 
up, and even work against each other, which only makes their 
will-they-won't-they friendship all the more electric. These two carry 
'Good Omens' nicely when they're around, but sadly the supporting 
characters fail by comparison. As difficult as it is to imagine, Michael 
McKean's heavily accented witch-hunter becomes not just a one-note 
ninny, but a regular nuisance; Gaiman relies far too often on him, along 
with more mortals, to carry overly complicated exposition and run around 
with largely meaningless errands. (Related: Jon Hamm's wry Gabriel, a 
character not in the book, isn't given nearly enough to do.) Everything 
they do does connect with the angel and demon's main story, but more by 
force of will than symbiotic necessity..."

https://bit.ly/2Wt13xM

By Tim Goodman for the Hollywood Reporter:

"Good Omens was a labor of love that finally came about, Gaiman has 
said, because one of the last things Pratchett told him before his death 
in 2015 was to make sure a filmed version became reality. It finally 
has, with great world-building fantasy glee, as Gaiman wrote all six 
episodes and shepherded the complex (and funny) story to an end that 
works both as a full conclusion should he not want to write a second 
season (Gaiman has a lot of projects) and as a pause before a logical 
second season. The series was directed entirely by Douglas Mackinnon 
(Sherlock, Doctor Who, Line of Duty), giving it visual panache and, when 
the fantasy elements call for it, visual humor as well. The end result 
is a feel-good romp and creative triumph that is easily digestible and 
never flags in search of entertainment... It's a testament to Good 
Omens... that while all the madcap plot twists and eccentric cameos keep 
things humming right along, it's the performances of Tennant and Sheen 
that make every minute they are in it stand out. While Tennant gets the 
juicier role, exaggerating his walk to be half runway model, half rock 
god, with flowing redheaded locks and steam punk sunglasses, that only 
works as it does because of Sheen's delightfully worried, stammering 
sweetness (and Aziraphale's love of fine but staid clothing), constantly 
worried about the rules they are breaking to stave off the war of heaven 
and hell. These two actors are so emphatically into their roles that 
they make the hourlong episodes fly by and the absolute need for a 
second season apparent – if for nothing else than to watch further tales 
of this disparate duo meeting throughout history to enjoy each other's 
company..."

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/good-omens-review-1214258

By Karishma Upadhyay on Firstpost:

"There's sharp and witty dialogue, tons of cultural references and 
visuals that span six millennia of the world's existence, starting from 
the Garden of Eden. They've splurged on the music with a highly catchy 
theme composed by David Arnold, the man who scored six Bond films and 
the 2012 Olympics. There's an abundance of rock classics from Queen, The 
Beatles, CCR and AC DC amongst others. The cast is stellar with David 
Tennant, Michael Sheen and John Hamm among others, and of course, 
Frances McDormand essaying the voice of God... The banter between the 
two actors has charm in spades, and this is a brand of buddy dynamics 
that modern cinema (and television) seems to have lost. There's a lovely 
scene where Aziraphale and Crowley discover that they both need to go to 
Scotland, one to perform a blessing, while the other a curse. So they 
flip a coin to see who would go and do both. Given the quality of the 
source material and the actors delivering the lines, this in itself is 
gold. Unfortunately, what is the show's biggest draw is its only one. 
Had this just been a series of small shorts featuring Sheen and Tennant 
riffing off of each other, it might have made for more entertaining 
fare. Unfortunately, there's a story unfolding as well, and that's where 
things become a little tiring..."

https://bit.ly/2XBBxnt

By Clint Worthington on Consequence of Sound:

"Neil Gaiman adaptations can be a bit of a mixed bag – hell, American 
Gods got considerably worse when Gaiman himself took the reins in its 
second season – so it's understandable to go into Good Omens with a bit 
of trepidation. The source material, a collaboration between Gaiman and 
the late, great Terry Pratchett, is a lovely lark of Douglas 
Adams-tinged magical realism, complete with the flights of fancy and 
droll observations of the everyday you'd expect from both. It's a tonal 
cocktail that's hard to imagine translating to the screen: at worst, it 
would look cheap and deliberately confuse. It's then a relief to learn 
that Amazon's adaptation (written by Gaiman and directed by Sherlock and 
Doctor Who alum Douglas Mackinnon) largely manages to keep all of the 
novel's many plates spinning... Occasionally, God's voiceovers feel like 
over-exposition, or like they're hammering home a particular bit of 
stiff-upper-lip British irony too ardently, but they also feel woven 
into the fabric of Gaiman's inherent desire to keep the audience at a 
distance. There's plenty of visual anarchy on display as well, from 
whizzing battles across telephone lines to Tennant cackling like mad 
inside a flaming Rolls..."

https://consequenceofsound.net/2019/05/tv-review-good-omens/

By Sara Wallis in The Mirror (UK), who explains nicely and accurately 
for people who aren't familiar with the source material (yes, the whole 
plot is described, but if any Wossname reader *isn't* already familiar 
with Good Omens, your Editor might be giving you Very Stern Looks across 
the aether):

"Based on the 1990 novel co-written by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett, 
this is fantasy at its best. But it's leading men David Tennant and 
Michael Sheen who steal the show – they are the comedy double act we 
never knew we needed. A match made in, er, heaven, Sheen plays angel 
Aziraphale while Tennant is demon Crowley. The pair have struck up an 
odd love-hate friendship over the course of 6,000 years serving on 
Earth, but the world is about to end so they need to stick together. The 
story starts at the beginning. The very, very beginning. The creation of 
the universe... As we prepare for the end-times, you will not want this 
to end. A hell of a lot of fun, it's telly that's good for the soul."

https://bit.ly/2WGSG2I

A cluey review by Jef Rouner in the cluey San Francisco Chronicle:

"The project was a labor of love for Gaiman, who promised a dying 
Pratchett he would finish it. Be glad he did, because it is marvelous. 
However, a lot has changed in the text between 1990 and 2019, mostly for 
the better. Primarily, the fact that the story's two main characters are 
more clearly in love with each other than they are in the book. It's an 
intriguing development, because these two men are the definition of 
polar opposites... But at the heart of 'Good Omens' is the relationship 
between Aziraphale and Crowley and what it says about good and evil. In 
the novel, this relationship is fairly sexless and fraternal. The show 
maintains that on paper. There are no 'I love you' declarations in the 
script or other little touches of suggested intimacy. The problem is, 
well, David Tennant plays Crowley, and there is just nothing sexless or 
fraternal about David Tennant, ever. Especially not when he is 
sauntering around in black skinny jeans..."

https://bit.ly/2WtCf4D

By Norman Wilner for Now Toronto:

"Good Omens, the whimsical end-of-days novel by Neil Gaiman and Terry 
Pratchett, is to 90s fantasy nerds what Douglas Adams's The Hitchhiker's 
Guide To The Galaxy was to 80s sci-fi nerds: an irreverent goof on its 
chosen genre that conjures an absurd universe in a very specific voice 
that only works on the page... Frances McDormand reads large chunks of 
the novel as the voice of God. It works well enough, I suppose, though 
it also feels like padding for a show that's longer than it needs to be: 
only the first half of the six-part series was made available for 
review, but that first episode could be condensed to a five-minute 
prologue. Still, I'm glad I stuck with it because the show does get 
better as it unfolds, once Michael Sheen and David Tennant move to the 
centre of the action... As frustrating an adaptation as it can be, Good 
Omens is also a frequently charming one, thanks to their marvellous 
double act: their endearing back-and-forth is the heart of the thing: 
Sheen's wide-eyed fussiness and Tennant's affected swagger create a 
perfect equilibrium..."

https://bit.ly/2wNh2by

By Jennifer Ouelette for Ars Technica:

"Confession: I am an uber-fan, having read the book multiple times over 
the last 19 years. I'll likely read it several more times before I kick 
off this mortal coil, so I'm very much in the target audience for the 
series... I suspect Gaiman loves the book as much, if not more, than its 
most ardent fans, and that love shines through every scene of the 
adaptation. There's a moment in Good Omens when Anathema Device 
(descended from a famous witch) tells Newton Pulsifer (descended from a 
famous witchfinder) about the town of lower Tadfield, where the 
Antichrist is prophesied to rise: 'There isn't any evil here. There's 
just love. Something or someone loves this place. Loves every inch of it 
so powerfully that it shields and protects it. A deep-down huge, fierce 
love. How can anything bad start here?' The same goes for Gaiman's 
adaptation: it's his deep-down huge, fierce love driving everything, and 
that is ultimately what makes the series a sheer joy to watch (even 
though season two of American Gods may have suffered a bit from Gaiman's 
absence). The series almost slavishly follows the novel in many 
respects—right down to the soundtrack packed with the music of Queen, 
because a running gag is that any cassette tape (it was 1990, folks) 
left in the car for longer than a fortnight automatically turns into the 
band's Greatest Hits compilation. And that's just fine with me. Apart 
from a few minor quibbles, this is pretty much everything fans could 
hope for in a TV adaptation of Good Omens..."

https://bit.ly/2R0DAPa

By Danette Chavez on The AV Club:

"Good Omens' biggest thrill is found in the pitch-perfect pairing of 
David Tennant and Michael Sheen as a millennia-old odd couple who find 
themselves increasingly attached to our flawed selves – and each other. 
Gaiman's even more hands-on with this adaptation than he was the second 
season of Starz's American Gods, writing all six episodes and working 
with series director Douglas Mackinnon to make TV's latest foray into 
the great beyond worth the jaunt. Good Omens is an undeniably faithful 
adaptation of its source material, porting over stretches of text to 
serve as dialogue, often in the form of exposition (to its own detriment 
at times)... As Crowley, Tennant affects a slithering strut that's part 
rock star, part pied piper – it's not hard to see why Aziraphale, let 
alone lesser beings, is ultimately so taken with his immortal enemy. 
Sheen's Aziraphale, meanwhile, is fastidious, caring, and just a little 
self-centered, as even the best people are. Their relationship changes 
over the course of the show, as they influence each other to look beyond 
moral absolutism to see the many shades of gray in their existence as 
well as our own... Gaiman generally adheres to his and Pratchett's 
original vision, which includes Anathema Device (Adria Arjona), the 
descendant of Agnes Nutter (Josie Lawrence), though she's now a 
Latinx[sic] woman from California who makes her way to England to head 
off the end of the world. Anathema's journey finds her wrestling with 
predetermined fate and how her own agency is undermined by 
foreknowledge, but it feels a bit undercooked compared to the other main 
storylines. The nipple-and-witch-obsessed Sergeant Shadwell (Michael 
McKean), the psychic Madame Tracy (Miranda Richardson), and Newton 
Pulsifer (Jack Whitehall), who seems the very opposite of another one of 
Gaiman's creations, the Technical Boy, also find themselves embroiled in 
Adam and Anathema's stories, though they bring little to the proceedings 
beyond comical squawking and hangdog expressions, respectively..."

https://bit.ly/2R0WntI

By Amy Glynn for Paste Magazine:

"The script is, unsurprisingly, annunciation-grade, luminously funny and 
strikingly poignant – and considering the principal characters include 
angels, demons and witches, (and a tween Antichrist) it's as human as 
they come. The cinematic sensibility is something like… I don't know, 
like if Terry Gilliam, Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger all had a 
lovechild. There's Powell-and-Pressburgerish, deeply saturated, slightly 
hyperreal color and exquisitely weird visual imagery; there's 
Gilliam-saluting surreal, and sometimes hammy, oddball cheekiness side 
by side with an arrow-to-the-heart sort of emotional honesty. (Mackinnon 
noted at least one Gilliam-shout-out Easter egg; I'll leave it to fans 
to find it.) There is excellent sound design and a thoroughly bitchin' 
Queen-heavy soundtrack (you will have 'I'm In Love With My Car' 
earworming you to the edge of insanity and you will relish every 
minute)... With the Final Battle successfully put off and the 
heroic/antiheroic odd couple breathing a sigh of relief and basking in 
the momentary peace, they raise champagne flutes and toast 'To the 
world' and I swear, if you do not do that involuntary catch in the 
throat thing, I'd propose you might want to consult an 
otorhinolaryngologist to make sure your throat is in working order..."

https://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2019/05/good-omens-review.html

By Peter Rubin for Wired:

"Over the years, adaptations were planned, then abandoned – but when 
Amazon announced that it would be working with Gaiman to create a 
limited series (at Pratchett's personal request, no less), Good Omens 
would finally get a chance to live up to its name. Yea verily, does it 
ever. The best kind of book-to-screen adaptation welcomes fans and 
newcomers alike, and Good Omens hosts an ecumenical congregation. Even 
if you're completely unfamiliar with the book, you won't have trouble 
keeping up... The heart of Good Omens beats in the relationship between 
Crowley and Aziraphale – in their Odd Couple foibles, in their growing 
dependence on each other, huddled together as their worldviews crumble 
around them – and Tennant and Sheen nurture that pulse expertly. Tennant 
oozes rockstar insouciance; Sheen, an aesthete's prissiness. The lesser 
known of the two, Sheen had the additional burden of playing a character 
who felt custom made for British comedy stalwarts like Martin Freeman or 
Simon Pegg, but he owns Aziraphale completely, making him a cuddlier, 
smilier, much older Niles Crane. (Watch the late-episode flashback scene 
in which Aziraphale dances the gavotte and tell me Sheen wasn't born for 
this role.) The special effects, it should be said, are terrible. 
Terrible! Laughingly, knowingly terrible. When Crowley takes off his 
ever-present sunglasses, his reptilian eyes look about three sizes too 
big for his head; explosions are big and boomy and defy you not to roll 
your eyes. That's the point. Stripped of its evangelical fear-mongering, 
the Book of Revelations is patently ridiculous, and leaning into that 
was exactly how Gaiman and Pratchett celebrated humans' godliest 
qualities – to give it form without schlock would be to disrespect the 
show's source..."

https://www.wired.com/story/good-omens-review/

By Barry Didcock in The Herald Scotland:

"On paper, a collaboration between fantasy authors Terry Pratchett and 
Neil Gaiman is so mouth-watering a prospect that it's hard to believe it 
could ever have come about. But it did, in 1990 novel Good Omens, a 
comic tale about the coming of the Apocalypse written two-thirds by 
Pratchett (his estimate) and one third by Gaiman... in finally bringing 
it to the small screen Amazon Video have made two very sensible 
decisions. First, they've employed Gaiman to come up with the 
screenplay. Second, they've doubled the wow factor by putting another 
dream-team in front of the camera: David Tennant and Michael Sheen. Two 
of our most watchable actors, they bring a gleeful, 
Lemon-and-Matthau-in-The-Odd-Couple feel to this offbeat tale of angels 
and demons, directed by Scot Douglas Mackinnon... The show jumps around 
a lot, through time and celestial planes mostly, and by the end of 
episode two there was a dizzying number of other characters in play, 
among them young witch Anathema Device (Adria Arjona), who has a book of 
prophesies and is tasked with finding the Antichrist, and apprentice 
witch-hunter Newton Pulsifer (Jack Whitehall). But it's never less than 
terrific fun and there's a starry supporting cast to help things along..."

https://bit.ly/2WDYidN

By John Devore for The Pulse:

"If you can't tell, Good Omens is a comedy. It's a very British comedy, 
in fact. The cast is excellent, featuring David Tennant, Michael Sheen, 
Jon Hamm, Frances McDormand, and Michael McKean, among others. It's 
fairly faithful to the book and the decision to adapt the book into a 
miniseries rather than a multi-season show is a good one... Good Omens 
keeps the pace up and moves along from scene to scene, episode to 
episode, without ever being boring. The adaptation is so good, in fact, 
that it suffers from some of the same problems that the book had, namely 
that it jumps through the plot so quickly that the characters themselves 
feel a bit flat. This is forgivable, given the genre, but it leaves the 
audience wanting more, especially when it comes to understanding the 
systems that these characters operate in. But then, when dealing with 
matters of faith and the order of the universe, that's largely true of 
our own reality as well... Overall, Good Omens is a satisfying 
experience for fans of the books, and likely a good one for those 
unfamiliar with the source material..."

https://bit.ly/2IDOBlI

By Richard Trenholme for CNET:

"As the show romps through human history from the Garden of Eden to the 
swinging '60s, the former Doctor Who steals the show as slinky demon 
Crowley. A snake-hipped combination of Bill Nighy and Keith Richards, 
Tennant offers serpentine oomph whether he's sinking into the depths of 
demonic despair, engulfed by flame or dressing up as a Mary 
Poppins-style nanny – practically perfidious in every way. This louche 
Lucifer has adapted well to the modern world, crashing mobile networks 
and diverting motorways into the shape of demonic sigils, and he begins 
to think armageddon might not be such a great idea after all. Sheen's 
nervy angel Aziraphale shares Crowley's concerns: He loves sushi and 
rare books and can't understand why heaven is so keen to go to war. 
Sheen's Aziraphale is a less showy part than Tennant's Crowley, but the 
unfailingly decent angel is the gentle heart of the story. Sheen and 
Tennant have fun in a succession of divine period costumes... A love of 
language shines through the masterful writing of both Gaiman and 
Pratchett. Unfortunately, the TV adaptation clings to the book's text, 
translating it into a clunky and intrusive voiceover. Look, I've loved 
the novel and its delightful wordplay from the moment I first read it as 
a teenager. But television is a visual medium, and the wordplay-based 
jokes that can only be done in a voiceover, as amusing as they are, 
don't make up for the constant interruption by momentum-killing 
explanation... Apart from that, though, the cast is rounded out by 
familiar faces injecting energy into even the smallest parts. Michael 
McKean manages to find pathos under a wildly veering Scottish accent, 
Jon Hamm brings glossy-eyed cynicism to the blandly self-righteous angel 
Gabriel and Mireille Enos gleefully vamps it up as one of the four 
motorcyclists of the apocalypse. But most of all there are Sheen and 
Tennant, bouncing Pratchett and Gaiman's words off each other 
beautifully..."

https://cnet.co/2WE9lUv

By Raja Sen on Livemint:

"As the book reminds: 'The Devil has all the best tunes... But Heaven 
has the best choreographers.' As shows go, this feels less choreographed 
and simultaneously more tuneful. It is a miniseries where the credits at 
the end of each episode feel like a cocoa-break between chapters, and 
the cast reads like a wish list: Michael Sheen and David Tennant as 
Aziraphale and Crowley, Jon Hamm as the Archangel Gabriel, Michael 
McKean as Witchfinder Shadwell, Miranda Richardson as Madame Tracy, 
Brian Cox voicing Death and Frances McDormand voicing God. It feels like 
an event. That event might, however, be a pantomime. Glorious goofiness 
steers this slapdash enterprise, and Good Omens isn't the slickest or 
edgiest or most revolutionary thing you will see on television this 
season. Even as the plot thickens, it is forever playing catch-up with 
the bouncy sketch-comedy style, the spoofy absurdity, the intentionally 
daft visual effects... It's a fiercely loyal adaptation, right down to 
the magnificent McDormand delivering the sharpest lines, but while some 
bits of the book don't shine – the bicycling small-town children slow 
things down, for instance, till Things get truly Strange – new additions 
work. Jon Hamm is a riot as the Archangel Gabriel, a painfully 
by-the-book boss who loves The Sound Of Music, jogs wearing a cardigan 
with a winged logo, and is utterly awful at subterfuge. Who knew heaven 
would be home to the boss from hell..."

https://bit.ly/2MTj6K7

By Chelsea Steiner on the Mary Sue:

"The series, which was adapted by Gaiman himself, struggles to winnow 
out the extraneous plot points when it should be leaning into Sheen and 
Tennant's dynamic. It suffers from being overwritten, which is glaringly 
apparent in Frances McDormand's narration as the voice of God. McDormand 
is one of the best actors of her generation, but she is woefully miscast 
as she churns through monologue after monologue, over-explaining 
everything to the audience. Given the essential Englishness of the 
series and the writing, the narration would have benefited from a 
British comedic voice like Stephen Fry or Emma Thompson. The series also 
suffers from some distractingly bad CGI and an overabundance of 
characters and side plots... But all those issues are easily forgotten 
when Sheen and Tennant take center stage. It isn't until episode three 
that the series hits its stride, starting with a 30 minute cold open 
that follows Crowley and Aziraphale throughout the ages, as they 
discover that they are more alike than they realize. Eventually the duo 
reach an agreement when they realize that their earthly deeds 
essentially cancel each other out. The duo's banter is delightful, but 
there is genuine heart and emotion at the core of their friendship. They 
may be working for opposite sides, but they are clearly kindred spirits 
who love each other deeply..."

https://bit.ly/2IBB5z2

By Kate O'Hare on religion-and-philosophy discussion site Patheos:

"Dare I say it, but Amazon Prime's adaptation of Good Omens is fun, 
witty, clever, entertaining and just plain, well, good. Based on the 
apparently beloved novel of the same name by Neil Gaiman and the late 
Terry Pratchett, Good Omens (all episodes are currently available) is a 
bit like what might happen if one threw The Hitchhiker's Guide to the 
Galaxy, Monty Python, Harry Potter, Doctor Who and The Omen into a 
blender and hit puree... Despite the Biblical underpinnings, it doesn't 
ask to be taken seriously as history or theology and doesn't set out to 
insult believers, but it still manages to be occasionally heartfelt and 
profound. At the heart of it are Aziraphale and Crowley, whose 
best-mates relationship has been labeled by at least one TV critic as a 
chaste gay one – but that is likely because representations of true, 
platonic friendship are so rare these days,.."

https://bit.ly/2EZEZkw

By James White for Empire Online:

"Gaiman has cannily trimmed the expansive plot down to what really works 
on screen. Sheen and Tennant are fine casting for the central pair, a 
nervy gourmand-turned-bookseller and a swaggering louche boasting an 
unexpected way with plants (a shouty, fear-driven way). It's a 
partnership that sparks with real warmth and joy, even as this seemingly 
mismatched duo bond over the centuries. Yet while they're the focus, the 
rest of the series has some excellent performances, including Jon Hamm 
(as the Angel Gabriel), Michael McKean (as the pugnacious Witchfinder 
Sergeant Shadwell) and Frances McDormand keeping the tome's asides alive 
as God, narrating the background and filling in the basics. If there's a 
weak link, it's the kids playing the antichrist and his friends, who 
while they're not disastrous, are broader brushstrokes than some of the 
other characters, feeling less inspired by the likes of Just William and 
more ripped from those pages. And, while it's well shot, there are one 
or two moments that are a little more in the style of cheaper '70s 
sci-fi telly, though that in its way adds to the charm..."

https://www.empireonline.com/tv/good-omens/

By Michael Russell in the West Highland Free Press:

"In 'Good Omens', the Amazon Prime debut of Skye-born director Douglas 
Mackinnon, two key elements stand out – simply because they are 
outstanding. They are David Tennant and Michael Sheen. Every time these 
actors are on screen together this six-episode novel adaptation is a joy 
to watch. Tennant's louche demon Crowley and Sheen's prim, fussy angel 
Aziraphale form a touching dysfunctional relationship that is the 
emotional heart of this comedy-horror-fantasy...
If the word 'antichrist' immediately conjures images of impaled priests 
and decapitated photographers, 'Good Omens' majors on lightness, not 
creeping unease. The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse wear leather 
jackets and ride motorbikes; the King of Atlantis wins a competition on 
board the cruise ship that rescues him. We are firmly in Certificate 12 
territory here, and it is never seriously tested... Subplots abound, and 
there are pacing issues at times, but all the various strands eventually 
converge for a spectacular finale. If the M25 is hell to drive on at the 
best of the times, the Day of Judgment gives it a little extra sizzle..."

https://bit.ly/2MHmuHI

By Isaac Butler, who described the title as "Adorkalypse Now", for Slate:

"Pratchett, the now-late author of dozens of novels set on a planet 
called Discworld – which sits atop the backs of four elephants who 
themselves stand on top of a giant turtle swimming through space – might 
be the dork novelist par excellence. If that description of the setting 
of the Discworld novels makes you cringe, please know Good Omens is not 
for you. It has, remarkably, made the transition to the screen with its 
dorkiness fully intact, thank God – or perhaps, given the subject 
matter, the Devil. Good Omens, whose six-episode first season is now 
streaming on Amazon, is a very silly and very English comedy... As in 
many dork comedies, the story of Good Omens is somewhat beside the point 
anyway. Like a rapidly deflating balloon, the narrative is meant to zoom 
miraculously in unexpected directions, until coming to land just so in 
the perfect spot. The template here is Douglas Adams's The Hitchhiker's 
Guide to the Galaxy and its 1981 BBC adaptation. Like that series, Good 
Omens pairs absurd situations with an stiff upper lip, employs frequent 
deadpan voice over narration (here courtesy of Frances McDormand), and 
has special effects so unconvincing they become their own form of 
amusement..."

https://bit.ly/2WzQiL5

By Omar Gallaga for Book and Film Globe:

"It's a funny idea from a very funny book that Gaiman decided to adapt 
himself, writing all six of the TV episodes after Pratchett's 2015 
death. Gaiman has said in interviews that Pratchett was foremost on his 
mind as he made decisions as showrunner for the miniseries, giving him 
motivation to push harder on creative decisions than he might have 
otherwise. It shows. While fans of the book will quibble with lines 
omitted and some of the casting choices, such as Frances McDormand as 
Narrator and God, Good Omens is tremendously generous. With Amazon's 
deep pockets, the production quality goes above and beyond, with a big 
cast, convincing locations, and lots of animation and visual asides that 
incorporate jokes and footnotes from the book. What feels in the novel 
like a series of overly plotted Douglas Adams-style riffs on God, the 
Universe and Everything, becomes visually expansive on screen with 
surprisingly good special effects. It's not enough to mention, in 
passing, that Atlantis has risen. Good Omens shows the city, and it's 
glorious..."

https://bookandfilmglobe.com/television/tv-review-good-omens/

By Kathryn VanArendonk on Vulture:

"In the case of Good Omens, a new Amazon miniseries based on the Neil 
Gaiman and Terry Pratchett book of the same name, one of the trickiest 
elements of adaptation works astonishingly well. The experience of 
reading Good Omens, maybe first and most intensely, is the sense of its 
voice. A chipper, breezy, insouciant, and simultaneously dire sense of 
humor carries through the book's silly story about the apocalypse, and 
the combination of lightness and darkness in its tone is an impressively 
fitting match for a book about an angel and a demon who become friends. 
It's a narrator's voice, a very self-consciously booky voice, full of 
self-satisfied vocabulary and jokes about the nature of text. Good Omens 
is a book about books – specifically, about the Bible and a goofy, 
made-up prophetical text called The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of 
Agnes Nutter, Witch – and the story, which is ostensibly about good and 
evil and humanity and the end of the world, is more specifically about 
the way we interpret and fail to interpret texts... Much of the original 
dialogue has been transplanted into the script, and the series' brisk, 
snappy editing style – specifically its whooshing transitions from one 
scene to the next – go a long way toward replicating and re-creating the 
book's wry tone. It is self-consciously constructed as a silly, 
constructed thing. When you watch the series, which premieres on Friday, 
you get a visual version of the book's gleeful wordiness. That's no 
small feat..."

https://www.vulture.com/2019/05/good-omens-amazon-review.html

By Glen Weldon for NPR:

"Most of the cleverest, funniest bits in Amazon's six-episode series 
Good Omens, which debuts on May 31, come straight from the 1990 novel by 
Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman, as you might expect. Most – but, 
happily, not all... the thing that sets Good Omens – book and show – 
apart from the fire hose of grim apocalyptic fare we're getting doused 
with on a daily basis is its thorough, inveterate, consummate 
Britishness. (I was going to add 'unapologetic,' there, but 
'unapologetically British' feels like a contradiction in terms, surely.) 
You're unlikely to find an Armageddon as warm and cozy as the one 
outlined in the novel; think Mad Max: Fury Road, if the Charlize Theron 
role had instead gone to Miss Marple – that's the all-important vibe the 
show has to nail, and it does. I mentioned above that most of the 
cleverest bits in the Amazon series come straight from the book, but the 
series does stake out its own patches of humorous real estate. The angel 
Gabriel rates only a mention or two in the novel; here, as played with a 
kind of tetchily impatient smarm by Jon Hamm, he's the ultimate slick, 
condescending corporate boss – which is to say: As seen through the eyes 
of a Brit, he's everything that is quintessentially American. Largely 
though, the series makes the novel come alive through its (mostly) 
unerring casting choices, which double down on that crucial Britishness. 
Brief cameos by Derek Jacobi (as the Metatron), Josie Lawrence (as a 
witch whose prophecies figure largely in the plot), Miranda Richardson 
(as a psychic who doesn't get much to do until the final episode), Brian 
Cox (as the voice of Death) and Benedict Freaking Cumberbatch (as never 
mind who, it's a surprise) make the whole thing go down like a fresh cup 
of inordinately milky tea. But it's Tennant and Sheen in the two lead 
roles who really dig in and unearth the foundational Britishness the 
story requires, by planting their feet at either end of the spectrum of 
national identities popularly associated with the United Kingdom..."

https://n.pr/2Ka7Qqt

By Wenlei Ma for News.com.au:

"Good Omens is wickedly funny and often gives off Life of Brian vibes. 
It's also clear all the actors are having an absolute ball in their 
roles, and that kind of fun is infectious and leaps off the screen, 
enveloping you so that you're completely lost in the story... Good Omens 
takes irreverence to the next level — and if you're not going to do that 
with a TV show about the apocalypse, then when are you going to?"

https://bit.ly/2IBBcKY

By Allison Shoemaker on the Roger Ebert website:

"Maybe it's part of the 'ineffable' great plan of the creator. Maybe 
it's just chemistry. Whatever it is, it looks like fun, and watching it 
ain't half bad either... It's entertaining writing, lively and often 
surprising... The problem with a story that both wanders and is 
predicated on a ticking time bomb and race against the clock, is that to 
spend time on one can weaken the other. The plot moseys alone at a slow 
but steady pace, bursts of energy often undermined by the same action 
taking place again an episode or two later, or by filmmaking (from 
Douglas Mackinnon) more concerned with quirk than with questions. (Get 
ready for endless conversations about whether or not Aziraphale and 
Crowley's coworkers can trust them, all painted with the same broad 
brush and without escalation.) More damaging is the fact that the 
narrative comes with the built-in contrivance that, while the forces of 
light and darkness bustle about in bureaucratic fervor, the real action 
is happening in a suburb none of them has ever even heard of—but that 
action, centering on Adam and his friends, is rarely anywhere near as 
compelling as what's happening elsewhere. Both the series and the young 
actors involved don't seem to be much interested in what's going on (at 
least, until the final installment); somehow, a secret suburban 
Antichrist comes off deadly dull. Then again, some of that might be due 
to comparison (a fate befalling, though to a lesser extent, actors as 
gifted as Michael McKean, Miranda Richardson, Anna Maxwell Martin, Nick 
Offerman, and others). Sheen and Tennant are so good, individually and 
especially together, that it's possible any disinterest in the other 
corners of this series may in fact be generated by eagerness to return 
to wherever Aziraphale and Crowley might be... Together, it's like 
watching two musicians at the top of their game play a duet; they 
positively sing. In those moments, the vibrancy and energy of Gaiman and 
Pratchett's book shoots to the surface, and is even deepened and 
enriched by the artists interpreting it..."

https://bit.ly/31o57z1

By David Griffin for IGN:

"Apart from Sheen and Tennant, Good Omens is enriched with a brilliant 
supporting cast. Jon Hamm, who plays the Archangel Gabriel, is 
pitch-perfect in the "everyone's boss you love to hate" role. Hamm is 
smarmy in all the right ways - he's basically playing a goofier version 
of Donald Draper from Mad Men. Other impressive veteran actors include 
Better Call Saul's Michael McKean as Witchfinder Shadwell, and his 
promiscuous neighbor Madame Tracy, provocatively portrayed by Harry 
Potter alumna Miranda Richardson. There's also Brian Cox (X-Men 2), Nick 
Offerman (Parks & Rec), and yes, even Benedict Cumberbatch (Doctor 
Strange) as Satan. If we haven't made it clear already, Good Omens is 
not lacking in the impressive-actor-resume department. Good Omens also 
has an impressive visual style, thanks to director Douglas Mackinnon 
(Line of Duty), who helms all six episodes. Mackinnon's effective work 
behind the camera is bolstered by excellent production and set design 
that's a key part of the world building. Hell does indeed seem like the 
worst place ever – it kind of looks like everyone is stuck at the post 
office for all of eternity. Heaven resembles an Apple store, minus the 
cool electronics. In a way, Heaven's minimalistic decor is almost as 
eerie as Hell's. Either way, many of the locations you'll visit in Good 
Omens are delightful places to spend your time..."

https://bit.ly/2KbLDbx

By Brian Lowry on CNN:

"Beyond the perfectly matched leads, 'Good Omens' is populated by an 
impressive cast, including Jon Hamm as the Angel Gabriel (a typically 
officious boss), Miranda Richardson and Michael McKean as two mortals in 
way over their heads, Mireille Enos as one of the Four Horsemen of the 
Apocalypse, and Frances McDormand as the voice of the Almighty. Benedict 
Cumberbatch and Brian Cox also drop in, unrecognizably, as Satan and 
Death, respectively. The high stakes notwithstanding, the story unfolds 
with a sense of unhurried whimsy. While it risks being too precious at 
first, the show gets better as the hours proceed... 'Good Omens' would 
benefit from a bit more forward momentum during its midsection, but its 
underlying appeal relies upon making even the biggest issues somehow 
mundane. The fire and brimstone notwithstanding, the show is really 
about friendship, however inconvenient it might be..."

https://edition.cnn.com/2019/05/30/entertainment/good-omens-review/

By Adam Starkey for Metro (UK):

"While a countdown to the end of the world might scream urgency, Good 
Omens is lethargic and playful in tone. There's an unconventional rhythm 
to the show as it jumps back and forth through time, delivering comedy 
sketch-like scenarios one minute and chasing down the antichrist the 
next. It's not always successful, with some of the tangents feeling 
unnecessary or bloated, but the pacing is more rewarding the further you 
roll around in, and embrace, its obscurities. That's because there's 
always an excellent cameo or surprise appearance lurking behind every 
corner... Holding this all together is the binding, hysterical glue of 
Michael Sheen and David Tennant, who form one of the most enjoyable 
on-screen partnerships you'll find all year... this miniseries is a 
refreshingly whimsical concoction of British humour, infectious 
imagination, and old fashioned charms. With so much of fantasy on 
television embracing the darkness, Good Omens is a delectable 
counterweight bursting with a lust for life."

https://bit.ly/2R26QFs

By the apparently humourless and openly fantasy-detesting Rachel Cooke 
for New Statesman:

"I do not love Good Omens. The first episode, I will grudgingly admit, 
was mildly entertaining, largely because Tennant and Michael Sheen (who 
plays an angel called Aziraphale; expect to hear this name being called 
in a playground near you some time soon) are so good together. But once 
the novelty of their double act had worn off – Tennant channels a 
thin-as-a-streak-of-bacon rock star vibe; Sheen looks and sounds like 
the very kind and camp bastard child of Boris Johnson and Billy Bunter – 
weariness soon set in. Such archness. Such ostentatious charm and 
so-called wit. It made me feel like I wanted to suck the sugar from my 
teeth – and that's even before the children had appeared... It's all 
terribly, tweely English, a bit like those Children's Film Foundation 
productions some of us used to watch on telly in the school holidays in 
the early Eighties..."

https://bit.ly/2R4VOis

By Alex Saveliev on Film Threat:

"From the get-go, Good Omens establishes its tongue-in-cheek tone, 
instantly rejecting all of our established theories regarding the 
specific time of the Universe's creation... none of this would gel 
without the formidable leads. Michael Sheen, one of our most versatile 
actors, conveys Aziraphale's reticence and benevolence, but with a 
penchant for mischief – as well as sushi, magic acts, bowties, and a 
certain kind of dancing that's too uproarious to reveal here. Tennant 
does a splendid job as Crowley, a live-wire that brings to mind Sam 
Rockwell at his best; he dances on the screen (often quite literally, to 
his favorite Queen), flaring his cat-like eyes, and you can't take your 
eyes off him. Together, they anchor the show, grounding each of its wild 
turns with warmth, poignancy, and wit. Director Douglas Mackinnon, who's 
had his experience in directing TV shows including Doctor Who, helms all 
six episodes with the assured hand of a veteran, working symbiotically 
with his writer. Which leads me to Gaiman's elegant script, elevating 
the show above the rest with its spellbinding passages, boundless 
imagination and quotable lines... But it's not just the dialogue that 
soars; Gaiman devises unexpected, charming surprises in almost every 
scene..."

http://filmthreat.com/reviews/good-omens/

By Janaki Viswanathan for the Pune Mirror in Mumbai:

"It's a pleasure to watch Michael Sheen play the self-righteous but also 
self-and-Goddoubting kindly angel Aziraphale, especially when he tries 
to hide his affection for Crowley whom he's known since forever. David 
Tennant in quite a shift from the gaunt police detective he played in 
Broadchurch, seems to be enjoying himself immensely as Crowley – a 
somewhat cliched flamboyant minion of Satan who drives too fast and, 
when bored watching humans paintball fighting, turns the guns into real 
ones. There's also the descendant of a witch, a witch-hunter's 
great-great-great grandchild and what is possibly the funniest hospital 
baby exchange that belongs in a Manmohan Desai film. Actually, the whole 
plot and its many story tracks would fit right into a potboiler. We mean 
that as a compliment. Good Omens is funny, entertaining, but best of 
all, it's weird, bizarre and originally so..."

https://bit.ly/2WCaCv0

This was a "spoiler-free" pre-review by Britt on Nerds and Beyond, but 
it's cogent and well-expressed, so I'm including it here:

"Particular standouts are, of course, Tennant and Sheen as our demon and 
angel. Forced into an unlikely alliance (being the only Earth-side 
representatives from each side) that becomes a friendship, Tennant and 
Sheen have a sweet and undeniable chemistry. Tennant has always excelled 
at playing the rakish and charming, well, devil. But Sheen is the 
perfect foil for him as the fussy and nervous Aziraphale. The ease at 
which their banter flows really does make it seem as if they have been 
friends since the dawn of time. My other favorite performances include 
Nina Sosanya as Sister Mary Loquacious, Josie Lawrence as the prophet 
Agnes Nutter, and Amma Ris as the sole female member of the Antichrist's 
'gang,' Pepper. The ladies killed it, y'all. Special attention must also 
be given to Jon Hamm as the Archangel Gabriel. My favorite Hamm is a 
comedic Hamm, and he really nails the tone of the arrogant angel here. 
(And he is also a huge fan of the original book!) But also, honestly, 
with a cast that includes the likes of Michael McKean (as Witchfinder 
Sergeant Shadwell), Miranda Richardson (as Madame Tracy), Benedict 
Cumberbatch (as Satan), and even a cameo by Nick Offerman, you just 
really can't go wrong. They are all stellar... I will say, though, that 
one exclusion left me bummed. One of my favorite bits from the book were 
the Hell's Angels, a.k.a. the 'other' four bikers of the apocalypse, 
a.k.a. 'Grievous Bodily Harm,' 'Cruelty to Animals,' 'Really Cool 
People,' and 'Treading In Dogsh*t' (formerly 'All Foreigners Especially 
The French,' formerly 'Things Not Working Properly Even After You've 
Given Them A Good Thumping,' never actually 'No Alcohol Lager,' briefly 
'Embarrassing Personal Problems,' and finally 'People Covered in Fish'). 
(Dear Mr. Gaiman and the ghost of Terry Pratchett please forgive me/do 
not haunt me if I left out any of their names.) They were hilarious, 
especially their explosively fishy end. (The book came out in 1990, so I 
don't feel bad about spoilers here.) I was sad to not have them as a 
counterpoint to the real Horsemen. However, if the biggest complaint I 
can make is that one gag from an otherwise gag-filled book didn't make 
it in the final cut, then I think that speaks to how successful this 
adaptation was..."

https://bit.ly/2K8zjJ2

...and a review of the first episode by Darryl Jasper on 
ScienceFiction.com, that beautifully sums up early on:

"David Tenant[sic] and Michael Sheen are the backbone of Good Omens, 
bringing to life two of fiction's most outrageously entertaining 
characters... While there is fun to be had in the humor portrayed in the 
narrative,to put it bluntly, without Crowley and Aziraphale, Good Omens 
is nothing more than a cheeky tale that, though entertaining, would be 
lacking the spirit that has made it an indelible work of literary 
fiction. As in the book, the relationship between Aziraphale and Crowley 
makes this story. Thus, it was imperative to find two actors that had 
not just the acting chops but the chemistry necessary to truly deliver 
the witty banter and charming interactions between these two peculiar 
representatives of Heaven and Hell. While only one episode in, David 
Tenant and Michael Sheen are masterful, their chemistry and timing 
spicing up the generic tale of the Antichrist leading the world 
Armageddon and making it something truly special. There may be other 
actors that could have done these roles justice but like Robert Downey 
Jr. and Chris Evans have made it so that I can never see anyone take on 
the mantles of Tony Stark and Steve Rogers, respectively, so too will 
Tenant and Sheen forever be my Crowley (not to be mistaken with Mark 
Sheppard's wondrous Supernatural character) and Aziraphale. Not to be 
left out, the remaining cast makes its own powerful impressions. 
Frances McDormand takes the reigns[sic] as the narrator/God. Her even 
yet witty narration gives life to those aspects of 'In the Beginning' 
that are imagery heavy (using metaphors to drive a point home) or in 
need of an extra bit of panache to keep the ball rolling while Jon Hamm 
represents Heaven as the stuffy and condescendingly friendly Gabriel. 
Both take a backseat to Tenant and Sheen but bring their own stamp that 
adds even more sauce to the story..."

https://bit.ly/2R3lso1

...and finally, a review of the last episode that sums up the 
summing-up, by William Hughes on the A.V. Club:

"Does any of this feel-good philosophizing make for effective TV? The 
first half of 'The Very Last Day Of The Rest Of Their Lives' 
unfortunately argues that it pretty much doesn't, offering up a series 
of showdowns that mostly boil down to people staring meaningfully at 
each other until a bad guy suddenly explodes. There are moments of grace 
– as when Adam's two celestial 'godfathers' stop time to give him a 
brief pep talk before facing down Satan himself, or when the would-be 
Antichrist calmly stares down Beelzebub and Gabriel (Anna Maxwell Martin 
and Jon Hamm, the latter of whom is transcendent in this episode) as 
they try to bluster him into ending the world. But the Four Horseman, 
especially, go out as they lived, ostensibly good ideas that just didn't 
work as TV. Even the confrontation with The Big Man himself – voiced for 
two whole lines by Benedict Cumberbatch, and powered by CGI that did 
not, for once, look like absolute dogshit – is an anti-climax, pretty 
much by design... It's lucky, then, that author and screenwriter Neil 
Gaiman clearly grasps that the end of the world is the least interesting 
part of this apocalyptic finale, which is why his script spends so much 
time on the question of what comes after, instead. (Or, to put it in the 
words of Agnes Nutter, witch: 'Ye saga continuef.') Mostly, this plays 
out in a series of happy endings, largely romantic, for our various 
heroes,.. But we end, of course, with the three characters we started 
this whole cosmically incompetent mess with: The renegade angel 
Aziraphale, the rogue demon Crowley, and that infernal little bundle of 
joy, Adam Young... A good ending – and you could comfortably argue that 
this is a very good ending, emotionally satisfying without being too 
terribly cloying – can go a long way toward salvaging a troubled show. 
Good Omens was a frequently troubled show, often feeling like a collage 
of the book's best bits, randomly assembled into some semblance of a 
story more-or-less at random. Gaiman seemed to gain more confidence in 
the material, and the strengths of the medium, as the series went on, 
though, relying less on his and Pratchett's narration, and inserting 
more stylistic flourishes like the Aziraphale-Crowley friendship 
sequence that powered episode 3. The series was always messy, but in its 
best moments, it was gloriously messy..."

https://bit.ly/2MB3J8F

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

04) GOOD OMENS ODDS AND SODS

4.1 SURPRISES GALORE AT AZIRAPHALE'S REAL-LIFE BOOKSHOP

As mentioned in items 3.1 and 3.4 in last month's issue! By Brian 
Silliman for SyFywire:

"One of the more fantastic locations that we go to in the novel (and 
will go to in the series) is the bookshop owned and run by the angel 
Aziraphale, played by Michael Sheen. A full reproduction of the shop, 
A.Z. Fell and Co, can now be visited at 19 Greek Street in London... On 
the outside, the shop looks even better than it does in our dreams. On 
the inside, though, there's more magic to be found. The place has been 
turned into a giant space dedicated to the new series, with one of the 
highlights being a Good Omens-themed escape room. As a special treat for 
some lucky fans (as tweeted by Amazon's Good Omens account), series 
stars David Tennant (Crowley) and Sheen both ended up as the surprise 
that fans were greeted with when escaping the room. Tennant appears with 
copies of the book itself, too, and we have never been so jealous. An 
escape room based on the book (and show) is great; one that ends with 
meeting Crowley and Aziraphale in person? Yeah, that's even better..."

https://www.syfy.com/syfywire/good-omens-david-tennant-michael-sheen

A reminder: tickets can be booked via 
https://az-fell-and-co-bookshop666.eventbrite.com/_

Another reminder: there will be a free screening of the entirety of Good 
Omens on 29th June at the Edinburgh Film Festival!

https://bit.ly/2WtrGOT and https://bit.ly/2KdpKIO

4.2 THE FAITHFUL REPRODUCTION OF SHADWELL'S ACCENT

By Huw Fullerton in the Radio Times:

"'There are a lot of Scotsmen on the set who are helping me out, Tennant 
of course and Douglas MacKinnon, who's our director,' McKean told 
RadioTimes.com on set. 'They're keeping me honest, you know, and every 
now and then I have to just run it by them.' Despite this, Shadwell's 
delivery is not quite like any Scottish accent we've heard before – but 
perhaps that's the point. You see, while it's easy to assume Shadwell's 
unusual manner of speaking is due to American actor McKean struggling 
with an impersonation, in fact the character's 'roaming dialect' is a 
key part of the original 1990 novel, with Shadwell's voice in the book 
randomly shifting between all sorts of different accents from around 
Britain during the story. Some have speculated that the character was 
(rather ironically) intended as a riposte to American actors who tried 
and failed to master specific UK dialects, or as a parody of sitcom 
character Alf Garnett, as played by Warren Mitchell in Till Death Do Us 
Part and In Sickness and In Health. But whatever the truth, Good Omens 
showrunner Neil Gaiman (who co-wrote the novel with the late Pratchett) 
was more than happy with what McKean delivered..."

https://bit.ly/2I9gEuv

4.3 ABOUT SOME OF THE CAMEOS

A guide to some blink-and-you'll-miss-them cameos, by Eleanor Bley 
Griffiths in the Radio Times:

"In adapting the novel he co-wrote with Terry Pratchett, showrunner Neil 
Gaiman has introduced some subtle guest appearances – from a famous Blue 
Peter presenter to the host of Newsnight... The host of Pam & Sam is... 
Konnie Huq... The TV news presenter is... Kirsty Wark... The voice on 
Crowley's radio is... Nicholas Parsons..."

https://bit.ly/2KH6Fy2

4.4 ...AND SOME OF THE CASTINGS

At New York Comic Con 2019, well before the Good Omens release, Neil 
Gaiman and director Douglas MacKinnon explained some unexpected casting 
choices. Here be an article by Rose Moore on ScreenRant:

"Gaiman: Well in terms of gender diversity, angels and demons, as stated 
in the book, have no gender... Archangel Uriel and Archangel Michael are 
both played by women, Sandalfon and Gabriel are both played by men. I 
love that one of those women is black, Gloria, who is just this amazing 
actress. And doing the same in Hell, we had male demons in Hastur, and I 
love the idea that Beelzebub would be Anna Maxwell Martin, Aegon would 
be Elizabeth Berrington, I think that it gave us a nice kind of balance.

"MacKinnon: I think that the thing we were doing all the way through the 
casting process in these terms was to question the assumptions and see 
if there was a different answer that just felt right.

"Gaiman: The one I received the most s**t for, was Pepper. Who is played 
by a fantastic young actress named Amma Ris, who is a person of color. 
Who is a small girl of color. And who also happened to be the best and 
the feistiest person who turned up at any of the auditions. What's 
interesting is that there are almost no physical descriptions of anybody 
in the book, but Pepper is described as having red hair and a face that 
was basically one giant freckle, and so people are like 'oh my god, that 
has to be white', and… no she doesn't..."

https://screenrant.com/good-omens-tv-show-book-changes-nycc/

4.5 THE CAST AND CREW REFLECTS...

Here be a 16-minute video interview from Digital Spy with Tennant, 
Sheen, Gaiman, Rob Wilkins, Miranda Richardson, Jon Hamm and Adria 
Arjona, link ported by NADWCON 2019:

https://youtu.be/nche6PwDBjQ

4.6 ...AND SO DOES THE SET DESIGNER:

By Rachel Wallace for – wait for it – Architectural Digest:

"To bring the show to life, production designer Michael Ralph had to 
tackle a lot of big ideas. A few of the various settings depicted 
through flashbacks over the six-episode series include the Garden of 
Eden, heaven, hell, the crucifixion of Jesus, William Shakespeare's 
Globe Theatre, and more. Ralph hadn't read the book, and 'there was 
nothing in the script that told you what it looked like,' he says. 
'Thank God I read some of the Bible.' Those biblical scenes were mostly 
filmed in South Africa, but for the show's ambiguously present-day 
London, the team filmed at Wolverhampton Airport, near the English 
village of Bobbington. 'It's] in the middle of nowhere on a flat piece 
of tarmac. I really only wanted the tarmac because it had a bitumen 
[asphalt] road. At least I'd have a bitumen road to begin with. And then 
I built the whole thing out there. We built a whole city block,' says 
Ralph. Indeed, they brought London's Soho neighborhood to life from the 
ground up, the center of the action being a book store owned by the 
angel Aziraphale. Filling it with books was as large of a task as 
building it... to source around 7,000 throwaway books from across 
Europe, Ralph had a set decorator he could count on – his wife, Bronwyn 
Franklin. 'She is sort of the unsung hero,' he says. 'To find books that 
we could burn that weren't necessarily damaging some fantastic literal 
tome, we had to really find a whole lot of books we could disguise and 
make look like antique books. She found some other beautiful items for 
the shop, like the antique cash register. My God did she get some 
beautiful things. And then we set fire to things...'

"Ralph's attention to detail is evident, and it actually goes even 
deeper than it seems. 'There are a lot of secrets in the design – a lot 
of buried subliminal stuff,' he reveals, noting that he hopes an 
eagle-eyed fan will find all the Easter eggs in Good Omens. For now, 
he's willing to share just one. 'I put Aziraphale's bookshop on a 
crossroads of a four-road intersection because of the four horseman of 
the apocalypse and the four corners of the earth,' he says. 'Then I 
based his bookshop entirely on the design of a compass. And therefore if 
you look up at the oculus or the skylight on the roof of Aziraphale's 
bookshop, it actually is the face of a compass..."

https://bit.ly/2KLmRi1

4.7 DAVID TENNANT INTERVIEW

By Alexandra Pollard in The Independent:

"Tennant is clearly having a ball playing a demon – 'a delicious part', 
he says, practically smacking his lips – channelling the enjoyably 
obnoxious swagger of Bill Nighy. But alongside all the strut and the 
camp chaos, the show asks some deep questions about the nature of good 
and evil, with lines that are practically delivered with a wink to 
camera. 'As if Armageddon was a cinematic show you wanted to sell in as 
many countries as possible,' says Frances McDormand's narrator at one 
point. Tennant, who on screen and in person looks about a decade away 
from his 48 years, agrees that the show is 'perhaps going to seem 
prescient in a way that it might not have done 10 years ago … but that 
doesn't mean there might not have been other subtleties that we'd have 
picked up on then, because of circumstances…' He thinks again. 'Yes, 
maybe it's time to tell this story.' The thing about Crowley and 
Aziraphale, he says, is that 'they're representatives of these two 
fundamentalist viewpoints, and actually by living among these humans 
they've been knocked off course, both of them. They're sort of meeting 
in the middle. Maybe that's where we all need to meet for there to be 
some hope.' It's difficult, I say, if someone's viewpoint is 
diametrically opposed to your own, to meet them in the middle sometimes. 
'Absolutely, oh it's very tricky,' he nods. 'Nobody said it was gonna be 
easy, saving the world! But when everything gets so tribal, then there 
can be no solution, there can be no moving forward. It's like with our 
own parliament at the moment. If everyone just says no to everything, 
then what will actually happen next? We all have to, at some point, 
accept that we don't exist as an island.'..."

https://ind.pn/2Xlpk5Y

4.8 DOUGLAS MACKINNON INTERVIEW

The Good Omens director was interviewed by "HM/JB" for AFP Relaxnews, 
posted in Philippines-based Inquirer.net:

"In an interview with AFP Relaxnews, the Scottish director revealed how 
the unique series based on the work by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett 
took shape and why the small screen version of the story that moves from 
the Garden of Eden to Roman Britain and 1960s Soho should not be called 
an 'adaptation.'... 'I first got the script for 'Good Omens' on my son's 
18th birthday in the evening. I knew about the project, it was huge. I 
immediately said, 'Well it is my son's 18th birthday so I cannot read it 
tonight.' The executive producer said, 'Could you read the first ten 
pages or something just to give us an indication,' and so reluctantly I 
started reading. An hour later, I was finishing the script and emailing 
her, 'This is mine, everybody stand back. Please let me do it.'... I 
think Terry Pratchett for me, has always been present in spirit, which 
is interesting for somebody who was an atheist. He did not believe in 
heaven and hell, neither do I and yet we felt Terry there all the time. 
After I read the script properly and got to know the book better than 
Neil Gaiman, at times when we were filming, I would reread the relevant 
part of the book and there would be a certain line or a moment. I would 
say to Neil, 'You have not put it in the script' and he went, 'Would you 
like that?' and I said 'I really love that part so can we put it back in 
again?' So in a way I became Terry Pratchett's representative, 
protecting the book. That is not saying that Neil was not (protecting 
the book) as well, but it was just a conversational process that we had. 
Neil said that one of the things he felt all the way through was Terry 
on his shoulder all the time, slightly moaning, slightly complaining. 
This might sound odd but for me, I feel like I had a collaboration with 
Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman because the book was beside my monitors 
every day. We wanted to please this man somehow...'..."

https://bit.ly/2KH7aYW

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

05) IMAGES OF THE MONTH

Crowley, Aziraphale and THAT car take a break on set. Photo by Chris 
Raphael for Architectural Digest:
https://bit.ly/2MFvj4L

The Hat and The Scarf at the Good Omens London premiere, as tweeted by 
journalist Flora Carr:
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/D7rBAnBX4AAsfEs.jpg

...and in the small ads in Good Omens, when Newt is job-hunting:
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/D7_dEo1XkAI7oLH.jpg

The blink-and-you'll-miss-it Pratchett reference in the cafe when the 
Horsemen are assembling:
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/D7_drWFXsAA80iY.jpg

(The above two photos were posted by Twitter user @KarlFelippe)

A nicely book-faithful rendering of the Horsemen, set against the 
background of telly-version Crowley and Aziraphale. :
https://bit.ly/2wA1sjw

(No credit for the above image was given, but the original is on 
Screenrant.com)

The Hellhound that became Dog, by Paul Kidby:
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/D7zzNMQWwAI15of.jpg

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

06) CLOSE

Here be a sweet little listing of Agnes Nutter's predictions as used in 
the Good Omens miniseries, by Danny Salemme on Screen Rant:
https://bit.ly/2XGnjSi

EDITOR'S WARNING: if you've not yet seen the series, and also have 
managed to avoid learning about the not-in-the-original-book twist at 
the end of the final episode, DO NOT read all the way to the prediction 
at the end of the list!

And that's it for the Good Omens Special Edition. We'll see you very 
soon with the rest of the news and regular features for June!

– Annie Mac

This issue can be viewed on the clacks at 
https://wossname.dreamwidth.org/71137.html

ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

The End. If you have any questions or requests, write: wossname-owner 
(at) pearwood (dot) info