32 years ago, the collaboration between authors Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett titled ‘Good Omens’ was published. The book is a comedy about the birth of the son Satan, and an angel and a demon trying to prevent the end of times because they liked living on Earth too much.
And on July 28, 2023, the second series of the cult classic’s television adaptation was released on Amazon Prime Video. The first series was incredibly faithful to the book’s contents, and also very good, so seeing what the producers would do with a second series was exciting considering there was no second book and one of the co-authors, Terry Pratchett, passed away in 2015. What they came up with was truly spectacular.
According to Neil Gaiman, a sequel to ‘Good Omens’ was devised by him and Terry Pratchett a year before it’s publication in 1990. The second series that was just released isn’t based off of that prequel, however; it acts as a bridge between the first book and the supposed sequel.
This second series focuses on the character Archangel Gabriel, portrayed by Jon Hamm, who loses all of his memories and shows up at angel Aziraphale’s, portrayed by Michael Sheen’s, bookshop. Aziraphale teams up with the demon Crowley, portrayed by David Tennant, to uncover what has happened to him and to also hide him from Heaven and Hell.
Through this, a spotlight is shone on angel Aziraphale’s and demon Crowley’s budding romance. A large portion of the ‘Good Omens’ fanbase paired the duo together even before the book was adapted into a television series. And apparently so did Neil Gaiman, who originally co-authored ‘Good Omens’ and has been working on the television adaptation. The showrunners really took that idea and ran with it – and we’re not complaining!
Normal people look at this second series and say ‘Ah. Messy.’ Long-time fans of the series would describe the second series of ‘Good Omens’ as the most delicious and devastating slow-burn romance they have ever seen on television.
There is also a fantastic subplot dedicated to humans Nina and Maggie, who are portrayed by actors Nina Sosanya and Maggie Service respectively. Aziraphale and Crowley attempt to get them to fall in love to cover up a mistake they made, and this allows for some proper lesbian shenanigans to ensue.
Those relationships are truly what stood out to this season. How many times has there been a messy, complicated queer romance portrayed on screen without either being heavily implied but never confirmed, or one of the characters dying?
It’s certainly becoming more common among newer shows – ‘Our Flag Means Death’ comes to mind – but still remains a rarity. For many queer fans of the show, which does happen to be a lot, it is ironically heartwarming to see a queer romance be so chaotic and devastating at the same time.
