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 Featuring, but not entirely limited to:  David Tennant as Crowley Demon. Tempter of Men. Bringer of the Antichrist. Did not fall so much as saunter vaguely downwards.  Michael Sheen as Aziraphale Angel. Essence of Good. Chosen of God. Had a flaming sword once but it was rather cold outside for humans and who knows what creatures were lurking about out there. ...and an assortment of other angels and demons, witches and witchhunters, chattering nuns, horsemen, children, and one very confused but appropriately dog-like canine. After several years of attempts, speculation, directors, castings, and a whole bunch of other rubbish, one of the most beloved books of modern British comedy has made its way to Amazon Prime as a six episode mini-series. All episodes are available now. Originally written by the late Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman, the story follows the unlikely team of the demon Crowley and the angel Aziraphale as they try to stop Armageddon after a perfectly understandable mixup with the infant Antichrist that was really no one's fault if you think about the circumstances involved. Witty, eclectic and incredibly British, the book has become a bit of a classic for contemporary readers with keen insights to humanity that could only come from two of the largest forces in modern fantasy. As showrunner, Gaiman wanted this adaptation to follow closely to the novel, treating it as a lasting tribute to Sir Pratchett as much as anything. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BsrPO8qslBE
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May 31, 2019 16:11
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I'm halfway through and, man, this show is pretty much perfect for fans of the books. I'm not sure what people who have never read it will think, but I love it. Sheen and Tennant are fantastic. It's pretty apparent that this wasn't just another project for Neil Gaiman but something he very deeply wanted to do well for his friend. Neil's been doing a big Q&A blitz all day, so here's a kind of bittersweet one he did on Tumblr: quote:Q:What’s your favorite memory of Terry?
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May 31, 2019 16:42
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Halfway through too and I'm really, really happy. The trailers made it look like a bit of a flop, and Sheen's Aziraphale out of context just looked overacted, so I was worried. Both Tennant and Sheen are far and away better than I expected and the supporting cast is fantastic, especially Shadwell. The extra bits are great so far. I'm really enjoying Jon Hamm. I have to stop watching it now so that I at least can absorb it a bit.
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May 31, 2019 17:11
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Axel Serenity posted:I'm halfway through and, man, this show is pretty much perfect for fans of the books. I'm not sure what people who have never read it will think, but I love it... I haven't read the books but I'm really enjoying the show more than I thought I would. It's like the better parts of a Bryan Fuller show without getting too lost in stylization, if that makes sense.
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May 31, 2019 18:16
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Almost finished my binge watch (thank you day off). Really enjoyed it, it's been a long time since the read the book but I have found memories and everything seemed to work pretty well. It's nice to see a stand alone book be adapted to a one shot mini series and it be complete. While it's now a common thing, I like they still went with the "This is a British special/mini series/one off and if you British actor/comedian would like a cameo or bit part, step right up!" Good times.
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May 31, 2019 18:59
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Haven’t finished it yet but it’s good. I never like omniscient narrators as a film device so that bugged me but it was very necessary for a lot of the setup so it was less noticable after the first episode
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May 31, 2019 23:58
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The entire thing is very well casted but Jon Hamm is really a standout for reasons I can’t pin down. It’s not just that he stands out as an American but his character seems so wholesome
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Jun 1, 2019 00:00
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Axel Serenity posted:this show is pretty much perfect for fans of the books. Mmm. It's been years since I read it, and I'm only part way through episode 2, but: Does it ever stop just... reading the book to me? The Agnes Nutter bit really stuck out as a bad example of telling, not showing.
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Jun 1, 2019 00:50
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Well, this was really good! I watched it all today and worked much less than I was hoping to. I've read the book 3 or 4 times, but haven't touched it in probably ten years, and this made it all come flooding back. Crowley and Aziraphale are spot on. I just wish we could have had more episodes -- this could have filled a ten episode season easily, and I wish they would have spent more time on the kids and Adam's Happy Suburban Life so that it was more meaningful when Adam turned away from ruling the world (probably the only negative comment I have about this series). I basically just wanted to spend more time in general watching this whimsical little world they've made, though. More bits of the main characters hanging out, influencing things throughout history. One question: Why did Hastur burn up when Crowley drove through the burning expressway? Crowley's imagination was keeping him from burning? But then I thought the ending shows us that demons are impervious to fire? I don't remember how he got out of that one in the book.
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Jun 1, 2019 01:31
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Axel Serenity posted:I'm halfway through and, man, this show is pretty much perfect for fans of the books. I'm not sure what people who have never read it will think, but I love it. Sheen and Tennant are fantastic. It's pretty apparent that this wasn't just another project for Neil Gaiman but something he very deeply wanted to do well for his friend. Well now I’m tearing up and it’s your fault. God drat. I love the book, and 3 episodes in and drat, this is a good show. I agree that it’s like the best Bryan Fuller show I’ve ever seen. It is so drat good. Tennant and Sheen are absolutely killing it.
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Jun 1, 2019 02:55
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One episode in, I like to take things slow.Two Owls posted:Mmm. It's been years since I read it, and I'm only part way through episode 2, but: Do keep in mind, I know the book inside out, maybe I was just hoping for new impressions from an adaptation. But it rather feels like listening to a dramatized audio book that just happens to be illustrated. Quite well, at that! Tennant and Sheen are kicking it and so is Hamm and I'm still looking forward to the rest.
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Jun 1, 2019 10:25
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Is the narration obnoxious then?
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Jun 1, 2019 11:20
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Collateral posted:Is the narration obnoxious then? After seeing two episodes - a little, yeah. And a LOT of the narration could really be replaced by dialogue or action - the baby switch and burning of Agnes Nutter being the first that come to mind.
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Jun 1, 2019 12:29
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Phenotype posted:One question: Why did Hastur burn up when Crowley drove through the burning expressway? Crowley's imagination was keeping him from burning? But then I thought the ending shows us that demons are impervious to fire? I don't remember how he got out of that one in the book. In the book, it isn't just fire, it's the result of years of invocation of the dread sigil Odegra by humans driving round it, so the motorway becomes basically a barrier of pure destruction. Crowley manages to survive through sheer force of will and basically refusing to die, something Hastur can't do as he's kind of a 'route one' demon..
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Jun 1, 2019 12:48
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RedSnapper posted:After seeing two episodes - a little, yeah. I spent most of the Agnes Nutter scene trying to spot people I know. But yeah, way too much tell and a lot of it wasn't strictly needed, although some of it was.
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Jun 1, 2019 13:02
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I'd say part of it is that McDormand isn't landing the comedy ironic tone that it's supposed to be read in. She's reading the narration very pleasantly, but I feel like it should have a Stephen Fry style read on it. It comes out very boring. They should have hired a comedian for the role. I would like to hear Tig Nataro or someone similar read the part. For the goon on ep 2, I felt the same way. Ep3 picks back up a little. I like it so far. Though at times the style of the witch and the Antichrist scenes are a bit corny and not in a good stylistic way. While watching I'll start to think the show is too cheesy, but then it switches to Tennant and Sheen killing it so I stay around.
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Jun 1, 2019 13:28
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Only one episode in, and it's very expensive and very pleasant. It's not setting my world on fire, but I like Nina Sosanya and David Tennant and John Hamm (duh) so I'm all good. But those children are the loving worst. I get he's the anti-christ, but my god. The scenes are so deeply cheesy and the casting is almost unbearable posh. Lashing of ginger beer have nothing on these kids.
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Jun 1, 2019 15:54
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I loved it in its entirety and the things I missed are so minor that they don't matter, but I was sad that one of my favourite scenes was changed quite a lot (at the end) - I always really loved the kids vanquishing the horsemen with their own homemade versions of their items, Brian with his stick and grass crown and Pepper with a sword of two bits of wood, so I'd have much preferred that than all three using the flaming sword. They could have still done the "I believe in..." bit with that too. But it's a minor quibble. Was also quite looking forward to Pigbog and the other bikers, and the octopus, but that's a pretty hard sell. I thought I'd seen that the bikers had been cast, so maybe they had to be cut for time?
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Jun 1, 2019 16:32
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eating only apples posted:I loved it in its entirety and the things I missed are so minor that they don't matter, but I was sad that one of my favourite scenes was changed quite a lot (at the end) - I always really loved the kids vanquishing the horsemen with their own homemade versions of their items, Brian with his stick and grass crown and Pepper with a sword of two bits of wood, so I'd have much preferred that than all three using the flaming sword. They could have still done the "I believe in..." bit with that too. Yeah, I missed that too. eating only apples posted:But it's a minor quibble. Was also quite looking forward to Pigbog and the other bikers, and the octopus, but that's a pretty hard sell. I thought I'd seen that the bikers had been cast, so maybe they had to be cut for time? This brings up an interesting netiquette point. Does one actually have to spoiler something that was excised from an adaptation? It's basically meaningless to people who have only seen the show (or plan to). It's really only a spoiler, and not much of that, for people who see the show and then go and read the book, and the book itself is twenty nine years old! Oh well, it's not like it's a ton of effort to be sure I suppose. What made me curious about that specific omission is that they seemed to be setting up the "I never took him" gag with Elvis since you can see The King briefly in the hamburger joint....and then didn't follow up on it. I mean, why bother leaving Elvis in the earlier scene if you weren't going to use the newspaper setup ("one of these things was true") or the follow up with the trivia game?  Anyway, I enjoyed the series quite a bit, even laughing at some of the jokes that I knew were coming, and enjoying quite a bit of the new material as well. As with any adaptation, there are things I'd have done differently because no adaptation is exactly like the one in your head after you read a book, but this one was as good as I could have hoped for. Well done, I think Terry would have been proud. 
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Jun 1, 2019 16:52
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An Ounce of Gold posted:I'd say part of it is that McDormand isn't landing the comedy ironic tone that it's supposed to be read in.
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Jun 1, 2019 17:12
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Hamm is perfect in this. The role of the Them in the book is so much bigger but a lot of it gets cut. Probably when you have Tennant as Crowley, you want to spend as much time as possible with that? Also, those roles may be beyond what a kid could do. The actor who plays Five in The Umbrella Academy could have sold it, but he is too old and not cherubic enough. The main thing I miss is the footnote about the economics of the Witchfinder Army in old money, but that would have been four minutes long and further ground the narrative to a halt.
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Jun 1, 2019 18:43
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Crosspost sorry: Good Omens Episode One: I'm charmed by Aziraphael. Not a Tennant fan. Lots of "Hey! It's that Guy/Gal" going on which is fun. Surprised by some of the star power they managed to get.
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Jun 1, 2019 19:09
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It amuses me that the TV version shares at least one cast member with the BBC Radio 4 adaptation: Josie Lawrence played Agnes in both versions. Incidentally, Peter Serafinowicz was Crowley on the radio, which is great casting and would have been good for the TV show also.
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Jun 1, 2019 19:51
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I didn't really follow up on the radio adaptation through no fault of its own, rather than I don't really dig on radio plays or audio books in general, but Peter Serefinowicz as Crowley was the one thing that stood out to me from it, he was really good in the bits I heard
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Jun 1, 2019 21:39
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lmao at the people in heaven on hoverboards in the first episode
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Jun 1, 2019 23:01
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oh wow I never would've guess that that was Jack Whitehall playing Thou-Shalt-Not-Commit-Adultry if I hadn't seen his name in the credits
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Jun 2, 2019 02:39
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Man, I loved this so much. I've seemingly slept on Adria Arjona ( ); has she been in anything I should check out?I have only two minor issues: one, I wish they had kept in my favorite joke of the entire book (early on they imply that the excess baby might've survived to be good at breeding tropical fish, and not brutally abandoned... and near the end, we find that the boy had actually survived, and is really good at breeding tropical fish), and I felt that the ultimate finale was a bit too whiplashy (like, why just randomly stuff the last few moments of the old Witchfinder guy and his friendly retired jezebel in between other people's happy endings??) But man, they even filmed the scene of Crowley moving a sign for the M25 a few inches, which for some drat reason I always wanted to see.
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Jun 2, 2019 03:53
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The show was good. The book is at least two steps above but for all the people who rather spend 6 hours watching this then 8 hours trying the book is a fair adaptation. The only thing I missed from the book detail wise was the explanation of pestilence retiring. I always thought that bit was really clever
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Jun 2, 2019 05:51
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Sheen AND Tennant? Playing an angel and a demon? Goddamn.. Sign me up. You know, I haven't seen this show and know nothing of it beyond this thread, but I'm already confident in saying that I wonder if they had a clear ides of who would play which role? I only say that because both actors could probably pull either one off. But then, when you get down to it, playing bad/demonic/cool is always a bit more natural for most guys than playing, uh, good/angelic/prissy. And Michael Sheen IS the better actor and we already know from Tron he can pull off the weird white-haired albino-ish look, so hey!
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Jun 2, 2019 06:10
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Veskit posted:The show was good. The book is at least two steps above but for all the people who rather spend 6 hours watching this then 8 hours trying the book is a fair adaptation. Yeah, that would be just one extra line during Pollution introduction. God already says something along the lines of "They took over after Pestilence retired", they only needed to add "[...]in protest of the creation of penicilin" Loved the show, really good adaptation.
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Jun 2, 2019 06:47
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Only 1st ep done, the constant unecesary narrations suck rear end, otherwise this is pretty fun though.
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Jun 2, 2019 07:37
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eating only apples posted:Halfway through too and I'm really, really happy. The trailers made it look like a bit of a flop, and Sheen's Aziraphale out of context just looked overacted, so I was worried. Both Tennant and Sheen are far and away better than I expected and the supporting cast is fantastic, especially Shadwell. The extra bits are great so far. I'm really enjoying Jon Hamm. i cannot believe that shadwell was loving chuck from better call saul. that dude has range
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Jun 2, 2019 15:00
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TheDiceMustRoll posted:i cannot believe that shadwell was loving chuck from better call saul. How do you not know who Michael McKean is? Dude was in fuckin' Spinal Tap
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Jun 2, 2019 15:20
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Adnor posted:Yeah, that would be just one extra line during Pollution introduction. God already says something along the lines of "They took over after Pestilence retired", they only needed to add "[...]in protest of the creation of penicilin" just got to this and i really love the casting decisions for famine and pollution (also pollution is nonbinary? which owns, i liked the deliveryman conspicuously calling them 'sir' and the god narration switching to gender neutral)
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Jun 2, 2019 15:34
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eating only apples posted:
Cut for budget, apparently. https://neil-gaiman.tumblr.com/post/185299575986/
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Jun 2, 2019 15:43
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eke out posted:just got to this and i really love the casting decisions for famine and pollution Pollution isn't as disgusting and terrible as book form and it makes me sad. That said, rigging up a bike to leak black oil nonstop would probably be a logistical headache not worth the effect.
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Jun 2, 2019 16:32
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Just having finished it, yeah that was a really good show. The trailer made me worry it might be too twee for my taste (like Dirk Gently turned out to be), but in context it worked out just fine.
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Jun 2, 2019 16:53
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God yes, it very well could have been like Dirk Gently. Thank God it's only the relatively minor quibble of too much narration I have. Although that being said I find I have actually next to no desire to carry on watching. I don't hate it, it's a perfectly good show, it's just the way they filmed it I feel like I know it as well as the book and I'm pretty indifferent to seeing it again as moving pictures. I'm sure I'll have an hour to kill here and there the next few days and then it'll still be there. e: vvv well, poo poo. I actually think reading that's killed it for me. My Lovely Horse fucked around with this message at 17:33 on Jun 2, 2019 |
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Jun 2, 2019 17:11
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Sheen, Tennant and Hamm were great. I liked most of the angels and demons, but it goes a bit CBBC in places Tracy's initial possession and the talking-the-monsters-to-death ending I found grating. Pollution was memorably oily. The narration really did my head in in places. I know what a horseshoe is and its folklore uses are! You don't need to tell me! Thanks for completely ruining the timing of the RP Tyler "your car is on fire" joke, too. DEATH: unfurls wings GOD: "Death unfurled his wings" Oh! They swapped places, I see what - GOD: "Here is exactly what happened, and what Agnes was talking about"
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Jun 2, 2019 17:29
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Malcolm Turnbeug posted:The entire thing is very well casted but Jon Hamm is really a standout for reasons I can’t pin down. It’s not just that he stands out as an American but his character seems so wholesome I love "WE'RE BUYING PORNOGRAPHY!!!" *exaggerated wink* "they bought it! They have no idea who we are!"
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Jun 2, 2019 17:59
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