Good Omens (Season Two)
There’s something of the great British literary tradition that oozes from every corner of Good Omens.
The setting, the cast and even the theme music have a Harry Potter-esque feel to them. Aziraphale (Michael Sheen) indulges in his quintessentially British book shop on the corner of a London street…and so do we.
Neil Gaimann, who by all accounts retains a hands on role with the series, remains a conduit between us and the establishment of British books, having originally co-wrote the series with a man responsible for building it: Terry Pratchett. For these reasons, there is something fundamentally cosy, comforting and British in the fabric of Good Omens that is retained in Season Two.
The new series opens on a bewildering note, as Archangel Gabriel (Jon Hamm) arrives naked and afraid at the door of Aziraphale’s bookshop, looking for help. The following six episodes work to bring us neatly back to this starting point, revealing why Gabriel appeared there in the first place. It’s a tidy and satisfying narrative arc that only a master like Gaimann could so easily pull off.
Season Two of Good Omens is as epic in scope as the first series and aims to tackle one of the universe’s biggest questions: where is the line between good and evil? Through Aziraphale and Crowley’s (David Tennant) timeline, we go back to the story of Job, in which heaven orders the death of Job’s children to test how loyal he is to God.
Following that, we visit the site of a 19th century grave robber, a girl stealing bodies and selling them on so she can afford to stay alive. In the process she is also advancing the study of medicine (she sells the bodies to a local surgeon).
Positing these two fables next to each other exposes the nuances of good and evil, and shows heaven and hell off as equally undesirable sides of the same coin.
The other main preoccupation of Season Two is unlikely love, with the most unlikely romance of the series occurring between Aziraphale and Crowley - Michale Sheen and David Tennant themselves. They are paired and partnered romantically throughout the series and their romance culminates in a kiss in the season finale. It’s a weird kiss. One you might expect of two old friends that didn’t actually want to kiss each other…
Good Omens Season Two manages to cover quite a lot of ground in six short episodes. Weighing good against evil in a quintessentially British setting is as enjoyable as you might imagine.
