When I was a young kid in the 1980s, it felt like there wasn’t a week that passed by where some popular children’s program wasn’t accused of being satanic. This was hilarious because the accused shows were usually about as wholesome as you can get, with everything from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles to Smurfs getting called out.
Things have changed since then though and now we do have actual demons on TV. The latest of these is the high-profile adaptation of Neil Gaiman and the late Terry Pratchett’s classic 1990 novel Good Omens which features a demon teaming up with an angel to prevent Armageddon simply because they want to keep living the good life on Earth. With a setup like that it really doesn’t come as a surprise to find that a group of fundamentalist Christians, supporting the US Foundation for a Christian Civilisation, created a petition for Netflix to cancel the series. The petition boasted over 20 000 signatures from folks who seemingly agreed with the claims that Good Omens “mocks God’s wisdom” and attempts to “make satanism appear normal, light and acceptable” by destroying “the barriers of horror that society still has for the devil”.
So a few problems with that (besides for the claims): Good Omens is actually produced by Amazon Prime and not Netflix, so the completely wrong streaming service got petitioned here. Also, since it’s a mini-series adaptation of a single novel, Good Omens can’t be cancelled as it’s just the one season which has already been released. Er, oops?
Gaiman, who penned the TV series adaptation himself and acts as showrunner, took to Twitter to comment on the petition. The author was a bit more diplomatic about the whole affair than some other fans have been:
The six-part miniseries debuted on Amazon Prime last month and stars David Tennant as the demon Crowley and Michael Sheen as the angel Aziraphale.
Last Updated: June 21, 2019
Alien Emperor Trevor
June 21, 2019 at 16:04
https://media.giphy.com/media/Xtg5Q1rzNjAJlWvL74/giphy.gif
Pariah
June 21, 2019 at 16:04
That’s a look that says “My dad gave you choice, and you chose stupidity. FFS.”
RinceThis
June 21, 2019 at 17:50
Hahahaha those eyes
Original Heretic
June 21, 2019 at 08:03
Damn, I still gotta make a plan to watch this. Really enjoyed the book. Especially the way dead plants are dealt with.
For the Emperor!
June 21, 2019 at 16:05
Good show, really enjoyed it. Strict conservative raised Christian here 🙂
Llama In The Rift
June 21, 2019 at 08:16
Did any of those Christians watch The Preacher? XD
Llama In The Rift
June 21, 2019 at 16:04
I’m Agnostic so allot of stuff in modern day entertainment don’t offend me but The Preacher made me go like damn…that’s some hardcore stuff…but i cant look away..
schitsophrenic-toothbrush
June 21, 2019 at 19:13
The Preacher series was toned down for TV, if you liked it read the novels, they are pretty hectic but I loved them/
Kromas
June 21, 2019 at 16:04
The only problem I found with it was that Happy made the voice of God played by Jeff Goldblum and I will never be able to think about God as anyone other than Jeff Goldblum.
CrAiGiSh
June 21, 2019 at 16:04
It’s a show … RELAX !!!
Kenn Gibson
June 21, 2019 at 14:50
As a Christian, it’s things like this that make me shake my head, and want to take these people aside and ask them if they actually understand what Christianity is or what it is about….. sigh
For the Emperor!
June 21, 2019 at 16:05
Agreed
Darren Peach
June 21, 2019 at 16:05
Well shit. Another outrage. I find it troubling that we always tend to resort to the lowest form of recourse when dealing with these sorts of matters. I personally strife to treat people with respect. Although I personally find fundamentalist Christians to be
a touch….reactionary, I also recognize the fact that there is very little tolerance for their world view at the moment whereas there tends to be a more tempered view towards other religions, which wasn’t always the case.
As one grows older, you tend to recognize the need to show tolerance in most aspects of life and religion is most definitely part of that equation, despite ones own scepticism on the matter.
I do however feel a touch bad for those who choose to limit their outlook simply because they believe in something they read in a book. Imagine what the world has lost……The next Einstein ?
For the Emperor!
June 21, 2019 at 16:05
My first thoughts:
– Netflix? Idiots!
– Cancel? It was only 6 episodes!
Continues to read, sees that was pointed out 🙂
Another thought: “mocks God’s wisdom”. The series goes to great lengths to say that Gods plan is “ineffable”, and also that nobody, not even the Angels and Demons can be sure what Gods plan is! Did they actually WATCH the series? None of us know the ineffable plan, so they need to STFU.
PS: I was raised and still mostly live conservative Christian. I just learnt not to be a closed minded a-hole about the world.
Magoo
June 21, 2019 at 11:20
Is it just me or is that header image two Darryns in 20 years?