‘Good Omens’ Season 2 Review – A Comfy Slice Of Supernatural Romance, Comedy, And Intrigue

David Tennant (Crowley) and Michael Sheen (Aziraphale) in Good Omens Season Two. (Photo credit: Mark Mainz/Prime Video)

This piece was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the writers and actors currently on strike, the series being covered here wouldn’t exist.

If you’re an angel and a demon, and you’ve just stopped a literal apocalypse, what do you do next? Well, you solve a mystery involving an amnesiac archangel, of course. Helmed by director Douglas Mackinnon and writers Neil Gaiman and John Finnemore, season two of Good Omens continues the story of everyone’s favorite angel and demon as they navigate life on Earth as fugitives of Heaven and Hell. While it’s not quite as strong a piece of serialized television as the first season, season two of Good Omens retains all of the original’s magic, charm, and humor. It’s a cozy slice of supernatural fantasy with a healthy dose of romance and comedy that’s sure to please even the grumpiest of watchers.

A Cozy Mystery of Cosmic Proportions

A few years after averting the apocalypse, the demon, Crowley (David Tennant), and the angel, Aziraphale (Michael Sheen), live quiet lives amongst the humans. Enjoying all that Earth has to offer, raising plants in Bentleys, and desperately avoiding the attention of their former employers. But the arrival of an amnesiac (and stark naked) archangel Gabriel (Jon Hamm) turns their lives upside down. He brings with him a mystery of cosmic proportions. What terrible thing causes an archangel to abandon Heaven and seek the protection of a fugitive? With Heaven and Hell each desperate to find the missing archangel, it’s up to Crowley and Aziraphale to untangle Gabriel’s missing memories and put a stop to whatever nefarious deeds are afoot – and maybe even help two humans fall in love while they’re at it.

By and large, if you liked the first season of Good Omens, you’re gonna have a good time with season two. Season two’s not as much of a slam-dunk success, but it’s enjoyable enough for what it’s trying to be. If you’re expecting another end-of-the-world level threat, you might wanna tamper those expectations some. Instead, expect a cross between a cozy mystery (think along the lines of Murder She Wrote), a romantic comedy, and a sitcom. The combination feels slightly jarring at first, especially in the earlier episodes as everyone finds their groove again. But by the end of the five episodes provided for review, it makes for a very warm, comforting watch.

The Quiet Before the Storm

In many ways, season two of Good Omens feels like the television equivalent of releasing a novella between two books in an ongoing series. The stakes are lower, there’s a greater focus on character development rather than plot development, and it feels like Gaiman and Finnemore are largely setting the stage for a more bombastic (currently hypothetical) third season. This results in an undeniably enjoyable watch, but one that’s missing a sense of urgency and danger. The mystery itself is quite interesting, it’s just that the show frequently diverges from it to travel down tangentially related subpaths. And those diversions occasionally frustrate as much as they delight. It’s as though Gaiman and Finnemore only had enough story for two or three episodes, and so added a whole lot of other stuff to pad things out to the required six.

And while a lot of that stuff is devilishly enjoyable, they tend to take away from the season’s cohesiveness. Take, for example, the minisodes scattered throughout half of the season’s episodes. Each one is around twenty-five minutes long and tells a story from Crowley and Aziraphale’s past. Each story ties into the season’s ongoing storyline. But each story also takes up a lot of time that could’ve been spent further developing that central mystery. These little stories are all a whole lot of fun, but there’s a palpable sense of “been there, done that” to them as they cover emotional beats that were already covered in the fan-favorite cold open from season one’s “Hard Times”. Put simply, each episode is individually enjoyable but when viewed as a whole, the season just feels kind of uneven and listless and stretched out farther than it should’ve been.

A Supernatural Romantic Sitcom

That being said, Good Omens has always leaned heavier on its comedy and heart than its plot – and that remains the case here. Season two plays a lot more like a sitcom than the first season. Each episode feels like its own distinct thing, with a comedic subplot often taking center stage as the ongoing arc fades into the background. And a lot of those subplots are deeply silly, packed with so many delightful gags that it’s nigh impossible to walk away from any individual episode without a giant smile on your face. To go into any real detail about any of the specific plotlines hews a bit too close to spoiler territory, but let’s just say that if you had a bingo card of rom-com tropes in front of you, expect to cross off a fair few of them.

For as silly as the show is, it’s also packed with a ton of genuinely emotional, touching moments. This season dives even deeper into Crowley and Aziraphale’s relationship over the millennia. You get the chance to see them grow, change, and tempt one another. There’s this ongoing idea of their relationship being a corrupting force, a temptation – in good ways and bad ways. But the way Gaiman and Finnemore write them is filled with this gentle sweetness. They’re partners in all senses of the word, through thick and thin. And their love for each other transcends almost all boundaries. Each of them would go to the ends of the Earth for the other, for good or ill, and it shows. Their relationship is Good Omens‘ heart and soul, and it’s easily the most compelling part of the season.

A Collection of Outstanding Performances

Season two also comes packed with great performances. As expected, Michael Sheen and David Tennant deliver breathtaking performances as Aziraphale and Crowley, respectively. Each of them amps up the heightened silliness of their characters while digging even deeper into their respective characters’ emotions, even finding moments to tug at the heartstrings.

Returning actors Miranda Richardson, Maggie Service, and Nina Sosanya all get a lot more screen time this time around, each playing different characters than they did last season. Richardson strikes a delightful balance between horror, ineptitude, and absurdity as the demon, Shax, Crowley’s replacement. Service wears her heart on her sleeve as Maggie, a record shop owner who’s hopelessly in love with Sosanya’s Nina, a coffee shop owner. At first glance, Maggie and Nina couldn’t be more different from each other. But, as they say, opposites do attract, and Service and Sosanya play brilliantly off one another.

New actors Liz Carr (Saraqael), Quelin Sepulveda (Muriel), and Shelley Conn (Beelzebub) all deliver memorable performances too. Sepulveda, especially, gets to carry a lot of humor. Her scenes with Crowley and Aziraphale are a joy to behold, and she brings this real sense of unbridled joy to the role that’s absolutely infectious.

The real surprise, though, is just how funny Jon Hamm is. Playing a character with amnesia is never an easy task, but Hamm pulls it off. He’s so over-the-top, so absurd, really hamming it up to the point that he makes Sheen and Tennant look like straight men. Hamm even manages to find a few moments to genuinely make you feel for Gabriel. This is an archangel who’s fallen so far from grace that it’s hard not to feel pity for him, however unlikeable he normally is. And that’s an impressive feat in its own right.

Final Thoughts

At the end of the day, Good Omens season two is a solid addition to Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett’s original book. While it may not deliver as strong a story as the first season, it gives the characters a lot of room to breathe and grow together. The story itself lacks both focus and a sense of urgency, taking what was a genuinely intriguing mystery and padding it out far longer than needed with various subplots and tangents. But underneath that lack of focus lies a sweet, deeply romantic story. An absurd, gut-bustingly hilarious story, but a romantic one nonetheless. If you liked the first season, you’ll like this one too. At its heart, Good Omens Season Two offers a quiet, cozy slice of supernatural romance and comedy that’s well worth a watch.

All episodes of Good Omens Season Two premiere Friday, July 28th on Prime Video.

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