The Quite Nice and Fairly Accurate Good Omens Script Book

I watched the new Amazon Prime adaptation of Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett's Good Omens -- a wonderful little story about the end of the world and an angel and a demon who team up to try to stop it -- when it came out a few weeks ago, and I enjoyed it so much than when I saw this collection of scripts from the show it was something of a "Shut up and take my money!" moment for me.

And I do not at all regret forking over my money, because I found reading the scripts a fun and interesting experience, too. Fun as a way to revisit the series without currently being in front of my TV, and to linger on a few things that I might have missed or forgotten. And interesting because while these scripts are very close to the finished version of show more things that we saw on screen, there are some notable differences. For instance, as Gaiman himself points out in his (very nice) introduction, the way things were edited together after shooting made for some for some noticeable structural changes. I like getting a little behind-the-scenes glimpse of how that sort of thing happens in the course of making a TV show.

The script also contains some deleted bits (as well as a different version of a particular scene that was cut for budgetary reasons and is included here in its original form at the end), and you can see a few small things that were changed. Some of which I found rather intriguing, really. For instance, the demon Crowley's wings are described here as being gray, where in the show they are very definitely black. The black no doubt makes for a more striking visual, but there would have been some really interesting color symbolism in the gray.

There are actually a few things that I think work better on the page than they did in the show. The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse are described as being cooler and scarier than I think they ultimately came across, and the descriptions of some of the demons are more grotesque and interesting (and no doubt would have been much more expensive to pull off).

On the other hand, though, I found myself being really deeply struck by just how very much the two lead actors, Michael Sheen and David Tennant, brought to their roles. I mean, I thought I'd appreciated that before, because they were freaking fantastic and had frankly ridiculous amounts of chemistry. But while reading the scripts I kept coming across moments for their characters that felt just incredibly layered and significant and memorable in the show, and it would turn out that what was actually on the page was just some fairly ordinary-looking sentence or a simple stage direction. No shade whatsoever on Gaiman's writing, which I love, but it certainly gave me a new appreciation for how collaborative the process of storytelling is in a visual medium, and how much real creativity there can be in an actor's job. It's particularly striking in this case, because I'm very much left with the sense that when it comes to the relationship between these two characters Gaiman was writing a spy story and the actors were playing a love story, and these two things somehow combine on the screen into something utterly brilliant.

All of which means I need to say that if, for some strange reason, there is anyone out there tempted to pick this up before or instead of watching the series: don't! Seriously, no matter how much I like the story itself their performances are the best thing about it, and it would be the greatest pity in the world to deprive yourself of the sight of Michael Sheen's magical facial expressions or David Tennant's amazing snaky walk. show less

Companion books to movies and TV shows are always a bit of a dice roll when it comes to their quality. While they're usually filled with interesting anecdotes and tons of pictures, they have a habit of feeling little more than a fluff piece used as advertisement for that film/TV series. Luckily, this isn't the case with either of the two books released as tie-ins for Amazon Prime and BBC's recent adaptation of Good Omens. Both books - a traditional companion and a book featuring all of Neil Gaiman's scripts for the series - are excellent reads, managing to be both informative and worthwhile reads even for those who know everything there is to know about the series and its creation.

Oftentimes, these days, script books end up being more show more disappointing than they should be. The biggest fun of a script book is getting to read the scenes that didn't make the final cut of the film/tv series and, too often, many modern script books are edited to match the final cut of the film instead of the final shooting draft of the script (looking at you Fantastic Beasts screenplays). This, thankfully, isn't the case with The Quite Nice and Fairly Accurate Good Omens Script Book. This script book features the scripts exactly as they were at the end of filming - plus a few scenes that were cut prior to filming!

Gaiman, who has previous experience writing scripts for film and TV, manages to craft a series of incredibly well-written scripts. As he says in his introduction, the stage directions for these scripts are unlike that one might find in the average film/TV script as they're filled with jokes and notes to the director and that's typically something most screenwriters avoid. But that's the thing that makes these scripts so enjoyable. Through these unusual stage directions, Gaiman's authorial voice shines the brightest. Even without them, though, these scripts are deeply enjoyable. It's amazing how well-written they are and how utterly faithful they are to Gaiman and Pratchett's original book.

Script books aren't for everyone and this one won't be for those who don't like reading scripts. This isn't a novel; that novel already exists and can be read by anyone at any time. But for those of us who enjoy reading scripts, this book is a gift. It's beautifully written, well-formatted, and filled with deleted scenes and super enjoyable stage directions. I recommend this book solely for the deleted scenes and the opportunity at seeing how Gaiman initially envisioned some of the scenes that ended up slightly differently in the final broadcast show.

Overall, The Quite Nice and Fairly Accurate Good Omens Script Book is a wonderful collection of all six scripts for this adaptation. Gaiman clearly has experience writing screenplays (from his multiple TV and film projects) and it shows in the construction of these scripts. It's super nice having the scripts to go along with the show and the deleted scenes make the book a must-have for fans. show less

When I picked this up I wasn’t sure if it was going to just be a money grab or something worth owning. Thankfully it was the latter. Reading through each scene, cut scenes, and the notes really brought me deeper into the story and let me enjoy the show more upon my second watch through.

This was wonderful. After reading Good Omens a number of times, then listening to the audio book, and the BBC audio, and watching the tv series countless times, I really enjoyed this addition to the story with its background detail and missing scenes and bits.

Neil Gaiman's little stage notes are so much fun! It's also interesting to see how things translated from book to script to film.