GOOD OMENS S2 Review: You Can't Keep a Good Angel (Or Demon) Down

An angel and a demon team up again, this time to help Gabriel recover his memories.

Good Omens
The first and second seasons are now streaming in their entirety on Prime Video worldwide. I've seen all 12 episodes.

First published in 1990, Neil Gaman and Terry Pratchett's comic novel Good Omens told the story of Aziraphale and Crowley, an angel and a demon, respectively, who have built an enduring friendship over the centuries they have lived on Earth. They team up to prevent the Apocalypse.

That story was brought to the screen in a six-episode series that debuted in May 2019, and concluded on a satisfying, non-apocalyptic note. As it happens, though, Gaiman and Pratchett had talked about writing a sequel, long before Pratchett died in 2015, and now Gaiman's fertile creativity has spawned a second season, which functions as a thoroughly irreverent continuation of the story of Aziraphale and Crowley, which is kick-started by the arrival of a naked stranger who arrives at Aziraphale's bookshop in London without any memories intact.

Fundamentally, it's a story of an enduring friendship. This season is more overtly about their enduring attraction to one another as individuals. Michael Sheen, as the angelic yet occasionally naughty Aziraphale, and David Tennant, as the demonic yet kindly playful Crowley, make for an engaging pair of protagonists as they again must team up to prevent apocalyptic events from destroying the Earth.

The naked stranger is soon revealed to be Chief Angel Gabriel (Jon Hamm), who, absent his memories as a powerful angelic creature, presents as a meek and mild, child-like figure, awkwardly wandering around and bumping into things, re-shelving all the books in Aziraphale's shop in alphabetical order by the first word in the text, completely unaware that he has set off an epic search by both Heaven and Hell to find him. Gabriel is protected, however, by an invisibility spell that Aziraphale and Crowley teamed up to cast.

Gabriel's meanderings also serve as a guide for the second season. Rather than a straightforward narrative, the episodes dip back to tell stories from the past that illuminate (primarily) the evolving relationship between Aziraphale and Crowley, all reflecting Neil Gaiman's sensibilities, even as other writers -- John Finnemore, Cat Clarke, Jeremy Dyson, Andy Nyman -- contribute what are called "minisodes," incorporated into the episodes.

Under the steady direction of Douglas MacKinnon, who also helmed the first season, Good Omens is an enjoyable, still thoroughly irreverent trip back to the land of Aziraphale and Crowley. Handsomely mounted, it's sure to appeal to everyone who feasted on the first season, and holds the promise of more expansive treats in a proposed third season, especially since the second season ends on a cliffhanger.