If that doesn’t seem like enough of a story to justify another six episodes of “Good Omens,” apparently, the writers agree. Three episodes contain minisodes written by collaborators John Finnemore, Cat Clarke, Jeremy Dyson, and Andy Nyman. The first of which, “A Companion to Owls,” witnesses Crowley 5,000 years ago on a mission to smite Job, God’s favorite human. Aziraphale learns of a troublesome bet between Heaven and Hell that might bring Job endless suffering and does his best to change it. In another minisode, “The Resurrectionists,” Crowley and Aziraphale are in Edinburgh in 1827. They meet a young woman Elspeth (Abigail Lawrie), who makes money on a most disturbing job, corpse robbery. They’ll find out whether her job is as distasteful as it seems. Finally, our favorite pair gets roped into a magic show during the Blitz of 1940s England. Soon after, Nazi zombies are determined to catch the angel and demon working together.
These three minisodes vary greatly in quality, with my favorite of the bunch learning about Job’s plight. The other two are slight, bringing Crowley and Aziraphale into drab and ultimately dire locations. This slate of episodes (five of the six episodes were viewed for review) exists only as a promise for greater adventures should the series return once again.
“Good Omens 2” spends much time with its tedious world-building to build toward an unannounced third season. Gaiman has alluded to this in interviews where he admits to needing additional time to build out the story from the first season’s events. It makes “Good Omens 2” feel like a tedious subplot that needed to occur before getting back to the true story. The entire cast leans on finding out what truly happened to Gabriel, but it isn’t all that interesting as a plot device.
But it’s hard to imagine anyone enraptured by “Good Omens” being disappointed in the new adventures of their favorite angel and demon, especially as the show keeps up many quirky and bizarre happenings that made it such a success in the first place. Tennant and Sheen continue to be the reason to watch: Their relationship never feels manufactured, and their characters seem to honestly love each other in one of the most chaste relationships on TV. That infectious love for the material covers many misgivings for this season’s main storyline. When everyone is having this much fun, it’s difficult to curse them too much.
Five episodes were screened for review. “Good Omens 2” premieres on Amazon Prime Video on July 28th.