As far as premieres go, Amazon sure as Hell have zero idea what they’re doing (pun absolutely intended).
The Green Carpet was, admittedly, very pretty to look at. Amazon had lined up a thick green carpet (meant to look like grass, aka Eden), with apple trees set by its side. They also brought some signs, going from “have a nice doomsday” and “welcome to the end times” to parts of Agnes Nutter’s prophecies. Those signs were set next to the trees, giving a fairly complete Good Omens experience. It was hilarious to see the apples actually tied to the trees (clearly visible when you’re standing close to it), but from a distance it didn’t stand out, so it didn’t really change the general impression (as long as you weren’t too close). On one end of the green carpet they built a green stage; on another there was the Bentley and behind it, their version of Eden (lots of trees and greenery). It was beautiful to look at from afar – I have no doubt it looked stunning through the cameras.
If we didn’t have tickets to the red carpet, I’d have been thrilled just to stand outside and look at the stars. It says something about the organisation that I could’ve easily gotten way better photos standing outside the pan. But Amazon did promise “red carpet action”, which is far more valuable than just seeing the stars from afar. And you know what? They really, really didn’t deliver.
It seems like whoever designed the green carpet had no idea as to how to do red carpets. I don’t know if it’s an Amazon thing or the doing of some inexperienced people at the organisation team, but this red (green) carpet wasn’t remotely worth hanging around it. Rather than having the press lined up after the fans, like they usually do, they lined them up opposite the fans, with the stars and crew being led to their side of the carpet. David Tennant, Michael Sheen and Neil Gaiman valiantly tried to get through to fans – with Tennant jumping over the ropes separating the press side and the fans side (thank you to Heat & HeatWorld for the wonderful video) – but they were constantly ushered back to the press. Once they were done with the press, they were sent into the theatre. As one fan put it, “all we got to see is their backs”. Great.
Personally I was extremely annoyed at how the carpet and stages were lined up. The way it was done, only the press people got to see the cast and crew and take pictures of the whole set. Only the press people got to actually meet them (as well as very few lucky fans); nearly all the selfies and autographs are press people’s. I wanted to take pictures of the Eden set and the Bentley, but we were ushered to the pan before we could and as soon as the cast and crew were in, we were ushered into the Odeon, just as quickly. There was zero consideration for fans; the entire thing was more of a three-hour-wait than “watch the red carpet action”. I actually think the three million people watching it live at home had a far better view than most of us did.
That’s hardly all, though. The cast and crew were sent back and forth along the green carpet, constantly being moved from one place to another before going back to where they started. You’d think at the very least, even if they had zero respect for the fans, the Amazon people would know what they’re doing with their stars, particularly Tennant, Sheen, Jon Hamm, Neil Gaiman and Douglas Mackinnon. But it seemed they hadn’t a clue what they’re doing either; I stopped counting how many times these five made their way across and around the green carpet, each time for a new photo or interview, zigzagging back and forth like they’re someone’s toys. It was extremely chaotic and very poorly organised. And as said, it was extremely disrespectful to the fans.
It needs to be said, going into the Odeon Luxe was a joy, and watching Good Omens on a massive iSense screen was a once-in-a-lifetime sort of experience. The massive screen, amazing audio quality and extremely comfortable seats truly made the perfect way to watch the first two episodes. If I’m being honest, I’m not sure how I’m gonna watch the rest on my computer screen tomorrow – it hardly seems right after watching the first two like that. I was extremely tired and sleep-deprived, but I’d have stayed there until the middle of the night to watch the whole thing if they gave us the option. (Also needs to be said: Amazon/Odeon kindly gave us free water and sweet popcorn, which made this specific fan very happy because I neither ate nor drank yesterday.)
The reviews of the first two episodes will be done separately, but I’ll very quickly just say they were absolutely spectacular. I was slightly disappointed by a certain moment in the first episode and the pace difference between the first two (just like in the book) took a moment to get used to, but on the whole, I very much enjoyed both episodes. Of course, seeing Tennant and Sheen together on a gigantic screen, working together in perfect sync like they were always meant to play those roles together, had to have been the highlight. It was, in every respect, brilliant.
But as said, a full review will be posted separately. This is about the premiere experience.
Following the two episodes we got to see a quick reel detailing some of what’s lying ahead (and it needs to be said, it looks awesome). Then there was a quick (roughly 15 minutes) Q&A with some of the cast and crew of Good Omens.
The Q&A was – sadly – done with a host, who was responsible for asking the questions. I say sadly because while the cast and crew tried to expand and add things they haven’t said before, for the most part, the questions were the exact same questions we’ve heard before. Gaiman was asked about adapting it to the screen and about casting Crowley and Aziraphale; Hamm was asked about his character’s added scenes in the show (as opposed to the book); Sheen was asked about his involvement with the production from the beginning; Tennant was asked about getting the offer to be in it. There was some new information – story tidbits – but for the most part, it went very much like every other Good Omens interview we’ve seen. It was interesting to hear Josie Lawrence talking about Agnes Nutter (her performance was brilliant), and it was hilarious to hear Michael Sheen describing the process through which he went before taking the role of Aziraphale, but I have to admit, the Q&A was a bit of a disappointment.
Here’s what the cast and crew had to say at that Q&A:
The first question was addressed to Rob Wilkins. He was asked when and how he became a part of the journey of making the show. He told the story of how he sat down with Neil Gaiman and a number of executives (from the BBC and other places) and they made the decision of turning Good Omens into a mini-series rather than a film (the original intention). At that conversation came the idea of adapting Good Omens to six thirty-minute-episodes, and they just continued from there.
Following that, Josie Lawrence was asked about what she connected with when she first read the script. She replied that Agnes Nutter’s strength drew her to the role – she thinks Agnes is an amazing woman – and now she feels very connected to Agnes. In fact, from now on, no one else is allowed to take on the role, as far as she’s concerned!
Douglas Mackinnon was asked whether it was important to him to do the show with Neil [Gaiman], to which he jokingly replied, “No, I could’ve done it myself.” To which Neil replied, “With his eyes closed!”
After the laughter subsided, he replied that he was thrilled to be working with such an amazing storyteller, and it was a real treat (if I remember correctly he said it was one of the greatest collaborations in his career – that’s how thrilled he was).
Mackinnon was then asked about the challenges of making the show. He replied in terms of budget, while they had a good budget it wasn’t a big budget, so they had to make do with what they had. It wouldn’t seem like it when you think about a massive studio like Amazon Studios, but as it turns out, his experience working on shows like Doctor Who and Sherlock was useful in terms of working on budget. That being said, the main challenge wasn’t money-related: it was keeping the show true to the books and the scripts. The way he sees it, the key was making sure the show remained faithful to the book; if the show works, it’s because of that.
Next, Neil Gaiman was asked about doing the adaptation from book to TV. Gaiman replied that strangely, adapting the book to a screenplay was the easiest part; he simply took the book, divided it into six parts and then studied each part. Some parts needed to be changed a bit; for instance, reading the third part, he realised he didn’t have Crowley and Aziraphale at all, which is why he decided to write a sequence that shows the Demon and the Angel’s relationship throughout the six thousand years. Another example was that when he reached the final episode he realised that he “ran out of story” halfway through it, which is why he added more scenes to that episode.
“Throughout it [the adaptation process] all I kept wishing that Terry Pratchett was there,” He said. “Whenever I got stuck I wanted to call Terry and say, ‘What do I do there?’ And whenever I did something clever I wanted to phone Terry and tell him, ‘I did it, I figured it out!'”
He was also asked how what he thinks Pratchett would say about the show. Gaiman said he thinks he’d love it, but “being Terry”, he’d have line changes and other suggestions throughout the script; by the end of the editing, the script “would’ve been seventeen precent funnier!”
Adria Arjona was asked about Anathema and her role in the story. She said that she grounds the story; there are a lot of different types of characters, but “like Aziraphale says, she’s ‘a whole lot of love'”, and she makes the story seem more realistic.
The next question was for Jon Hamm. Gabriel’s role was expended in the adaptation, and he was asked what he hoped for when he heard that. His immediate response was, “more lines, because I don’t have any in the novel”. Once the laughter subsided, he said he was happy Gaiman would be the one to do the adaptation. He added it makes sense to him that Gabriel, who has a role in the narrative of the book, was supposed to have a bigger role, but was cut for time, so to speak. So to get to have that bigger role, and more importantly, to be the new addition to this very beloved story, was an honour. And having one of the co-creators running the whole thing made it even better.
Miranda Richardson was then asked about the séance scene and the process of bringing it to life. She started replying when one of the mics acted up, creating this annoying high-pitch noise. Seeing as the séance scene was literally just brought up, she cut herself off and said, “Someone’s coming through!” (to which someone replied, “It’s Terry [Pratchett]!” but I don’t remember who it was.)
Once the laughter subsided she said she really enjoyed making that scene, because the atmosphere on set was so relaxed, and she got to do that scene with really talented people. She explained that Gaiman was there throughout the process, explaining things and answering whatever questions she had, so she felt she was in safe hands with him. They only had a day to shoot that scene, so they had to work fast, but it was fun.
The next question was addressed to Michael Sheen. He was asked about something he mentioned before: that at first, he thought Gaiman wanted him to take on the role of Crowley, rather than Aziraphale. Sheen explained that in the beginning, reading the early versions of the scripts, there was a sort of assumption on his part that Gaiman wanted him to play Crowley, while, as they discovered, later, Gaiman thought he wanted to play Crowley. So for a while they went on like that.
“I would say, ‘They’re very good, they’re very good scripts’, and we would be talking about the project, but I couldn’t get up the guts to say, ‘I don’t want to play Crowley. I don’t think I’d be good enough to play Crowley’,” He recalled.
At the same time, Gaiman was thinking that he wanted to have Sheen as Aziraphale, but since he thought he wanted to be Crowley, he didn’t say anything. That is, until one “awkward dinner” (to quote Sheen), in which Gaiman finally asked him to play Aziraphale, to which Sheen went, “Oh, thank god, yes!” To him it made more sense, as that was the character he related to more, and he was thrilled to do it. Then Gaiman told him he wanted David Tennant to play Crowley, which Sheen thought was perfect. “And then it all sort of clicked into place,” He concluded.
With that in mind, Neil Gaiman was asked whether he originally thought about actors for the roles as he wrote the scripts. He explained that generally no, but he decided that he wanted Sheen to play Aziraphale very early on. He said Sheen had been a friend of the project from the very beginning, so he knew he wanted him to take the role while writing. Casting Crowley was slightly different, though; he only discovered he wanted Tennant for the part halfway through writing episode three – writing the Crowley-rescuing-Aziraphale-at-a-church scene. As he wrote that scene, he thought he needed someone who could do the physical comedy while never losing the drama of the situation – and suddenly he realised that “I can imagine David Tennant doing that, and I can’t imagine anyone else doing that”. So that was the moment Tennant got the part.
Did David Tennant need a lot of persuasion to take on the role? Not in the slightest. He didn’t know about the work on Good Omens or about the conversations and decisions; he just suddenly received an email with the first script, with Gaiman’s name on the front, Mackinnon as director and Sheen involved in it – a dream team. “I thought I got somebody else’s email,” He said, “It felt too good to be true.”
Tennant and Sheen were then asked about the process of bringing Crowley and Aziraphale to life, and how involved they were in that process. Tennant explained that Mackinnon and Gaiman very much encouraged them to bring up ideas and try new things. They could do these trials knowing that they’re “Safe in the knowledge that Neil and Douglas knew where to stop and where to begin and what worked and what didn’t, so you had this enormous safety net to just have fun with.” The way he sees it, though, they didn’t need to do much; the characters themselves felt alive as they were, on page, be it on script or in the book. “For us, it was just, ‘let’s not break it’,” Tennant concluded.
That was the end of the Q&A, and now that the episodes are all out, I think it’s safe to say they most certainly did not break it. It was done just right.
Good Omens is available to watch on Amazon Prime.