[very long post (1,211 words), id advise you only read if you either want to know my specific opinion on a few aspects of Season 3 or if you want to see lots of people’s takes on the ending and pacing of the episode and this is one of them]
before i start this i would like to make it clear: i liked the ending. i loved the ending. it was beautiful. out of all the endings we could have got (and there were some that would have been awful) i would say, in my personal opinion, that we got maybe the 2nd/3rd best ending possible. Everyone will have their own idea of the perfect ending and that’s okay! That’s a lot of the reason we have fan fiction (I believe) (although I do not personally read it).
one thing i would like to say about the episode is that it felt very rushed. this sounds obvious i know but i wanted to say it. if it was 6 episodes it would have made a lot more sense and i think all of the moments would have had a lot for significance.
for an episode (/film) that was supposed to be about the second coming, there wasn’t actually very much Jesus and him coming again. I know that this is partially because it was focused on Crowley and Aziraphale as a story and them rejoining forces (which im fine with to be clear, all of my favourite bits of S1 are the bits with C&A) and partially because it was cut down to 99 minutes.
and why was Michael the one that decided everything needed to be right and to start again and so took power and then went mad with said power?
I’m choosing to believe that in the original 6 episodes that were written all of this was fleshed out more and made more sense and as anyone who has written an essay or speech (or anything really) that has to be a specific length will know, getting rid of things is quite difficult, especially when you’re telling a narrative.
I so far have only watched it once. I will of course watch it again (and again and again lots of times) but I wanted to really think about it before going in again (also ive been busy with having school throughout the day). I, like so many others, will/can/would/could happily watch good omens over and over again, either binging it in a day or while im doing other things having it on in the background. this is quite easy to do with the episodes because there are easy 45 minute intervals where stopping can happen satisfyingly. part of the problem with a 99 minute film (for me) is that there isnt really a pause where i can breathe or go and do something. there is switching between scenes but because the film moves so quickly and the emotions kind of just exponentially increase across the episode there arent any natural pauses. yes this is the nature of a film. no i will never get over the fact it wasnt kept as 6 episodes. im still not sure who it is who made this decision (ergo, who i can blame) but ill find out eventually.
i am sad that i had to watch them get thanos snapped away. I originally wrote that if i think about it too much i get even more sad because the point of the book of life is that if something is removed then it never existed so canonically none of that happened but then i realised that (at least i think, ive only watched it once remember) they weren’t removed from the book, God made a new universe where they dont exist. No one said they never existed (they might have i cant remember, let me have this moment) they just dont anymore. that still makes me sad. HOWEVER. yknow when a pet is put down or someone who was suffering dies and youre sad about it and everyone just says to you ‘theyre happier now’ and it is the most unhelpful thing for me bc im still sad that im not going to see them ever again. I somehow dont feel this as strongly for Aziraphale and Crowley. It might be partly because they specifically chose and wanted it. I might also just be coping and subconsciously telling myself that theyre actually just in their own little universe in bliss, but i know canonically that isnt true.
but with the universe thing, ive seen lots of people saying that they will find eachother in every universe and that makes me so happy. as long as i think of it as there are lots of universe(s) and also that God is inside them and not controlling all of them then i stay very happy. the idea that they find eachother in every universe, i know isnt a new thing but, makes me so joyous and makes it feel completed and gives me closure.
on what we did, and largely, didnt get:
we didnt get a kiss. i am okay with this. would it have been good. yes. but the fact we didnt is okay. i know im not the only one who was constantly waiting for it at the end when they were talking about what to do with all of the pauses but it didnt happen. aziraphale’s kissing his fingers and putting them on crowley’s lips made me bawl so i think the emotion was conveyed properly. i can see why a lot of people are angry we didnt get a kiss. i get it.
i am choosing to believe that there was also a final part of 1941 that was written. it obviously had to be removed because they had 1/3 of the time they should have had and we all know that a final 1941 scene would have added a lot of depth and meaning to any actions in the present and would have needed more time around it that just didnt have.
i am somewhat glad we didnt get another i was wrong dance. if it had happened i would have been fine but i think it would have felt just a bit cheap. HOWEVER. if it was the one in 1941 i think i would have literally jumped for joy (series of unfortunate events anyone?) because Aziraphale had mentioned it before and we were then getting shown it which would have felt so nicely put together.
I will say, the first thing the Metatron did was die. I did actually cheer when it happened but I think maybe he could have done something else before just being eliminated (again, short on time so understandable).
I find it incredibly hard to hear anyone criticise Good Omens, especially those outside the fandom but I want to make it clear that I’m not criticising anyone who made the show. I am criticising the fact it was reduced to 1/3 of the original time. I will never get over this.
Good Omens is still my favourite tv show and book and i think will continue to be for quite a while
