That scene was one of the most hilarious things it has ever been my privilege to watch.
That's interesting. I'm beginning to think it wasn't a great idea to re-read the novel just a few weeks before the show aired. To me, that scene felt strained; it could have been made to flow so much better by either ditching (or at least downplaying) the 3-card-monte thing or by not showing us the same thing. But I'm glad it worked for you!
They fall in love with each other. And... sort of become human in the process.
Point taken, and bad phrasing on my part. And like I said, all the bits with Crowley and Aziraphale work really well. It just bugs me a bit (and this is a criticism of the novel as well) that they are, if anything, more human than all the other characters. With six hours I do think they had time to get into other characters as well, but if anything they made them less three-dimensional, IMO. Especially Adam and Anathema.
Depends on how you view it I guess - if you see Heaven & Hell as fundamentalists, happy to destroy anything in their path just to prove they're right, following rules for the sake of it, and Aziraphale & Crowley as those questioning the system, who put kindness above everything... Then I'd say it's very critical of uncritical faith, especially the way Heaven was portrayed - Gabriel came across as so many tele-evangelists. After all, in this story, Jesus is killed for telling people to be kind to each other, and the importance of kindness is the overall theme, from Aziraphale giving the sword to Adam and Eve, to Crowley and Aziraphale
Absolutely, and again, bad phrasing on my part. I should have said religion rather than faith. It just feels a bit weird to have a show that's so explicitly about heaven, hell, God, Satan, angels, demons, etc etc... and the only time any actual human religion shows up is in that flashback to the Blitz. The novel at least acknowledges that some of the characters are religious. I'm not asking for it to be a huge part, but I'd have loved to see the scene from the book where Aziraphale temporarily possesses a US televangelist, for instance.
After all, in this story, Jesus is killed for telling people to be kind to each other
I did love that scene. Especially with Crowley being the one to "tempt" him, and explaining he only wanted him to see the world.
All that said: I'm really glad so many are liking this, to see the fandom flare up again after all these years, and like I said - that we got an enjoyable, if IMO far from perfect, adaptation with a lot of things to build on and discuss. That's awesome, in every sense of the word.
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Date: 2019-06-20 08:10 pm (UTC)Oh it's a great deal more than that...
I agree that it wants to be, and a lot of the time succeeds in.
It's a love story. And it's not even subtle about it. The point of the series is a demon and an angel fall in love.
Absolutely. And I love that part. (And I love how Michael Sheen has been allll over it on social media.)
That scene was one of the most hilarious things it has ever been my privilege to watch.
That's interesting. I'm beginning to think it wasn't a great idea to re-read the novel just a few weeks before the show aired. To me, that scene felt strained; it could have been made to flow so much better by either ditching (or at least downplaying) the 3-card-monte thing or by not showing us the same thing. But I'm glad it worked for you!
They fall in love with each other. And... sort of become human in the process.
Point taken, and bad phrasing on my part. And like I said, all the bits with Crowley and Aziraphale work really well. It just bugs me a bit (and this is a criticism of the novel as well) that they are, if anything, more human than all the other characters. With six hours I do think they had time to get into other characters as well, but if anything they made them less three-dimensional, IMO. Especially Adam and Anathema.
Depends on how you view it I guess - if you see Heaven & Hell as fundamentalists, happy to destroy anything in their path just to prove they're right, following rules for the sake of it, and Aziraphale & Crowley as those questioning the system, who put kindness above everything... Then I'd say it's very critical of uncritical faith, especially the way Heaven was portrayed - Gabriel came across as so many tele-evangelists. After all, in this story, Jesus is killed for telling people to be kind to each other, and the importance of kindness is the overall theme, from Aziraphale giving the sword to Adam and Eve, to Crowley and Aziraphale
Absolutely, and again, bad phrasing on my part. I should have said religion rather than faith. It just feels a bit weird to have a show that's so explicitly about heaven, hell, God, Satan, angels, demons, etc etc... and the only time any actual human religion shows up is in that flashback to the Blitz. The novel at least acknowledges that some of the characters are religious. I'm not asking for it to be a huge part, but I'd have loved to see the scene from the book where Aziraphale temporarily possesses a US televangelist, for instance.
ETA: They seem to have hit a sore spot anyway. 20 000 US evengelicals petition Netflix to cancel Good Omens. Yes, Netflix. Yes, cancel a finished miniseries.
After all, in this story, Jesus is killed for telling people to be kind to each other
I did love that scene. Especially with Crowley being the one to "tempt" him, and explaining he only wanted him to see the world.
All that said: I'm really glad so many are liking this, to see the fandom flare up again after all these years, and like I said - that we got an enjoyable, if IMO far from perfect, adaptation with a lot of things to build on and discuss. That's awesome, in every sense of the word.