Good Omens: Review

Over the last few years it has become increasingly harder for me to read a book. When I was younger I had no problem. I could read anything anywhere and even if I didn't enjoy it much I'd read it until the end. Between the ages of 10 and 12 I'd go through a pile of books like butter. This became less I'm afraid with the discovery of film and television. Long nights reading "just another chapter" became "just another episode". It's a situation that has become all too common and striking that balance is difficult.

Anyway, the point of this little opening rant is that Good Omens is the first book I've read in a very long time that I couldn't put down. Brilliant characters, wit and humour, supernatural elements with a unique spin and the combined writing style of two of the greatest novelists in the fantasy genre. Good Omens is a rare beast indeed.

I read the book before the TV show was announced but not long before which means the text was fairly fresh in my memory going in which may have been a blessing and a curse.

Good Omens is the latest mini-series to be released by Amazon to high praise. I've been a fan of some of their shows, The Marvellous Mrs Maisel springs to mind as does its complete tonal opposite Mr Robot. Amazon have certainly pulled their strings to get the adaptation book fans have been dreaming of. David Tennant, Michael Sheen and weirdly Benedict Cumberbatch in his least memorable role since Starter for Ten. They've also done that rare, wonderful thing of adapting the book exactly (minus a few elements) which was much appreciated as a fan. In many ways Good Omens is the perfect adaptation... but it also left me feeling a bit... empty.

The story is about the apocalypse. Or more specifically an Angel and a Demon who have been living on Earth for way too long, and grown rather fond of it and don't want to see it destroyed in fire and brimstone. The catalyst for the apocalypse is of course, the anti-christ who the Angel and Demon decide to keep an eye on in disguise. Hoping that they will cancel each other out in order to raise an ordinary child. However, due to a tremendous mix up in a hospital, the anti-christ is mis-placed. Along with a host of other characters Aziraphale and Crowley must find the anti-christ in order to stop armageddon.

And a lot of that happens in episode 1.

My problem isn't with the star studded casting which I thought was perfect (Michael Sheen steals the show as Aziraphale) but the lack of conflict. Now, before a hoard of book lovers come after me I understand that the lack of conflict is kind of the point. It is after all a comedy fantasy and on those two levels it delivers but there's something books have that TV and Film doesn't. Time. TV runs on momentum and conflict. It's deeply embedded into its coding which is why most stories need a bit of tweaking from their original form in order to work on the silver screen. A treatment that Good Omens sadly could have used for the first couple of episodes. Some events happen way too fast and some scenes seem to take forever to get to the point. Something that is perfectly enjoyable in a book, but frustrating to witness on screen.

The book is also embedded with the voices of Gaiman and Pratchett which is replaced here by the voice of god. While I appreciate their effort to include some of the books written tone this way, I found it only hindered my enjoyment. The less god-sposition we got the more I found myself enjoying the series. The opening monologue would have been enough for me in all honestly. A story like this needs its own breathing space. After all, some jokes just work better written down. Something that maybe would have worked a little better would have been Sargent Shadwell as narrator or even better the voice of Agnes Nutter who's voice occupies a lot of the original book.

Then we have the elephant in the room. The god awful CGI (no pun intended). There are times during this series where I feel like the early Star Trek films could have done a better job. Bad CGI doesn't usually annoy me this much. I find good stories will engage your imagination enough that it doesn't matter and if the CGI is of a certain style (Like the netflix A Series of Unfortunate Events) then I can forgive a lot. The problem is when everything else looks so brilliant, bad CGI can be one of the most distracting things in the world. The Good Omens CGI isn't just bad, it's inconsistent which means you can see instantly which effects got the most money spent on them. Everything in camera looks like it's leaped right out of my imagination. It looks perfect. Anything added in post looks cheap and I wouldn't even mind if they'd kept it like that the whole way through. Also... David Tennant's weird yellow contacts... get rid, they're not needed and look properly weird. If you need to change his eye colour give him normal yellow contacts not ones that look like 100 year old gobstoppers.

So was there anything about this adaptation that I liked...

Yes. I actually liked it a lot. The performances alone make it worth watching and there were some additions and subtractions which I loved. John Hamm as Gabriel was a welcome addition as were some new scenes exploring the history of Crowley and Aziraphale. We spend less time with Adam the anti-christ which I was very grateful for since those scenes were my least favourite from the book. Episodes 3, 4 and 5 were perfect mostly because there was no narration and some of my favourite book scenes were brought to life better than I ever could have imagined. And some added ending scenes were very enjoyable although if they decide to make a second series I might actually explode.

In short Good Omens is a great companion to an even better book. A miniseries worth watching with an infectious feel-good factor. However, for a really great time do yourself a favour and pick up the source material. Maybe, like me, it'll be enough to tear you away from screens for a while.

7/10