Matt Whyman

Film books are one of my favourite types of fan memorabilia, since they take us behind the scenes for in-depth explorations of our favourite cinematic universes, and the Good Omens TV Companion is definitely a solid guide. I almost expected the book to be written by Good Omens co-author Neil Gaiman himself, but he’s a busy dude on the set of the show and having another writer come in to do cast and crew interviews provides a certain amount of necessary distance to the source material. We can definitely tell that author Matt Whyman likes Good Omens well enough, but considering the passionate fandom around the story I expected him to be a touch more involved. Maybe he was just taking an overly professional tone in his compilation of interviews and keeping his distance from the cast and crew (who definitely are stoked to work on the show), but the writing came off as a bit cold and clinical in a way that made the narrative a bit blah throughout. This is Good Omens, for antichrist’s sake, we’re supposed to have a laugh! I will give him credit for being thorough, though, since he clearly did his work interviewing all of the crucial cast and crew, bringing out their personal stories from the set, and emphasising the crucial parts of filming that would pique readers’ interest such as set locations, costume design, and the actors’ character development techniques. Strung together in easily accessible chapters which focus on specific characters, scenes, and locations (and including a handy index!) the resulting volume is a solid exploration behind the scenes of the Good Omens tv show.… (mais)