#that’s a Richard Curtis reference

[cryptidpixieart]

[[insert adorable baby angel Crowley noises]]

[agir1ukn0w]

the only reason why men should wear dog tags is so I can pull on them with my finger

[bobdylan-n-jonimitchell]

“And that performance then begat a movie called Love Actually. It was conceived when the movie director [Richard Curtis] put that cut of “Both Sides Now” on and much to his surprise, he was crying. It caught him off guard. And so he built a whole movie around it, “Love Actually.’”—Joni Mitchell, 2012.

[marchentraume]

The most aziracrow coded pair in Love Actually (actually)

[weird-little-book-lover]

"I saw it in a Richard Curtis film"

Micheal Sheen reenacted the scene Crowley references, with Tom Allen! #Four Weddings and a Funeral

[ladysophiebeckett]

i think about the failure of the four wedding and a funeral anthology more than i care to admit. 

[noneorother]

Share your GOS2 bibliography with me

How crazy is it that season 2 has basically forced me to go back to university. I’ve done more reading and critical analysis and historical research than I have in years. I bite my thumb at you, Neil (affectionate).

And as I’m sure I’m not alone in this, I’d love to see your bibliography of all of the references or reading/watch lists. I’m sure to pick up a few good ones! I’ll go first.

Movies + TV Arrival - Denis Villeneuve Clue - Jonathan Lynn I Know Where I'm Going - Powell & Pressburger The Ball - Magnus Dennison and Katja Roberts Every Day - Michael Sucsy About Time - Richard Curtis The Red Shoes - Powell & Pressburger The Small Back Room - Powell & Pressburger The Tales of Hoffmann - Powell & Pressburger Stairway to Heaven - Powell & Pressburger Ill Met By Moonlight - Powell & Pressburger The League of Gentlemen's Apocalypse - Steve Bendelack Monty Python's Life of Brian - Terry Jones Monty Python and the Holy Grail - Terry Gilliam & Terry Jones The Twilight zone (The Arrival) Boris Sagal The Twilight zone (The Hitch-Hiker) - Alvin Ganzer Staged (Seasons 1 and 2) - Simon Evans & Phin Glynn Books The Crow Road - Iain Banks The Bridge - Iain Banks The Scholars of Night - John M. Ford Symbols of Sacred Science - René Guénon Catch-22 - Joseph Heller A Tale of Two Cities - Charles Dickens The Colour of Magic - Terry Pratchett Night Watch (Discworld) - Terry Pratchett Parlement of Foules - Geoffrey Chaucer The language of the birds - Farid ud-Din Attar Pride & Prejudice - Jane Austen Persuasion - Jane Austen Midnight Days - Neil Gaiman Negative Burn #11 - Neil Gaiman Chivalry - Neil Gaiman Other Les contes d'Hoffamann - opera, Jacques Offenbach Don Giovanni - opera, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart The Line, the Cross and the Curve - musical, Kate Bush The book of Enoch - Ethiopian Apocryphal trs. Rev. George Schodde, PhD

I'm sure there will be more... sigh. Spoiler alert: there are more! Donnie Darko - 2001, Richard Kelly Nothing Lasts Forever - 1984, Tom Schiller The Ghosts of Berkley Square - 1947, Vernon Sewell Brazil! - 1985, Terry Gilliam No Bed for Bacon - 1941, Caryl Brahms and S. J. Simon Don't, Mr Disraeli! - 1949, Caryl Brahms and S. J. Simon Murder Mysteries - Neil Gaiman The Man Who Was Thursday - 1908, GK Chesterton Small Gods - 1992, Terry Pratchett Ipomadon - Medieval - Trs. Richard Scott-Robinson

[thesherrinfordfacility]

oh god OH God right so crowley's comment about the richard curtis film? just hit me that he's possibly (probably? im assuming crowley is talking about screenwriter credits here) talking about the ending of four weddings and a funeral (bold choice) and i am reeling bc if im reading into this correctly neil really is letting the narrative punches fly

so i dug through the yt archives to find the ending that id all but suppressed in my memory (andie macdowells acting in this brings me out in hives, crowley is such a hero for making it through this film) and-

right fuck it let's just basically do a basic transcript of it:

carrie: "i just wanted to check you're okay, not busy... killing yourself or anything, but you're fine so... i shouldn't have come to the church this morning. im sorry-"

charles: "no, no, wait- it was all my fault, i- i- im the bastard here! and it definitely sorted out one thing; that marriage and me are very clearly not meant for one another... sorted out another big thing as well- there i was, standing in the church and for the first time in my whole life, I realised i totally and utterly loved one person, and it wasn't the person standing next to me in the veil, it was the person standing opposite me now, in the rain."

carrie: "...is it still raining? i hadn't noticed..."

charles: "the truth of it is that i loved you from the first second i met you... you- you're not suddenly going to go away again, are you?"

carrie: "no... i might drown, but otherwise no!"

charles: "okay, okay, we'll go in... but first! let me ask you one thing... do you think that after we've dried off, after we've spent some more time together, you might agree not to marry me? a-and do you think not being married to me might be something you'll consider doing for the rest of your life?... do you?"

carrie: "...i do."

okay so now that you and me, reader, have had to suffer through that, i am just in shock that this, this, is the scene to which crowley is potentially referring. im not saying that he takes it as absolute inspiration for his romantic scenario idea, bc i think he is just covering for what is his own personal fantasy... but boy is it potentially insightful. as ive said before im fairly certain that whilst he was fascinated and amused by aziraphale, i certainly don't think he fell in love on the Wall like he would like to think, in retrospect, that he did.

so let's board this train hurtling along the rails of that particular thought (ie stick with me), crowley really seems to be deluded as to the love story he and aziraphale share... to the point that in ep2 when he makes the curtis remark, we can infer that whilst he may have been subconsciously reconciling his actual feelings of More with aziraphale for a long time, and only fully accepts and declares them in ep6, he's looked over their history as being more than it actually is. because this script? is not even close to what happened on the wall.

like, first of all - aziraphale is not at all andie/carrie (a divine mercy, truly). aziraphale is not passive, however much he plays into it with his damsel-in-distress syndrome, and certainly is not dim and virtually silent. aziraphale always has Things To Say. and crowley, until ep6, does not wax lyrical about his feelings, his innermost thoughts, and certainly not as 'poetically' (see: cheesy af) as a curtis script. in his playful moments he is an outright dork, but not like this.

now this bit? im going to be fanciful and fanfic-y, and very clumsy in how i put this across... but replace the context for a moment:

charles: "no, no, wait- it was all my fault, i- i- im the bastard here! and it definitely sorted out one thing; that belief and love for god and me are very clearly not meant for one another... sorted out another big thing as well- there i was, standing on the wall and for the first time in my whole life, I realised i totally and utterly loved/believed in? one person, and it wasn't the person standing in front of me when i fell, it was the person standing opposite me now, in the rain."

im not going to double down on the red bits, because it is ridiculous, but the vague idea? insane! insane to intimate that he replaced the void that was his belief system, the divine love he now lacks after falling, the betrayal he feels from god, with aziraphale! goodness crowley, this is not healthy, my guy! and then:

charles: "the truth of it is that i loved you from the first second i met you... you- you're not suddenly going to go away again, are you?"

no, i don't think you did, crowley bud- but you are definitely lonely. and lonely not even in the sense of isolation, but lonely in the sense of lack of purpose, possibly guilt and shame, and the inability to understand (or accept that you do understand) why you're currently in the position you're in. but aziraphale is not the replacement for that.

he's not there to fill the spaces where you're barely holding yourself together. you literally end up spending millennia apart in between your run-ins, and get along with it just fine... or maybe aziraphale does, but do you? is why you do the things you do, did what you did; because of this fear?

(when did i suddenly start addressing crowley directly, ah well i cba to rewrite)

charles: "okay, okay, we'll go in... but first! let me ask you one thing... do you think that after we've dried off, after we've spent some more time together, you might agree not to marry me? a-and do you think not being married to me might be something you'll consider doing for the rest of your life?... do you?"

the arrangement? aziraphale be in crowley's company all the time, stop him feeling lonely and make him feel wanted, but not commit to anything more than crowley can handle?

all im saying is that i hope noone dares show crowley the confession from julia roberts in notting hill without giving him a bottle of talisker and a litre of häagen-dazs first 💀

[casualminerva]

"I came here tonight because when you realize you want to spend the rest of eternity with somebody, you want the rest of eternity to start as soon as possible."*

Why GO3 needs to end with a holiday episode

This post starts, as it will end, with Neil Gaiman. Neil, allegedly, has said that Good Omens is a rom-com. Maybe his exact words were “love story,” but let’s not quibble. This piqued my interest because face it, rom-coms are few and far between right now (except for K-dramas, where they are plentiful and quite wonderful, if a bit draggy at 16 episodes). And in my mind the world would be a lot better right now if the Western media giants would stop greenlighting every stabby, bloody, nihilistic cop power fantasy that emerges from the sad resentful minds of perpetually adolescent cishet male producers, and run with romantic comedies by the bucketful, especially ones that will right the wrongs of the ‘90s rom-com golden era. 

Good Omens is one of those, definitely. Our lovers are non-human, gender fluid, older. But the rules of rom-coms are still in place. Season 1 had the meet cute, the clash of opposing life views that gradually softens, our couple being forced to work together with comic results, a brief traumatic separation, and a reuniting in mutual appreciation, if not love. 

Season 2 was the deepening of everything, the camera documenting their faces caressing each other, the mutual rescuing, the “our side won’t like that” restraints dropping, and all of a sudden they’re touching each other out of both affection and habit, until a shitty choice arises to end it all, with a climactic kiss punctuating a truly wrenching moment of, I don’t know yet if you can call it noble idiocy, but it was a wrecking ball moment that told us they’re gonna be separated, with their hearts and ours broken, for a good long time.

Now to S3 (please please Amazon, renew). Season 3 can go so many wild directions since we’re in Second Coming territory, but for our lovers, it’s going to be dreadful to watch them separated. Our hearts are going to be in our throats every time they’re potentially in the same scene together. We’re going to see them alone, doing their own thing a lot, as once again they try to save the world, this time without each other, perhaps on opposite sides.

So what is it that finally breaks impasses and brings rom-com lovers back into each other’s arms? It’s not sudden rain showers or cotillion balls, obviously. It’s the HOLIDAYS. Christmas and Hanukkah and the grandest of them all, New Year’s Eve. It's hard to think of a rom-com that doesn’t have a confession, reunion or long overdue kiss against the backdrop of tipsy NYE celebrants or the sight of snow through glowing windows. It's the ultimate serotonin release mechanism, it conquers worry, it heals heartache, it just -- works.

I can imagine Neil and John Finnemore having a wonderful time playing with, twisting and subverting the holiday trope, all the while using that same trope to delicately land the plane of Aziraphale and Crowley’s fraught relationship.

We already know that the subject of Christmas lights is a sticky wicket for the Whickber Street Traders and Shopkeepers Association. A possible incentive to get Aziraphale back in the bookshop? We also can guess the effect Auld Lang Syne, the most shamelessly sentimental song in any film in all of recorded history, would have on a certain Scottish-leaning demon who has watched his share of Richard Curtis movies. I hope the Bentley will play it for the two of them (not the bebop version though) because, well, vavoom. We will all be piles of sobbing goo.

There’s so much material. The birth of Jesus as a minisode (welcome back, Gabriel!), other biblical and religious stuff, carolers (demons or angels or both?), Dickens references, parties, dancing. Finally, a gentle snow transforming Whickber Street into a dreamland, as our two tired but eternally hopeful ineffable lovers reunite once again, worse for wear but a little wiser, put aside their differences for good, and seal the deal with a really, really fucking GOOD, LONG, KISS. 

So … anyway. I started writing this post as kind of a joke, but accidentally made myself a believer. Oh, and I said the post ends with Neil Gaiman, because it does. Every New Year, Neil writes a tender and beautiful message of love, hope, and new beginnings to his readers. Here’s trusting he does the same for Good Omens 3, and that God, wherever She is, blesses us, every one.

*Title quote pays homage to When Harry Met Sally, the greatest of all rom-coms (fight me).

[alwaysgodownwiththeship]

Crowley "I saw in a Richard Curtis Film"

Is this it? Is this the scene that Crowley saw?

For reference, Richard Curtis is a pretty famous Rom-com movie director, producer, and screenwriter. He's responsible for such titles such as "About Time" "Love Actually" "Notting Hill" "Yesterday" and others.

This scene is from a film called "Four Weddings and a Funeral" which is a film I've never watched but apparently is among the great British Film Classics. The couple (Carrie and Charles) after a lot of misunderstandings and missed opportunities finally decide to commit to each other (without bothering about with marriage).

The real kicker?

Its a bloody romantic comedy movie starring Hugh Grant!

So... Aside from being an optimist, Crowley is as much of a romantic as Aziraphale seems to be, with his Austen novels and all.

[pleasantbelievercollector]

The Bookshop Clock & Time

I've been taking snapshots of the clock in Aziraphale's bookshop throughout season 2 and it's been so strange. All the references to time throughout the season got me thinking. "Too late" "I need more time" "I'm late". Crowley mentions a Richard Curtis film about falling in love in the rain. Since just about every media reference this season hits like a sledgehammer when I've looked it up, I decided to check out this one too. Based on a pretty basic google search "About Time" (directed by Richard Curtis) may have such a rain-related scene in it. What jumped out at me was the synopsis though. This movie deals with time travel in order to change events in the protagonist's life. HUH. INTERESTING.

In episode 2, we can see the clock is placed in the 10 o'clock hour when Gabriel starts singing "Every Day". We can still see the clock is in the 10 o'clock hour when the three archangels are in the bookshop. When Crowley and Aziraphale return from the bar to interrogate Gabriel about where he first heard the song, he says that he just heard it "this morning". Seems perfectly fine. He also remembers the "three nice people in the shop just now". Just now? The clock is sitting at like 5:20pm now! We just had a seven hour jump in time! Gabriel has been left unattended in the bookshop! I find myself doubting that he was actually referring to the archangels at all.

Why make the distinction between "this morning" and "just now" when referring to these events? Unlike season one, it seems (although not explicitly stated) that both angelic and demonic entities need an invitation to enter Aziraphale's bookshop. The only non-angelic and non-demonic trio I can think of at this point are the zombies that we got zero resolution on from 1941. What could they have been up to though? Neil Gaiman had such an odd response of "yup" when asked about the current whereabouts of the zombies. Probably the silliest thought I've had about this season and I don't actually think there's enough to conclude a thing at this point. Maybe it's nothing. I still find the comment strange.

Do we have any idea why episode 2 opened with Aziraphale standing in his bookshop puzzled? The episode opens with the Job memory from 2500BC but we have no reason to be looking at it until Gabriel tips him off about it later. Were we supposed to think Aziraphale was pondering this memory before the tip? Why were we shown this memory out of sequence with the present day events?

Also why was a hand missing from the clock in episode 3? The hour hand appears to be sitting at 10 o'clock, in a spot that the minute hand could never overlap. Why is Crowley so cryptic about being too late when he cuts himself off from threatening Gabriel about Aziraphale getting hurt? "It doesn't matter. It's too late for that now. It's always too late." Huh??? Why so bleak?

Then we kick off episode 4 with Aziraphale stating that he's late.

What is the significance of the opposing wall clock behind Aziraphale in episode 6 while the grandfather clock is behind Crowley? This clock is either positioned differently or blocked entirely until this scene, from what I can tell. The white clock face stands out against a rather dark background.

Why doesn't Crowley use his time-stop ability at any other point than in the Edinburgh minisode? Why is Aziraphale perfectly blocking the grandfather clock face so many times over the course of the season?

When the Metatron tells Aziraphale they need to leave the bookshop for the final time, Aziraphale looks back to the grandfather clock and seems to stop himself from saying "I need more time".

While I don't have a strong conclusion about these things, I feel like there's just too much going on to ignore. It has to be SOMETHING. If anyone else noticed weird time-related things, feel free to chime in.

[destinyc1020]

I think something like About Time would be perfect for Tom (so classic with a twist). He would kill it in a role like that and Tom himself said it’s one of his favorites.

I've never actually seen that movie Anon! So I can't really comment on whether or not I'd want to see Tom in a movie like that.

But I know the film you're referring to, and I LOOOOVE Rachel McAdams! 😊

Isn't that film written and directed by Richard Curtis as well?? 🤔 Seems like I'm noticing a pattern here lol...

[oc-character-development]

I just realised two things about Crowley in Good Omens 2:

The Lady Bracknell reference when Crowley orders drinks at the pub is from the Importance of Being Earnest, written by Oscar Wilde. Which means either Crowley must have seen the play, knew Oscar Wilde, or he’s read the stage script. Crowley doesn’t much care for books in terms of reading but he does have books in his flat in Good Omens (or at least one book) and he reads the paper, so he does read. But Crowley is a theatre nerd confirmed? I mean it’s canonical he prefers comedies (including romantic comedies, he watches Richard Curtis films) so it’s not so much of a stretch that he saw the play in 1895 or after. I mean he also could have known Oscar Wilde. Or even both.

The second thing I just realised is the last time we see Crowley smile in GO2 is at Aziraphale. It’s when Aziraphale rings the bell to get everyone to shut up and yells at them to talk one at a time. He’s smiling at Aziraphale!

[raven-with-a-pocketwatch]

Does anyone know which Richard Curtis film Crowley is referring to when he talks about taking shelter under a canopy together? I am not a romcom person but I would like to watch for research.

[bodiesinthelake]

thinking about crowley saying "get humans wet and staring into each others eyes, vavoom. i saw it in a richard curtis film" im alllmost positive its a reference to four weddings and a funeral?

crowley saw a cheesy 90's romcom in theaters and thought, yeah, this is peak romance. then proceeded to internalize that for 30 years. hes so silly

[panosatthemovies]

Rye Lane is the rare thing these days; A feature film romantic comedy. Cinema has always had great ones since the 50s and the genre peaked in the 90s, but we still got to see gems like 500 Days of Summer in the 00s. Well, Rye Lane wants to be that "new" romantic comedy for the 2020s, set in a "new world" where the leads and almost the entire cast are black, without that even being a thing, and the hip parts of the town are the underprivileged South London! And yes, this is a great new film, and the cast creates sparkles throughout, and the city looks spicy and vibrant. My only gripe is the extended use of wide lenses for all the shots, which makes things look artificial and takes the viewer out of the moment. And also, some of the surreal "theatrics" are less successful, while just seeing the two leads discuss with each other and make fun of their exes is pure joy. I also appreciated references to the Richard Curtis rom-coms, the "Before" trilogy of "walking and talking", Woody Alen's Annie Hall and even Scorceze's After Hours. This night was fun!

B+

Trailer: https://youtu.be/7doNpDoLn4c