In the second season of “Good Omens,” which hits Prime Video on Friday, Michael Sheen’s angel Aziraphale and David Tennant’s demon Crowley team up again to help angel Gabriel (Jon Hamm) who shows up at Aziraphale’s book shop with no memory — and no clothes.
And, for complicated reasons, they must also try to make two local shopkeepers fall in love, which proves to be much more difficult that they imagine.
As Sheen told TheWrap (in an interview conducted before the SAG-AFTRA strike began), “It turns out trying to make two people love each other is as hard, if not harder, than averting the apocalypse.”
Added Tennant, “They think that it’s gonna take seconds, and everything else will fall into place. But of course, humans and all their rich tapestry of contradictions that they are gets in the way.”
The matchmaking targets are Maggie (Maggie Service), who runs a record shop across from Aziraphale’s bookstore and already has a crush on the spoken-for Nina (Nina Sosanya), who serves up potent espresso shots in her coffee shop.
TheWrap: I would love a spinoff with you two just matchmaking
Michael Sheen: Well, there are so many spinoffs. I mean, “The Azira-Files,” where I solve crimes every week.
David Tennant: That’s the one I’m pitching. (Laughs)
Michael, you’ve got a scene with a naked Jon Hamm. Was that in the flesh or was there a little bit of CGI going on?
Sheen: I was CGI. I was entirely CGI in that scene. (Laughs) All of Jon appeared. Yeah, he was incredibly relaxed about it, I seem to remember. I remember thinking well, that’s what it is to be Jon Hamm. I guess.
Tennant: It’s part of what’s so wonderful about him
What does Aziraphale like most about Crowley, and vice versa?
Sheen: I think the things that he is most drawn to in Crowley are the things that also infuriate him the most. I think that’s part of the dynamic of their relationship.
Tennant: That cuts both ways, absolutely.
Sheen: Over the millennia … Crowley has sort of pushed him, prodded him to question things, to question his own belief system. And that, in the moment, infuriates him and it’s very challenging for Aziraphale, but ultimately over time, I think that’s one of the things that has bound him to Crowley so much and what means the most to him, because it’s affected the fundamental journey of who he’s become.
Tennant: For Crowley, it’s all the things that he doesn’t want to admit to that Aziraphale teases out of him, compassion, and kindness and empathy, all the things that he’s not supposed to be practicing, and that he’s not supposed to have as an emissary of hell.
And yet, Aziraphale’s very presence forces him to acknowledge that and it drives him mad, and yet he can’t shake it off. And we see that multiple times in this series. He has to admit that he’s just not as bad as he wants to be. I think they both encourage each other to the center ground, away from fundamentalism and polarization. They bring out the best in each other, even though that might be the last thing either one of them would want to admit.
“Good Omens” is based on the novel by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman, who also exective produces and adapted it for television.
All six episodes of “Good Omens” Season 2 premiere on Prime Video on Friday (July 28).
