Anyone else looking forward to "The Book of Daniel?"

[bouv]

OK, so I watch Earl, Scrubs, and The Office, so I see promos for this new show premeiring Friday night at 9. It looks interesting, and I can tell that MANY people (bible betl, anyone?) will hate it, and my local news station said some places have already banned it.

It's about a priest with a daughter who deals drugs, a son who is banging a bishop's 16 year old daughter, a lesbian sister-in-law sleeping with the woman accused of murdering her (the sister-in-law's) husband, and might have a member of his congregation might be hitting on him.

Oh yeah, and Jesus lives with him.

Sadly, I feel this show will air this one episode, then no more. I assume we all remember God, The Devil, and Bob? Any show who's main theme is portraying Christianity in anything less than a perfect light doesn't last.

[silenus]

This actually looks interesting. I'll give it a watch, and keep an open mind. I'll Tivo a few episodes, too, just in case it disappears completely. Future generations might want it as an artifact.

[JThunder]

Originally Posted by bouv

Any show who's main theme is portraying Christianity in anything less than a perfect light doesn't last.

Nonsense. The Kramdens on 7th Heaven were anything but perfect. The sitcom Amen poked fun at church life, even depicting a pastor and church deacon as buffoons -- and it was a modest hit. The mini-series The Thornbirds was a big hit, even though many Catholics were displeased at seeing a Catholic priest fall in love.

No, the controversies surrounding the Book of Daniel go far beyond merely failing to depict Christianity in a perfect light.

[Elendil's Heir]

I dunno. It looks like "Desperate Housewives" meets "Priest" meets "Joan of Arcadia." I'm an Episcopalian, so I'm mildly interested in it from that standpoint (the Aidan Quinn character is an Episcopalian minister), but I have low expectations based on what I've seen in the promo spots, and predict it won't last long.

We shall see.

[AuntiePam]

I'm looking forward to it, mostly for Garrett Dillahunt (Jack McCall and Francis Wolcott on Deadwood). He was already resurrected once.

[ISiddiqui]

I think it looks fun. Some of the lines in the promo were great, such as Jesus saying "You can quote me on this".. heh.

I'll watch the first show and see if it's any good.

[bouv]

So according to my local news station, it's a few local places in Oklahoma and Illonois that are banning the show. Geez. It's just sickening that they would go ahead and not show it not even knowing completly what it is. At least let the damn thing air once before getting rid of it. And for that matter, how about you actually let your viewers decide what they want to watch.

I think that's what makes me most angry about things like these. People send in letters and emails saying how horrible the show is, and blah blah blah. If oyu don't like it, don't watch it!

[eenerms]

I believe that's Indiana not Illinois, there bouv.
I Was worried it wasn't going to be shown here locally.(At present my "there" in in the hills of Arizonia where I know "Brokeback Mountain" will never play! I plan on watching it.

[FriarTed]

Christian Republican, Assembly of God-member here who plans on watching TBoD & wishes Wildmon & Co would shut the hell up!

So far, I haven't heard anything about TBoD that it demeans C'nity- It does portray C'tians as less than perfect- and dear God, I can vouch that we indeed are!

I would like to see Fr. Aidan have a fundy-pastor pal who ALSO has conversations with Jesus.

Biggest potential controversy- how will JC talk about the son's gayness? Will He or will He just talk about how Fr Aidan should respond?

[Telemark]

No one is "banning" the show, some local affilitates have elected not to carry the show. In once case another network's affiliate has picked it up, so it will be seen in that market. It's free market, and that's fine.

One interesting point that was raised was if a show was to portray Bhudda or Mohammed the way this show portrays Christ would groups object in the same manner as the Christian groups did. My guess would be yes, but I'd still want to see the show.

It looks interesting, but I hope they don't throw in too much wierdness for wierdness sake. Shows like that tend to fizzle. It has quite a bit of promise.

[Bippy the Beardless]

... anyone else thinking it sounds like a Polycarp biopic?

[Diceman]

I suspect that I'll be mildly offended by the show, if I bother to watch it at all (I don't watch much TV anymore). Even aside from this, it looks really bad. It'll probably get canned before I get around to watching an episode.

[kelly5078]

The trailer I saw didn't look too interesting, and I'm assuming they thought they put good bits in that. So no, I'm not looking forward to it. I may check it out, though.

[Otto]

Originally Posted by Elendil's Heir

I ... predict it won't last long.

My local paper called it a "limited-run series" in its (unfavorable) review, so this is probably a safe prediction.

Originally Posted by bouv

So according to my local news station, it's a few local places in Oklahoma and Illonois that are banning the show.

Four Kansas station announced plans to pre-empt it, then reversed the decision after being inundated with emails denouncing the decision. KBTV in Beaumont TX, WGBC in Meridian MS, WTWO in Terre Haute IN and one other station the call sign and location for which I can't locate have pulled the show.

Originally Posted by Telemark

No one is "banning" the show, some local affilitates have elected not to carry the show.

And those local affiliates are not "banning" the show from their markets...how exactly?

Originally Posted by Telemark

In once case another network's affiliate has picked it up, so it will be seen in that market. It's free market, and that's fine.

It's free market, but that doesn't mean anyone has to be "fine" with the decision. Refusing to air a program on the basis of a bunch of people who haven't seen it and are only complaining about it because they were told to by someone else who may or may not have seen it is disgusting and worthy of a Pitting. Those who don't want to watch the show in Terre Haute have the option of turning off their televisions. Those in Terre Haute who do want to see it are SOL because of a bunch of whining sheep who aren't content with controlling pretty much everything so they have to pretend like they're somehow being victimized.

[Rushgeekgirl]

Just watched it.
It was interesting. I laughed at more than a few little jokes, mostly the comments Jesus made.

[ISiddiqui]

Yeah, I liked it. I can't for the life of me wonder how Christians were up in arms about portraying Jesus. He was extremely likeable and did nothing that I could find offense about.

Perhaps the bishops having the affair would offend a few and the Catholics being mafia guys... but Jesus being in the show? Probably the best advertisement for Christianity on TV I've seen in a while.

[AuntiePam]

I liked it too, but man, they crammed a lot of family/societal/cultural issues into two hours, didn't they?

I like this Jesus. He's not as interesting as Denis Leary's Jesus, but then Daniel isn't an alcoholic hooked on pain meds, so it's natural that Daniel's Jesus will be calm and reasonable.

[Otto]

Issue overload, and they should fire Jesus. Although I was slightly amused by the "Episcopalian self-help book" titles, pretty much every time they had their little chats the show just ground to a halt. Daniel 'n' Jesus is just an externalized internal monologue and it's pretty clear the creators were just looking for a way to avoid doing it as a voice-over.

It was still good enough that I'll probably tune in again, since there's not really anything else on Friday nights anyway.

[Telemark]

It was OK, I thought they were throwing way too many issues into the show. Cut back the topics by half, and spend more time on them instead.

As to banning, TV stations decide all the time whether to air things or not. There are other stations who can choose to pick it up. If a station thinks that they would lose more viewers (or get boycotts or negative press) by airing a show, they have every right to choose not to air it. But this is off topic, maybe this can be in a GD thread.

[BobLibDem]

Nice idea but it seemed they tried to cram about two years of material into one show. A daughter selling drugs and a gay son and an oversexed son who happens to be dating the daughter of a minister with a racist son and a mother with Alzheimers and a priest father sleeping with the bishop and a stereotypical Italian Catholic priest with ties to the mob and a lesbian sister-in-law.....etc. No wonder Jesus spends so much time with this guy.

[KlondikeGeoff]

Originally Posted by BobLibDem

Nice idea but it seemed they tried to cram about two years of material into one show.

Yeah, I'm with you. It did have some funny lines and situations, Jesus was really cool, and it was, for once, different. However, it turned into a soap opera early on, and doubt if I'll bother watching it again. Maybe it will improve in an hour slot.

[hajario]

I was bored after the first hour and turned it off. I thought that they were trying way too hard to be edgy.

[ISiddiqui]

Yeah, it was a bit crowded with plot threads, but that's probably because it is the premiere. When it goes into a one hour show, it may get 'less crowded'.

[bouv]

Damn it! I missed it. I was hangoung out with the people who live next door to me.

[AuntiePam]

Originally Posted by Otto

It was still good enough that I'll probably tune in again, since there's not really anything else on Friday nights anyway.

I read somewhere that only six episodes were planned. Maybe the producer is hedging his bets, or maybe the story he wants to tell fits into six hours. According to the article I read, the producer based the story on his partner's family.

[kunilou]

I thought it was going to be some sort of Desperate Housewives-type comedy-with-serious-overtones. A show that can be summed up as "the adventures of the world's unluckiest Episocopalian priest" ought to be ripe for humor and pathos. But it was just so darned earnest that any trace of humor was sucked right out of it for me.

What that left was a pill-popping priest with a wife who drinks too much and is in denial, three kids each with their own problems, a mother with Alzheimer's, a father who's dating the priest's boss, etc. etc.

In other words, a soap opera.

[BiblioCat]

I agree, waaaay too many issues. Drug-dealing kid, gay kid, over-sexed adopted minority-race kid, with alcoholic mom and pill-poppng dad. Add in the embezzeling BIL and the Mafia Catholic buddies and it was way too soap opera-y for me.
And like Otto said, I thought the Jesus chats just dragged the show down.

And just what are they paying Episcopalian ministers these days, anyway? That was a damn nice house, plus he drives a Volvo, belongs to a country club and they seem to have a maid? I'd do a little more checking into that embezzeling.

[AuntiePam]

Originally Posted by kunilou

In other words, a soap opera.

Ah, but it's a soap without whining. It's like Picket Fences without all the angst. That puts it in the Watchable column for me.

[AuntiePam]

Originally Posted by BiblioCat

And just what are they paying Episcopalian ministers these days, anyway? That was a damn nice house, plus he drives a Volvo, belongs to a country club and they seem to have a maid? I'd do a little more checking into that embezzeling.

I figured the house probably belongs to the church. My husband belongs to a country club, and he's a lowly security guard. The maid -- I want to know more about her. Maybe she came with the house.

The daughter's story is puzzling though -- from the way they live, it seems like she should have been able to come up with the money for her computer programs without selling pot.

[Otto]

Originally Posted by BiblioCat

And just what are they paying Episcopalian ministers these days, anyway? That was a damn nice house, plus he drives a Volvo, belongs to a country club and they seem to have a maid? I'd do a little more checking into that embezzeling.

The house came from the wife's side of the family; in fact, she tried to take out a mortgage on it (to fund the school construction which was stalled because of the embezzlement) only to learn from the banker lady that her mother still held the deed.

As to the Volvo and the maid, I have no idea, but the country club membership (if it's indeed his membership) may be a perk from the church or the club.

[Mama Tiger]

My mother, the incredibly socially and religiously liberal old lady that she is, watched this simply because she figured that if the conservatives hated it, she'd probably love it. She thought it was awful, though, just a total soap opera without any redeeming humor or entertainment value. I'm glad she saved me the two hours of my life that I might have otherwise wasted, because our tastes in programming are surprisingly similar.

[Tikki]

I watched about a half hour of it but it lost me at the very beginning. Not because of the plotline, which looked to be interesting but for this blooper:

Church service was over and the Ellyn Bursten's bishop character wanted to talk to Daniel (Aiden Quinn) about the sermon he had just given. A guy comes up, saying he really has to talk to Daniel and Ellyn Bursten says she'll talk to him in the rectory and walks away. The guy hands Daniel a folded piece of paper and tells him that Daniel's brother has absconded with the church's money, some three million bucks.

Daniel unfolds the paper and sees that it is the cancelled check that his brother had supposedly endorsed for all that money. He tells the guy he'll try to track his brother down and as the scene ends, you see him folding the check back up.

The next scene, Ellyn gives him her two cents on his sermon and Daniel says he has to go. The scene ends with Ellyn picking the check up from the desk that Daniel had only arrived at a moment earlier. This is supposed to be the same check as in the last scene but it's obvious that this one has never been folded. It lies perfectly flat in her fingers with no fold lines to be seen.

I know I'm being nitpicky but this caused me to lose interest in the show. It really wasn't up my alley anyway and I was watching because of the hype. My feelings aside, I still don't think this show will go beyond the first six episodes, or at least the first season.

[ISiddiqui]

6 episodes would be the entire first season, FWIW.

[What the .... ?!?!]

I liked it a lot. Any predictions how long it will take before Jesus disses conservatives and/or evangelicals?

[BiblioCat]

Originally Posted by Otto

The house came from the wife's side of the family; in fact, she tried to take out a mortgage on it (to fund the school construction which was stalled because of the embezzlement) only to learn from the banker lady that her mother still held the deed.

Yes, I realize that now. I only watched the first hour or so and then taped the rest. I got bored with it.
I'm not sure if I'll watch it again.

[FriarTed]

Originally Posted by What the .... ?!?!

I liked it a lot. Any predictions how long it will take before Jesus disses conservatives and/or evangelicals?

I'm glad to see He held out for these first two hours... He's mainly focused on gently chiding Fr. Daniel.

If I hear "[errant child] is a good boy/girl, but..." one more time, tho- I'll scream. Can we have at least one "[errant child] is a whiny, manipulative, spoiled, etc turd, but..."

I'd really love it if Jesus said that!

Btw, I know it's the cloying sentimentalist side of me, but I wanted Fr D's Mom to notice JC & say Hi to Him as if it was the most natural thing in the world (like how Bob's little boy was the only other one who could see God in God, The Devil & Bob).

[Otto]

Originally Posted by FriarTed

Btw, I know it's the cloying sentimentalist side of me, but I wanted Fr D's Mom to notice JC & say Hi to Him as if it was the most natural thing in the world (like how Bob's little boy was the only other one who could see God in God, The Devil & Bob).

I think the creators are deliberately leaving it to the viewers to decide for ourselves whether it's really Jesus or if it's a delusion or something else, so having another character see and react to Jesus would shut that door.

[Skammer]

Conservative Episcopalian here. (Yes, I know that's an oxymoron, we've all got our crosses to bear).

Jesus was pretty much the only character I liked. Aidan Quinn lost me when he was trying to defend his sermon to his bishop. He had said that maybe giving into temptation wasn't such a bad thing, and when she called him on it he started to quote Corinthians ("There is no temtation that faces you but such that is common to man...") and she cut him off, right before he got to the part of the verse that undermines his thesis -- that God always gives you a way out of temptation so that you can bear it and not give in.

In fact, the Bishop was my favorite character until her affair with Quinn's married father was revealed.

The show wasn't that funny, there were way to many 'issues' crammed into it, and not a single likeable character (aside from Jesus). Wait, I take that back - the gay son was pretty likeable too.

God, I miss Joan of Arcadia.

[tremorviolet]

I flipped past this for a few minutes last nights. I couldn't keep watching 'cause it has to have the worst dubbing I've ever seen. Anyone else notice this? I realize scenes are often rerecorded in the studio but the voices were so off, I suspect large portions of the dialogue had been rewritten.

[AuntiePam]

In an editorial and a post on another board, the writers complain about "vicious gay-bashing". I saw no gay bashing. I saw siblings good-naturedly teasing each other. Made me wonder if they watched a different show, or if nobody teased anybody in their families. Did you guys see gay bashing?

They also commented on the mother's alcoholism and made it sound like she was a total tosspot. I saw a functioning mom who likes a martini or three with dinner. Maybe she's alcoholic, but it seems that she's managing to care for her family just fine.

The editorial also complained about the portrayal of Jesus as a long-haired hippie in white robes. WTF? He's a dead ringer for the Jesus picture that most of us grew up with. Talk about type-casting.

[ISiddiqui]

About the "gay-bashing". I really didn't see any of it. I agree that it was good natured ribbing. In fact, they seemed very comfortable with his homosexuality and the teasing showed that.

[Skammer]

Re: gaybashing, I would say just the opposite. As I said above, the gay son is just about the only sympathetic character in the family. He got teased by his brother and sister, but I saw it more at Grandpa Bishop's expense than at his. Besides, isn't the creator of the show (or one of them) gay? I'm pretty sure I read that.

[AuntiePam]

Here is a balanced article about the show, with some input from the creator. (The show's creator, not the Creator.)

When Google took me to belief.net, I didn't know what to expect.

[Elendil's Heir]

Watched it all, and was disappointed. 'Waaaaay too many issues crammed in, as noted above, and overall the show was neither funny enough to be a comedy, nor serious enough to pass for social commentary. I didn't mind the Jesus character, although he was so innocuous as to actually be boring. Jesus, boring! He was never boring in the New Testament.

The first meal the family had together, with the daughter screaming that she just wanted to be left alone and the brothers sniping at each other and disrespecting their parents, was almost unwatchable. I didn't like any of them and doubt I'll tune in again.

[Infovore]

Did Fr. Daniel remind anybody else of a serious version of Father Ted?

I kept expecting to see Fr. Jack or Dougal show up, or the maid to start trying to coerce everybody into drinking tea!

Seriously, though--I didn't like it. Not only for the previously mentioned "too many issues" problem, but for the fact that there were few likeable characters (I only liked Jesus and the gay son) and that it appeared that there were way too many things "borrowed" from other shows (such as Daniel's addiction to Vicodin and his tendency to dry-swallow them--House, anybody?)

I won't be watching it again unless I'm really bored.

[gigi]

Originally Posted by JThunder

Nonsense. The Kramdens on 7th Heaven were anything but perfect.

It's the Camdens, but your post is making me imagine a MadTV skit: "One of these days, Annie, to the moon!"

[Max Carnage]

Born-again here. I watched it. I liked it for the most part. Jesus was good even if the actor is at least 8-9 years too old for the part.

One thing I wondered allowed to my girlfriend: If the closed-captioning is on, do the words of Christ appear in red?

[Max Carnage]

allowed=aloud