Good Omens

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.

See here for background: https://hpanwo.blogspot.com/2014/01/gone-to-seed.html.

And: https://hpanwo.blogspot.com/2014/05/voyage-of-unicorn.html.

And: https://hpanwo.blogspot.com/2016/09/messiah.html.