I spend a lot of time writing hate-reviews of TV programmes
and films that I can't stand, for example:
https://hpanwo-voice.blogspot.com/2015/03/the-great-ufo-conspiracy-review.html,
so wouldn't it be nice for a change for me to write about a programme I do
like? There's not much on TV that I can stomach these days, so little in fact
that I've basically given up watching it except on those odd occasions when
somebody else who knows my tastes makes me aware of a jewel in the dung-heap.
In this instance it was a Facebook friend of mine who told me about
Good Omens. This is a comedy miniseries
that has just been released onto the BBC and Amazon Prime and is based on a
book co-authored by the late Terry Pratchett. Because it is a joint BBC
production, my hopes weren't high; but they were dispelled the moment I started
watching it.
Good Omens is a six-part
comedy serial about a very unusual friendship between an angel and a demon. It
is both incredibly witty and very well produced; it is also deeply
thought-provoking. Aziraphale is an angel played by Michael Sheen. He's a
rather effete and goody-two-shoes kind of person, as you'd expect an angel to
be. Because of a mishap during the process of Creation he ends up having to
collude with a demon called
Crowley.
Crowley was the snake in the Garden
of Eden who then takes on human form as David Tennant, of
Doctor Who fame.
Crowley
is a wise-cracking man-about-town who reminds me of that other very charismatic
Hornèd One played by Al Pacino in
The
Devil's Advocate. He drives recklessly around
London
in an old Bentley Derby, playing Queen at full volume on the stereo; although
he always has to wear sunglasses to conceal his serpentine eyes. He and Aziraphale
have a strange and fascinating love-hate relationship. The blunders continue in
the run-up to Armageddon when the Antichrist is born and is handed to the wrong
parents. This results in a very abortive and botched apocalypse.
There are numerous skits on the film
The Omen as the Devil Child grows older, along with the burgeoning
errors in the plan for Judgement Day because he is with the wrong mother and
father. By the time the denizens of Hell realize their mistake, it is too late.
Another player in the game is the descendent of a prophet. Her name is Anathema
Device and her ancestor is called Agnes Nutter. The naming of the characters in
this series is superb and reminds me of Stanley Kubrick's
Dr Strangelove. Anathema is fixated on Agnes' legend and uses her mystical
book of predictions to find the Antichrist herself.
Good Omens is clearly a satire of Judeo-Christian eschatology. What
makes it fascinating is that the moral of the story is far less black-and-white
than the mythology it lampoons. Aziraphale is not pure lilywhite goodness.
Beneath his squeaky clean exterior he can be deceptive, manipulative and very
passive-aggressive. Conversely
Crowley
is not pure evil. He feels very fond of his angelic friend and has a sense of
fair play and justice. It is as if these two agents become more like the other
as a result of their companionship. This gets both of them into serious trouble
with their overlords, or rather underlords in
Crowley's
case. The idea that earthy experience breaks down the duality of Heaven and
Hell is a very prevalent one in Gnosticism. In the process of
Crowley
and Aziraphale's friendship, you could say that the two poles of Yin and Yang are
blended in the perfection of the Tao, all energies in balance. As the angel
says to the eleven-year-old Antichrist: "Some hoped there would be a God
incarnate.
Crowley hoped you were
the Devil incarnate. But you're better than both of those; you are
human incarnate!" Oddly enough
there is no actual Messiah or Second Coming in this story. It is interesting
that the problem Aziraphale causes in the Garden of Eden is all to do with a
flaming sword. In Genesis 3:24 it reads that:
"The Lord God drove out the man and He placed at the east of the
Garden of Eden cherubim with flaming swords which turned every way to keep the
man distant from the tree of life." In this revised scripture Aziraphale
gives the flaming sword to Adam because: "There are vicious animals! It's
going to be cold out there and she's expecting already." Indeed in the
same scene we see Adam using the flaming sword to drive away a lion. Later on,
the same sword is used by the school friends of the Antichrist to kill the Four
Horsemen of the Apocalypse. It is astonishing that in this version of the perennial
tale, the weapon of Promethean divinity is put into the hand of man which
allows him to destroy the forces of darkness without the help of God. In the
final scene,
Crowley says to Aziraphale:
"Doesn't it make you wonder if the Almighty planned it this way all
along." I also wonder if He did. In fact both the demons and angels join
forces and stand side-by-side and shoulder-to-shoulder in unison to punish
Crowley
and Aziraphale for their treason; for spoiling the fun they were expecting in
the final battle of the End Times. Despite it being a joint BBC production, in
Good Omens there is a refreshing lack of
political correctness. There are some elements that could be interpreted as culturally
Marxist, such as God being female; also the fact that Adam and Eve are black
people, but this didn't particularly bother me. Besides, from a theological
point of view it is a valid quandary; what colour
would Adam and Eve be anyway? Why do we think of God as male when
He is not a mortal being? Am I imagining that there is even a very daring
attempted spoof of feminism in some of the dialogue coming from the
Antichrist's friend Pepper? There are some other very intriguing features such
as the fact that the demons are all portrayed as having small animals attached
to their heads or backs; usually these are reptilians or toads. Where did the
programme makers get that idea from? It reminds me of stories of possession by
archons or the "scuttlers" Miles Johnston talks about. This series is
extremely well-scripted. A classic line is when
Crowley
accuses Aziraphale of being "holier than thou" and the angel replies:
"But I
am holier than thou!
That's the whole point!" This six-part saga is painfully funny, mentally inspiring
and utterly absorbing. It is very like
Gone
To Seed, see the background links below, with its style and originality.
There's also a Tim Burtonesque feel to it; in fact
Good Omens is easily as hilarious as
Mars Attacks; and that it really saying something. It can be
watched now on Amazon Prime, see:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Inside-Look-Good-Omens/dp/B07FMKMHDF/ref=sr_1_2.
I highly recommend it.