I hadn't read the book in many, many years. Really enjoyed the show. Some of it came off a bit twee and I think I'm with azith28 that Pratchett always comes off a bit sillier on film than it does in text.
Having not read the book in a long time I really only remembered like 3 or 4 things from it, one of which was and wasn't in the show in a weird way...
The thing about how any casette in your car for more than a couple of weeks turns into Best of Queen was obviously being referenced by the fact that Queen was basically always playing when a shot involved Crowley driving but was never addressed - presumably because people rarely even listen to CDs anymore, much less casettes. But I enjoyed that rather than cut it entirely they gave a weird sort of production nod to it.
There's a more direct reference to it, but with a different 'rule', I guess? In Episode 5:
When Crowley is looking for a way through the M25 Ring Of Fire and Hastur shows up in the passenger seat. Crowley puts in a Mozart CD, which morphs into Queen a little later.
With Pratchett things at least, most of the humour comes from the narration, which is difficult for a live performance to recreate. We can tell it's absurd, but it's usually only absurd to the eyes of someone from a less-imaginatively designed world who can tell why that reference is a pun.
They had God to do it here, but even then it's difficult.
In the still maybe hypothetical Watch series, it'd essentially have to be The Bill, just set in a world where you have dwarfs and trolls and werewolves and zombies and vampires and Igors and magic.
I think it's a general thing with written verbal humour being translated into spoken verbal humour: the two work entirely differently. IMO it's why the humour of the first two Monkey Island games actually works less well when you add voice acting. And I think it's easy for humour to be directed and/or acted in a way that suggests a lack of confidence, either in the material or the audience: if you don't perform this in a way that clearly signals, "This is funny!", there's a worry that people might not notice.
Thirith on
"Nothing is gonna save us forever but a lot of things can save us today." - Night in the Woods
Finished it last night. So, i don't remember what this joke was about. in the last episode when Azarafel returns to his shop, theres a new set of books on his desk. Can anyone enlighten me?
I think it's a general thing with written verbal humour being translated into spoken verbal humour: the two work entirely differently. IMO it's why the humour of the first two Monkey Island games actually works less well when you add voice acting. And I think it's easy for humour to be directed and/or acted in a way that suggests a lack of confidence, either in the material or the audience: if you don't perform this in a way that clearly signals, "This is funny!", there's a worry that people might not notice.
I'm real curious what the stage adaptions are like. There were a bunch of them and Pratchett was around for most of them. You can do things in live theater that just don't work in TV/Movies.
With Pratchett things at least, most of the humour comes from the narration, which is difficult for a live performance to recreate. We can tell it's absurd, but it's usually only absurd to the eyes of someone from a less-imaginatively designed world who can tell why that reference is a pun.
They had God to do it here, but even then it's difficult.
Ok, but third wall breaking gags have been done before and quite successfully, see Arrested Development, the Office and that one where Magneto kills Iron Man.
Finished it last night. So, i don't remember what this joke was about. in the last episode when Azarafel returns to his shop, theres a new set of books on his desk. Can anyone enlighten me?
It's kinda skimmed over in this version but it talked about more in the book.
Adam put things back the way they were, but he's still a kid, so the books were replaced by the kind of kids books that would appeal to him. Aziraphale is thrilled as they're all first editions.
Finished it last night. So, i don't remember what this joke was about. in the last episode when Azarafel returns to his shop, theres a new set of books on his desk. Can anyone enlighten me?
I loved that bit
The books themselves were the Just William series by Richmal Compton, which follow the schoolboy adventures of William Brown, his dog, and his three boon companions, known collectively as The Outlaws. He lives in a small village, plays in the woods and an old barn, gets into scrapes, and largely had the kind of childhood that people claim was destroyed by television.
As Road Block mentioned, Adam put his own spin on things when he reset the world, and Just William is a classic English kids' series, with multiple TV adaptations and excellent audio books read by Martin Jarvis. I grew up listening, reading and watching Just William, so I may be biased.
On a meta level, one of the first ideas that would eventually become Good Omens was Terry penning a snippet he titled "William the Antichrist". The flavour of the Adam Young portions of the book are exceptionally Just William-esque, with all the conversations at cross-purposes, grand plans that are lacking in execution, and the general feel that grown ups don't know what they're doing. Tadfield, due to Adam's influence, basically stayed (or became) the perfect childhood habitat, hence the perfect weather for the time of year. So having the Just William series displayed in Aziraphale's shop at the end is a very neat full circle.
I think I read one interview where Gaimen said that one reader wrote to him, very angry at all the non-Adam parts, saying that the book was supposed to just be a parody of Just William, and what were these angels and demons and witches doing there? Apparently they'd gotten a very one-issue description of the book from someone, and bought it based purely on that.
I think I read one interview where Gaimen said that one reader wrote to him, very angry at all the non-Adam parts, saying that the book was supposed to just be a parody of Just William, and what were these angels and demons and witches doing there? Apparently they'd gotten a very one-issue description of the book from someone, and bought it based purely on that.
I get that. I kept wondering what these f'n kids were doing in my angel/demon buddy cop dialogues.
The punishments for Aziraphale and Crowley at the end, and Crowley's predictions for another apocalypse, weren't in the book, right? I mean, I don't remember them, but I haven't read it in a while. (They did all feel appropriate to the narrative, though.)
The punishments for Aziraphale and Crowley at the end, and Crowley's predictions for another apocalypse, weren't in the book, right? I mean, I don't remember them, but I haven't read it in a while. (They did all feel appropriate to the narrative, though.)
The punishments weren't (Above and Below were busy trying to figure out if this had all been part of the Ineffable Plan, and were trying to ignore them).
Crowley's prediction for the Real Big One was, though. (Possibly a faint sequel hook if they wanted it, which obviously never happened)
The punishments for Aziraphale and Crowley at the end, and Crowley's predictions for another apocalypse, weren't in the book, right? I mean, I don't remember them, but I haven't read it in a while. (They did all feel appropriate to the narrative, though.)
The punishments weren't (Above and Below were busy trying to figure out if this had all been part of the Ineffable Plan, and were trying to ignore them).
Crowley's prediction for the Real Big One was, though. (Possibly a faint sequel hook if they wanted it, which obviously never happened)
And which IIRC, Gaiman has said won't ever. That the story is complete enough without one, and that he won't do it without Terry.
They knocked around some ideas for a sequel,668 - The Neighbour of the Beast, before Gaiman moved to the USA and they dropped it. Supposedly some of those ideas found their way into the TV show (Gabriel for one).
Watched this last night with my wife. I had read the book a really long time ago, wife hadn't but is a huge Discworld fan.
I thought it was good and bad. Most of the scenes with Tennant and Sheen were good. Most of the scenes without them were bad. Also, the first half was much better than the last half.
Just really bad pacing at times. Odd moments drawn on and on for too long. Sometimes things would be on the screen for far longer than they needed to be. Sometimes it's really small, like showing Crowley's grimacing face in a burning car for too long without any narration or anything and why?
Anathema Device annoyed me greatly throughout the entire show, and I can't figure out why. Something about the audio and video sync, I think? It just always felt out of sync, but maybe it's the actress, I don't know? And the prophesied sex scene could have been left out.
The Four Horsemen were cool at first and then they got really lame really fast. Their individual introductions were fantastic (minus Pollution, needed more work, IMHO), and then they got on bikes and it got really lame. They never recovered.
There was way too much time spent with Adam floating in mid-air, and the red eyes were awful, just skip them, c'mon.
I thought the additional resolution they added at the end was cool but was hoping they had them possess each other rather than just be illusions of each other.
Otherwise, I thought it was pretty good overall. Tennant and Sheen were definitely the best parts of the show, though, and as such it's a shame they didn't use even more of them than they did.
I like how the demons communicate through broadcasts. It is like having having radio and television shows talking to you in psychosis. In the old days, demons were associated with mental illness.
Something definitely felt weird about the show. I would get home, want to watch an episode, do so, enjoy it, and then immediately want to stop watching. Many shows, I want to watch a bunch of them in a row, but this one really made me want to take an extended break after finishing each episode. Not sure why.
Posts
There's a more direct reference to it, but with a different 'rule', I guess? In Episode 5:
They had God to do it here, but even then it's difficult.
In the still maybe hypothetical Watch series, it'd essentially have to be The Bill, just set in a world where you have dwarfs and trolls and werewolves and zombies and vampires and Igors and magic.
"Nothing is gonna save us forever but a lot of things can save us today." - Night in the Woods
I'm real curious what the stage adaptions are like. There were a bunch of them and Pratchett was around for most of them. You can do things in live theater that just don't work in TV/Movies.
Ok, but third wall breaking gags have been done before and quite successfully, see Arrested Development, the Office and that one where Magneto kills Iron Man.
It's kinda skimmed over in this version but it talked about more in the book.
I loved that bit
As Road Block mentioned, Adam put his own spin on things when he reset the world, and Just William is a classic English kids' series, with multiple TV adaptations and excellent audio books read by Martin Jarvis. I grew up listening, reading and watching Just William, so I may be biased.
On a meta level, one of the first ideas that would eventually become Good Omens was Terry penning a snippet he titled "William the Antichrist". The flavour of the Adam Young portions of the book are exceptionally Just William-esque, with all the conversations at cross-purposes, grand plans that are lacking in execution, and the general feel that grown ups don't know what they're doing. Tadfield, due to Adam's influence, basically stayed (or became) the perfect childhood habitat, hence the perfect weather for the time of year. So having the Just William series displayed in Aziraphale's shop at the end is a very neat full circle.
I get that. I kept wondering what these f'n kids were doing in my angel/demon buddy cop dialogues.
The punishments weren't (Above and Below were busy trying to figure out if this had all been part of the Ineffable Plan, and were trying to ignore them).
Crowley's prediction for the Real Big One was, though. (Possibly a faint sequel hook if they wanted it, which obviously never happened)
And which IIRC, Gaiman has said won't ever. That the story is complete enough without one, and that he won't do it without Terry.
I thought it was good and bad. Most of the scenes with Tennant and Sheen were good. Most of the scenes without them were bad. Also, the first half was much better than the last half.
Anathema Device annoyed me greatly throughout the entire show, and I can't figure out why. Something about the audio and video sync, I think? It just always felt out of sync, but maybe it's the actress, I don't know? And the prophesied sex scene could have been left out.
The Four Horsemen were cool at first and then they got really lame really fast. Their individual introductions were fantastic (minus Pollution, needed more work, IMHO), and then they got on bikes and it got really lame. They never recovered.
There was way too much time spent with Adam floating in mid-air, and the red eyes were awful, just skip them, c'mon.
I thought the additional resolution they added at the end was cool but was hoping they had them possess each other rather than just be illusions of each other.
Otherwise, I thought it was pretty good overall. Tennant and Sheen were definitely the best parts of the show, though, and as such it's a shame they didn't use even more of them than they did.
6/10 would watch the world end again.
I would watch the shit out of this show.
maybe i'm streaming terrible dj right now if i am its here
Yeah that scene is... not good. Disappointing is the perfect word for it.