What a strange ride it’s been for Good Omens fans. The apocalyptic comedy based on the 1990 fantasy novel by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett became an immediate fan favorite when it debuted in 2019. Viewers formed passionate attachments to the protagonists, an angel and a demon who had to put aside their cosmic differences to work together to save the world—while also being, like, the perfect couple, even if they didn’t realize it at first.
Having David Tennant (as the demon, Crowley) and Michael Sheen (as the angel, Aziraphale) as those lead characters only added to the joy; they’re charming apart but even more charming together and were clearly having a blast bouncing off each other in every scene. Good Omens season one followed the book’s story; it saw the duo chasing after the young Antichrist, upsetting the dysfunctional bureaucracies running Heaven and Hell with their efforts to avert Armageddon.
Season one also started tracing the very long (like, Garden of Eden-long) relationship between Crowley and Aziraphale and had a blast imagining what it would be like for an angel and a demon to bumble their way around Earth in the present day, specifically a quaint corner of London where Aziraphale runs a bookstore and Crowley has grown very fond of his Bentley. These guys want to save humanity because they’re big fans of humans, even after all their own years of immortality.
After Good Omens season one’s success, a second season that extended the story beyond the Gaiman-Pratchett book arrived in 2023. Like the first installment, it ran six episodes, but it had a scaled-back budget that necessitated a more intimate story. But there was still room for a divine mystery: when an amnesiac Gabriel (Jon Hamm) leaves Heaven and suddenly turns up at Aziraphale’s shop, the powers that be both above and below are once again thrown into a tizzy.
The season spent most of its time digging into Crowley-Aziraphale capers across the timeline of existence, building to a cliffhanger that saw Crowley plant a kiss on Aziraphale… right as Aziraphale agreed to take over Gabriel’s boss-man job in Heaven. And just like that, the two were separated again.
The ending of season two was both cathartic and frustrating, as Good Omens fans wondered if they’d ever get to see Crowley and Aziraphale end up together. But greater concerns emerged in 2024 when multiple women accused Gaiman—Good Omens’ creator, co-writer, and showrunner, among his many prominent Hollywood roles—of sexual abuse. Gaiman denied the allegations, but the response across pop culture was swift, and he exited or was removed from many of the in-progress projects he was involved in.
In September 2024, it was reported that season three of Good Omens would also be affected by the Gaiman situation. He’d be stepping back, for starters, and would have no further involvement in its production. Then in October, fans learned that instead of a standard season, Good Omens 3 would be a single 90-minute movie.
Time passed—so much time, in fact, that Sheen himself voiced doubt that Prime Video would ever release the finale. But earlier this year, we learned it was indeed going to see the light of day.
If you’re a Good Omens fan, you’re no doubt in an uncertain headspace about this. On the one hand, seeing Crowley and Aziraphale again—and getting some further evolution on their attraction, perhaps?—feels like just the tonic we need in our increasingly apocalyptic-in-the-real-world times. On the other hand, even with no Gaiman involvement in production after a certain point, Good Omens is inextricably linked with him, and he’s no longer someone we have any interest in supporting, much less celebrating.
Good Omens 3 seemingly hasn’t gotten the same promotional blitz as previous seasons—understandably—but Prime Video did send out screeners to reviewers. Despite the shadow Gaiman’s accusations now cast, was there some way Good Omens could step out of them and bring the story of its “ineffable husbands” to a satisfying end?
Obviously, there will be no spoilers revealed today; if your feelings about Gaiman are negative enough that you don’t want to watch yourself, suffice to say that by mid-week, the internet will surely be awash in full details once audiences start streaming.
But generally speaking, Good Omens 3—which is directed by genre favorite Rachel Talalay (Doctor Who, Riverdale, Tank Girl, Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare)—follows the familiar path set down by its first two seasons. (No need to do a rewatch; it kicks off with a “previously on” that gives all the broad strokes you’ll need to remember, and anyway, this is the Crowley and Aziraphale show above all else.) The latest crisis is that it’s time for the Second Coming, which means, yep, another end-of-days scenario.
Jesus (Bilal Hasna), aka “Josh,” is a tender soul who wears a cardigan and does the loaves-and-fishes bits with a pizza this time around. If you squint, you can see how a full, six-episode season would have had more room to explore how his message of peace and happiness might be received on present-day Earth. But Good Omens has to rush through his storyline to make room for everything else.
That includes the expected turmoil in Heaven and Hell—mostly Heaven, as Aziraphale’s leadership style has rattled certain angelic power dynamics—which mostly serves to give you-know-who a reason to team up again. Which they do, of course, despite the fact that the booze-soaked Crowley is still hurting about how they parted ways last time, and Aziraphale is still clinging to the notion that he was “trying to do the right thing” by abandoning his demon and taking the job in Heaven.
Fortunately, even with the compressed runtime, we still get some dashes of that signature Good Omens whimsy, mostly courtesy of Aziraphale: his dazzling crossword puzzle skills, his hilarious disguise when he goes undercover in the underworld, and his decision to camouflage the Bentley as an ice-cream truck. Both Sheen and Tennant are as top-notch as ever throughout, and their chemistry remains scorching, of course.
Eagle-eyed viewers will note that at times, Good Omens 3 feels very aware of the context that its fans may be bringing to their viewing experience. When the angel and demon declare, “This is bigger than you and me,” or realize, “This is pretty much what you said last time,” you can sense there’s some recognition of how repetitive Good Omens can be, what with all the various doomsdays the characters have had to face.
Its own creator’s fall from grace isn’t overtly addressed. But as it reaches its climax, Good Omens 3 does find a philosophical way to underline what the show’s always been asking: is it really fair for angels and demons to have such control over mortals, especially considering humans are such frustrating, complicated, flawed creatures? And if not, what’s the alternative?
It also, it must be said, goes above and beyond to make it very clear that after this, the book is closed on Prime Video’s Good Omens forever. At least it won’t leave fans hanging this time.
Good Omens 3 arrives on Amazon Prime Video May 13. Will you be tuning in?
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