Anonymous asked:
Good Omens fans look away!!! You do not need to see this!! Please enjoy your show in happiness and ignore me on my lonely hilltop yelling at clouds!
[Re: this earlier ask]
Alright. My high affection for Good Omens the Book is another post. My complex thoughts on Neil Gaiman the Author is also another post.
We’re talking about Neil Gaiman the Producer of His Own TV Shows here, in whom I have LITTLE FAITH.
My problems with Producer Gaiman began with American Godz, where by now he has driven out or straight fired three (3) showrunners for not closer adhering to his original text or opinion as the Word of God, a move that really impressively combines megalomania with stupidity, as it is such a great misunderstanding of what makes adaptations good. Television adaptations that exist simply to be a visual audiobook of a novel are artistically pointless and doomed to mediocrity if not outright mess, Neil. They should be NEW WORKS riffing on the existing material, but created AS A TV SHOW first & foremost, with a TV show’s distinct strengths and tools, because to try to simply ape what you wrote on the page onscreen is just courting creative failure to stroke your vanity. And when I see things like this thread about Good Omens, it concerns me buddy, it really does! That sounds like bad production choices from one all-too-clear source still stubbornly camped in this mindset!
And then there’s this:
Not even an UNDERGRAD in their FIRST THEATRE ARTS CLASS would submit designs this STAGGERINGLY HACKY. The lack of thought coming off this is just astonishing. Interrogation of form? Creativity? An inch of artistry? Never met ‘em! And even an ill-rendered let-down, like their fucking hair?? Why do these dye jobs look so cheap!!! Are they supposed to look bad? I can’t tell, so no matter what it’s failed! Either let them have the normal human hair you’d expect from beings who having been blending in on Earth for ages, and clothe them in details that ~exude~ their angel & demon vibe through ANYTHING with meaning or history or style—OR, just fully BE CHEESY, I wouldn’t resent that choice at ALL, because it would ACTUALLY BE A FUCKING CHOICE, instead of this inane non-choice that sorta half-assedly does both to ultimately mean nothing. I mean seriously, you could just fucking commit to the damn bit and literally just put them in discount store Halloween costume devil horns and a halo, and it’d be fucking hilarious and awesome and weird and hey, hold on, actually interesting now, because now you’re telegraphing that you’re valuing performative power of well-delivered story over everything, now you’re in conversation with the age-long human history of retelling these types of doomsday myths around the fire, where it’s just about saying the words and telling the tale, and visual distinctions are purely gestural. And by making their markers of “demon-ness” and “angel-ness” so flimsy and removable you’re inherently analyzing whether the Good v. Evil dichotomy was ever that entrenched or defined to begin with, is morality inherent or is it just a hat we wear, blah blah blah, I could talk so much about that! But whaaat am I going to say about THIS. This bad hair in this expensive production, on top of these bad, bad costume designs. Oh they’re in all-white and all-black are they, to match your book cover? Fuck you. It’s so boring it’s offensive. You had the OPPORTUNITY to do a DEMON and an ANGEL. Do you know how many brilliant young costume designers would kill for that??? And you give me this SALT & PEPPER SHAKER EMBARRASSMENT. No ideas, NO taste, and no willingness to try.
We’re not going to re-litigate the casting because like, it’s done, ya went and did it and cast two white men in their 40s like every TV show ever, but that does also contribute to my muttering “oh christ” whenever I look at the above image. Michael Sheen and David Tennant are talented actors, and it sounds like they really do a terrific job, but god, god, I’ll say again: they really do look like That.
