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Good Omens Season 2 Was Lovely

I really liked Good Omens season 2 and was very positively surprised by it. I had worried 'they' will ruin it. There are so many ways to ruin a story, and it takes both hard work and inspiration to create a good one. And Good Omens season 2 was really good. Also be warned. Massive SPOILERS ahead.

Waiting for the Apocalypse

I expected another apocalypse story. And I kept waiting and waiting for it, wondering why the pacing was seemingly so odd. 

And as if to throw me off, in episode 3 Gabriel does announce the apocalypse:

“There will come a tempest, and darkness, and great storms. And the dead will leave the graves and walk the earth once more. And there will be great lamentations. Every day it’s getting closer.“

But this turns out to be more of a teaser for season 3. Still, it was enough for me to continue to latch onto the idea of the apocalypse the point where on my first viewing I missed the story that was developing before my eyes. The story about love. 

Apocalypse ended up being more of a background part of the plot. A character motivator rather than the main story: Gabriel is kicked out from his position in Heaven because he refused to get behind apocalypse v2. And he refused to do it because of love. He wanted to be together with Beelzebub. This twist really warmed my heart. It felt like I was eating something not knowing what it will taste like and then it ended up tasting perfect. 

The Clues for the Audience

The great thing about the final reveal is that it isn’t a twist for twist sake. It is well crafted and it makes sense.

They leave us clues throughout the season, in a sort of in your face but impossible to decrypt sort of way. Masterful! Gabriel brings the box and the only thing we see in the box is a fly. And because a fly is such an everyday occurrence to us, we make nothing of it. Then, to throw it in our face further, the fly keeps making an appearance throughout the show. We see Gabriel trying to kill it, in essence trying to wipe himself out! And just in case we have forgotten that Beelzebub is the lord of flies, we see her materialize in Crowley’s car as a swarm of flies. And yet it never occurred to me to make a connection between Gabriel and Beelzebub. 

In one of the more subtle clues, Beelzebub asks one of her demons “Do you ever think, wouldn't it just be nice if someone told you what a good job you're doing?” It tells us that Beelzebub is not content. She wants something different from that hell grind. We are subtly told that Beelzebub has discovered in herself a yearning for love. 

And all of this looks kind of slow and it feels like background to something. But it is indeed a major part of the plot. And the final explanation makes everything fit together perfectly. Have to say it again, masterful. I am really in awe. 

Beelzebub and Gabriel

Beelzebub and Gabriel falling in love is both adorable and hilarious. For instance, when Beelzebub likes Buddy Holly’s “Everyday” and Gabriel says: 

“Then…Then I also like it.“

It is like every time anyone has ever liked anyone else. We all pretend to like all the things the other person likes, we might even learn to like them! But Gabriel does it in a naive, ‘angelic’, extra transparent way. And it works! It succeeds in its desired mission. Beelzebub is moved and charmed. 

And then the resolution of the Aziraphale’s Clue! The jukebox that turns all the songs to “Everyday”! It is not about apocalypse at all! It is a ‘smooth move’ of a guy trying to woe a gal (or in this case an angel wooing a demon). Watching that revelation was like eating chocolate. 

It is through the Beelzebub-Gabriel revelation that the whole season came together for me. It was purposefully slow, misleading. And it isn’t really about apocalypse, it is about love.

While unexpected, the Beelzebub-Gabriel love story makes sense. Both of them have been at it for millennia, in their respective roles. They have been pushing for the ‘Great Plan’ and ended up facing a disaster which made them less keen on their roles. And they slowly discover love together through mutual understanding. Somebody paying attention to them as a person, not because of their function. Gabriel has certainly always been full of himself and his own grandeur. But as it turns out he was still not beyond spying on and ultimately choosing something much better. A voluntarily bestowed appreciation and kindness. To paraphrase Beelzebub, they both found something better than choosing sides.

There is a lot of sweetness in how this came to be. The moment Beelzebub gives the fly to Gabriel and he does not know how to thank her, because no-one has ever given him anything before…You can see how moved she is. And it is not overdone, overplayed. But you can just see them becoming people to each other, with each other, gently, gradually. And at the same time in big swoops somehow. They are no longer their roles. They are vulnerable individuals testing waters. It is incredibly moving.

I said it is hard to write a good love story. Apparently not for Neil Gaiman.

In another hilarious moment, Gabriel explains how he wants to be with Beelzebub and ends it with: 

‘Wherever Beelzebub is…is my heaven.‘

It is so SO cheesy! It is like a cheesy lovers line. But in case of Gabriel it takes on an additional meaning. Because for him heaven is not an abstract, but his home, everything that he knows, that he considers good. So it works in these two ways. Unbelievably good writing.

 

It is lovely. It is unexpected enough to be a good, surprising twist and yet it is believable and well developed.

Crowley and Aziraphale

This season makes it very clear that Aziraphale and Crowley have a thing for each other as early as episode 1. There were a lot of allusions and jokes that referred to them as a couple in season 1. Then there was the desolation of Crowley upon realizing his best friend was gone. And all the sweet happiness that both characters showed when in presence of each other or when doing things for each other. But you could still play it off as non-romantic love. I mean, watching season 1, you do not even know if angels and demons do the whole falling in love thing. I know, Neil Gaiman and Michael Sheen have since professed that it was all there since season 1. Maybe so, but it was subdued and implied rather than stated overtly. 

The first major clue in season 2 is when Aziraphale jumps out of the chair after Gabriel asks him if he knows what it is like when you don’t know anything at all, but that if you were next to one person, that everything would be better. Aziraphale insists he knows no such thing. ‘The lady doth protest too much’ and all that. Then we see Crowley once again abandoning his own self-preservation when he learns from Beelzebub that Aziraphale might get erased from existence for sheltering Gabriel. 

Btw. when Gabriel talked about the one person that makes everything better, he was thinking about Beelzebub, not Aziraphale. Perhaps he felt he can be safe around Aziraphale too, but I believe the feeling and that statement were meant for Beelzebub. Another lovely, delicious little clue. 

I was not really a fan of Crowley and Aziraphale being in love in the first season. I saw them as friends who had many adventures together and who had deep love and loyalty for each other, and that was enough for me. And it was such a rich, hilarious story. Frankly, I thought having them be in love would ruin it, that it would turn the story into something trite. It is hard to write a good love story, I think. It is only sort of watchable before the two get together. Once they are happy in love…there is no more drama to it. Being happily in love is a beautiful experience. It breeds peace, creation. But it is keep you at the edge of your seat drama when you look at it from the outside.

But I ended up being ok with how it was handled in the end. It was not trite or boring or preachy, because there is immediately a plot around it. Crowley in a moving display wants them to go off together and be independent. Aziraphale still does not get it and wants them both in heaven. And there is the story of the looming apocalypse v2 coming. So nothing boring or trite between these too. And at this point I do not think it will ever get boring or trite. Neil Gaiman and the writers have earned my trust.

When first watching the show I was not sure what the point of Maggie and Nina was in the grand scheme of things. Do not get me wrong, both actresses cut beautiful, alive characters across the screen. But what is their place in the bigger plot? Once you realize that the whole show was about love, it starts to seem like they were a stand in for that unspoken thing between Crowley and Aziraphale. Perhaps they were also a means of showing us how little Crowley and Aziraphale know about human romantic relationships. It is a funny dichotomy because on the one hand the two have shared many meaningful romantic moments throughout millennia and yet when they think about falling in love means they have about as much maturity as your average 13 year old. Crowley thinks it is all about standing in the rain, under an awning, Aziraphale goes back even more in time, all the way to Jane Austen.

I want to take a moment here to declare that, based on my reading of Jane Austen and despite what Aziraphale says, NOTHING gets resolved at those balls. Usually everyone gets more confused and the conflicts grow even stronger. I think Aziraphale just wanted to dance with Crowley.

Back to the show. Another way of looking at Maggie/Nina story is having us see Aziraphale and Crowley learn something from humans. Something intimate. Technically speaking only Crowley learned it I guess. But it ripples down to Aziraphale.

And the ending, the ‘break-up’ between the two made sense. It did not make the show trite. They did not kiss to make everything magically ok. They faced the reality of their situation. And the reality was that, despite loving each other, they were not on the same page. They did not want the same things. 

Maggie and Nina resolution made sense too. Aziraphale and Crowley were throwing all this fairy dust in our eyes, pushing a silly narrative that did not have a leg to stand on. But still, it is a TV show, surely they will have a classical happy ending at the end, right? But reality stood strong again and ultimately won over. It certainly won me over. Nina and Maggie get a much more realistic and uncertain ending than one might expect from a comedy show.

What I Did Not Like 

I do have some smaller reproaches about particular things I did not like so much in this season. It will look like this is a big part of the post, but it is only a very tiny part of how I view the show. I will write other posts focusing on the better parts of the show, but here are some of my complaints.

The whole wee Morag story did not really sit well with me. To be honest, I am not sure why. It just was not very fun. It was like an after school special teaching 12 year olds about history of surgery. Aziraphale irritated me for not simply giving a bit of money to the girls to help them out. It kind of makes sense as we know from season one that he encourages humans to do this or that rather doing things for them directly. But still, in those circumstances, with 90 guineas in your pocket he can spare say 5 pounds?? Instead he drags the two poor girls back into the danger of the graveyard. Crowley shines again as the sweetheart he is, but even that part is…oh I do not know, a bit on the nose. Although it was fun to see Crowley wig out and change size.

I also really did not like the dialogue between Aziraphale and Crowley after their Nazi zombie adventure. It was off. Aziraphale thanks Crowley for ‘coming through for him’. He says if he was truly bad, he would have just walked away. But … Aziraphale was doing a favor for Crowley. Aziraphale could have just walked away as well. Crowley had done so many more substantial things to rescue and support Aziraphale as well as to demonstrate his true, good nature than…not running away from a botched magic act. How about helping him with the nazis? I think they just wanted to use that shades of grey shtick. Which is fine, but it should have been done in conjunction with better dialogue. The characters deserve it!

I think both of those needed more polishing, more thoughtfulness put into them.

But I do love the Job story. I think it was well done, moving and important in the characters’ development, especially Aziraphale’s. And in showing us even more about who Crowley is. I plan to dedicate a separate post to the Job minisode.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the bones on this are good. And that is why I hope we get to enjoy season 3 as well. The plot for it has existed, in a rough shape, for a long time, according to Neil Gaiman, so that is a good sign. The Aziraphale-Crowley love story is not boring or empty, and it is intertwined with a larger plot. So I really do hope two see David Tennant and Michael Sheen reprise their roles in a third season. At this point, I trust Neil Gaiman and the writers not to mess it up, even if there is a misstep here and there. The bones on this are good, there is a story there, just waiting to be told. 

Where to Watch, What to Follow it up with

I you haven’t seen the show yet but would like to and do not sail the high sees you can access the show by getting Amazon Prime. Click here for my Amazon Prime affiliate link. If you make a purchase through the link or the links below I will get a small percentage of the proceeds to help me keep blogging.

If you are in deep, you might want to buy the DVD of season 1 or get the book that set all this in motion. I just started reading the book. It is pretty hilarious, as you might expect. 

The show got me into Terry Pratchett. I bought the Color of Magic and Guards, Guards to start with. I have already finished the Color of Magic and it really was a lot of fun. Very creative. Well crafted believable unbelievable plots. I took a peak in Guards, Guards and it starts even stronger than the Color of Magic, so I recommend both. Here is a teaser from Guards, Guards that I found particularly hilarious:

‘It was a five hundred mile journey and, surprisingly, quite uneventful. People who are rather more than six feet tall and nearly as broad across the shoulders often have uneventful journeys. People jump out at them from behind rocks then say things like, “Oh. Sorry. I thought you were someone else.“ ‘

I think that gives you a good idea of what you can expect to find in the book.

You won’t get a rerun or a sequel of Good Omens in these books, obviously, but you will get introduced to a really imaginative and hilarious world. It is entertaining and even mind expanding.