good omens 2
Aug. 13th, 2023 03:33 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rivendellroseI didn't LOVE Good Omens s2, but I did very much like parts of it, and the cast was quite good. That said, I have some complaints.
My major complaint is that this was a six episode season that still managed to drag in the middle, and I didn't even honestly know that was possible until I saw this season. I certainly would not have suspected it of happening under the auspices of Neil Gaiman, who, whether you like him or not, is generally quite a good TV and movie scriptwriter. His full-length solo novels are often a bit saggy and wandering, in my opinion, but he's usually very tight and cohesive in shorter form, which is basically what TV is, so... let's just say I suspect he was letting the other guy who got a writing credit do rather more of the work than he would probably admit to. And that's a shame, particularly since he went on so about how Terry would have approved of this sequel series. That's nonsense: while he was in his right mind, Terry Pratchett abhorred flabby manuscripts, and he never let a single piece of his work go to print with excess on it, I don't believe. (While he was in his right mind. The less said about Raising Steam and The Shepherd's Crown, in my opinion, the better.)
This is especially awful when you think about how much happens in the actual (sigh, now "first" season of) Good Omens, and how neatly it is all accomplished, without any excess at all. It's obvious that that was a sizable and well-written novel with a lot happening being cut down to a TV miniseries, while this was four spacious and roomy episodes of TV, unconscionably stretched out to six by two frankly stupid and pointless filler episodes.
So, I wasn't a huge fan of that, and I think it was lazy on Neil's part. Probably Amazon 'made' him do it, but nobody had a knife at his throat demanding this sequel season, so that's not much of an excuse, in my opinion. I doubt they even paid well for it, the cheap bastards.
Anyway.
The cast was, of course, charming as always, and it was nice seeing Nina Sosanya again -- I've always liked her quite a lot. There was a kind of a weird repertory quality to her and Miranda Richardson both returning as different characters -- I kept half suspecting that Nina really was still Sister Mary Loquacious in some way and Shax was... somehow connected with Madame Tracy? Perhaps Madame Tracy had been possessed twice over? The first half made sense in my head, but the second I couldn't quite make fit, and both sort of drove me to a lot of weird places when it turned out nothing was going to happen with them after all.
Speaking of which, I kept expecting Nina's girlfriend, Lindsay, to be significant, in the sense that if someone is mentioned that much but always off-screen, I assume they're going to turn out to actually be someone else we already know, or that they'll appear at the last minute and be very significant to the plot, and probably played by a significant cameo actor. I had worked up a whole theory in my head that Lindsay was going to appear among the not-quite-legion of demons at the end. But then... nothing. What gives? I'm sorry, but I feel it's wrong to put something that big and obvious on the mantelpiece and then never do anything with it.
And, you know, I Did Not Want any more Doctor Who references after the last few episodes (we get it, David Tennant played the Doctor!), but... well, when I thought about Lindsay showing up at the end as a demon, obviously she would be an actress I knew, and with all of the Known BBC Actors flitting around the place, my brain somehow got caught on hey, what if she was played by Catherine Tate? She's the right age. She's good at being loud and obnoxious. And she could probably be quite scary if she wanted to, which would be a nice new thing that I've never seen her do before in a serious way!
(Another actress I considered for the part: Jameela Jamil. Just because it might be amusing, and it would be a nice little stretch for her, and the first time I ever saw her in something it was Celebrity Bake Off with her and Michael Sheen together, so the free association connection has been made.)
Anyway.
Derek Jacobi is Not The Metatron, but that's 99% because Alan Rickman is the Metatron and I will never accept another, and 1% because Derek Jacobi is an elitist anti-Stratfordian and I don't like him. He did a fine job, but I'll always be a bit "hmph" about him because of that, and... well, Alan Rickman. And I'd already started mumbling about how I wanted to see Dogma again by the time he showed up, so, again, the free association had been made.
Overall... it was a perfectly fine thing to watch, but I don't... actually think it needed to happen? I don't think Terry would have been particularly pleased for it to have happened? And I definitely think he would not have approved of the cliffhanger, because while I know TV looooves a cliffhanger when they're angling for a renewal (and when aren't they?), I don't think Terry Pratchett ever left a thread loose at the end of anything he did, and he definitely never left it on a sucker-punch like that. So boo to that.
My major complaint is that this was a six episode season that still managed to drag in the middle, and I didn't even honestly know that was possible until I saw this season. I certainly would not have suspected it of happening under the auspices of Neil Gaiman, who, whether you like him or not, is generally quite a good TV and movie scriptwriter. His full-length solo novels are often a bit saggy and wandering, in my opinion, but he's usually very tight and cohesive in shorter form, which is basically what TV is, so... let's just say I suspect he was letting the other guy who got a writing credit do rather more of the work than he would probably admit to. And that's a shame, particularly since he went on so about how Terry would have approved of this sequel series. That's nonsense: while he was in his right mind, Terry Pratchett abhorred flabby manuscripts, and he never let a single piece of his work go to print with excess on it, I don't believe. (While he was in his right mind. The less said about Raising Steam and The Shepherd's Crown, in my opinion, the better.)
This is especially awful when you think about how much happens in the actual (sigh, now "first" season of) Good Omens, and how neatly it is all accomplished, without any excess at all. It's obvious that that was a sizable and well-written novel with a lot happening being cut down to a TV miniseries, while this was four spacious and roomy episodes of TV, unconscionably stretched out to six by two frankly stupid and pointless filler episodes.
So, I wasn't a huge fan of that, and I think it was lazy on Neil's part. Probably Amazon 'made' him do it, but nobody had a knife at his throat demanding this sequel season, so that's not much of an excuse, in my opinion. I doubt they even paid well for it, the cheap bastards.
Anyway.
The cast was, of course, charming as always, and it was nice seeing Nina Sosanya again -- I've always liked her quite a lot. There was a kind of a weird repertory quality to her and Miranda Richardson both returning as different characters -- I kept half suspecting that Nina really was still Sister Mary Loquacious in some way and Shax was... somehow connected with Madame Tracy? Perhaps Madame Tracy had been possessed twice over? The first half made sense in my head, but the second I couldn't quite make fit, and both sort of drove me to a lot of weird places when it turned out nothing was going to happen with them after all.
Speaking of which, I kept expecting Nina's girlfriend, Lindsay, to be significant, in the sense that if someone is mentioned that much but always off-screen, I assume they're going to turn out to actually be someone else we already know, or that they'll appear at the last minute and be very significant to the plot, and probably played by a significant cameo actor. I had worked up a whole theory in my head that Lindsay was going to appear among the not-quite-legion of demons at the end. But then... nothing. What gives? I'm sorry, but I feel it's wrong to put something that big and obvious on the mantelpiece and then never do anything with it.
And, you know, I Did Not Want any more Doctor Who references after the last few episodes (we get it, David Tennant played the Doctor!), but... well, when I thought about Lindsay showing up at the end as a demon, obviously she would be an actress I knew, and with all of the Known BBC Actors flitting around the place, my brain somehow got caught on hey, what if she was played by Catherine Tate? She's the right age. She's good at being loud and obnoxious. And she could probably be quite scary if she wanted to, which would be a nice new thing that I've never seen her do before in a serious way!
(Another actress I considered for the part: Jameela Jamil. Just because it might be amusing, and it would be a nice little stretch for her, and the first time I ever saw her in something it was Celebrity Bake Off with her and Michael Sheen together, so the free association connection has been made.)
Anyway.
Derek Jacobi is Not The Metatron, but that's 99% because Alan Rickman is the Metatron and I will never accept another, and 1% because Derek Jacobi is an elitist anti-Stratfordian and I don't like him. He did a fine job, but I'll always be a bit "hmph" about him because of that, and... well, Alan Rickman. And I'd already started mumbling about how I wanted to see Dogma again by the time he showed up, so, again, the free association had been made.
Overall... it was a perfectly fine thing to watch, but I don't... actually think it needed to happen? I don't think Terry would have been particularly pleased for it to have happened? And I definitely think he would not have approved of the cliffhanger, because while I know TV looooves a cliffhanger when they're angling for a renewal (and when aren't they?), I don't think Terry Pratchett ever left a thread loose at the end of anything he did, and he definitely never left it on a sucker-punch like that. So boo to that.
no subject
Date: 2023-08-14 02:22 am (UTC)It was really nice to see their faces again though.
I think the only point of Lindsay was to make Nina not single.
no subject
Date: 2023-08-14 03:39 am (UTC)Their faces were indeed very nice! This (apart from Celebrity Bake Off) is pretty much my first experience with Michael Sheen, but I like him very much as Aziraphale, and I've always loved Tennant.
I mean, yes, obviously. But I like to give people the credit of being able to do more than one thing with a character. And also it would just be nice to not have a character exist solely to be quite so one-dimensionally horrid for no good reason.
no subject
Date: 2023-08-14 04:19 am (UTC)Just rewatched the first season, and there's so much going on, and it all just ticks a long. I didn't like a couple of the plots, but they weren't boring.
I mostly know Sheen as Kate Beckansale's ex.
no subject
Date: 2023-08-14 04:24 am (UTC)Oh, gosh yes. Not all the stuff in the original show (or even the book) is my jam, but there is SO MUCH HAPPENING. Then you get to this and it's so thin and stretched out.
...Well, I would never in a million years have predicted that. Huh.
no subject
Date: 2023-08-14 04:29 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-08-14 04:33 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-08-14 08:53 am (UTC)A friend who Knows People has commented that all of Gaiman's scripts for Doctor Who have been a hot mess that then someone had to go and *ahem* "doctor" to get into enough shape to put into production.
And yet I will probably still consume neary anything Gaiman-ish I can get my hands on XD