Note the word “reflections” – this is not a review for the second season of the television version of Good Omens, but rather my thoughts after watching it. In other words, beware spoilers if you’ve not yet watched it. I deliberately refrain from doing many of these posts for shows and movies, even those based on books, but since we recently reviewed Good Omens, it seemed acceptable to make this exception.
I rather expected to be disappointed with the second season, and in that sense I was not disappointed – I was disappointed by the second season. This was nearly inevitable, considering that the first season was pretty close to perfect. What I did not expect was for all of season two to go by without anything substantial happening.
Oh, I know. There’s a weird mystery involving Gabriel and his lost memory, which we receive almost no hints to solve ourselves until everything is conveniently presented in the final scenes all wrapped up with a bow on top, but I don’t count that as substantial. After the end of season one, if there was going to be a season two, I thought it would be what Crowley predicted: all of us versus all of them, meaning humanity and Earth against the heavenly and satanic hosts. When you’re expecting that, and get a poorly constructed and dissatisfying mystery, it’s going to seem insubstantial.
The characters were also off – they seemed forced in a way that they didn’t in season one. Aside from some of the flashbacks, especially the one with Job, the dynamics that powered season one were absent from season two. Instead, we get a weird tension that leads up to the ending, and as for that ending…well. Suffice to say that the only reason to set up an ending like that for a story like this is to induce an immediate tension for a third season.
When I first heard that they were planning a second season of Good Omens, I knew it wasn’t a good idea. There is no second book, although supposedly there are notes somewhere for one. The first book wraps everything up so neatly and tidily, and the adaptation was so perfect, that anything trying to follow it was bound to disappoint. The only reason I had some hope was because Gaiman has been excellent at ensuring that his television adaptations are high quality, faithful works that represent quality storytelling in their own right. Unlike, say, The Wheel of Time television series.
Don’t get me wrong – I still, for the most part, enjoyed season two. A sequel that disappoints after a stellar first season is still far above most of what gets made. And I’ll still tune into a season three, assuming that there is a season three. I just have a hard time imagining that it will manage to compare to season one.
IGC Publishing 