Good Omens, Mort and The City Watch

[Zorral]

I have never read Pratchett's books.

Waiting to meet up with friends last evening, for us to go to dinner together, I watched the first 1 and 1/2 episodes, as Deadwood wasn't dropping until 8 PM.  Mildly distracting, perhaps, but it also feels tonally off, considering that we really are in the end of days, at least climate catastrophe ways, and that the anti-christ is sitting in the Oval -- he's at least as cruel and destructive as Lucifer's expectations of the unholy kid.  So, I dunno. What I mean is the comedy with which catastrophe is treated isn't funny, because these very actions are happening in front of our eyes right now.

[DMC]

I planned on binging this yesterday, but life got in the way.  Gonna watch the Tottenham game today cuz my bro's a big fan so don't anticipate I'll get to it until it least tomorrow afternoon.  Keep the thoughts coming, the trend seems to be perhaps I shouldn't bother - or at least commit an entire binge period for it.

[Datepalm]

I thought it was best suited to a binge - I had my first free day and ages and just wanted to absolutely do no work and stay out of the heat, and it was a bit of good nostalgia, though often primarily by reminding me how good the book was. (Like, was the Queen-in-the-car joke ever even explained? I mean, that's one of my favorite surreal touches, for example.) Honestly, I don't know that I would have come back to watch it episode by episode.

[red snow]

1 hour ago, DMC said:

I planned on binging this yesterday, but life got in the way.  Gonna watch the Tottenham game today cuz my bro's a big fan so don't anticipate I'll get to it until it least tomorrow afternoon.  Keep the thoughts coming, the trend seems to be perhaps I shouldn't bother - or at least commit an entire binge period for it.

I don't think i could binge it, nothing about the first episode had me desperately wanting to watch the next episode, but i think it might work well in small doses.

I get the not-very-apocalyptic vibe but I'm not sure it's supposed to be? 

1 hour ago, Zorral said:

I have never read Pratchett's books.

Waiting to meet up with friends last evening, for us to go to dinner together, I watched the first 1 and 1/2 episodes, as Deadwood wasn't dropping until 8 PM.  Mildly distracting, perhaps, but it also feels tonally off, considering that we really are in the end of days, at least climate catastrophe ways, and that the anti-christ is sitting in the Oval -- he's at least as cruel and destructive as Lucifer's expectations of the unholy kid.  So, I dunno. What I mean is the comedy with which catastrophe is treated isn't funny, because these very actions are happening in front of our eyes right now.

Isn't this true of every apocalyptic drama though? Zombies, aliens, viruses aren't going to kill us but environmental and ecosystem collapse will.

The only shows that tend to touch on this were shows like "utopia" (with a very harsh preventitive measure) and wildlife documentaries/the news pointing out the damage is done and limitation is our best option. I kind of feel the light-hearted approach of the show works quite well to present day indifference/helplessness at what is becoming self-evident?

[Zorral]

1 hour ago, red snow said:

I kind of feel the light-hearted approach of the show works quite well to present day indifference/helplessness at what is becoming self-evident?

Nah.  Doesn't feel intentional in the way a creative mind intent on showing such thing would do it.  The tone is just inappropriate for that kind of intentionality.

The best thing out of what I saw last night (do not know whether I'll be seeing any more, at least any time soon) was the sweetness of our white angel -- it's raining, so he, heaven's helper, extends one of his white wings over the black henchman of Lucifer.  It was just so -- sweet -- adorable even.  O dear.  This is not a metaphor of good vs evil, It is not a message of how the true war between the forces of light vs the forces of dark play out. As God  has told us via Moses and the Prophets, They has determined evil that occurs due to omission of action is as damnable as evil that occurs by intentional commission.

[red snow]

1 hour ago, Zorral said:

Nah.  Doesn't feel intentional in the way a creative mind intent on showing such thing would do it.  The tone is just inappropriate for that kind of intentionality.

The best thing out of what I saw last night (do not know whether I'll be seeing any more, at least any time soon) was the sweetness of our white angel -- it's raining, so he, heaven's helper, extends one of his white wings over the black henchman of Lucifer.  It was just so -- sweet -- adorable even.  O dear.  This is not a metaphor of good vs evil, It is not a message of how the true war between the forces of light vs the forces of dark play out. As God  has told us via Moses and the Prophets, They has determined evil that occurs due to omission of action is as damnable as evil that occurs by intentional commission.

I liked that scene too. I also liked how it was paired with the statement of how the demon in doing something evil may have done something good and vice versa.

[SkynJay]

My wife and I watched the first episode together.  I enjoyed it, she was bored.  It felt way too much like a book adaptation, start to finish.  I will be finishing it because of my love of the book and the fact that it seems pretty well done, but I can't imagine this being a huge hit that pulls people outside of the Pratchett/Gaiman circle. 

[Jen'ari]

I don’t think the 4 horsemen got as much time as they deserved, also war had by far the coolest outfit,weapon and motorcycle .

[Heartofice]

Has there ever been a Pratchett adaptation that managed to capture the books? I’ve disliked most of them, somehow the voice seems to get lost when it moves into screen.

I get that sense from this too, I can hear the lines and they sound funny, but somewhere something is missing, even with all the great performances 

[Martini Sigil]

"Don't tell ME about the greater good, Sunshine.... I'm the archangel fucking Gabriel."

[Heartofice]

I've done 4 episodes now and it is a real struggle to get through them. The tone just doesn't really work even though it has maybe the finest collection of comedic talent in it I can imagine. Its like a who's who of people I love.. having the entire cast of League of Gentleman in ep3 was a plus.

But there are so many bits that just don't seem to come together or feel coherent. Its hard to describe, but I guess that there isn't a consistent aesthetic that fits in with the writing. If I think about something like Preacher, the way that look and sounds and plays out, all feels consistent with the writing. 

But Good Omens can't tell whether its an over the top visual quirky cartoon or whether it should have a more grounded down to earth feel. It seems to hover somewhere in the middle visually and doesn't get it right.

I haven't laughed once, even though I know that the lines are funny and the performances are great. It just feels a bit try hard, in the way a sarcastic teenager might write something he thought was amusing. That is a bit what Pratchett is like I guess, but he does it well. Doesn't work here at all.

Anathema and Adam are both really bland and thats a real shame. 

The story just plods along for a show that should be at least trying to be hanging on an important deadline. Deciding to do the backstories for ep3 was probably a bit mistake IMO.

I haven't read the book so I don't know how well this compares to it, but yeah like almost all Pratchett adaptations I've seen it doesn't translate. 

[RedEyedGhost]

"I suppose I should pop the question then..."
"Well, go on."
"So, how many nipples have ye got?"

I enjoyed it quite thoroughly.  It's obviously not perfect, but y'all are a bunch of killjoys.

[dog-days]

Mixed feelings. Like Heartofice, I feel it had problems with coherency of tone. It's kind of odd how the book feels perfectly coherent despite being written by two people, but bringing it onto 

I didn't like the decision to introduce the narrator as the Voice of God, because it never came to anything. And it seemed odd in a show that was all about adopting a humanistic perspective, and ended with the almost His Dark Materials style threat of war between Earth and the angelic/demonic powers, to have God as a narrator without exploring it further. I would have preferred it if the narration had been handed over to an adult Damien. 

But there were still plenty of things I liked. Crowley and Aziraphale were great. I would have happily watched a show with just the two of them reacting to events. And I did enjoy the Agnes flashback. And I thought John Hamm as Gabriel was great. I didn't like the way Hell/the demons were brought to life as much. It was envisioned as a terribly depressing basement office-type environment, which should have worked, but I think that should have been brought out more - to make it obvious that it's really just a low budget version of Heaven. 

One of my favourite moments was the vision of Aziraphale's restored shop with a shelf full of Richmal Crompton's William Brown books. Did anyone else here read the William stories as a child? I had a cassette with a selection on, which I listened to till the tape warped. 

Can't believe TP has been gone for over four years now. : ( 

[williamjm]

I finished watching Good Omens yesterday, overall I liked it. It was a nice and accurate adaptation of the story, which I think has both advantages and disadvantages. I thought it did a good job of capturing the tone of the book, although I felt at times they were maybe trying to be a bit too faithful. I think having some narration was reasonable, particularly for things like the intro to the first episode that benefit from having an omniscient point of view, but I felt there was too much of it and it was being used even in scenes which could have told their story without needing a narrator. Some of the additions such as the Archangel Gabriel or the trials were among the best bits of the show.

I thought David Tennant and Michael Sheen seemed to having fun playing the two lead roles and the scenes with the two of them interacting were at the heart of the show. Some of the other subplots were a bit less compelling, particularly Anathema and Newton's plotline.

[Heartofice]

Finished it now and my opinion of the show only got worse as it went on. I was pretty enthused by episode 1, but by the end I couldn't bring myself to finish it and it was only because I was stuck on a train with nothing else to do that I managed it.

Overall I was pretty disappointed with the whole thing, it is probably my least favourite show I've seen all year in some ways. I think because there was so much talent and potential behind it, that it being so below average was upsetting for me. 

So much of it just didn't hit the mark. The humour and tone were all over the place, the occasional great bit of comedic acting was hidden in a flimsy and silly script, funny people like Jon Hamm, Miranda Richardson and Micheal McKean were wasted or gave strange performances. 

By the last few episodes the series had sort of descended into something I would expect to watch on children's TV. I'm putting this down to those pesky kids who just cheesed up the screen every time they were there. 

I was expecting a lot more from this series and was using it as a guage of how well Amazon studios is going to do with big productions. So far I have not been impressed.

 

[RedEyedGhost]

Netflix officially announces that they're cancelling Good Omens.

 

Amazon was so upset that they then cancelled Stranger Things.

 

[Heartofice]

Lol @ Christians! Probably upset at a female god.

there are better reasons to cancel the show 

[DMC]

2 hours ago, RedEyedGhost said:

Netflix officially announces that they're cancelling Good Omens.

Amazon was so upset that they then cancelled Stranger Things.

That's pretty damn funny, good on both those twitter feeds.

[AncalagonTheBlack]

First cast member named for Terry Pratchett’s The Watch

Quote

Deadline reports that British actor Adam Hugill (who’s in Batman spin-off series Pennyworth) will play one of the lead characters, Carrot.

https://deadline.com/2019/08/the-watch-bbc-america-series-terry-pratchett-discworld-adam-hugill-cast-carrot-1202707717/

 

[GallowKnight]

Richard Dormer cast as Sam Vimes