Let it not be said that the apocalypse has to be filled with nothing but fire and brimstone! Amazon's new series Good Omens delivers plenty of humor and heart to go along with the looming end of the world, with the unconventional relationship between an angel and a demon at the center. The angel Aziraphale and the demon Crowley (played by Michael Sheen and David Tennant, respectively) grew too fond of life among the humans on Earth to allow the world to end without trying to interfere as a team.
As it happens, they're just not especially competent at averting the apocalypse, but they're going to try like Hell -- or like Heaven -- to save the world together. Michael Sheen recently spoke at a Good Omens world premiere press conference, and he explained how the relationship between Aziraphale and Crowley is like The Beatles, saying this:
I'm more than happy being an angel. One of the interesting things about the coupling at the heart of it is how much they sort of rub off on each other a bit. They've been on Earth for so long now. I always sort of liken it to The Beatles. I remember reading one of The Beatles saying that part of what bonded them the most was that the four of them went through something that nobody else could understand. And that brought them kind of closer in a way. I think it's similar with Crowley and Aziraphale, that nobody else knows what it's like to be on Earth for thousands of years, since the Garden of Eden, and to watch humanity grow. That they've become connected to the world and humanity through that in a very special way. But also to each other in a very special way. So they're just like The Beatles.
On the one hand, you probably wouldn't expect and angel and a demon to have much in common with one of the biggest bands in music history. On the other hand, there's literally no other being on any other plane of existence who can relate to what Crowley and Aziraphale have gone through, and that's certainly true for The Beatles and their years of Beatlemania.
The Beatles were just much better at making music than Crowley and Aziraphale were at setting up the apocalypse for their respective sides. The trailers alone are proof enough that the pair would rather try to prevent the war than help their sides as they enthusiastically prepare for the war between Heaven and Hell.
If Good Omens was a drama, viewers could probably count on some of that fire and brimstone, raining down or rising up to a dark and moody soundtrack. Instead, we have an angel and a demon who are too fond of the lives they've built on Earth to really want everything to end, to the tunes of Queen. Seriously, in my book, you haven't properly appreciated "Bohemian Rhapsody" until you've watched Good Omens. If only The Beatles were involved as well!
David Tennant also weighed in on the unconventional relationship between Crowley and Aziraphale, although he went without mentioning The Beatles. WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD. Here are his thoughts on how important the demon and angel have become to one another:
And because they're not particularly good representatives of their respective head offices. They've rubbed off on each other so much that Crowley's not that mean anymore, and Aziraphale's not that holy. So between them, they've reached a common ground. And they've become each other's sort of significant other, really. They've only got each other to rely on. Although they would deny it until the end of time, quite literally, they're sort of each other's yin and yang.
Aziraphale is still an angel and Crowley is still a demon, but there are a lot more shades of grey to them by the end of the series than in their first encounter at the Garden of Eden. Hey, six thousand years with precisely one peer is bound to make that relationship important, and of course they had to change due to the influence of humanity and each other after so much time away from their head offices!
The relationship between Aziraphale and Crowley has already become one of the most popular -- if not the most popular -- aspects of the series, which is an A+ for newcomers as well as fans of Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett's original novel.
Neil Gaiman and director Douglas Mackinnon shared their thoughts about why the relationship was such a success, crediting the actors for their remarkable chemistry and how they were "dancing together." Both David Tennant and Michael Sheen also spoke about how they crafted their performances around each other.
At the press conference, Michael Sheen jokingly suggested that Crowley and Aziraphale are "totally codependent now" after their thousands of years of a relationship. David Tennant elaborated on how different Crowley and Aziraphale are from the other demons and angels:
But it's only when you see what head office is like, for instance when the angel Gabriel appears, that you realize how humanized they've become by the mortal world that they really like quite a lot. Because it's got wine.
Whether you're drinking to hang out with your demon "significant other," to try and convince your angel other half to help you subvert the apocalypse, or drowning your sorrows because you think the angel died in a fire, you can't find that alcohol in either Heaven or Hell!
Amusingly, the existence of fine wines on Earth was one of the factors Crowley tried to use to convince Aziraphale that they needed to prevent the end of the world, and they sure did proceed to get celestially smashed together. The cold open to Episode 3 also devoted half an hour to showing Crowley and Aziraphale's relationship changing throughout history.
Good Omens ended with Crowley and Aziraphale on their own side and at least temporarily cut off from Heaven and Hell, although Crowley suggested that a big war of Heaven and Hell vs. humanity is going to happen. The ending seems all but designed to open the door for a second season or spinoff, but there was only one book of source material, and Neil Gaiman hasn't given any indication that he intends to continue the show for a second season. We can alway hope, though!
END SPOILERS. You can catch all six episodes of Good Omens streaming on Amazon now. If you're in the market for something less heavenly, check out our summer TV premiere guide for some options.
