iwtv seasons one and two was like being tucked into bed and read a heartbreaking story by Louis du pointe du lac. The Vampire Lestat is like your blackout drunk uncle trying to tell you an anecdote at a family gathering
Being crazy about a piece of media for any amount of time will leave a weird mark on you forever because years later you’ll see someone posting something about it like “can we talk about this frame” and you’ll be like “ah that frame. i know all about that frame. I was once a scholar of that frame.”
you know what i really would love the context to. jerome squalor telling the baudelaires that “your mother always said I wasn’t brave enough.” implying that she has said it multiple times, to his face. did this start after whatever fiasco occurred on their shared excursion to the mortmain mountains, when she was carried away by eagles and undoubtedly he did absolutely nothing except say it was someone else’s problem to deal with? of course in my mind she would also have said it when she realised he was in love with jacques, but that he was afraid of being mixed up in jacques’ suspicious secretive lifestyle. they wouldn’t have been in touch by then, but did he think of her saying it again before he married esmé, knowing it wasn’t really real? so much to think about
“I think you can be an enormous reader and not be an intellectual, and probably — maybe, be a better reader by not being an intellectual. I think the world of Lemony Snicket is entirely governed by books; crucial information is in there from all the characters that are named with things that usually have literary allusions, and so the stuff of literature is the stuff that’s being thought about. Someone said to me once it’s like a world in which it’s literature instead of money. It’s not that money is absent from Lemony Snicket, but the idea … that having a different interpretation of “Madame Bovary” could lead to a huge schism, or something like that.”
— Daniel Handler reveals the cause of VFD’s schism in A Series of Unfortunate Events
Do you remember back in the S1 Good Omens days where we kept finding more and more little tidbits to love? More things that were layered in care and meaning and hidden subtext? S3 is like the opposite of that.
I'm sorry but the longer I look at Good Omens 3 the sloppier the writing becomes. Like it's not even "do you like it" it's just me being turned off by completely sloppy work. The cast and crew clearly put love into what they made, but you can only do so much with a horrid script.
Terry Pratchett is a master writer. When reading his books, there are so many times I have to pause and go back and reread because "did I just read that?" when it comes to wit and story telling and how "oh no that does actually work!"
Not to mention, his books know what genre they are (hint: it's a comedy, after all Crowley likes those better).
Michael and David embody Aziraphale and Crowley on screen so well it's almost possible to overlook all of the problems with the script.
There have been better posts than mine covering the narrative arcs of season one and how they're completely thrown away for season three (looking at you, Adam saying the humans need to fix their own world concept as well as embodying we don't want something NEW we want OUR world).
But it's not just the over reaching story that is ignored in season three. It's one thing to have a Chehkov's gun not fire but...how many of them are we up to? Aziraphale and Crowley's miracle power, all of us versus all of them, Crowley's missing memories, what was Crowley's angel rank and how did he know passwords, and that's ignoring the literal one of there being a derringer in the bookshop.
Leaving some of these unanswered is hasty writing. A cemetery of Chehkov's is messier than Hell's filing systems.
As much as I adored the Great War set up, it felt like introducing an Eternal Flame and having Crowley there for...no reason. Really, why does this scene exist? All the others have some level of importance, even if it's just introducing us to a new facet of the characters.
Tossing the cinnamon roll that was Jesus and his new buddy Harry the Fish and then promptly erasing them. Again, why? Aziraphale could have gone to Earth to find Crowley because the Book of Life was missing. He even could have told him then that he went to Heaven to stop Crowley being erased from the Book of Life and now it's missing. You know, an answer to the largest cliff hanger we had from Season Two that never was fully resolved, at least sadly more than this excuse for a season did.
Which was the largest problem the season had. I think the fandom could have forgiven every other problem this season had with a proper resolution of their love story. Instead we received what almost felt like early 2000 eras queer baiting for OUR ineffables and then a wedding with...zero contact.
I mean, if me and one of my friends knew we were about to disappear forever, I'd absolutely have held them for at least a moment. Told them I loved them. And that's not even close to what I would do were it my spouse whom I adore. I guess they showed pleasantries for the strangers that they lied about being for all these centuries.
That's oddly only part of the out of character behaviors. I'm sorry the same Crowley who stopped time and created a pocket universe to try to save Aziraphale and repeatedly tried to get him to run off with him is suddenly like let's sacrifice ourselves for...another group of humans even when he could save ALL OF THEM? I'm sorry, what?
And using the excuse of he's just been super extra traumatized and can now no longer be happy when... we saw him happy at the end of season one. We saw him happy during moments in season two, including that classic glimmer of his angelic smile. You can't tell me he underwent too many millennia of trauma to find joy again when we've repeatedly seen it.
While we're touching on the out of character behavior, can we mention how mean the characters are this season? The last thing Muriel ever hears is she's the dim one, Aziraphale is told he's a myriad of failures, and Crowley is repeatedly called a loser. I'm sorry, where is my gentle comedy? These don't feel like jokes between friends (season one bickering), healthy addressing of pain (season two resolution), nor like a hopeful comedy show (what it's supposed to be).
Also, you're going to let me believe that Crowley let God mock Aziraphale? The same demon who has challenged her every step of the way? The same one who we have all known for many, many years would have told Gabriel off for that lose the gut comment? Yeah, no I'm not buying it.
Finally, we get to the queer aspect. Every canon queer ship is destroyed. I mean, so is the whole world but stay with me for a minute. Nina and Maggie are sent off to fuck knows where. Mutt dies by what's perceived as a suicide from what Jesus said and leaves his Beloved Spouse, and Aziraphale and Crowley are never given true resolution. What in the Bury Our Gays media is this?
I've seen the takes saying that this is an ace phobic take because we do see Asa and Anthony married and I will tell you right now: as an elderly ace you can get off my blog. Ace representation doesn't mean zero body contact (I say as my leg is nudged up against my partners and I frustratedly type). It doesn't mean they can't hug or kiss. Hell, it doesn't even mean they can't have sex. Aziraphale and Crowley were already ace rep, they didn't need to have them act like there was a literal barrier between them.
It's not just the ending. It's the entire messy creation that feels not thought through nor executed at all. I would challenge anyone who says this is Terry's ending to find anything written by Terry Pratchett that is anywhere near this level of cringingly badly written.
On the other hand, I can see how it echoes with the Sandman story. You know, the one written by the author that should fire himself to the sun to save the rest of us the trouble.
I want to love this season. I want to be happy about it. I can't be. And the closer I look, desperately trying to find something to love about it the more I see wrong.
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