Good Omens season 2 review: David Tennant and Michael Sheen shine in delightful sequel
The show premieres on Prime Video on Friday, 28 July
📺 Where to watch Good Omens: Premieres on Prime Video on Friday, 28 July
⭐️ Our rating: 4/5
🍿 Watch it if you liked: The Sandman, American Gods, the Discworld novels.
🎭 Who's in it?: David Tennant, Michael Sheen, Miranda Richardson, Nina Sosanya, Maggie Service.
⏰ How long is it? 6 episodes, approximately an hour each.
📖 What’s it about? After saving Earth from an apocalypse, angel Aziraphale and demon Crowley are just trying to get by now they've been cast out by their respective factions, but a new threat emerges when archangel Gabriel arrives on the angel's doorstep without his memories.
Aziraphale (Michael Sheen) and Crowley (David Tennant) are back in an unexpected but most welcome sequel to Prime Video's hit series Good Omens, which adapted Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett's book of the same name.
Season 2 finds the angel and demon trying to navigate their lives as outcasts from heaven and hell, with the threat of an apocalypse now a distant memory the pair are keen to just get on with things but this stops when the archangel Gabriel (Jon Hamm) shows up on Aziraphale's doorstep with amnesia.
Read more: Good Omens season 2: Cast, plot and release date as Neil Gaiman teases season 3
The pair team up to hide Gabriel from heaven and hell while they try to figure out why he lost his memories and what the danger is that's coming. At the same time, the duo set about a matchmaking scheme with locals Maggie (Maggie Service) and Nina (Nina Sosanya).
How do you up the stakes after the characters literally thwarted the apocalypse? The answer, it seems, is that you can't (at least from the first five episodes given to press).
Good Omens season 2 is enjoyable, and it is an absolute delight to see Sheen and Tennant as Aziraphale and Crowley again, but the season feels a little light compared to its first outing.
Events in the aforementioned storylines mostly take place on the street where Aziraphale's bookshop is, and viewers will learn a little more about the bureaucracy of heaven and hell, but this is mainly included to add to the show's comedic relief more than anything.
The series jumps between this and individual "minisodes" that look back at different events from the angel and demon's past. The most impactful of these is set in 19th century Scotland where Aziraphale and Crowley encounter a poor young woman who has resorted to grave robbing to survive.
The first season of Good Omens had a lot of moving parts, characters and storylines, but season 2 opts to strip back the story, which is good but also comes with some issues.
The good part is the story begins to address the underlying romantic tension between Aziraphale and Crowley that viewers so love, and Tennant and Sheen depict their characters will-they-won't-they dynamic in subtle yet beautiful ways.
It is moving to see the pair navigate their millenia-long relationship without the apocalypse getting in the way of things, and Tennant and Sheen continue to bounce incredibly well off of one another whilst also making their own characters more nuanced and well-rounded individuals.
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The problem is that the season feels like its a stepping stone to something greater -an interlude, if you will. It doesn't detract from ones enjoyment of the story, but it is noticeable.
Considering Gaiman's comments about how he wrote season 2 to set up a potential season 3, which would be where the ideas he and Pratchett had for a sequel to their book are explored, it does make sense why season 2 feels like it's setting the stage for something bigger.
Let's hope that they get there, because it is wonderful to be back in the world of Good Omens and it would be a shame not to see what the future has in store for everyone's favourite angel and demon duo.
Good Omens season 2 premieres on Prime Video on Friday, July 28 with all six episodes available at launch.
Watch the trailer for Good Omens season 2