Spoilers for Good Omens season 3!
Here is my crazy long review.
Ok, I’ve had some time to process. I feel like I always need at least a day to process this show and this time around was no different. Let me start by saying that I am still incredibly grateful for the production team behind this finale. None of the people that put together this completed project should be getting any hate. They did what they could do under very difficult circumstances and I am forever grateful for that. If anyone needs to let their anger out towards someone, please direct it to “he who must not be named”.
Let’s start with the positives.
Honestly, for the most part, I did like this episode/season. Yes, it felt a bit rushed and compressed but what else did we expect trying to compress 6 episodes into 90 minutes. I know I have been telling myself since October 2024 that the plot will feel rushed and I made my peace with that. I do think that a lot of the main storybeats stayed in which I appreciate too.
The episode still felt like Good Omens. The humor was there, the small bits of comedy, the amazing chemistry between Michael Sheen and David Tennant. I was worried it wouldn't, especially given where season 2 left off and all the circumstances surrounding this season. But I was pleasantly surprised.
I could also go on about Michael Sheen’s microexpressions, which I know a good part of the fandom can as well. It was so obvious from the minute Crowley was mentioned in the finale, just how much he still cared. I loved how soft his eyes get when Crowley is mentioned by Jesus in the beginning. Not only that, but all his monologues to Crowley at the end, you could see the love in his eyes. That is something that this show never disappoints.
To add on to that point, I thought Aziraphale did a good job apologizing to Crowley. I know we never got an explicit “I’m sorry”, but his actions spoke louder here in my opinion. He literally won the Bentley back for him and even started doing the apology dance before Crowley stopped him.
Finally, Jesus was a great character! I wish they did more with him and his storyline, but sadly I think that was one of the things that had to be significantly reduced to fit the 90 minute runtime. Either way, he was a great addition and despite his plot kind of being rendered useless in the end (as was everything else), I’m not mad that they included him.
Ok time for the negatives. There are really just two that make this rating the 3 ½ stars it is, but they are pretty big ones.
Let’s start with the smaller of the two. I wish we got a second kiss. Going into this finale I mentioned to my sister that I was lowering my expectations and would not be expecting a second kiss. She thought that was ridiculous but I’m very happy I did that because sadly I was proven right. With time, that finger kiss will probably grow on me (it already has over the past 24 hours) and was a very Aziraphale thing to do, but I just wish we got a proper one. It’s heartbreaking to me that the only time we ever see them canonically kiss is that desperate thing we got at the end of season 2. I felt like the lack of a second kiss was kind of intentional in the sense that Amazon was trying to reduce their relationship down to a friendship or a romance we could only see if we read between the lines. The thing is, I’m so tired of that and I thought season 2 proved that this show wasn’t going to go in this direction. Queer couples in general receive this kind of treatment all the time (especially in fantasy media). Even though it’s obvious that they are in love, an acknowledgement of that via a second kiss or a verbal confession would have significantly bumped this rating up for me (and that garden bookshop scene at the end would have been the perfect place to put it).
In addition, I wish that they actually explicitly mentioned the kiss from season 2 in one of their various talks. Or at the very least acknowledged that Aziraphale had an ulterior motive to going back to Crowley in the beginning, that being that he missed him (because we know that was another reason he came back) and did not just do it to use him for help. They 100% could have fleshed that out more.
Let’s get to the big one, yes it’s the ending. I’m sorry but this is the real reason I needed to process this as much as I did. I understand the meaning behind it to an extent (and people are saying it is very Terry Pratchett, but I can’t relate because I never read his other books) but that does not mean I like it at all. I feel like it completely ruins the entire show and because of that, I can not rate this season above 3 ½ stars. Look, I am happy they got married in some variation and found each other in the end. But it is not them! I know it’s meant to be and it was implied that it is just them if they were human (and they would have been born as that because there is no Heaven and Hell in this universe) but I still didn’t like it. Part of what always made Azriacrow such a fun ship was their 6,000 year history. That’s what made those flashbacks so fun and their entire dynamic worth watching. Seeing their relationship go from unwilling allies, to friendship, to romantic was the core of the show. I feel like this ending completely renders season 1 and 2 useless and I am having trouble accepting it as a result. Honestly, it would be slightly better if it was implied that they remembered their 6,000 year history but we didn’t even get that because it doesn’t exist anymore. It’s so heartbreaking and I am trying to cope with the fact that at least they found each other again and maybe one day those memories would return.
The thing is too, there are so many better ways that the ending could have gone. If they really wanted to go the human route, they would have had God restore humanity to how it was before Michael went on her killing spree, but still keep the angels and demons out of it going forward therefore rendering them human. That way, they could still become human and let humanity have a chance at free will but keep those memories and continue to live their life on Whickber Street, South Downs, or wherever they ended up.
Like Azriaphale doesn’t even own a bookshop in the epilogue (the Metatron does and he works for him!). Crowley doesn’t even own the Bentley! It makes me so sad and I just don’t understand how the original authors thought this would be a good ending for the series (because yes, I do think this is the ending that Terry Pratchett and his co writer came up with all those years ago, they wouldn’t have changed that even with the reduced run time).
Also I know it’s implied that all those characters we saw in the pub are the same as they always were and that they just grew up normally without the influence of Heaven and Hell. However, taking Heaven and Hell out of the equation changes everything up to that time. All those moments in history that Aziraphle and Crowley meddled would have never happened and technically this means that some of those characters we saw in the end should have never been born.
In conclusion, I still love this show. I don’t regret season 2 and 3 getting made and I am thankful for what we got. But I just can’t ignore the pain I feel knowing that canonically Aziraphale and Crowley have no memories of any of their past adventures in the previous 2 seasons (and that those moments never existed). In my head they still remember it in some capacity and that is the only way I will be able to cope with the ending.
Maybe my thoughts will change in the future. I plan to rewatch this finale at least one more time with my mom, so we’ll see if anything changes then.
Also I want to add that I still don’t think this show queerbaited us. They may have reduced their relationship down, but the representation was still there. That is just my opinion though.
Thanks for reading this essay of a review if you got this far. And remember to be kind to each other!
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