Comedy
Good Omens
Good Omens is thought by many to be a good show. But spiritually, this Prime Video series seems like it needs to be carted away in its own handbasket.
Everyone agrees The Boroughs is the perfect place for Sam—except for Sam, that is.
The idyllic desert community is like no other. For a pretty penny, retired men and women have a whole town to themselves, filled with plenty of amenities.
“Welcome to The Boroughs, where you’ll have the time of your life!” a cheerful security guard tells Sam as he moves in.
“Ironic slogan for a place people come to die,” Sam mutters.
Sam never wanted this; it was his wife, Lilly, who wanted to live here—and he would have done anything for her. But he signed the contract, and then she had a stroke and died. And now, he’s stuck here, looking for a way out of his contract.
His neighbors attempt to get to know him. Sam doesn’t care. His wife is dead, so what’s the point of all of this?
He doesn’t have time to think about the answer to that question. There’s a noise in his living room. When he investigates, Sam finds Edward, the man who used to live in his home before he was taken to live in The Manor, The Boroughs’ assisted living facility for those suffering from mental deterioration.
Edward is asking for his wife, Grace. He’s armed with a knife.
“It’s in the walls—the owl,” he says. “This is all wrong. Where’s Grace? I have to find the door.”
Then he locks eyes with Sam.
“You’re one of them.”
And he charges at Sam with the knife.
The Duffer Brothers captured something unique with their hit series Stranger Things, the sci-fi show which took the world by storm when it first released in 2016. As executive producers for The Boroughs, it seems they’re hoping to accomplish something similar here, too.
No, there’s no 80s nostalgia to bait viewers into watching. Although co-creator Jeffrey Addiss did state in an interview with IGN that the show intentionally adheres to “the tone and feel and sense of adventure that permeates so much of [Amblin-produced 1980s films].”
But there’s another sci-fi story here led by Alfred Molina that’ll pull audiences along as mysteries arise and unravel. It’s not much of a spoiler to note that somesort of multi-handed, otherworldly monster lurks in this community; the reveal happens a mere five minutes into the first episode.
But there’s a second monster in The Boroughs, too: time. Sam knows he’s aging, and he knows that this is the kind of place where people come to die. Emotional story beats on coming to terms with death are thereby interwoven with a plot dealing with alien/spider/creature things. It’d be a weird mix if it weren’t done well. (Then again, Stranger Things have happened.)
Nevertheless, if there’s one thing we know here at Plugged In, it’s that the chance of a TV show having alien/spider/creature things and also having few content considerations is close to none.
As one might expect from such monsters, human lives are at stake here, and not everyone makes it out alive. (Molina has a history battling spider menaces, it seems.) Heavy crude language (including the f-word) and a sexual encounter (as well as many more sexual references) show up on screen, too.
And all of these elements should be considered before families choose to move into The Boroughs.
(Editor’s Note: Plugged In is rarely able to watch every episode of a given series for review. As such, there’s always a chance that you might see a problem that we didn’t. If you notice content that you feel should be included in our review, send us an email at letters@pluggedin.com, or contact us via Facebook or Instagram, and be sure to let us know the episode number, title and season so that we can check it out.)
Sam moves into The Boroughs, and it isn’t long before he starts noticing strange occurrences.
A monster extends its long, shriveled fingers down from the ceiling to nab a sleeping woman. When she wakes up, the woman tries to escape out her door, but the monster grabs her and pulls her back inside, killing her offscreen. Someone encounters another one of these creatures as it’s consuming a man, and he hits the monster with a hammer. A man slices Sam with a knife.
Sam’s wife collapses onscreen as she’s having a stroke, and she passes away.
There’s an Alexa-like companion installed in the homes of The Boroughs called Seraphim. Someone describes The Boroughs as “God’s waiting room.”
Someone makes a joke about honeymoon sex. Jack says his sleep apnea makes his sex life tricky. He also references a hundred residents who were banned from a community center for having an orgy. (Another character later admits to being one of the banned.) Jack tells Sam that single men in their community are like “Wonka tickets” to the women there. A man and woman kiss.
When Jack’s friend, Wally, asks Jack which woman he plans to “send into peaks of ecstasy” this week, Jack says that Wally has a higher “body count” than him. (And people talk about disliking the term “body count” as a reference for the number of sexual partners one has had.) Wally references being monogamous for a time. Sam discovers through subtext that a man and woman are having an affair.
A man smokes a joint and offers it to others. Someone complains that people put weed in everything. People drink wine, beer and liquor.
Someone describes the people staying at The Manor—all of whom are experiencing some level of mental decline—as “potatoes.”
We hear eight uses of the f-word and five of the s-word. We also hear “b–ch,” “d–n,” “h—” and “d–k.” God’s name is used in vain three times, and Jesus’ name is used in vain once.
Kennedy Unthank studied journalism at the University of Missouri. He knew he wanted to write for a living when he won a contest for “best fantasy story” while in the 4th grade. What he didn’t know at the time, however, was that he was the only person to submit a story. Regardless, the seed was planted. Kennedy collects and plays board games in his free time, and he loves to talk about biblical apologetics. He’s also an avid cook. He thinks the ending of Lost “wasn’t that bad.”
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