Sorry about the late reply, but such a great comment deserves more than a 2-minute "Thanks :)" response. Ditto. Although in my case it's also because I have been reading the book, and wanted to finish it before I replied, so I could be properly informed.
Absolutely. And I love that part. (And I love how Michael Sheen has been allll over it on social media.) Michael Sheen is fandom's new boyfriend, and quite rightly too! :) Also, I knew that the Crowley/Aziraphale angle had been used as a focus for the show, but reading the book really throws that into stark relief. It's an amazing feat.
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! This is where (pondering the translation from book to screen) that I think the TV show just gets far more mileage out of it. Sure it's a fun thing, and possibly over-explains the baby swap, but it does more than that. It's when one of the cards is shown to change and now depicts a (very distinctive) image of the devil, as a way for us to visualise 'the Adversary, Destroyer of Kings, Angel of the Bottomless Pit, Great Beast that is called Dragon, Prince of This World, Father of Lies, Spawn of Satan, and Lord of Darkness', beyond the amusing and OTT title, and mentally tag the evil baby. Because it's the same image that Anathema puts up in her cottage, and the same image that Adam sees and that flicks the switch in his brain so that he becomes aware of his powers, and we are reminded of who/what he really is. (It's a bit like the fez and the mop in The Big Bang, anchoring images that we can process.) The show is full of them, and I honestly feel like Christmas came early.
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. I see what you mean, but 6000 year old immortal renegades are *inherently* more interesting than any human. You may have seen this, but their story became what anchored the whole story and pulled it together. The book is very... democratic, for lack of a better word. It feels like the best of Classic Who (say, City of Death). Story-driven. Whereas the show is character driven, through-and-through. Which you prefer I'm guessing is down to personal taste. I know that, for me, Aziraphale's 'To the world' hits me harder than anything has for many, many years. It floors me. (Also see this little Tumblr thread.) None of the other characters have that sort of scope.
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. First of all - that's a brilliant moment (as are all the random possessions), but again it's about focus? Faith & religion are huge, huge subjects. The show borrows the imagery and uses it, but I don't know that it's interested in those questions? Because once you start, you'll end up as The Good Place with no space for anything else. Or look at Sabrina, which co-ops the whole pantheon as metaphors for the evils of the patriarchy. It's a funny book about the end of the world, and although the book goes into things a tiny bit more (like you say, that scene where they discuss the rapture), I don't know that shoe-horning it in would have done any good. Overall, as you say, 'Be kind to each other' is probably by far the simplest and best message.
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. I saw. It's hilarious. I'm also amused that they're so angry about 'the occult' and not Teh Gay. But then I figure they haven't watched it...
I did love that scene. Especially with Crowley being the one to "tempt" him, and explaining he only wanted him to see the world. Again, the theology of this show is... *hands* A fairy tale.
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. It certainly is. Although I'd (of course) argue that it's damn near perfect. I was reading the book and basically just found myself in AWE at the skill with which Neil Gaiman translated it to the screen. The only vaguely comparable thing is Lord of the Rings. It's *exquisite*. And the sheer attention to detail is ridiculous. This thing has so many layers I don't even know where to start.
(I could carry on, but I think I'll try to write something of my own. Apologies for the tl;dr.)
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Date: 2019-06-25 09:52 am (UTC)Ditto. Although in my case it's also because I have been reading the book, and wanted to finish it before I replied, so I could be properly informed.
Absolutely. And I love that part. (And I love how Michael Sheen has been allll over it on social media.)
Michael Sheen is fandom's new boyfriend, and quite rightly too! :) Also, I knew that the Crowley/Aziraphale angle had been used as a focus for the show, but reading the book really throws that into stark relief. It's an amazing feat.
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!
This is where (pondering the translation from book to screen) that I think the TV show just gets far more mileage out of it. Sure it's a fun thing, and possibly over-explains the baby swap, but it does more than that. It's when one of the cards is shown to change and now depicts a (very distinctive) image of the devil, as a way for us to visualise 'the Adversary, Destroyer of Kings, Angel of the Bottomless Pit, Great Beast that is called Dragon, Prince of This World, Father of Lies, Spawn of Satan, and Lord of Darkness', beyond the amusing and OTT title, and mentally tag the evil baby. Because it's the same image that Anathema puts up in her cottage, and the same image that Adam sees and that flicks the switch in his brain so that he becomes aware of his powers, and we are reminded of who/what he really is. (It's a bit like the fez and the mop in The Big Bang, anchoring images that we can process.) The show is full of them, and I honestly feel like Christmas came early.
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.
I see what you mean, but 6000 year old immortal renegades are *inherently* more interesting than any human. You may have seen this, but their story became what anchored the whole story and pulled it together. The book is very... democratic, for lack of a better word. It feels like the best of Classic Who (say, City of Death). Story-driven. Whereas the show is character driven, through-and-through. Which you prefer I'm guessing is down to personal taste. I know that, for me, Aziraphale's 'To the world' hits me harder than anything has for many, many years. It floors me. (Also see this little Tumblr thread.) None of the other characters have that sort of scope.
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.
First of all - that's a brilliant moment (as are all the random possessions), but again it's about focus? Faith & religion are huge, huge subjects. The show borrows the imagery and uses it, but I don't know that it's interested in those questions? Because once you start, you'll end up as The Good Place with no space for anything else. Or look at Sabrina, which co-ops the whole pantheon as metaphors for the evils of the patriarchy. It's a funny book about the end of the world, and although the book goes into things a tiny bit more (like you say, that scene where they discuss the rapture), I don't know that shoe-horning it in would have done any good. Overall, as you say, 'Be kind to each other' is probably by far the simplest and best message.
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.
I saw. It's hilarious. I'm also amused that they're so angry about 'the occult' and not Teh Gay. But then I figure they haven't watched it...
I did love that scene. Especially with Crowley being the one to "tempt" him, and explaining he only wanted him to see the world.
Again, the theology of this show is... *hands* A fairy tale.
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.
It certainly is. Although I'd (of course) argue that it's damn near perfect. I was reading the book and basically just found myself in AWE at the skill with which Neil Gaiman translated it to the screen. The only vaguely comparable thing is Lord of the Rings. It's *exquisite*. And the sheer attention to detail is ridiculous. This thing has so many layers I don't even know where to start.
(I could carry on, but I think I'll try to write something of my own. Apologies for the tl;dr.)