David Tennant and Michael Sheen can’t save Good Omens season 3

After what feels like aeons, Good Omens finally returns this week for its third and final season… well, I say season, it’s a 90-minute special really. 

So was the cult show’s prophesied resurrection everything I hoped it would be? 

No. 

No, it was not. 

In all honesty, Good Omens 3 is pretty rubbish for the most part, despite the ineffable efforts of those involved, and I didn’t have much fun watching it.

But let’s resist the temptation to skip to the last line of this review and instead begin with a quick synopsis. 

Following the dramatic events of Good Omens season two, the angel Aziraphale (Michael Sheen) is now running the show in Heaven as the host on high prepares for the second coming of Christ. 

Meanwhile, on the mean streets of Soho, the demon Crowley (David Tennant) is living rough following his messy break-up with Aziraphale. 

When Heaven, rather embarrassingly, loses the new incarnation of the Messiah, Aziraphale is forced to reunite with Crowley as they scour the Earthly plane looking for God’s wee baby boy. 

Sounds fun, right? Well, it might have been had it had room to breathe, but sadly, Good Omens 3 is an overstuffed mess, and this is my biggest issue with the series. 

Now I can’t get into the specifics here as, like the angels, I’m bound by a set of cosmic rules.

Specifically, in my case, a pretty strict NDA, but I think I can avoid the wrath of Amazon Prime execs by saying there’s more to the series than the return of Christ. 

In fact, there’s a _lot _more, and these stories might have worked better if they’d been told across six episodes rather than being crammed into a tight 90 minutes. 

It’s actually kind of weird, the series feels both like there’s too much going on and really thin at the same time. 

Everything’s just so underbaked and rushed; it’s a real shame because I think the ideas the series plays with are good and worth exploring; they just don’t have the time to do them justice. 

What’s more, the series looks disappointingly cheap for some reason this time.

I rewatched Good Omens season one after finishing the third to help me spot any easter eggs or references I may have missed, and I was blown away by how good the sets and the soundstages looked in that first series. 

For whatever reason, in the third, the half-abandoned sound stages and empty streets looked a bit naff and fake. 

Truthfully, there’s just a sense of obligation pervading this series. Like those making it had lost faith in their show (pun unintended) and were just going through the motions to get to the end.

It’s sad because the first two seasons genuinely feel like a labour of love. 

Which brings me to the elephant in the room and arguably the reason why this series sucks as much as it does. 

In late 2024, multiple women accused Neil Gaiman, the showrunner and writer of the Good Omens TV series, of sexual assault.

While Gaiman denies all the allegations against him, he exited Good Omens season three, and the decision was made to change the show from a six-part series into the 90-minute special we got. 

I understand them, given the circumstances, why there’s such a heavy sense of going through the motions. 

While I don’t pretend to know how the production felt when the news about Gaiman broke, I can only say, were it me, I’d want to step away as soon as possible. 

Perhaps that’s why the series feels so rushed; maybe I’m projecting my own discomfort at having to engage with Gaiman’s work onto the series, but there’s just a sense of exhaustion that pervades the series and compromises the quality. 

It probably needed to be longer to work, but I understand why those working on it didn’t want that to happen.

And I should say, while I’m mourning what the show used to be, not everyone’s given up on it.

I thought the performances were great, and I enjoyed all the characters we met in the final 90 minutes.

But the show is stolen by Tennant and Sheen. They’re a remarkable double-act, and whenever they’re together, you remember what made this series so special. 

And I don’t think I’m breaking those aforementioned cosmic rules when I say Aziraphale and Crowley do get a concrete ending.

I cannot say more than that, but it was, despite my misgivings about the rest of the series, the best thing in the special. 

Sadly, it just wasn’t enough to save the series from damnation. 

So as I foresaw, my final thoughts are…Good Omens 3 is pretty rubbish for the most part, despite the ineffable efforts of those involved, and I didn’t have much fun watching it.

Good Omens season 3 will air on Amazon Prime Video from May 13.

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