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Whether or not you believe money is the root of all
evil, it’s a safe bet the pursuit of it inspires most television
programming.
Take “Revelations,” a six-week seat warmer for NBC’s
long-running hit “The West Wing,” which is on hiatus. Supposedly
inspired by the biblical book of the same name, “Revelations”
appears motivated more by the huge profits generated from Mel
Gibson’s film “The Passion of the Christ” and “Left Behind,” the
series of best-selling fiction books based on biblical accounts of
the end of the world.
Here’s the plot of “Revelations,” more or less: A rebel
nun with a seemingly bottomless travel budget searches the world
with a skeptical Harvard astrophysicist, investigating bizarre
phenomena and doing their best to prevent the coming Apocalypse.
I’m no scripture expert, but my guess is it would take
more than a nun and an ivy league Poindexter to thwart God’s
millennia old plans – if such a thing were even possible.
“Passion” and the “Left Behind” books have drawn their
share of criticism from real Bible scholars, who have taken issue
with story lines big and small. Some, for instance, pooh-poohed
“Passion” for portraying the cross as a T with an upper extension
above the bar rather than a simple T shape. Others argued such
earthshaking theological questions as exactly where the nails were
driven into Jesus’ hands and feet.
Some of the criticism was less arcane, but Gibson and
“Left Behind” authors Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins can support their
artistic decisions with scripture, even if bickering over
interpretation is something of a sport in some circles. Judging
from the early reviews and NBC’s previews, however, “Revelations”
draws more from pop culture and “X-Files” than the Bible.
In fact nearly every review and synopsis of
“Revelations” I read made reference to Mulder and Scully, the
believer/skeptic team of “X-Files.” The phrase “spoon-fed” shows up
with disquieting regularity in the reviews as a derogatory
description of the treatment of theology by religious-themed shows
such as “Joan of Arcadia” and “Touched by an Angel.” Throw in
“edgy” and you get the gist of about 95 percent of the “Revelations”
reviews in the secular press.
So maybe “Revelations” is really an edgy,
Christian-themed Mulder-and-Scully drama that doesn’t spoon feed its
theology, but I doubt it. I haven’t seen the show – as this is
written, critics have only been shown one of the six episodes – but
my guess is it will be an “X-Files” knockoff that force feeds a
mishmash of pop culture and theology for the greater good of
skimming bucks from the Passion/Left Behind audience.
If I’m
anywhere close to right, NBC is in for a revelation of its own.
Gibson, LaHaye, and Jenkins drew crowds by packaging good – or at
least reasonably well researched – theology with solid
entertainment. Conversely, among other outright hallucinations in
“Revelations,” the Fort Worth Star-Telegram implies and Baptist
Press reports its heroes believe Jesus may return as a baby and that
humans can somehow outwit God and foil his plans.
Yet a reviewer
for the Star-Telegram claims the producers of “Revelations” “took
great pains to tell the biblical aspects of the series, with each
scriptural citation being checked against multiple versions of the
Bible.” This could only be true if they were on acid or suffering
an “X-Files” overdose at the time. The throngs that saw “The
Passion of the Christ” and lined up to buy the “Left Behind” books
might prove more discriminating in their theology, which won’t help
ratings.
If NBC
believes there is a market for good biblically sound entertainment,
they’re right. If the reviews are right, the network missed the
mark by a mile. At least there’s still the “X-Files” crowd, which
might be “Revelations’” best bet for an audience.
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