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Dept. of Not A
So. Good Omens. Finally.
This is not going to be a case of me highlighting "Good Omens" in the headline, and then going "Ha! Fooled You! Got Nothing to Say! Ha! And again I say Ha!"
Nor, however, will it be very long. I only have one observation thus far, other than that which I said initially, and that was that this is a well-made BBC mini-series, with very good writing, very, very good acting and pacing, and some sweet scenes - and one that has not captured my emotional attention in the least.*
On the other hand, it did occur to me that the mini-series appears to me to be a meditation on the nature of friendship, and how friendship, whether romantic, platonic, frenemic (it is too a word) or any other type of friendship you feel you'd like to toss into the mix, is an integral part of what makes humans humans.
Further, that friendship has the ability to ennoble humans. Even more, that it has the inescapably human superpower of being capable of humanizing angels and demons. I'd say that doing so grants angels and demons a most singular gift, one that isn't understood by either Heaven or Hell.
I mean, neither of those realms understand friendship, do they? Worse, they don't seem to have any examples from which to learn and understand the concept. Does Gabriel have friends? No indeed. Do Hastur or Ligur really like each other? Ha!
It falls to Earth (see wut I did thar) and its grubby humans to invent friendship. Yes, it was Aziraphale's kindness that allowed humans to exit the Garden safely and begin the process of inventing friendship. But it was humans who created it. And let's not forget that it was Crowley's subsequent hanging around all those humans, even if it was originally with the intention of cursing them, that allowed him to become the first power of air or fire to grasp and like the idea of friendship. (I wouldn't call that sauntering vaguely downward. I'd call that slip-sliding into the best possible place to become more than a power of air or fire.)
And that's what can save a world.
Here's where I take what I think is a necessary detour to say what I think is a necessary truth. At the end, it's the kids who matter most, not Aziraphale or Crowley. It's the kids who save the world, because they are friends.
Pepper, Brian and Wensleydale rescue their friend, the one who, overwhelmed by how shitty the world is, not least because of humans, almost loses himself. He almost becomes, you know, not human - and thus stands to lose his greatest superpower. When they tell him they're not his friends anymore, and he tells them, he's got better friends coming, you can see he doesn't believe it himself. He wants the friendships he knows, not the ones he's probably actually a little bit afraid of. He's only able to access that friendship by asking them to give his Dog back (and I'd say that Dog is the one non-human in the story who understands friendship, because he hadn't been told he couldn't.)
And perhaps Aziraphale and Crowley learned the last little bit they needed to know about friendship from the kids. I don't know.
That's it for now.
*I'm sorry guys. I wish I could tell you something else. I think I'll go back now and read some of your conversations. They should be more accessible than the extraordinarily academic tome I ran across on AO3 today.
This is not going to be a case of me highlighting "Good Omens" in the headline, and then going "Ha! Fooled You! Got Nothing to Say! Ha! And again I say Ha!"
Nor, however, will it be very long. I only have one observation thus far, other than that which I said initially, and that was that this is a well-made BBC mini-series, with very good writing, very, very good acting and pacing, and some sweet scenes - and one that has not captured my emotional attention in the least.*
On the other hand, it did occur to me that the mini-series appears to me to be a meditation on the nature of friendship, and how friendship, whether romantic, platonic, frenemic (it is too a word) or any other type of friendship you feel you'd like to toss into the mix, is an integral part of what makes humans humans.
Further, that friendship has the ability to ennoble humans. Even more, that it has the inescapably human superpower of being capable of humanizing angels and demons. I'd say that doing so grants angels and demons a most singular gift, one that isn't understood by either Heaven or Hell.
I mean, neither of those realms understand friendship, do they? Worse, they don't seem to have any examples from which to learn and understand the concept. Does Gabriel have friends? No indeed. Do Hastur or Ligur really like each other? Ha!
It falls to Earth (see wut I did thar) and its grubby humans to invent friendship. Yes, it was Aziraphale's kindness that allowed humans to exit the Garden safely and begin the process of inventing friendship. But it was humans who created it. And let's not forget that it was Crowley's subsequent hanging around all those humans, even if it was originally with the intention of cursing them, that allowed him to become the first power of air or fire to grasp and like the idea of friendship. (I wouldn't call that sauntering vaguely downward. I'd call that slip-sliding into the best possible place to become more than a power of air or fire.)
And that's what can save a world.
Here's where I take what I think is a necessary detour to say what I think is a necessary truth. At the end, it's the kids who matter most, not Aziraphale or Crowley. It's the kids who save the world, because they are friends.
Pepper, Brian and Wensleydale rescue their friend, the one who, overwhelmed by how shitty the world is, not least because of humans, almost loses himself. He almost becomes, you know, not human - and thus stands to lose his greatest superpower. When they tell him they're not his friends anymore, and he tells them, he's got better friends coming, you can see he doesn't believe it himself. He wants the friendships he knows, not the ones he's probably actually a little bit afraid of. He's only able to access that friendship by asking them to give his Dog back (and I'd say that Dog is the one non-human in the story who understands friendship, because he hadn't been told he couldn't.)
And perhaps Aziraphale and Crowley learned the last little bit they needed to know about friendship from the kids. I don't know.
That's it for now.
*I'm sorry guys. I wish I could tell you something else. I think I'll go back now and read some of your conversations. They should be more accessible than the extraordinarily academic tome I ran across on AO3 today.