‘Good Omens’ Season 2 series review: Michael Sheen and David Tennant are ineffably delightful the second time around

A still from ‘Good Omens’

When we last met the demon Crowley (David Tennant) and the angel Aziraphale (Michael Sheen), it was a nice day, and all the days were predictably going to be nice henceforth since Armageddon had just been thwarted. But, Neil Gaiman decided that this is not where Crowley and Aziraphale’s story ends. While narrowing his focus on the relationship between these two and expanding the scope of his screenplay to encompass several countries, and timelines, Gaiman serves up a delightful second season of Good Omens. Though the central mystery of this season doesn’t gain much steam to propel the storyline, Crowley and Aziraphale keep you engaged.

The last season started off with Aziraphale helping Adam and Eve after they had been ousted from the Garden of Eden. This season, in a similar fashion, the Archangel Gabriel (Jon Hamm) turns up at Aziraphale’s doorstep, clueless about several different things, including where his clothes are. With no knowledge of even who he is, the only thing Gabriel is able to tell Aziraphale is that “they might do something terrible” to him. There is no indication of who “they” is and what terrible things will be done, which does not leave Aziraphale with much choice but to contact Crowley. Since successfully thwarting the plans of Earth’s destruction, Crowley and Aziraphale have resigned themselves to a life of relative normalcy after being ostracised from their respective realms. While Crowley travels around with his precious plants in his vintage Bentley, Aziraphale has started to build human friendships. Gabriel’s sudden mysterious appearance threatens this boring routine, as both Heaven and Hell send their forces to track him down.

Avoiding Gabriel’s detection is just one of the several narrative threads Gaiman takes up this season, which unlike the first one was not adapted from his existing book. This left Gaiman with a blank canvas, a large part of which he fills up with a slow rumination on the individual journeys of Aziraphale and Crowley, and their growing companionship over aeons.

Playing out in minisodes (an episode within an episode), Gaiman charts the course right from when Aziraphale first met Crowley, who was still an angel then. We see them again in the biblical timeline when God is testing Job, then in 1827 Scotland where they deal with bodysnatchers, and during World War II. The audience will be familiar with the World War II segment, which was part of an episode in the previous season that showed Aziraphale and Crowley across the ages as they ran into each other. Gaiman does something similar here, except each segment is extended to incorporate a fuller examination of the conditions that led to the present-day Aziraphale and Crowley — an angel and a demon who joined hands to save the Earth. As they encounter different scenarios, a nagging question takes seed and forces them to act in defiance of the moralities they have been assigned. Aziraphale learns to question God’s plan and pokes holes in the idea of social hierarchy, as Crowley welcomes the “niceness” that was inherent in him. Tennant and Sheen carry these interactions almost to perfection, playing off each other remarkably. As Crowley, Tennant grumpily but stubbornly reinforces Aziraphale’s confidence, and Sheen as Aziraphale adamantly acknowledges the kinder parts of Crowley.

While this is under way the episodes switch to the present-day scenario of Gabriel’s predicament, and also re-introduce Nina Sosanya and Maggie Service as new human characters. As Aziraphale and Crowley seek out clues behind Gabriel’s appearance, they also undertake other side quests in the process including executing a Jane Austen-esque romance between Maggie and Nina. While charmingly engaging on their own, the multiple storylines struggle to fold neatly into each other. In the first season, Aziraphale and Crowley’s personal interactions with morality bled into their urge to avert Armageddon, but this time around Gabriel’s mystery almost becomes an afterthought. In the five episodes available for review, there is little progress in the case to lead to possible conclusions, leaving a huge task for the writers to complete in the final episode.

However, these minor missteps don’t fully distract you from the central premise that Tennant and Sheen carry forth brilliantly. Leaning into queerer aspects for main as well as supporting characters, this season is bound to be a satisfying experience for fans. In the run-up to the show’s premiere, promotional material for Amazon Prime accidentally included a crucial plot point that hinted at Crowley and Aziraphale’s relationship taking a romantic turn, leading to excitement among fans. While the video was soon deleted, Gaiman vocalised his disappointment over the incident. Nevertheless, the second season shines in the moments between Aziraphale and Crowley, and Good Omens retains its outlandish charm, rewarding us with a whimsically fantastical time we have come to expect.

Good Omens Season 2 will be available for streaming on Prime Video from July 28