Authors and Nerd Gods Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman once collaborated on a novel,Good Omens.It’s about an angel and a demon who got a little too comfy on Earth to tolerate the apocalypse and try to thwart it. It’s been in development almost as long as Gaiman’s Sandman comics series, and it is, after years of gyrating through different creative hands and visions, finally coming to television on Amazon Prime. TV feels like a good space forGood Omens,which has a lot of fun, weird corners a movie wouldn’t have time to visit (not unlike the Gaiman adaptionAmerican Gods). Amazon has released the first trailer forGood Omensand it looks fine.
I am super into the casting.Michael Sheenas a nervous Nellie angel, Aziraphale, andDavid Tennantas a vaguely skeevy English hipster demon, Crowley, are pretty inspired choices. I really like every moment of those two together. I love the way Sheen exclaims, “We’re not friends!” But I don’t care for anything else in this trailer. It looks a little…plain.American Godsand the similarly apocalyptic Preacher have both delivered on creative, cinematic spectacles. Comparatively,Good Omenslooks a little flat. Hopefully the TV show expands the visuals a bit, but comparing this tothe trailers forAmerican GodsandPreacher, you can really see the difference. I think maybe it’s the lighting—it’s flat, so everything from different time periods to planes of existence looks the same. Television has long had a bad rap for lighting, and this isn’t helping.
But it might also be that this trailer is leaning hard on Aziraphale and Crowley, who are only half the story. The other half of the story is Adam, the child Antichrist, who is up to (mostly) normal kid stuff with his friends in small-town England. I can’t even find Adam in this trailer, is how far down they’ve demoted him. Yes, Aziraphale and Crowley are fun, palling around England and trading spectacular dialogue, but the backbone of the STORY is to do with Adam. Maybe they feel like holding back is a way to avoid any backlash from conservative religious factions, butPreacherandLucifer—the perfectly mediocre and highly bastardized adaptation ofNeil Gaiman的漫画已经幸存多个相同的季节,so why bother? You KNOW someone will clutch their pearls, why worry about it? I’m just not sure why there is no hint that Aziraphale and Crowley are trying to find the Antichrist but they’ve lost track of him due to a mix-up at a hospital. That’s funny! That’s a good hook. It gives a frame to what the angel and the demon are doing and why you should invest in it. As is, allGood Omensis doing is reminding me that I like Michael Sheen and David Tennant.
