Some things you might have missed in the Good Omens S3 trailer.
I've seen a lot of good takes so far on so many aspects of the glorious 2 minutes we were handed this week, but I haven't had a chance to collect all of my little additions until now. Here are some things you might have missed, frame by frame. I promise, it'll be worth your time.
1. This crowd shot is from season 1
I really can't tell if they're pulling my leg and are just reusing unseen footage from season 1, or they physically/digitally recreated season 1 Whickber street, it's *that* good. But this is definitely our original home base, complete with pine green convertible with the same license plate, and correct cracks in the street. Will we be returning to the before times?
2. The second coming scroll is a giant checklist
I mean this isn't really a clue so much as really funny to me personally. Poor Aziraphale having to check off everything by hand.
3. We have 3 flies now
There's a blue and orange Nebula that is copied 3 times right next to the word behold. It's nebula NGC 5189 which is happens to be in the constellation Musca i.e. The Fly. I don't think that's a coincidence.
4. Jesus's cardigan is a mix of all the possible angel colours
Another kind of small mention, but I think it's really smart that Jesus' cardigan has bands of all three main angel colours: dove grey, cream and tan.
5. The Wizard of OZ reference
Peep the nice Wizard projector reference in this mysterious scene. The Metatron isn't hiding behind a curtain, but does that mean he's hiding something else about his role or power in here? Something's wrong, indeed.
6. Crowley is being held captive by Dagon
I don't know if it was really visible to everyone on the original social media posting but if you brighten the heck out of the image you can see that Crowley's got his hands tied behind his back here. I'm guessing Dagon is the one in charge now that Beelzebub is gone?
7. The lighting of this scene with the new Toby Jones character is a perfect match for the 1941 part 2 flashback.
I dunno man. Weird. They used the same lens and everything.
8. There are rainbow flares happening in this dystopian Whickber street
Just like in season 2, this particular establishing shot gets a rainbow flare. No other shots so far have gotten that treatment, so I find it interesting that only the dystopian Whickber street now fits with the Season 2 visual style.
9. One scene has been partially flipped
These are four shots in the same scene, but can you spot what's wrong? They've mirrored one shot each of Azirphale and Crowley. Either to throw us off the scent of something, or maybe a red herring about having no tattoo in this scene? Needless to say, that is a BIZARRE choice.
10. The Battle is their final performance & The Bentley isn't the Bentley (again)
In the closeup interior of the Bentley we can just make out the new double poster next to the Bookshop in the dystopian Whickber street. No longer the obscure comic book panels, it seems to be a funny take on a ballet poster maybe? : BATTLE. FINAL PERFORMANCE.
In any case, we've got a new Bentley... again. The huge contention around season 2's multiple Bentley looks has raged on, and now we get more fuel for the fire. Check out this great frontal angle of this Season 3 Bentley. It's got side mirrors attached to the doors, and four door construction, not to mention new bumper light covers. Strangely, it seems to be a perfect match for this promo Bentley that was parked for the set photos...
11. New and old stores on Dystopian Whickber street.
The speeding Bentley lets us dissect the new stores on dystopian Whickber street. We've got "Coffee...", so it looks like *Death* is missing from this world? Death is no longer an option? Next to it we've get Golden Gods with the neon windows, and Beyond Soho which seemed to be a real estate office in some leaked concept art. Interestingly, in the Season 3 poster, Beyond soho is hidden on the left side, and the record shop is hidden in the far right. Could the poster actually be a version of whickber street cleaved in two?
12. We've got a book on the stand problem
Oddly similar to the Bentley version problem, we now have a problem with Aziraphale’s desk. See here for the full breakdown from season 2, but long story short, there was a strange inconsistency with the set photos from season 2 and the actual show. The Harold Copping bible in the set tour was missing, and two copies of the periodical L’art pour tous in its place. Which never matched with the show, where there was only ever one copy on the stand the few times the Copping Bible was missing. What are they cooking up over there…?
13. A planet of black widow-ish spiders?
With the brief glances we get at the intro sequence we can’t tell much, but we do have a planet full of spiders that look like black widows with the famous hourglass shape, except in white instead of red. False widows perhaps? Spiders spinning time our duo go and visit? The last spider we saw in good omens was a horror. I’d like to not revisit it.
14. This conversation takes place at Justine's in season 2?
While I’ve seen some speculation floating around that this HEARTWRENCHING face is being performed by Crowley in the bookshop, I have another view. I think this scene takes place inside a part of season 2 we didn’t see. You can see the comparison here of the background of the front of Justine’s restaurant in season 2 and the scene in question. The awning and fairy lights are almost identical, as is the sun, just from a different angle. The hair and makeup are also very similar. I’d bet money this is happening on the street in the open or on Justine’s front terrasse at some point we’ve already seen.
15. We might get another 1941 flashback, and there's a hidden message.
Finally, we get a brief glimpse at another opening credits scene, and it’s got a ton of references to the season 2 opening credits scene that itself references the 1941 flashback: the bus with Wings for Victory on it, the bomber plane launching an explosive, and in the very top left we can spot a war balloon. We also have some very small text on the light blue building on the right. It’s a mirrored “2.0-A”. If anyone has any ideas what that means other than version of realities, let me know.
Thanks ever so much to the ineffable detective agency friends for the sounding board @ineffable-detective-agency and @embracing-the-ineffable for the high resolution photos yall are literally the best.
1967: you go too fast for me Crowley, or the year the Wolfenden report actually came into effect.
It is no secret that in 1957 the Wolfenden Committee recommended the decriminalisation of private homosexual activity between consenting adults over the age of 21, but with heavier penalties against homosexual activity in public places.
This is precisely what Anathema thinks of when she comments in the book that her book had been left in the back of the car of 'two consenting cycle repairmen'.
Not only does that inform us as readers that the characters within the book perceive Crowley and Aziraphale as being a couple, especially by the (arguably) cleverest witch in the book, but also that their appearances (physical corporations) do in fact look older than 21 years old. (the age of consent)*
*It would take until the 2000s for the age of consent to be equalised, and for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender personnel to be able to serve openly in the armed forces.
But coming back to the term 'consenting' and the significance within the overall plot of Good Omens series-wise is the fact that they chose 1967, precisely 10 years later after the Wolfenden report and the year the Sexual Offences Act was passed (which decriminalised private homosexual acts between men aged over 21 in England and Wales, while at the same time imposing heavier penalties on street offences) as a crucial point in storytelling.
This is the last scene we see of them after the montage; this is precisely the point where Aziraphale makes that big, first move towards Crowley and manifests himself inside of the Bentley to protect him from a burglary that could have ended in disaster. This is Aziraphale stepping outside from his own box and venturing into admitting that yes, he would enjoy Crowley's company as more than just an Arrangement. He would like the picnics, he would like to dine openly with him.
And this comes precisely at a time, a real world setting where even the Archbishop of Canterbury agreed, saying: “There is a sacred realm of privacy ... into which the law, generally speaking, must not intrude" (referring to homosexuality).
Although we know Aziraphale and Crowley are not men, but rather men-shaped beings of the world, there is something to be said about how the 1967 act reflects on Aziraphale's 'heavenly' beliefs and how that can be attributed not only to homosexuality*, but also a realm of privacy where neither Heaven or Hell (religion itself) need to interfere with his affairs.
*we do know, however, how much the book and tv series lean into Aziraphale being 'gay', at least in our human understanding of labels and categorizing even though he is not; "pansy" "nancy boys" "gayer than a treeful of monkeys on nitrous oxide" (this one specifically marking Aziraphale canonically in the book as appearing to be a homosexual) "you've got the wrong shop" among others.
A real life anecdote from the time says: John Carter was 17 at the time and doesn’t have a clear memory of the bill passing; he only realised the significance of the change with hindsight. He came out in the early 70s, after making contact with his university’s gay society, which wouldn’t have existed were it not for decriminalisation. “It meant that people could meet … and freely associate.” That was crucial, he says, because, “if you don’t even have a space where you can go, then people are cruising, they’re cottaging * ... It took many years for people who had been constantly looking over their shoulder, being worried, to develop proper ways of relating to each other. Ways that were not just based on sex or compromise or fear.”
*(No, cottaging is not living in a cottage)
No matter that the law had been passed, there was still a lot of stigma surrounding the word 'homosexual'. It wasn't until the 80s and 90s that it stopped being a crime in Scotland and Ireland; being further stigmatized with the AIDS crisis in the late 80s.
Regardless of the nature of the open confession Aziraphale lays bare to Crowley in 1967, it most definitely can be read as a 'coming out' for him. Perhaps not dealing with sexuality directly, but with religion layered on top of that. It is still too fast despite of the year, in spite of the millennia worked together under false pretenses. But it is an exterior, real life push that reinforces the idea for him to see that- if humans are able to recognize that man could be with man and not call it a crime, why could that same thinking not be applied to an angel and a demon living on Earth?
Aziraphale is doing more than blurting his heart out, he is openly hoping for the time that matches 1967 in its decriminalisation of homosexuality to one that applies for him and Crowley. So the thermos, the "better not" say thank you just yet, is a lingering promise to be there for when it finally happens. One which Crowley accepts with bare, open hands.
After all this time Aziraphale is still the one to accompany people in or out of the Garden of Eden (bookshop) with a means of protection, even if it was against heavens judgement.
Such simple actions and yet they show just how kind-hearted Aziraphale is, and has always been.
This years read-a-thon kicks off tomorrow, March 21st, runs up until March 31st, which is Trans day of Visibility.
The goal of this event is to Read, Supprt, and Uplift books written by and/or featuring trans, genderqueer, nonbinary, gender-nonconforming, and twospirit authors and characters. And to donate (if you can) to some trans organizations!
More information and how to sign up can be found here
So I figured I’d share my collection and tentative tbr if anyone wanted recommendations. But I’m also so open if anyone has any recs for books.
