I was underwhelmed by Daniel last week, but I had planned to give it another chance. Besides, as an Episcopalian I sort of got a kick out of how the church is portrayed.
However, it doesn’t look like I’ll have the opportunity: Channel 4 (Nashville) pulls ‘Book of Daniel’ Apparently they got so many complaints last week their voice mailbox was overloaded and shut down.
I symapthize with the folks who found the pilot offensive - I can see their point - but I’d rather confront the show than have it pulled. Unless another station in our market picks it up, I’ll just have to rely on TWOP recaps – and the Dope! So let me know what you think about tonight’s show.
Wow I’m very surprised that a market as large as Nashvile would ban this show. It is the 30th largest TV market in the country. I thought that Nashville was a little more progressive than this, after all your metro area is over 1 million people.
I hate stations doing that in response to calls/letters, especially from those who haven’t seen the show but are on some pressure-group bandwagon. However,
if these were actual offended viewers, and if sponsor-pullouts actually cost them money, then I can’t blame them.
Ugh. Last week was pretty cool but the characters are so one-dimensional. Look! The daughter’s a rebel! The son’s a closet case to his grandpa! The mom’s a society scion who is thwarted by her evil mom! The mom’s sister is an insecure lesbian! The adopted son’s girlfriend’s family are racists! The Black maid is the voice of morality and reason (when she’s not smoking the daughter’s weed)!
They’re going to have to add some depth to these folks to keep me watching.
Just spent about fifteen minutes trying to figure that out myself…that was David “Sledge Hammer!” Rasche. My first guess was Matt “Max Headroom” Frewer, but my second guess was right. IMDB doesn’t have a very accurate guest star listing for Book of Daniel, but he was in the guest star credits at the beginning.
With 137 complaints. Seems like an awfully small voicemail for a TV station in a metro area of that size. Maybe they’d just prefer not to have to deal with customer complaints.
Given that it was the number-1 rated show in Nashville for that time slot, I hope NBC offers it to the other stations in the city. Probably one of them would be glad to pick it up.
A friend who lives near Houston says her station didn’t show the second episode. She asked if what was on the show that was so insulting to Christians, and I was sorry to tell her “Nothing”. Looks like her station caved to pressure too.
I agree with Hippy Hollow that the characters don’t have much depth. I’m okay with that, for this show. It’s a nice comedy (or dramedy) that doesn’t insult with overly precocious kids, stupid parents, and double entendres that I’d be embarrassed to explain to my grandkids. It’s also okay that I’ve seen these characters before.
It’s a relaxing hour of TV, with good acting and some funny bits, and family interaction that won’t require counseling for the kids later on.
I was going to be away from home last friday night, & had to choose whether to tape Daniel or inJustice. I chose inJustice on the belief that Daniel would be rerun on Saturday night, which of course it wasn’t. So this was my introduction to the show.
The goomba bro’s were cute, as was Yoda. In general, I appreciate the attempt to portray a minister whose family isn’t perfect.
And my opinion of religious leaders who object to any portrayal of religion in pop culture not personally vetted by them is very very low.
Ah, I remember the brouhaha over God, the Devil, & Bob. grrr-argh.
When the episode ended, I said to my husband, “It’s Desperate Housewives, but in a church in the suburbs instead of a lane.”
I think the show is fairly amusing. As a person with no belief in Jesus, I can’t figure out why Jesus is supposed to be so “demeaning” to some people’s faiths. He seems pretty unobjectionable to me, but maybe I just don’t get it.
Daniel’s sons amuse me, though I hate teen love stories. The gay son is great, and I laughed at loud when he bought La Cage tickets. Or was that last week?
Oh well. I won’t miss it if it’s canceled, but I’ll watch it while it’s on. Aidan Quinn is eminently watchable.
I think some are offended by Jesus because he is too … I don’t know; affirming, I guess. Not stern enough; not serious enough, I suppose. Folks, it’s a TV show. Didn’t we learn from MST3K that we should really just relax?
I didn’t think it was all that great last week but I now I’m mad that I couldn’t see it again to complain some more. :mad: Plus I like Father Frank.
Did Daniel get his $3 million back? Did we find out who killed his BIL?
The money back? Sort of. The Catholic priest helped find it. I don’t remember if it was explained very thoroughly, or maybe I just wasn’t paying close attention. “The mob” has the money. They won’t give it back, but they will build Daniel’s school. Only catch is Daniel has to use a mob-connected construction company.
Didn’t the BIL die of a heart attack during sex with the secretary? I remember a line about orifices.
I don’t watch a whole lot of TV, but I went out of my way to catch the second episode of this show, after seeing the Pilot last week. It reminds me of a slightly edgier version of Seventh Heaven, a show an ex gf watched that I would see if I happened to be over. It was Seventh Heaven that had the Camden family, with the father a pastor of some sort, right?
Anyway, this show passed the SLK picky TV test. I love the sarcastic Jesus.
I’d like to chip in this for those surprised that Channel 4 pulled that show: I interned there not too long ago and I can attest to the number of outraged people who will call the station and gladly curse at anyone over any mildly offensive thing. Some folks make it a habit to call the news stations and just rip any poor shmuck who happens to answer their call. Haven’t seen the show itself, but if it deviates very much from traditional views of Christianity and Jesus it’s going to get shot down and quick.
I like Aidan Quinn. I like the wife. I like sarcastic Jesus. I like the gay brother.
The wife’s sister, the daughter and the adopted son are simply annoying. The Hey! It’s that Guy! guy who plays somebody at the church (and whose daughter is sleeping with adopted son) is annoying, and his wife is a bitch. I wanted to smack each and everyone of these characters.
The characters are a little one-dimensional, and the episodes are kind of heavy on plot, but I appreciate the episodes not having one big “message”, which keeps it from being like Seventh Heaven-ish tripe.
If you are a fan of ‘Deadwood’, you should recognize that the part of ‘Jesus’ is played by the mental defective cowboy who got off on carving up prostitutes with a very large knife… :eek: