At the end of May 2019, when fans around the world were condemning 2DB (David Benioff & DB Weiss, director of Quan You), and a joint craze for a remake of the final season of Quan You, the BBC and Amazon jointly launched a 6-episode humorous fantasy. Miniseries: "Good Omen".
"Good Omen" is adapted from the novel of the same name co-authored and published by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman in 1988. Mr. Pratchett is a representative of humor and fantasy. His greatest achievement in his life is the creation of a disc-shaped world composed of 41 themed novels. "Papa Light Pig" and "Start Post" were also launched in the form of miniseries. Gaiman’s most well-known novel creation is "American Gods" based on Norse mythology. In recent years, the two seasons of American drama adaptations launched by Starz have received mixed reviews; another film in the early years, "Stardust", is also a myth series. One of the masterpieces.
In 2015, the father died of dementia, and her daughter took over the banner of continuing to create the disc-shaped world; in 2017, Gaiman took on the adaptation of the two-man drama "Good Omen". This is the background for this drama.
This is a joint creation, but from the formal plot to the text/language style, we can see more of the shadow of Mr. Pratchett. The well-known style of Gaiman's works does not have so many stalkers and banter, so this "Good Omen" is more Pratchett). I am here to boldly analyze several characteristics of this work.
1. Parody and complain about classics
This is perhaps the most widely known feature of Pratchett's works. The works of Dish World are full of parody and jokes about the usual routines of literary and film and television works. Among them, works such as "Eric" are a tribute to the entire parody of "Hamlet" + "Macbeth". Going back to "Good Omen", the drama of angels and demons fighting against each other through the struggle for the direction of human nature has appeared in the classic Western classics "Divine Comedy" and "Faust". The phrase "Transformers" described this kind of slogan. The theme is very appropriate, that is "our battlefield, their war". Although the chess pieces placed this time are antichrists, it is the human nature of the angels and demons cp, and the influence of the world and the people around them on the antichrists.
2. Leverage the past to satirize the present
As early as in the urban management series of the disc-shaped world, Pratchett used the image of the guard who hit the Universiade in the Middle Ages, insinuating the status quo of some officials in modern society but not acting in their duties. When they were introduced and published in the year, they even let China The readers are particularly empathetic. In "Good Omen", there are also many passages that borrow from the past to satirize the present. For example, the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, it is the struggle between human beings, the plundering of resources and the destruction of the environment that have caused many catastrophic consequences. For example, the secret battle between the two factions of heaven and hell is like a state of both competition and secret cooperation between modern enterprises. Another example is the parody of religious trials in the Middle Ages, which alludes to the ignorance and collective will of mobsters in modern society, which led to many injustices and even persecution. The style of the work is humorous, but the subject of discussion is critical.
3. Discussion on the non-binary opposition of good and evil
Just like the title of the work Good Omen, the author, from content to form to theme, expresses the state of right and wrong, which is not a binary opposition between good and evil. This is quite a bit of Eastern philosophy: "The taste of dialectical thinking. It involves parody and torture of religious classic stories and ideas. For example, in the story of Noah's Ark, is it good to build a new world by destroying the world? For example, demons lure humans to make mistakes, but the resulting cultural and artistic development and even social progress. Is it evil? Is human nature inherently good or inherently evil? At the beginning, it was not evil that induced Adam and Eve to eat the forbidden fruit, but their own curiosity, and it was this curiosity that aroused the awakening of human self-knowledge and autonomous consciousness. Is this good or bad? There is a line in the series that explains the author's point very well: the reason why human beings become what they are today is not because they are good or bad, but only because they are human.
4. Full of confidence in human nature and life
Even though there are so many irony and reflections on current malpractices, the two authors have always expressed their trust in human nature and the expectation of an ordinary good life in their works. They often look at the world from the perspective of God, observe it through the eyes of children, and finally save it. Although this world is full of imperfections and human nature is full of defects, it is worth cherishing and defending.
Summarize
Perhaps the above analysis is somewhat pretentious and contrived. In fact, what I want to say is that this is an American and British drama full of strong roots:)
Welcome to pay attention to my WeChat public account: BelowTheAshes, we will update articles on fantasy themes from time to time.
View more about Good Omens reviews
