Creator: Neil Gaiman
Director: Douglas Mackinnon
Writers: John Finnemore, Cat Clarke, Jeremy Dyson, Andy Nyman
Cast: David Tennant, Michael Sheen, Jon Hamm, Miranda Richardson
Where do franchises go after an instalment that threatens, then averts the destruction of the entire planet? Post Avengers: Endgame (2019), the MCU retreated to quiet American suburbia and quaint domesticity with WandaVision (2021). Good Omens season 2 does much the same, following up a first season near-apocalypse with one that rarely strays too far from the cosy confines of angel Aziraphale’s (Michael Sheen) bookshop. The stakes are smaller, the dynamic more intimate.
What the show loses in narrative urgency, it makes up for with rich characterisation, spending much more time on the relationship between Aziraphale and his demon best friend Crowley (David Tennant). The two alternate between bickering like an old married couple and wordlessly showing up for each other. Their camaraderie coasts on lighthearted banter, but there’s also a rare openness and unhesitant vulnerability between them. They’re depicted as the world’s slowest-burn romance, one that’s been in the making for a literal eternity. If in season 1, the show’s most ticking-clock question was: Could Crowley and Aziraphale stop the end times?, season 2 prompts a question of a different time-bound nature: When will Aziraphale and Crowley finally realise how they feel about each other?