#like i genuinely forgot that michael sheen has also played aziraphale

[katierosefun]

y'know, i do think that actors are probably the closest that humans will ever get to a shapeshifter because sometimes i'll go through an actor's filmography and be totally taken aback by the sheer range of roles they've played and how violently dissimilar one role is from the other, so much so to the point that i'll literally forget that they played someone else and oh my god

[thefudge]

oh. my. gosh. that michael sheen/jameela TGP AU! u can't leave it like that! GIMME MORE MORE MORE

OMGOSH sorry for replying to this AGES later bUT

im so happy u wanna know more cuz 

okay JUST IMAGINE

the gang arriving at the good place proper next season and one of the architects/michael-stand-ins over there is the michael sheen character who, for less confusion, i will call Arthur. Now, Arthur (played by michael sheen) is one of the many Good Place clerks who will take offense at the implication that the system hasn’t been running well for centuries, but he’ll take offense in this perfectly cheery passive-aggressive way (basically a mixture of aziraphale and crowley) and he’ll try to undermine the team’s efforts under the guise of helping.

you know who else is sometimes passive-aggressively cheery due to high societal pressures? our GRL the qween herself, the one and only Tahani. and Arthur (remember, michael sheen character) will immediately see a mirror/ally in tahani. U KNOW WHY? because of all the ppl in the gang she’s the only one who can truly talk Arthur’s language. i picture the scene of the first time they interact and it’s just delicious, because they can’t seem to one-up each other, they talk and flatter each other emptily while giggling in frustration and it’s THE BEST cuz there’s also weird sexual tension? i should point out michael sheen would be wearing his mensch beard for this and curly hair and a dope-ass suit, CUZ SUE ME. oh and while all of this is going on you hear eleanor from the sidelines going “whew, this must be the cotillion edition of real housewives of atlanta”. 

BUT THE THING IS while Tahani decides “okay, this man/angel is a male version of my sister, i’m done with that toxicity, i need to be the bigger person” Arthur the poor fool is completely ENTRANCED and is crushing HARD and TAHANI CAN’T TELL because she’s not used to anyone preferring her and putting her first, not really. plus, she thinks Arthur is out to get her. cuz despite having so many celebrity friends and connections she doesn’t feel genuinely loved. ANYWAY it gets HILARIOUS because Tahani keeps seeing his interest in her as his passive-aggressive attempt to outshine her. for instance Arthur keeps forwarding these invitations like “would you care to help me design this park” (cuz he’s promised to listen to ideas from the group) and Tahani thinks he’s just trying to make it a competition but the poor fool just WANTS TO SPEND TIME WITH HER! I LIVE FOR THIS SHIT

anyway i just LOVE LOVE the concept of Tahani getting one of the big VIP angels/architects to fall for her while not making any efforts, like oh she’s made a celebrity conquest and she doesn’t know it!!! I LIVE FOR THIS SHIT X 10000

oh OH and i forgot to mention, the first time Arthur sees her it’s gotta be one of those slow-mo things

like picture Arthur and a bunch of other Good Place bureaucrats welcoming the outcast Cockroach Team into their neighborhood and everyone is feeling wary about these intruders, and there’s this ominous music playing when the two groups finally meet, and THEN the moment Arthur sees and hears Tahani talk (she’d be the first to examine the place critically and make a totally innocent passive aggressive remark about how the faux-neighborhood Michael designed in the Bad Place was much more chic and ergonomic), i just picture THIS SONG going thru Arthur’s head like INSTANTLY  because GODDAMN (God pun intended!) SOULMATE. i picture some hilarious editing where she’s walking in slow-mo, waving her arm dismissively at the neighborhood while she tosses her hair and smiles in a queenly fashion, and all Arthur can hear is “you’re so fine, lose my mind, and the world seems to disappear” and then cut to no music as the other bureaucrats ask Arthur what’s going on, and he has to act like he’s obviously FINE ahahahaha. but as he goes to greet the group his eyes keep sliding to Tahani and I LIVE FOR THIS SHIT YALL!!!!

anyway, stay tuned for more arthur/tahani content  (#arhani)

[vaguely-concerned]

SO I DID GET TO SEE GOOD OMENS AND TL;DR IT WAS EXCELLENT, I AM EUPHORIC

more thoughts and spoilers under the cut!

the FUCK YEEEEEEEAAAAAHs:

- mr gaiman you did it you made it even gayer I never even believed it was possible what is this 6000 years pining slowburn nonsense 

*ahem* to be more serious about it I loved that the show takes the emotional throughlines from the book and somehow both heightens and deepens them. 

- it really is phenomenally faithful to the book and the stuff it adds is mostly a m a z i n g. it kept me perfectly engaged despite me knowing what like 75% of the dialogue was going to be

- david tennant doesn’t quite go for the same energy as how I imagine crowley in the book -- in my head he’s more... idk how to explain it but the vibe is more someone grinning a bright fixed ‘this is totally my suave face’ grin while clearly continually going ‘oh fuck oh fuck oh fuck’ internally haha, to me he’s slightly less... mercurial? trying to play his cards closer to the chest? but you know what show!crowley is fucking hilarious too and I do like what they’ve done with him being less of an optimist at the core and more enjoying the world through his connection with aziraphale -- the sense of underlying loneliness you get in some places in the book has really been dialed up, he just wants a friend :( (which incidentally seems to be part of the reason he fe -- sauntered vaguely downwards too; he mostly wanted to hang out with someone, and today he still doesn’t really fit in with either the angels or the demons) 

- I can’t believe they managed to capture the feeling of ‘Under the ash and soot that flaked his face, he looked very tired, and very pale, and very scared’ on screen; it’s one of the moments of the book that really stuck with me and it worked so well here too, especially since the fallout of the situation stays with him longer

- this version of aziraphale is just. so lovely. so so good, literal precious angel who almost got his head cut off for crepes, I totally see why crowley persevered through the ages and his own intimacy issues, good call my friend. thank you michael sheen, every time this character showed up on screen I was filled with joy and delight

- I’m completely undone by how incredibly mutual their friendship is in this -- despite crowley being the more active in asking for connection it’s obvious all the way through how much aziraphale genuinely adores him and enjoys his company (even though he knows he shouldn’t and so continually needs to give himself some plausible deniability)

when aziraphale’s voice breaks as he’s like ‘don’t go’ after they’ve argued in the park and he’s just tried to pretend they’re not even friends? hahahahahahaha ouch my fucking heart

- sister mary loquacious was the most endearing thing I’ve ever seen in my entire life, give that actress all the roles she’s got the charisma of the gods

- “not only a southern pansy, sergeant -- the southern pansy” got through and it was glorious (ditto shadwell’s naming schemes, I for sure thought that wouldn’t be mentioned but it’s so incredibly funny)

- crowley repeatedly and openly just... begging aziraphale to go off to the stars with him what the fick-freckedy-fuck

- Of the horsemen Pollution was my absolute fave (so cool and unsettling and nonbinary rep!!!!!!! also they feel like the youngest horseman in such a deep way, every credit to the actress that was great) and I really enjoyed the twist on Famine, making him seem more intense and hungry himself as part of his nature as opposed to in the book where he’s basically like... diet vetinari lol

- G A B R I E L  he was so perfectly awful... absolutely no redeeming features whatsoever he’s just a piece of shit all the way through and John Hamm was clearly having the time of his life with it and I too was living 

- crowley crying in the bar because he lost his best friend and there’s no point to even try to run away anymore if he’s alone, he’s just waiting for the end of the world ;____________________________________________________; what an addition, such a thoughtful way to steer his character arc, wonderful, spectacular

in the book it’s more about him finding his way through the fear and desperation and having lost everything back to his core ‘actually... fuck this there’s no situation I can’t snake my way out of let’s goooooooooo’ self, which is admittedly really cool and satisfying, but it feels like a shallower thing than finally reaching a point where he can no longer pretend he doesn’t care or doesn’t want things. (also... the way his will to live reignites the moment aziraphale needs him fjskadlfhaskdhfksldhfslkahdf “I’ll come find you” INDEED fjksdafhsdlfhsdalfh) 

- also a nice tiny change: the implication that reason he can drive the bentley through the flames is that he loves that car so fucking much, he’s invested so much of himself and his emotions in it over many years, like a sort of microcosm of how he feels about the actual world (and specifically humanity’s presence in it) that produced it

- the child actors were uniformly precious, and the kid who played adam got me right in the feelings. the sort of comedic sociopathy of kids thing going on in the book is downplayed, which means I was feeling all the more protective of this sweet sweet kid who just loves his dog and his friends and fjsdfklasjkh

- *sigh* my embarrassing crush on david tennant has been lying dormant these last few years, simply waiting for its chance to rise from the depths like a kraken yet again, and I am slightly unsettled that what really made it surface this time was him dressed up as evil Mary Poppins + the bathing suit, socks included. ah well the heart uh wants what it wants I guess 

- crowley is awfully quick to suggest child murder for someone who’s blatantly not willing to harm a hair on a kid’s head himself lawl the two of them just juggling the ‘but maybe you could like... quickly murder him so we could avoid all this???’ ball back and forth before madame tracy finally knocks some sense into them 

- the actress for madame tracy did such an amazing job that I literally forgot aziraphale wasn’t actually possessing her, ART

- fellas... is it gay to blow up a bunch of nazis for your ~*best friend*~ and save his books while actualfax romantic music swells in the background... asking for a friend 

- “anywhere you want to go” :):):):) oh no

- to be Sad at you for a second here... why the fuck did aziraphale immediately assume crowley wanted the holy water to use it on himself? is there like. a story here we don’t know. is this the fallout of going to check wtf the spanish inquisition was all about. I’m almost afraid to ask

- to be even Sadder: that ‘For Terry’ made me cry and I’m not ashamed to admit it

the awwww... okay I guess you can’t have EVERYTHINGs:

- the scene where crowley and aziraphale get wasted together after the antichrist is delivered is not quite as funny as it is in my head, but then I don’t think anything in the physical world could be as funny as the way I imagine them just like somberly leaning over the table at each other with little regard for personal space and drunkenly expounding on dolphins, so I’ll forgive it

- CGI satan was completely unnecessary and not even very well designed *shrug emoji* the whole point of that scene is that we never get to see him, just the mounting dread as he’s getting closer, and then the wordless reveal of who Adam considers to be his dad and that’s all that matters and even the devil is powerless against it... loved the ~*godfathers*~ giving a little literal angel/devil on my shoulder pep talk, tho, that was incredibly sweet

- ...the maggots huh neil. couldn’t leave them out huh. what a world it would be if we didn’t get to see a bunch of people get eaten by a writhing roomful of maggots huh. 

- ETA: actually one more: I refuse to accept this version of DEATH, hashtag not my reaper