Good Omens Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		3.0
Overall		4.0

Good Omens Blu-ray Movie Review

British Gods?

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman February 17, 2020

In one of the brief, almost commercial-like, supplements included with this release as a bonus feature David Tennant goes on record as insisting there’s “nothing like” Good Omens. That may come as at least something of a surprise for anyone who has seen any number of properties where angels and/or demons reside among “mere” humans. And in fact one of those properties bears rather distinct resemblances to Good Omens, including sharing a (co-)author, the venerable Neal Gaiman, who, along with Terry Pratchett, delivered the original written form of Good Omens , upon which this limited series was based. That other Gaiman entry was the initially intriguing American Gods: Season 1, a show which unfortunately seems to have encountered some negative juju (a technical term) of its own and which experienced a rather precipitous decline in quality during its second season. American Gods rather cheekily posited a bunch of “old gods” a la Odin in a battle for relevance with “new gods” like television, in what felt like the “end times”, even if an actual apocalypse wasn’t entirely germane to the concept. Good Omens takes two very old gods of a sort, the angel Aziraphale (Michael Sheen) and the demon Crowley (David Tennant), who have been “acquaintances” since Garden of Eden times, but who are now kind of blithely thrust together as a long expected Armageddon is about to consume Mankind and the Earth.

If the subtext of “good vs. evil” in this show is of course a well worn cliché, Good Omens at least has the sense to skewer things pretty mercilessly, including a patently hilarious “mixup” early on in the story that plays suspiciously similarly to all of those errant suitcases getting swapped in Peter Bogdanovich’s neo-screwball What's Up, Doc?. And in fact, there’s definitely a farcical element at play, though in this particular instance, the “switch” involves a baby fathered by the devil, in an obvious dual tip of the hat (horns?) to both Rosemary's Baby and The Omen. A series of misunderstandings and miscommunications leaves the spawn of Satan living with a middle class British family, rather than the American diplomat (assigned to the UK) that was part of the demonic plan. Crowley was the assigned “deliverer”, but messes up, and when he later recruits Aziraphale to help with mentoring this child they believe is the Antichrist in order to perhaps forestall a seemingly inevitable Apocalypse, the joke is that the two supernatural beings are in fact working with the wrong kid.

Much as with American Gods, there is an almost insane collection of subplots and supporting characters populating this show. Not only are there are least two little boys growing up under mistaken circumstances (the series doesn’t really spend much time detailing what happens to a third baby involved in the chaos), there’s an old book of prophecies written by a witch named Agnes Nutter (Josie Lawrence), whose Nostradamus like prognostications never really caught on because it turns out they were 100% accurate (in just one example of the rather trenchant sense of humor this series often employs). Agnes’ descendant Anathema Device (Adria Arjona) is in possession of her ancestor’s tome (at least for a little while), and is aware some kind of conflagration is coming, ultimately partnering with Newton Pulsifer (Jack Whitehall), himself a descendant of the “witchfinder” who burnt Agnes at the stake, in order to prevent the calamity.

But there are also divine beings (of both the “good” and “evil” variety) galore in the series, including Gabriel (Jon Hamm), whose motives seem at least a little questionable, and (on the “flip side”) Beelzebub (Anna Maxwell Martin), among a coterie of angels and demons making up the forces aligning for an “end time” which may or may not be Divinely commanded. (In that regard, it’s notable that along with a female playing Beelzebub, the voice of an unseen God is provided by Frances McDormand, something that evidently raised some hackles in more religiously conservative circles.) There are a number of other historical personages who figure into the proceedings, including everyone from Jesus to Shakespeare, along with a "special guest Lucifer" (or something like that) voiced by Benedict Cumberbatch.

Good Omens intentionally pushes any number of envelopes, and as evidenced by the aside above involving reactions to McDormand as the "big kahuna" (kahunette?), this is probably not a show for those who have religious sensibilities which do not include a barbed sense of humor. The "metaphysics" here may be a bit of a muddle, but the miniseries is often cheekily amusing, and at least occasionally laugh out loud funny. There's no denying that Good Omens is in fact quite a bit like any number of other properties in a variety of media. (While probably very few remember it today, there was actually an Anthony Newley - Leslie Bricusse West End musical decades ago called The Good Old Bad Old Days which posited God and Satan deciding whether or not the world deserved being saved, with the Devil, played by Newley himself, being on the "pro" side of salvation.) There's not much singing and dancing in Good Omens, alas, but the show still has a kind of carnival-esque atmosphere that makes the eternal battle between good and evil come off as surprisingly refreshing and fresh.

Good Omens Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Good Omens is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of BBC with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.35:1. The IMDb lists various Arri Alexa models as having been used, but fails to offer the resolution of the DI, which I am assuming was 2K (as always with my reviews, if anyone has authoritative data to the contrary, let me know and I'll happily update the review). Aside from prevalent softness in a lot of the CGI material, this is a very nicely detailed looking presentation. Director Douglas Mackinnon does tend to favor a number of weirdly skewed framings, often with additional "bells and whistles" like fisheye lenses employed, and so detail levels can vary somewhat due at least in part to these stylistic choices. The palette is very nicely suffused throughout the presentation, and shadow detail is surprisingly strong in a number of dark scenes. There is some very bad banding during the initial Amazon masthead, but I noticed nothing really egregious in the actual miniseries with regard to compression issues.

Good Omens Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Good Omens features an intermittently bombastic DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track that really springs to life when, for example, Queen music is quoted, or even in some of the more "explosive" (in more ways than one) sequences, like Agnes getting burnt at the stake. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly throughout, and there is good, smart placement of ambient environmental effects, helping to establish a well rendered soundstage. Fidelity is fine, and I noticed no issues whatsoever with regard to any damage, distortion or dropouts.

Good Omens Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Disc One

• The Characters of Good Omens (1080p; 1:49) is the first of several very short featurettes, with this one actually playing more like an extended credits sequence.


• The World of Good Omens (1080p; 1:12)


• Page to Screen (1080p; 6:24) is at least a little more in depth, and features interviews with Neal Gaiman.


• Bookshop Tour (1080p; 5:24) offers Gaiman again in a fun look around one of the sets.


• Storyboard Gallery (1080p; 4:54)


• Concept Art Gallery (1080p; 3:48)


• Costume Design Gallery (1080p; 1:15)


• Good Omens Trailer (1080p; 1:37)


• Episode Commentaries are accessible under the Setup Menu.

Disc Two

• Aziraphale's World (1080p; 4:44) features Michael Sheen.


• Crowley's World (1080p; 4:11) features David Tennant.


• Deleted Scenes (1080p; 10:23)


• Queen Compilation (1080p; 12:22) begins with a text card culled from the original source novel which supposedly "explains" the Queen connection, which is followed by scenes featuring music by the supergroup.


• Good Omens VFX Reel (1080p; 3:22)


• Episode Commentaries are accessible under the Setup Menu.

Good Omens Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

In our American Gods: Season Two Blu-ray review, I mentioned the prevalence of people who describe themselves as "spiritual but not religious." Good Omens might be best appreciated by those who consider themselves spiritual but sacrilegious, since this often pretty snarky miniseries takes on all sorts of touchy, and potentially iffy, material without batting a (serpentine) eye. For those who subsribe to the maxim, "and then God laughed", maybe it's high time we "mere" mortals started laughing at the Gods (and their minions), and Good Omens provides plenty of opportunity to do just that. Technical merits are solid, and Good Omens comes Recommended.