Good Omens 2 - does the story stack up against the first season?

While the first season of Good Omens, on Amazon Prime Video, had the benefit of a well-constructed novel by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman to riff on, its sequel has a half-remembered storyline from over 30 years ago that was never turned into a pamphlet, let alone a novel. Does it suffer as a result?

[@clarestubbs9303]

Series 2 is a link between series 1 and the plot that Terry and Neil discussed in a hotel room but never committed to paper (which will be series 3) so this series was just a character piece and a plot device to get the characters in a certain situation ready for the beginning of series 3.

[@kayakutah]

I enjoyed the first season. I also enjoyed the beginning of the second season, but around episode 3 it seemed the writers went on an early strike. The zillion year-old angel couldn't seem to put a coherent sentence together. I like the participants, but the writing really did seem to fall off a cliff. It was hard to stay interested.

[@HaveYouSeen]

I would suggest there wasn't much of a story to lock onto. Guy hangs around a bookshop for 5 eps. In the sixth ep it's like, oh yeah, he's been in love with his opposite number, and now his memory is back, and she's here and now they're leaving. See ya's! It was really flat. It was really simple. There was basically nothing to it, and it was the main storyline!

[@Sentientmatter8]

To be clear, the second season of Good Omens is NOT the sequel that Terry and Neil plotted out together. Neil has explicitly said this. It is a bridge season that Neil thought was necessary between the two two sequels. Season 3 is meant to be that long awaited sequel. So yes, the narrative is somewhat weak, but it is a setup, not a story in of itself. So having this new information, do your thoughts change in any way?

[@HaveYouSeen]

It certainly changes things if the background is, "Oh, I meant it to be basic..." because then, sure, it is what it is. It's a very basic piece of television. The main plot is so threadbare, it's only saved by the historical flashbacks and, I would suggest, 'da feels' that certain audience members - certainly not all of us - crave. What I would question is the sanity of doing this. Having an ace card up your sleeve, but not playing it is a brave gamble. Rather than a 1-2 combination, to use a boxing term, Gaiman's going for a punch, a feint, and then another punch. It can still work, I just don't think it's as effective.

[@kayakutah]

No, not for me. I just thought the dialog was very weak. I'm not bothered by a "romance" but for entities this old, a physical, Vs. spiritual connection just seems like an "easy out". I saw them more as two creatures "sharing a foxhole" than adolescents in love.

[@vikaziza1506]

No. I mean if the 2nd season is there only to connect the 1st and future 3rd season together, why not just work on the 3rd season instead? This season was just a dissapointment for me (except for the last 5 minutes).

[@kevenpinder7025]

The story, in and of itself, was fine. It's reliance on the Job and Nazi magic show was a bit heavy, but the real problem was the story was presented out of order. We don't learn what the jeopardy was until it's resolved.

[@HaveYouSeen]

The Job segment was the most boring part of the series, which is a shame, as it featured my all-time favourite Doctor in it.

[@bigd4998]

Really enjoyed season 1 but agree the story in season 2 was not as strong (first seem bigger in scope and urgency unlike the second)but enjoyed the character development. Hope a season 3 comes

[@prosen8966]

Ok. While I happen to be an English major, I never read Good Omens and thus had no preconceptions whatsoever regarding the series. I’d also seen both Michael Sheen and David Tennant in dif projects wherein I was inclined to like them (quite a lot, tbh) & it turned out that while the first go thru of the series, obviously, I was enthralled w the plotline (bc how could I possibly know what would eventually happen?) just from the, what? 30 minute intro to episode three of season 1, it was TOTALLY CLEAR TO ME what I did and did not truly care about in any big way in the series. So, yeah, I sort of cared about Adam, to the extent that I would care about any 11 yr old boy in the middle of the apocalypse, and I liked the witch, whose name is too long for me to recall & I didn’t really care abt her romance w t bumbling non-computer geek. I DID care that there wasn’t any real dif to be found between Heaven & Hell when it came down to the upcoming war & that their morals didn’t seem to be much dif from one another (or from humans) but just in an interested manner, not a religious sense, bc I’m a reformed Jewish indl & didn’t care abt the religious implications of the show. At all. I cared abt the almost romance between Crowley & Aziraphale for 6000 yrs that in 1967 Aziraphale felt Crowley was “moving too fast” for him. I’d say he had the patience of Job (but we actually met him in s2 so I’ll just say Crowley was/is the nicest demon I’ll probably ever encounter in fiction, ever. He made me look twice at Lucifer, and I thought I loved Lucifer (the guy in the tv series). So when I heard there would be a s2, I wasn’t really looking to see all the other ppl from s1 other than probably those from either Heaven or Hell and thank goodness that was true. (Except for one character they recycled.) But that just made many videos of s2 more interesting. I would have been happy to watch Crowley and Aziraphale read the phone bks to one another and since they did more then that, I liked the season overall. I wasn’t into the zombies but then again, I’ve never been into zombies so that wasn’t unusual. (Even if one of them was Mycroft.) Also, how they made Jon Hamm (other than the nude scene) not appear fabulous looking was pretty amazing so I must be more into David Tennant than I realized. Or Michael Sheen. Or both. I really really wanted to see them get together (obviously). Indeed, the so-called ineffable husbands acted as if they were, in fact, in a de facto relationship to the extent that they spoke of it that way not just to other ppl but to each other, which made the ending so weird. Bc despite everything alluded to thruout the series, it appeared as if the two of them were not, in fact, sleeping together & that made many of their double entendres strange, at the very least, unless I’m wrong w my conclusion. The thing was, I didn’t care all that much abt the b-plot re the two woman except how the two men were thinking about getting the women together (to cover the miracle that was supposed to be abt getting them together instead of hiding Gabriel & tbh, I also spent much of the series thinking he was a terrible person just like Crowley. Indeed, just the scene where Crowley confronts Gabriel about what happened when he and Az “changed skins” was one of the most intense moments of the show.) I’ve rewatched the series three times already and it hasn’t lost any of its charm. (Except for the ending, of course.) Where Aziraphale apparently lost his mind. Bc if you follow both s1&2 of the series, no matter how much Aziraphale cares about Heaven, he cares a hell of a lot more about Crowley & it makes no sense whatsoever that he would choose Heaven over the entirety of their time together. [I guess if you’re looking for a trilogy, this is one way to do it, but now I’ll spend IDK how long thinking Aziraphale is the biggest nitwit of nitwits bc Crowley was right: they could have been “us”. ]😢 So whatever negative things ppl are saying abt the series, I liked it, I liked the main characters & I also happen to like the song Everyday AND Jane Austen (I know, shocking!!) so all in all, I was totally pleased w everything up until the Metatron did something suspicious to Aziraphale to screw over C&As love life. I’m sure I’ll find out what it was in season 3 (and I’ll read many many fanfics and watch many many videos while I wait…) 😊😊😊

[@GingerPeacenik]

Loved the first season, but I was very disappointed when Gaiman announced that the second series would focus on Heaven and Hell and a budding romance between two Soho shopkeepers. I thought that a new season devoted primarily to Crowley and Aziraphael’s adventures through history, while occasionally switching back to how they navigate their new lives on earth as free supernatural entities with a complicated relationship, would have offered loads of opportunities for comedy, adventure, and a bit of angst. But no, we get more of Gaiman’s unending obsession with Catholic mythology (boring as hell for us who are agnostic or otherwise non-Catholics) which was done to death in “Lucifer”, and yet another pointless human lesbian drama to check off the woke boxes as part of the mandatory virtue signaling to Hollywood and BBC operatives. A wonderful opportunity missed yet again. Hell, fanfic writers come up with better plot lines every bloody week! But that seems to be true for most series and movies these days. *sigh*

[@HaveYouSeen]

Yes, I think you've captured it well there. The storyline just wasn't very interesting, but every time we had a little vignette back in time, they were quite fun. As I said on the video, I think the theme of the potential third season sounds way more interesting, and getting Crowley and Aziraphael back together as a team has possibilities. Gaiman has absolutely set this up as the middle part of the drama; the part where everything goes wrong. Unfortunately, while many series make that chapter really interesting - think Empire Strikes Back in Star Wars - he manages to make it quite inconsequential.

[@GingerPeacenik]

Agreed. “The Empire Strikes back” was one of the few times that a sequel excelled over the first and third acts, certainly ( Spiderman 2 being, imo, one of the others in the short list of superior sequels). Gaiman had the raw material to turn “Good Omens” into a successful Dr. Who-type ongoing series, with every episode featuring the two characters in a new time and place facing brand new challenges. I suppose that there’s still time for that in a Season 3, if it gets renewed. Unfortunately, Gaiman already finished the script for that, and likely won’t heed the many critical reviews regardless. Like so many successful writers, he seems to have gotten a tad too comfortable and confident over time, and his plot lines have, at best, become lazy.

[@asthejayflies]

I think both of you are missing key information: gaiman has gone on record to say that season 2 of the show is not what was planned for book two - book two’s plot is going to be seen in season 3, and season 2 is meant to fill the gap between where the first part left off and where the second book wouldve started. season two feels like filler because it is, and i dont think thats a bad thing, even if it doesnt work for you. i find myself being more lenient because i wasnt expecting a grandiose plot driven dramatic story, i found the character dynamics compelling enough on their own i saw a tumblr post that made perfect sense to me about why season 2 is the way it is - in essence, the difference between heaven and hell in the book and the show is that in the book, they’re much more hands off and laid back, leaving the main two alone in the end because they want to forget their embarrassing failure, but in the show theyre much more of a threatening presence that tried to execute them for treason. Heaven in particular is similar to an abusive family with how aziraphale is treated and tries to fit in. so, if good omens book 2 were to feature aziraphale rejoining heaven to help with the second coming, then itd be like being pulled from retirement for one last job, whereas in the show - why would aziraphale want to come back to the side that tried to kill him? So the task for season 2 is setting up the circumstances that would lead to aziraphale willingly returning to heaven, such as being manipulated into thinking things could be different if he came back and “took charge” (he likely wont have any real power) as for religion being boring lore to work with - im atheist and i think the framework of heaven and hell being similar to abusive workplaces / families is a really interesting one!! I’m looking forward to seeing how aziraphale comes to realize he’s better off without heaven! And really, the lesbian side plot being woke virtue signaling? aziraphale and crowley have been queer from the very start, and nina and maggie are foils to them. nina’s abusive partner mirrors aziraphales toxic relationship with heaven, and maggies steadfast pining for her parallels crowleys devotion to aziraphale. they meddle in the humans’ love lives because it reminds them of theirselves and their own relationship issues. You may not like how it was executed, but it was far from pointless, and them being lesbians isnt for “woke points,” its because it wouldnt carry the same meaning if they had been straight! and the idea of making good omens a series of historical adventures is so out of place to me, because neil has said repeatedly that the show is about aziraphale and crowleys love story. Making the second season relationship focused is a natural extension of that. The purpose of the historical segments in s1 was to show their relationship growing over time, and the purpose of the historical segments in s2 was to show aziraphale’s struggles with heaven and morality in the job and gravedigger episodes (which ties into his choice to rejoin heaven and his coming arc in s3) and further show his complete love and trust in crowley in the 1941 magic trick flashback. if youre aching for a bigger adventure, then leave a high review for s2 on amazon so theyll wanna greenlight season 3, because i have every faith in neil that he will deliver a satisfying conclusion to both the heaven and hell plotline and crowley and aziraphales love story. As it stands, i think s2 is really worthwhile and im largely happy with what we got

[@HaveYouSeen]

@@asthejayflies thank you for sharing that information. In that case, I think Gaiman's posturing at present on social media that a third season is up to the response to this season might be stretching credulity. There's no way you'd make this season if you had a much more interesting story to tell. You wouldn't risk the numbers tanking and never getting to tell the good story, instead of this mediocre one. So my takeaway is two-fold - first, he likely got a two season deal. It would also explain why the city set used for season two has been left standing and second, it's good to know that the third season features his (and Terry's) 'big idea', because this certainly didn't feel like it. This was very, very filler.

[@heathcliffO_o]

I enjoyed the new season. More time with the angel and demon duo was welcome. I thought the pacing was picture perfect and I laughed a bunch of times. Big belly laughs too not just chuckles. It was a sweet season that helped put everybody in the right place for a season based on the second coming. If I had any issue at all in would be that there just wasn't enough of the romantic moments between the two main cast members and even less between the sub plot love story characters. Both of those felt like they got back seated and that's a shame.

[@robertandersson3417]

I enjoyed the 1st season, but the 2nd season gets a 4/10. It is to woke, uninteresting and often plain dumb. I did get a few laughs which is why I it still gets a 4/10. But it could have been so much better. "I want 10 000 demons to attack that bookstore, oh I get 70? Ok that's fine". I mean come on it is to dumb.

[@soil80]

I don't agree about the two romances being weak or uninteresting. They both were a plot device to develop and define Azi's and Crowley's relationship. They tied better into the main characters' arc than the characters in the first season. I really got bored watching the first season but the second was much more fast paced and to the point.

[@HaveYouSeen]

Much more to the point, yes, as it was so basic. "Gabriel's here with no memory... what's all that about?" and then it gets resolved in a very basic way in the final episode, with very little detective work in between, and no detective work that actually mattered. The whole 6 episodes were - as I said in the video - more of a character piece. And that clearly resonated with you. It didn't resonate with me. There were interesting little bits here and there, but it largely felt like filler. Hopefully Season Three is more like the first with a proper story in play.

[@TheRadiationbum]

Its feels sort of 50% good and %50 bad and it doesn't help that they reused the same cast to play different characters and are pushing the modernize left leaning world view, they might as well make a 3rd season as season 2 seems to only be half a story

[@kunatip7]

most stupid comment in here yall.

[@darrenedwards5925]

1 was awesome ,,,,,, no 2 ,,,,,,, was not interested in the story of woke ,relationships , wow how dumb can they be , might as been on dr who or new star trek ! so so sad . power to the few and to hell with the rest !

[@asthejayflies]

buddy good omens and star trek have always been woke i dont know what to tell you

[@darrenedwards5925]

fool @@asthejayflies

[@UltimateLegoFan324]

If you unironically say woke you are a fucking moron

[@Bobbyjonesyrrr]

Oh god, there is a season 3? This show is so awful Id rather stick needles in my eyes than watch it again.