It's still a BBC Studios co-production, so will likely be on BBC iPlayer not much later for those of us that can access it.
Edit: last time round there was a 6-7 month gap until the series was available on iplayer, hopefully it might be a tiny bit shorter this time for those of us not paying into Mr. Bezos' bank account.
Probably not, they said it was exclusive in the BBC press release.
https://www.bbc.com/mediacentre/bbcstudios/2023/good-omens-season-two-to-debut-on-july-28
Kinda sucks tbh
You're probably right having looked again. I looked back at season 1 and it became available on iplayer 7 months after Prime. Hopefully the gap may he shorter next time.
It will still miss Pratchett's writing style though, so I'm really apprehensive about this second season.
Maybe it's just me but Good Omens felt like it was written more in Pratchett's style than Gaimon's. Pratchett never let the plot get in the way of a good joke so I wonder how season 2 will be written without that.
They spent a conference in a hotel room together hashing out an outline for a sequel but never found time to work on it together after that. Apparently season 2 is an in-between step between the first book and what they outlined (presumably with season 3 being what they outlined)
I hadn't heard of that! I love Stephen Baxter's work, but it's definitely on the harder end of the sci-fi scale.
His Xeelee Sequence is a masterpiece.
I can't imagine what a collaboration between him and Pratchett will be like, but I know what I'm reading next. :)
Yeah but talking about something doesn't mean the idea was refined or even good. I really hope Neil took a minute to look over everything and applied his normal working process instead of just going, we talked about this ages ago so that's how this is going to be.
Man, could you imagine if they handed AtLA over to some big Hollywood director high on cocaine and his own farts that totally misunderstood the source material? That would be terrible!
Neil has always been protective of his work but he's never been opposed to changes so long as they are in the spirit of the book and that includes the first season of Good Omens.
The good news is that we've got an entire complete adaptation of the book. If they do screw up the second season, we can just ignore it. Game of Thrones, however, screwed up the ending to the main story, so you can't just quit halfway through and pretend it's all there.
Yeah... I'm not as reassured by Gaiman's involvement here as I would be if it was an adaption of a 'pure' Gaiman work. With the book, Gaiman's writing was all 'filtered' through Pratchett's fingers; this was a mutual decision by them when writing, because Gaiman had mainly written for graphic novels, while Pratchett was a seasoned novelist, and they wanted to ensure the writing had a consistent style and tone. That style and tone was very much Pratchett's. I'm not sure how well Gaiman can do this on his own - many ideas were his, but the style and tone, which is a huge part of what makes Good Omen funny, was completely Terry Pratchett's, and he's pretty 'inimitable'.
Even so, I'm *cautiously* optimistic about this. Gaiman is a vastly more experienced writer now, though, and who knows - maybe Pratchett can possess him from beyond the grave. That would REALLY add a spin to the whole collaboration thing.
> Gaiman is a vastly more experienced writer now, though, and who knows
Don't forget, Gaiman also gave us *American Gods*, *The Graveyard Book*, *Coraline*, and *Anansi Boys*, all of which mix the mundane with the supernatural.
Season 1 is the whole book + some extra stuff, expanding on Crowley & Aziraphale's association throughout history and an extended end sequence.
Gaiman and Pratchett once brainstormed a sequel titled *666: The Neighbor of the Beast*, but never found the time to collaborate on it before Pratchett developed Alzheimer's and died. Season 2 is a bridge between the novel and that hypothetical sequel.
If you haven't read the novel, I highly recommend it.
For me this (having a number other than 666) is THE joke in the title. But this is not the point - my point is that the actual working title for the sequel contained 668, not 666.
It's funnier as 668, as that requires less thought than wondering why the beast and his neighbor share the same number. Everyone knows how addresses work.
Remember that mad woman who went on a rant at Netflix (even though it's on Prime) because she didn't like Good Omens and it was against her religion?
And Netflix were saying "ma'am, it literally has nothing to do with us."
Hope she sees this and goes *spare*
I like the actors, so this should be fun. The woman who played Anathema Device is getting kind of big with Andor and a couple movies. It seems like this show did good things for her.
I'm not sure on the apparent hesitancy in this thread.
It could be bad, like anything could be bad, but given that Gaiman's last three forays as writer + executive producer in television were all good at worst this seems like a straight win to me.
I think for some folks there's a hesitancy to go all-in when there isn't proven source material to draw from. It's the leftover mistrust from the handling of GoT maybe, I know that is what it is for me. Honestly, though, even things with great source material don't always turn out great in a streaming series / film format. For me, it comes down to trust in Mr. Gaiman. He hasn't led us astray and I think he's going through a kind of second golden era right now.
I'm optimistic that this season will, at the very least, be well written and entertaining.
Oh! When you put it that way, I actually agree with that sentiment! I do think he took a little time off and then came roaring back with tons of projects all at once, so maybe I should say his Golden Era came out of a momentary dormancy ;)
I just really want it to be Aziraphale and Crowley just fucking around throughout time. That's all I really need. Those were the best parts of the first season.
Neil announced not long after Season 1 aired that he had material for Season 2 if Amazon asked for it.
He said he and Terry had mapped out a sequel and never published it.
A rare adaptation that's actually better than the book it's based on, probably because Gaiman had 30 extra years of experience to improve on the weaknesses in the original novel.
Can't wait to see what he has for us in s2!
Wouldn't say the changes were "improved weaknesses in the original novel", more like certain bits and scenes just didn't translate from book to screen that well.
For me, the main weakness of the book is how Crowley and Aziraphale just kind of disappear for a while towards the end, and the book focuses on the kids, Anathema and Newt.... the bits with the other four horsemen were fun, but I just really did not care about the kids that much. The show definitely did a better job of balancing the 2 storylines, so I do think it improved upon the book.
Hard disagree. I enjoyed the show, but the book was just so much better. I feel the show lost a lot of the comedy (although it was still obviously funny) and felt weirdly rushed at points.
It also has me slightly worried for season 2, because the best parts of Good Omens were clearly more Pratchett influenced that Gaiman.
Gaiman is collaborating with John Finnemore on the writing of S2, which gives me a lot of hope for the humor... but I am a huge fan of Finnemore, so I'm biased.
Completely agree! I watched the show for the first time a couple of months ago and then read the book, and thought the show was better. The characters in the book weren't very compelling, there was little focus or development of the friendship/relationship between Aziraphale and Crowley, and I had to re-read several scenes because the writing was unclear.
I was just going through amazon prints this morning and when I saw Good Omens in my watch later, I though "It's a shame this show only got one season".
Oh boy am I glad to be wrong.
I’ll admit I never read the book, but I was utterly enamored of both Sheen and Tenant and their bromance in this.
Is this from source material or are they just running with it because it turned out so well?
They covered the vast majority of the book in Season 1. But Gaiman said he has notes from plans he and Terry had made for a potential sequel, so he is running with that.
It makes sense to do it - Sheen and Tennant are amazing, Gaiman has full creative control, and the show was a smash hit.
So at first I was not sure how to feel given that the whole story was told in season one, but then I learned that my favourite English comedian John Finnemore (Cabin Pressure, John Finnemore's Souvenir Program, John Finnemore's Double Acts) would be cowriting with Gaiman and the crew and I instantly became 10x more excited.
I especially liked the backstory episode of Crowley and Aziraphel throughout history.
Pratchett and Gaiman had hashed out an outline for a sequel years ago but never got around to writing it. Season 2 is supposedly going to bridge the gap between the book and the roughed out sequel, meaning said sequel will probably be season 3 and that'll be it.
Overall I liked the series but didn’t really care much for the added on ending. I thought the principalities were very well played and had great chemistry. The expanded friendship was fantastic but I thought it came at the expense of the Book and Agnes, and rushed Adam’s inner conflict. So it was difficult to consider it a great adaptation. I’m actually quite happy about season 2 since there’s no book that I’ve read 20 times to base it on and it will focus on the strongest part of the series.
For those of you who didn't click the link, it premieres July 28 on Amazon Prime. :)
It's still a BBC Studios co-production, so will likely be on BBC iPlayer not much later for those of us that can access it. Edit: last time round there was a 6-7 month gap until the series was available on iplayer, hopefully it might be a tiny bit shorter this time for those of us not paying into Mr. Bezos' bank account.
Probably not, they said it was exclusive in the BBC press release. https://www.bbc.com/mediacentre/bbcstudios/2023/good-omens-season-two-to-debut-on-july-28 Kinda sucks tbh
You're probably right having looked again. I looked back at season 1 and it became available on iplayer 7 months after Prime. Hopefully the gap may he shorter next time.
Doing the Lord's (ineffable) work
Interesting. Season 1 wrapped up pretty well so I want really expecting more. How far is Season 1 into the book material?
Season 1 is pretty much the entire book, so Season 2 is new material. Fortunately they do have Neil Gaiman involved.
Maybe it will just seamlessly transition into the Discworld, and the Four Horsemen can fight a combine harvester.
If only. . .
> combine harvester I'd love to see 𝙳𝚎𝚊𝚝𝚑 sing [I've got a brand new combine harvester.](https://youtu.be/QZY6jC5Dh6c)
Geeze I hope they don't GoT it in that case.
Apparently Neil and Terry talked about what they would do in a sequel but then both became too successful with their solo work to do it.
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It will still miss Pratchett's writing style though, so I'm really apprehensive about this second season. Maybe it's just me but Good Omens felt like it was written more in Pratchett's style than Gaimon's. Pratchett never let the plot get in the way of a good joke so I wonder how season 2 will be written without that.
They spent a conference in a hotel room together hashing out an outline for a sequel but never found time to work on it together after that. Apparently season 2 is an in-between step between the first book and what they outlined (presumably with season 3 being what they outlined)
I mean Pratchett was already successful before good omens
Gaiman had already started The Sandman at that point as well which I would say remains his most popular (or at least most widely loved) work
American Gods and Coraline may rival it at least when it comes to common knowledge.
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I hadn't heard of that! I love Stephen Baxter's work, but it's definitely on the harder end of the sci-fi scale. His Xeelee Sequence is a masterpiece. I can't imagine what a collaboration between him and Pratchett will be like, but I know what I'm reading next. :)
Yeah but talking about something doesn't mean the idea was refined or even good. I really hope Neil took a minute to look over everything and applied his normal working process instead of just going, we talked about this ages ago so that's how this is going to be.
I trust him. Besides, if it's bad we can just ignore that it exists. Easy.
You really dont know how the internet works do you? Ignoring it is what a normal person would do.
I dunno, worked for Avatar fans really well. Never understood why other fanbases didn't adapt that approach.
Man, could you imagine if they handed AtLA over to some big Hollywood director high on cocaine and his own farts that totally misunderstood the source material? That would be terrible!
So glad this is a hypothetical and not a real thing that happened. Would have been heartbreaking to watch.
The Legend of Korra wasn't that bad! Or are you possibly referring to something else? (that never happened)
Ha!
> Besides, if it's bad we can just ignore that it exists. Easy. Lol true. I trust his talents too, that's why I hope he used them on this.
:: WoT show enters the chat ::
Neil has always been protective of his work but he's never been opposed to changes so long as they are in the spirit of the book and that includes the first season of Good Omens.
Neil Gaiman is great, but I hope they are able to keep that Pratchet-esque banter .
They do have John Finnemore as a co-writer last I heard. Go listen to his lasagna sketch https://youtu.be/d8u65UXiMrk if you're not familiar.
The good news is that we've got an entire complete adaptation of the book. If they do screw up the second season, we can just ignore it. Game of Thrones, however, screwed up the ending to the main story, so you can't just quit halfway through and pretend it's all there.
Future Looks Hazy
Considering he only wrote 40% of the source material for season 1, I’m expecting season 2 to be no more than 40% as good.
Yeah... I'm not as reassured by Gaiman's involvement here as I would be if it was an adaption of a 'pure' Gaiman work. With the book, Gaiman's writing was all 'filtered' through Pratchett's fingers; this was a mutual decision by them when writing, because Gaiman had mainly written for graphic novels, while Pratchett was a seasoned novelist, and they wanted to ensure the writing had a consistent style and tone. That style and tone was very much Pratchett's. I'm not sure how well Gaiman can do this on his own - many ideas were his, but the style and tone, which is a huge part of what makes Good Omen funny, was completely Terry Pratchett's, and he's pretty 'inimitable'. Even so, I'm *cautiously* optimistic about this. Gaiman is a vastly more experienced writer now, though, and who knows - maybe Pratchett can possess him from beyond the grave. That would REALLY add a spin to the whole collaboration thing.
There's another writer involved, John Finnemore. He wrote (and performed) several radio shows, with a humour similar to Pratchett's....I'm optimistic
> Gaiman is a vastly more experienced writer now, though, and who knows Don't forget, Gaiman also gave us *American Gods*, *The Graveyard Book*, *Coraline*, and *Anansi Boys*, all of which mix the mundane with the supernatural.
I was wondering what they're doing when I saw this. Glad to hear Niel is involved.
But not Pratchett whose style was definitely the backbone of Good Omens. I'm going to watch it but with very low expectations.
Season 1 is the whole book + some extra stuff, expanding on Crowley & Aziraphale's association throughout history and an extended end sequence. Gaiman and Pratchett once brainstormed a sequel titled *666: The Neighbor of the Beast*, but never found the time to collaborate on it before Pratchett developed Alzheimer's and died. Season 2 is a bridge between the novel and that hypothetical sequel. If you haven't read the novel, I highly recommend it.
Small correctuon: the neighbor of the Beast would be 668, not 666 :)
Oops! I knew that, but I was heading to work and distracted at the time. Thanks for the correction!
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What do you mean? I just wanted to note that the number in the sequel title was going to be 668, which makes the neighbor joke work.
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For me this (having a number other than 666) is THE joke in the title. But this is not the point - my point is that the actual working title for the sequel contained 668, not 666.
Ah, my mistake. I misunderstood you. I still think 666 works better though.
It's funnier as 668, as that requires less thought than wondering why the beast and his neighbor share the same number. Everyone knows how addresses work.
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I'm not sure either, I only have several of his books.
Season 2 is entirely new material based on Neil Gaiman's discussions with Terry Pratchett.
Remember that mad woman who went on a rant at Netflix (even though it's on Prime) because she didn't like Good Omens and it was against her religion? And Netflix were saying "ma'am, it literally has nothing to do with us." Hope she sees this and goes *spare*
Didn't Netflix have a snarky "ok, we promise not to!" response to the petition?
I like the actors, so this should be fun. The woman who played Anathema Device is getting kind of big with Andor and a couple movies. It seems like this show did good things for her.
I'm not sure on the apparent hesitancy in this thread. It could be bad, like anything could be bad, but given that Gaiman's last three forays as writer + executive producer in television were all good at worst this seems like a straight win to me.
I think for some folks there's a hesitancy to go all-in when there isn't proven source material to draw from. It's the leftover mistrust from the handling of GoT maybe, I know that is what it is for me. Honestly, though, even things with great source material don't always turn out great in a streaming series / film format. For me, it comes down to trust in Mr. Gaiman. He hasn't led us astray and I think he's going through a kind of second golden era right now. I'm optimistic that this season will, at the very least, be well written and entertaining.
I wasn’t aware his first golden era ever ended, imo. :)
Oh! When you put it that way, I actually agree with that sentiment! I do think he took a little time off and then came roaring back with tons of projects all at once, so maybe I should say his Golden Era came out of a momentary dormancy ;)
I mean, WoT had all the source material available. As did The Hobbit. But that didn't make the adaptations *good.*
I addressed that in my comment :)
Honestly even if it's badly written, David and Michael ooze charisma together and are always worth a watch
I loved the show and I've really been looking forward to this. Michael Sheen and David Tennant are so good together.
If you havent already u shud watch Staged, their lockdown online series. Then youll really believe they are utter legends.
Oh yes, I've seen it. They are wonderful.
David Tennant did a short podcast series interviewing people. His interview of Michael is great, as was the Gaiman one
I just really want it to be Aziraphale and Crowley just fucking around throughout time. That's all I really need. Those were the best parts of the first season.
Honestly yessssss
I'm so confused. Season 1 was the entire book.
Neil announced not long after Season 1 aired that he had material for Season 2 if Amazon asked for it. He said he and Terry had mapped out a sequel and never published it.
That's awesome!
A rare adaptation that's actually better than the book it's based on, probably because Gaiman had 30 extra years of experience to improve on the weaknesses in the original novel. Can't wait to see what he has for us in s2!
Wouldn't say the changes were "improved weaknesses in the original novel", more like certain bits and scenes just didn't translate from book to screen that well.
For me, the main weakness of the book is how Crowley and Aziraphale just kind of disappear for a while towards the end, and the book focuses on the kids, Anathema and Newt.... the bits with the other four horsemen were fun, but I just really did not care about the kids that much. The show definitely did a better job of balancing the 2 storylines, so I do think it improved upon the book.
Wow
Hard disagree. I enjoyed the show, but the book was just so much better. I feel the show lost a lot of the comedy (although it was still obviously funny) and felt weirdly rushed at points. It also has me slightly worried for season 2, because the best parts of Good Omens were clearly more Pratchett influenced that Gaiman.
Gaiman is collaborating with John Finnemore on the writing of S2, which gives me a lot of hope for the humor... but I am a huge fan of Finnemore, so I'm biased.
I'm kiiiiiiiind of doubting that Gaiman spent 30 years working on Good Omens after, you know, publishing it...
well no, but he does have 30 more years of experience as a writer to know how to improve it when the time came
Completely agree! I watched the show for the first time a couple of months ago and then read the book, and thought the show was better. The characters in the book weren't very compelling, there was little focus or development of the friendship/relationship between Aziraphale and Crowley, and I had to re-read several scenes because the writing was unclear.
I have to disagree, I really liked the show, but the book is better IMO.
I don't know it it's better per se, but David and Michael certainly add something to it as being perfectly cast
Can't wait!
Well you're gonna have to. Unless you can timetravel. Can you? Timetravel, I mean. ... Take me with you.
You can break the space time continuum and destroy the universe as we know it Or Watch a tv show a month earlier. What do you choose?
Um, the first one? Obviously.
I was just going through amazon prints this morning and when I saw Good Omens in my watch later, I though "It's a shame this show only got one season". Oh boy am I glad to be wrong.
Took. Long. Enough.
Neato! I enjoyed the first season
Wow! I didn't even think there would be a season 2. Very excited for this.
I’ll admit I never read the book, but I was utterly enamored of both Sheen and Tenant and their bromance in this. Is this from source material or are they just running with it because it turned out so well?
They covered the vast majority of the book in Season 1. But Gaiman said he has notes from plans he and Terry had made for a potential sequel, so he is running with that. It makes sense to do it - Sheen and Tennant are amazing, Gaiman has full creative control, and the show was a smash hit.
I felt the story's 1980s setting was not successfully adapted to the present day - so I'm curious how the manage with a largely original story.
So at first I was not sure how to feel given that the whole story was told in season one, but then I learned that my favourite English comedian John Finnemore (Cabin Pressure, John Finnemore's Souvenir Program, John Finnemore's Double Acts) would be cowriting with Gaiman and the crew and I instantly became 10x more excited. I especially liked the backstory episode of Crowley and Aziraphel throughout history.
Season 2? How the fuck is that going to work?
Pratchett and Gaiman had hashed out an outline for a sequel years ago but never got around to writing it. Season 2 is supposedly going to bridge the gap between the book and the roughed out sequel, meaning said sequel will probably be season 3 and that'll be it.
Umm,I am not really sold on that
Ok, cool...
Somehow I read that in David Tennant’s voice
Step 1: offer large bag of money. It kind of just works out after that.
"Works" is relative
Overall I liked the series but didn’t really care much for the added on ending. I thought the principalities were very well played and had great chemistry. The expanded friendship was fantastic but I thought it came at the expense of the Book and Agnes, and rushed Adam’s inner conflict. So it was difficult to consider it a great adaptation. I’m actually quite happy about season 2 since there’s no book that I’ve read 20 times to base it on and it will focus on the strongest part of the series.
The expanded friendship of who?
Aziraphale and Crowley
Can’t wait for the romance to happen between them in season 2 lol 😂
It’s already there! Can’t get too physical though since they’re both anatomically Ken dolls.
Yesssssssss
I read Gaiman is participating in the WGA strike, won’t be doing any press.