
Good Omens is a wonderful little mini series about an Angel named Aziraphale (Michael Sheen) and a demon named Crowley (David Tennant) that have teamed up throughout 6,000 years to serve heaven and hell as they live on Earth, without their leaders knowing. This show is an adaptation based on the book “Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch” by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett. It starts with the Antichrist being born and is destined to bring the end of the world once he turns 11 years old, but Crowley accidently switches who the mini demon’s parents are supposed to be. Thus starting the unlikely pair to work together to try and stop Armageddon from happening before Heaven and Hell realize that the Antichrist has been missing from Crowley’s sight for years. Will they be able to stop the end of the world? Or will Earth begin a war with Heaven and Hell for God’s plan whether they like it or not?
Episode 3 of Good Omens shows us how Aziraphale and Crowley have maintained their friendship throughout time, showing us moments from the Garden of Eden, Noah’s Ark, Jesus being nailed to the cross, the Round table, watching Hamlet by William Shakespeare, and other moment in time. These moments all show how they get close to each other and eventually make a pact where they “stay out of each other’s way, and lend a hand when needed”, and could probably even be more than friendship. Halfway through the episode, we are fast forwarded back to current time to Aziraphale locating the AntiChrist and debating on telling the angels in Heaven about his discovery. Adam, the AntiChrist, ends up meeting Anathema Device who is also trying to stop the end of the world but has lost her book of prophecies (which Aziraphale currently has) and teaches him about conspiracy theories. By the end of the episode Crowley and Aziraphale have a falling out resulting from differences on how to deal with Adam and the true nature of their relationship.
If I was trying to get someone invested into the show, I’d show them this episode and see how they’d feel about it before starting at the beginning. Good Omens follows the themes of free will, hypocrisy of religion, good vs evil, and most importantly humanity.
The show has just finished it’s second season and has been renewed for it’s third and last season. In 2019, the show had 3 Emmy Nominations for outstanding music composition, outstanding main title theme music, and costume design. Good omens as a novel has won the World Fantasy Award for Best Novel in 1991.
Mackinnon, Douglas, director. Good Omens. Amazon Prime, 2019, https://www.amazon.com/Good-Omens-Season-1/dp/B089XPN85Z.
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