Good Omens reaction post

[luzula]

I have now finished watching Good Omens. The thing is, Good Omens was one of my first fandoms. I mostly lurked there, inhaling all of the fic, but I also wrote my very first piece of fan fiction there. So it has a special place in my heart.

I simultaneously loved the miniseries while also having issues with it, namely: I feel weird about actors. I don't want to think about the characters being played by actors, I just want them to be them. *facepalm* My issue is mostly with Crowley. I watch very little TV/movies, so I have not actually watched David Tennant in anything (except Hamlet, actually, years ago). But he's an actor who's in various stuff that people are fannish about, so I am aware of him as an actor. It's not that I have a detailed picture of Crowley in my head that he's not matching up with--it's just that I look at him and see David Tennant, not Crowley. I mean, I do think he did a good job! Sigh. Maybe I'll get used to it.

Aziraphale, on the other hand. I don't know the actor beforehand, which is maybe what makes the difference, but I think he was a perfect Aziraphale! His smile, wow, he just lights up the room. I totally buy that he is an angel. And the way he talks and his whole body language, yesss. That is Aziraphale. ♥

Like everyone else, I loved the flashback sequence. Can we have a whole spin-off series like that, please? And wow, they really leaned into the slash. That is not even subtext any more; it is text. ♥

I was a little bothered by the pronunciation of both Crowley and Aziraphale's names not matching up with my own pronunciation (and given podfic, I have put my own pronunciation out there). I don't know that I can change the way they're pronounced in my head.

...how have I made only one Good Omens podfic, though??

Comments

[tei]

Michael Sheen as Aziraphale is one of the most wonderful things ever to happen on a screen.

[hurry_sundown]

*points up*

This.

[auroracloud]

I still have two episodes to go but I love love love it. And yes, Michael Sheen is perfection as Aziraphale.

And mmm all the shippiness. And yes, that was a lovely flashback sequence. (I suspect there's already plenty of fanfic filling out the centuries in between.)

[luzula]

Yes, there's a lot of great historical fic out there! One of the advantages of the fandom is that it canonically has all of history to play with (well, at least six thousand years of it).

[jesse_the_k]

Michael Sheen's face is a miracle. He's done a good job playing lots of real people in sober biopics -- William Masters (sex research doc); Tony Blair (three times); David Frost; Nero -- and I imagine that all those sober roles helped build up a need for angelic over-the-topness.

Just finished episode 3, Hard Times, and the flashbackery was fun.

What's nifty about the books that's missing in the series?

[luzula]

Oh, hmm. *is bad at analyzing stuff*

For me it's mostly a difference in medium, in that a book and a film are very different things and I experience them differently? One consists of words, the other of visuals + sound, which may or may not match the images in my head. GO the book has a very specific writing style. But overall I think it was a faithful adaptation.

[seascribble]

I kind of feel the same way about Tennant, although I did like him more than I expected as Crowley. But it's hard to forget that he's just out there Tennant-ing, with his tongue and his hips and his scrawny limbs. Michael Sheen is a perfect and flawless angel, though. Also, if you see their interviews and twitter interactions, both Tennant and Sheen and Gaimen are talking about how Sheen played Aziraphale as being in love with Crowley. Ugh, I'm enjoying this revival so much.

[hurry_sundown]

Did you also see the bit where Sheen says he read a bunch of fanfic before filming started? *heart eyes*

[seascribble]

Yes! He's so good, I cherish him.

[luzula]

I think I actually do have an impression of Crowley in my head that Tennant doesn't match, though I couldn't draw him or anything. And then there's the actor thing, like I said.

[hurry_sundown]

Interesting. I wasn't familiar with Sheen, and he doesn't quite match the Aziraphale in my head (who is both older and pudgier), but now I can't imagine anyone else in the part. He was simply amazing.

Not being a Whovian, I mainly know Tennant from Broadchurch, in which he was completely amazing (I need another adjective), and oddly enough, a tortured soul. He also didn't quite match up to the Crowley in my head, but I wasn't at all distracted by that. I rather have a thing for Tennant anyway, and Crowley, it must be said, is just my type.

What was distracting is that I always thought that Crowley was pronounced with the first syllable sounding like "crowd," not "crow." But seeing as Gaiman was in on the production, I defer to their pronounciation.

[luzula]

Me too, with the Crowley pronunciation. I mean, I can buy the canon pronunciation more if I associate it with the word "crow", but it's just too late for me to adjust…

I can't even find an English word that rhymes with the way I pronounce Aziraphale. Canon has a diphthong there, but I don't. I think I just use the standard Swedish "a" (also very like the Italian "a"). And then just skip the "e".

[sarren]

I was stunned when someone told me Michael Sheen was Lucien in Underworld!
Loved of his characterisation, whereas yeah, Tennant's Crowley didn't match my mental image at all (and I also pronounced both their names differently), the funniest part is where he's clearly not so much playing Crowley, as he is Bill Nighe. Still loved every second of it.

[luzula]

I watch very little tv/movies in general, so I am bad at knowing and recognizing actors in general. Clearly he's a good actor when you have seen him in other stuff and you don't even realize it's the same person, though!

[scribe]

I will never quite forgive the world for denying me Richard Ayoade's Aziraphale, but I am a big enough person to admit that Michael Sheen hit it out of the park. I agree that I have a hard time seeing past David Tennant's...David Tennant-ness, but I accept him as an interesting interpretation of Crowley, though not necessarily the one that I would have gone with. To tell the truth, though, mostly the show made me want to go read the book again!

(I am super enjoying the massive fandom revival, though. I might even try to write fic this time! Trying to fanfic Pratchett terrifies me because he has such a distinct narrative voice that I cannot come anywhere near, but I feel like show!fic now doesn't require that as much.)

[luzula]

Your'e always so much more free with style when writing fic for TV-shows rather than litfic, just because you're writing in the same medium. I've written one GO fic in my life, and sadly it was not so much with the book style. I don't think I could attempt it, either.