Also, I watched Good Omens
Jun. 2nd, 2019 08:20 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
allekhaI binged it yesterday, and I really enjoyed it! It had a lot of the fun quirkiness of the book, and for the most part, I liked or didn't mind the changes that I noticed, though it's been a few years since I last read the book.
- I liked that that they used a female voice actor for God/the narrator and referred to God as both she and he. (That said, while I enjoyed listening to her voice, they definitely should have cut some of her lines. Not everything needs to be explained or every clever line kept.)
- I think this only came up once, but Pollution was a they? There were also several other characters who had androgynous styling and I definitely appreciated that.
- The costuming was great - I especially loved all of the weirdo makeup choices for the angels and demons. They looked amazing. I want a million drawings of all of them. And I loved Aziraphale's clothes (I want them!), and Crowley's styling, including his stupidly fancy watch. And also Anathema's clothes.
- The main exception: the contacts that Crowley's actor had were terrible. I'm pretty sure I've seen better contacts worn by cosplayers. (Actually, I think I considered buying the exact contacts that Pollution wears at one point, though in the end I went for ones with a big black ring around them.)
- Could have done without the black/white wings thing, but it's not the end of the world and the book covers did it first.
- Beelzebub's actor was so cute. I was expecting more buzzzzzzing sound effects, but maybe it would have been too annoying with more of them.
- I really liked the designs for hell and heaven.
- I enjoyed that moment toward the end with Beelzebub and Gabriel grumbling with each other. And Michael being in contact with Hell. I want fic of more of the angels and demons becoming friendly now.
- The Them got kind of shortchanged by the adaptation - they were never the most interesting part of the book for me, but they really felt underdeveloped here. Also, I am terrible at identifying good or bad acting, but I didn't feel like the kids were very expressive. Like, Pepper seemed like she spent the entire show wearing the same bored expression, and the two other boys didn't feel like they got much characterization at all.
- The special effect of the kids' mouths being wiped away was super creepy, and had just the right amount of uncanny valley.
- Most of the other special effects were... look, I know it's quirky aesthetics, but I would have preferred most of them be left out, aside from the particle effects. What was up with the CGI demon? And CGI Satan looked bad. And so did Adam's 'I am the antichrist' eyes.
- The climax was kind of eh, but to be fair, I remember that I thought it was kind of dull in the book, too. The switcharoo ending was fun, though.
- Crowley and Aziraphale no longer hold hands :( but they did hold hands with Adam, and that was cute.
- Newton and Anathema having amazing first-time sex while Shadwell worries about Newt was hilarious.
- Wasn't a huge fan of Shadwell and Madame Tracy's relationship in the books, and still not a fan of it here. What does she see in him? I don't get it.
- Aziraphale being taken in by Witchfinder Milkbottle's made-up death and expressing his condolences for it was hilarious.
- I wish we'd gotten to see more of the Bentley gradually being more on fire, but the bit we did get to see was great. I'm glad they kept Mr. Tyler in.
- Was surprised that we got to see the bookstore open, with actual potential customers in it! But the long sign about the opening hours that I had to pause to read was great, and in the spirit of Aziraphale discouraging customers.
- At first I thought it was going to be a period piece, before the modern technology started showing up. They did lampshade Crowley's 'vintage' answering machine, but if they were going to update the setting, I wish they'd updated that, too. I don't really see Crowley thinking it's cool enough to keep around.
- Hi, Death, I see you holding back from beating PTerry's high score
I also very much enjoyed the relationship between Crowley and Aziraphale. It's not quite an on-screen canon romance, but it's very easy to read them as mutually pining: Crowley with his acceptance of the fact that he doesn't belong to either side (I liked his ranting about it to himself) and his 'let's just run away to Alpha Centauri together' bit, and Aziraphale worrying over him but being more committed to the side of he's supposed to be on. His actor had great expressions, especially when he was looking at Crowley or when he was dithering about joining the forces of heaven through the portal. And the extra scenes added with the two of them were great - I liked Aziraphale sheltering Crowley under his wing in the garden, before they really even know each other, and getting to see other times they met throughout history. Though I did think the crucifixion scene was gratuitous and didn't like that one. (I did kind of like the 'Well, I don't think the Chinese or Australians have done anything to tick off God, so they're probably going to be fine' bit with the Ark.) They were so good together. Aziraphale wheedling him into cleaning his coat and 'you move too fast for me' and Crowley showing up for rescues and also saving books for him, all of that was great <3
- I liked that that they used a female voice actor for God/the narrator and referred to God as both she and he. (That said, while I enjoyed listening to her voice, they definitely should have cut some of her lines. Not everything needs to be explained or every clever line kept.)
- I think this only came up once, but Pollution was a they? There were also several other characters who had androgynous styling and I definitely appreciated that.
- The costuming was great - I especially loved all of the weirdo makeup choices for the angels and demons. They looked amazing. I want a million drawings of all of them. And I loved Aziraphale's clothes (I want them!), and Crowley's styling, including his stupidly fancy watch. And also Anathema's clothes.
- The main exception: the contacts that Crowley's actor had were terrible. I'm pretty sure I've seen better contacts worn by cosplayers. (Actually, I think I considered buying the exact contacts that Pollution wears at one point, though in the end I went for ones with a big black ring around them.)
- Could have done without the black/white wings thing, but it's not the end of the world and the book covers did it first.
- Beelzebub's actor was so cute. I was expecting more buzzzzzzing sound effects, but maybe it would have been too annoying with more of them.
- I really liked the designs for hell and heaven.
- I enjoyed that moment toward the end with Beelzebub and Gabriel grumbling with each other. And Michael being in contact with Hell. I want fic of more of the angels and demons becoming friendly now.
- The Them got kind of shortchanged by the adaptation - they were never the most interesting part of the book for me, but they really felt underdeveloped here. Also, I am terrible at identifying good or bad acting, but I didn't feel like the kids were very expressive. Like, Pepper seemed like she spent the entire show wearing the same bored expression, and the two other boys didn't feel like they got much characterization at all.
- The special effect of the kids' mouths being wiped away was super creepy, and had just the right amount of uncanny valley.
- Most of the other special effects were... look, I know it's quirky aesthetics, but I would have preferred most of them be left out, aside from the particle effects. What was up with the CGI demon? And CGI Satan looked bad. And so did Adam's 'I am the antichrist' eyes.
- The climax was kind of eh, but to be fair, I remember that I thought it was kind of dull in the book, too. The switcharoo ending was fun, though.
- Crowley and Aziraphale no longer hold hands :( but they did hold hands with Adam, and that was cute.
- Newton and Anathema having amazing first-time sex while Shadwell worries about Newt was hilarious.
- Wasn't a huge fan of Shadwell and Madame Tracy's relationship in the books, and still not a fan of it here. What does she see in him? I don't get it.
- Aziraphale being taken in by Witchfinder Milkbottle's made-up death and expressing his condolences for it was hilarious.
- I wish we'd gotten to see more of the Bentley gradually being more on fire, but the bit we did get to see was great. I'm glad they kept Mr. Tyler in.
- Was surprised that we got to see the bookstore open, with actual potential customers in it! But the long sign about the opening hours that I had to pause to read was great, and in the spirit of Aziraphale discouraging customers.
- At first I thought it was going to be a period piece, before the modern technology started showing up. They did lampshade Crowley's 'vintage' answering machine, but if they were going to update the setting, I wish they'd updated that, too. I don't really see Crowley thinking it's cool enough to keep around.
- Hi, Death, I see you holding back from beating PTerry's high score
I also very much enjoyed the relationship between Crowley and Aziraphale. It's not quite an on-screen canon romance, but it's very easy to read them as mutually pining: Crowley with his acceptance of the fact that he doesn't belong to either side (I liked his ranting about it to himself) and his 'let's just run away to Alpha Centauri together' bit, and Aziraphale worrying over him but being more committed to the side of he's supposed to be on. His actor had great expressions, especially when he was looking at Crowley or when he was dithering about joining the forces of heaven through the portal. And the extra scenes added with the two of them were great - I liked Aziraphale sheltering Crowley under his wing in the garden, before they really even know each other, and getting to see other times they met throughout history. Though I did think the crucifixion scene was gratuitous and didn't like that one. (I did kind of like the 'Well, I don't think the Chinese or Australians have done anything to tick off God, so they're probably going to be fine' bit with the Ark.) They were so good together. Aziraphale wheedling him into cleaning his coat and 'you move too fast for me' and Crowley showing up for rescues and also saving books for him, all of that was great <3
