On why yes, Good Omens needed s3 to be more overt about their romance, "buddy comedies", and the never ending plague of making soft queer romances as subtextual as possible.
(Which is a beautiful message, especially in this nice political climate!) I've been reading quite a lot of dismissive "opinions" on why s3 left many fans disgruntled. The most annoying ones are those dismissing queer fans's reasons as "entitled" and "dirty minded" and "you only wanted to see them bone" (for wanting a kiss, which apparently in queer couples is only ever interpreted as an antechamber of sex. Don't you love the variety of emotions we're allowed?). I'm having war flashbacks to 2000s/2010s shows where queer subtext was used as bait, even encouraged by actors and writers, who teased the fans over a romance that would never textually happen (ye ol' queerbait). Shows where queer fans had to read between the lines, hallucinate love in stories that were just bromances at best. Everyone was so condescending to us all the time and it was a constant of "you just want to see two men/women fuck Lol diiirtyyy". Now we've unlocked a new variation: the "our queer romance has to be shot like a 50s Hays Code romance movie so that it can be p u r e." "You don't need a love confession, a hug, actual romantic gestures, them to actually talk about their feelings, for it to be a romantic story!". Except we got all of that in s2? And now they barely talk about their love spat, don't acknowledge the kiss/love confession, barely react when they see the other in distress (after Crowley screamed at Jim that HE DID NOT CARE FOR IT? Meh). My problem is not about the missing (and dearly missed by many) kiss, because knowing that they die, it'd have just given us a hope that was never there in the first place. My problem is with how s3 is devoid not only of warmth, fun, comedy, but also of all those overt textual, romantic tropes that made s2 such a beautiful, soft, open celebration of a canonically not-cis couple. It was this beautiful middle ground that perfectly balanced things, in a genre that often suffers from cancellations or character assassinations (metaphorical or literal). People were expecting a happy end because, really, who could have seen the end coming? How did it all go so pear shaped? S3 rolled out and there's barely any warmth left: not only everything is doom and gloom and frankly mean spirited, but A/C all but behave like a couple of friends straight out of a "buddies" (more on this later) comedy for most of the episode, the romantic element is clearly dialed down by ten*. We've regressed back to reading subtext in the initial scene, where people are seeing sexual tension (which I completely missed lol); we're back to squeeing over the camera zooming on that awkward half hug while they walk back to the car (iconic that they did find time to insert some physical touches, but only to save money on the cgi lol), we've to use a magnifying glass to see if there's a matching ring on Asa's hand (I swear at first watch I didn't notice they were married, I thought the golden ring on Anthony's hand was a subtle nod at Aziraphale's signet ring). No hug, no love confession, no comforting embrace, near to no small touches, next to no warm gazes (because, when, it's all so gloomy anyway). Only a weird hand kiss which I originally interpreted as Az giving it back, as a symbolic renounce to their chance at romance in this life. Maybe it's less sad to interpret it as a devotion gesture? But the whole way they say goodbye is so rushed and emotionally contained. Where's the emotional pay off? They don't properly talk. Aziraphale confesses his love but while looking at God, while Crowley barely reacts. Their big heartfelt talk at the tree is them telegraphically talking about wanting to save humanity. In the script (?) right after that scene, they say this:
Sorry, what declaration of love? The very dry, very contained "I only want one thing"? Crowley's declaration in s2 was far from being perfect, for me, but at least it was overt. Here we're getting even less than that. We're back to reading subtext. In the show that was an overt celebration of queer love. Then they become average humans who could be cis or not but it's all up to interpretation. We're back at square one. I'm tired. I'm tired of queer shows getting cancelled after 1 season. I'm tired of the homophobia that came back tenfold: we were called cringe fan girls 15 years ago because we dared see a possible romance between two same sex characters ("can't two men/women just be friends? Not everything has to be gay!" and it never was gay anyway, and if it was, they died lol). Now it's "oh you hoped to see a happier kiss? What do you want, them to bone right on camera? Scoff!". How did it go so badly that we're basically back to the same discourse, after s2? Hell even s1 was more warm and had more barely subtextual moments! People also say that a romantic love story doesn't have to be overt, for it to be clearly romantic. Except before s2 rolled out, no one thought of their relationship as romantic? Because it was easy to dismiss the subtext? The whole point of having overt romantic tropes in queer media, in a show that doesn't rely on explicit sex to be queer, is so that it can't be dismissed as "two buddies being bros"? Like, check the difference of genres on imdb:
Good Omens genre list:
OFMD's:
This show made A/C so central they end up "saving" the world with their noble sacrifice: there's a love confession (if you squint, there's 2), even a kiss (which is the basic "oooh they ARE in love!" in media 101), a break up. Yet it doesn't even classify as romance once? Even with the marriage ending??? Right. Evidently all that "we don't need a kiss/hug/love confession for it to be romantic" doesn't work in the real world. Last but not least. I'm also tired of having to squint to see happy endings for queer couples: "no but don't you see it's them in the real world!" this is just an interpretation, the textual evidence is that they got annihilated. What we're left with is a very nice gay couple who is not the one we grew fond of. Jury's out on if it counts as a happy end or not. "But they're in the snowglobe obviously!" that's a nice head canon that helps some fans. "But there's reminders of them in Asa and Crowley so it's clearly their souls!" that is another nice head canon, but again, I'm tired of having to hallucinate my happy ending through wishy washy hints. It's 2026, if I have to squint, to interpret, to read subtext, especially in a show that was capable of being more overt, it feels like a regression to me. "But we have a marriage in the end! It's textbook love!" Well tell that to imdb then lol. I'm as baffled as you are. Apparently it's a buddy comedy where two very good buddies who never had one romantic feeling for each other very bromancly hold hands while saving the world. Then they have an human AU meet cute in another life, we have to squint to see their matching rings, the end. Even Yuri on ice was more heavy handed with their subtext, which 10 years ago was as loud as a scream in a library. S3's subtext is a mouse screaming in a church. No wonder so many people found it unsatisfactory.
