Discuss Messiah

I enjoyed it a lot. It keeps you on the edge of is he/isn't he every episode while providing a lot of political intrigue, and ask intriguing questions like: What would it take before we start to believe it? Would we deport the Messiah? If the Messiah suddenly showed up, would we consider him a terrorist?

3 replies (on page 1 of 1)

Jump to last post

Just finished binging myself but for me personally the show somewhat jumped the shark when he did what he did in Washington D.C. And after that it's like the writers themselves had no idea where to go with what they so brilliantly started. Oh well, maybe things will get better in the next season. Is it even planned?

Today as in the distant past, although especially today, I think anyone making such a claim would immediately be branded psychologically impaired. It's interesting to read the old testament of the Christian Bible and imagine how the simpletons of the old testament era could have been duped into believing the "miracles" attributed to Jesus of Nazareth. The lynchpin in being believed as some kind of god-like being is really just having a critical mass of the rabble who believe. That's how people build mega churches.

Spoilers Obviously

The series is at least an interesting exploration of how the modern world might receive word of the arrival of a new messiah. I'm not convinced it would pan out anything like as was depicted but the nature of fiction is to imagine things as they are not.

Where I had issues was with the multiplication of narratives. Whether you believe the Jewish, Christian, or Islamic story is a matter of just that- belief. One either accepts the narrative or one does not. There are not competing narratives for example, in the Biblical story of Christ. It is one story that you either accept or do not. By contrast, this series gives us multiple competing narratives. This is NOT the same thing as different explanations.

For example, Al-Masih declares that his mother is Jewish and his father Christian. His brother reverses their religion. This is an important point to both Jews and Christians and the narratives are in direct contradiction. There are numerous instances of this sort of thing here. This is a writing fudge that allows the writer to sit on the fence and 'allow the viewer to form their own opinion.' But of course a viewer has no way at all to choose between two competing narratives as they are presented, and since it is fiction, no rational reason to need to choose anyway.

There are other things that bugged me in this. Like how facial recognition didn't pick up on an Iranian who entered the US after 911 and studied with one of the world's most wanted terrorists or how a senior member of government (Sec of State? Chief of Staff? CIA director? We are never told.) is driving himself around and hanging out in dark alleys off grid. Like how one of the world's most famous and surveilled people manages to wander around DC without being seen. There's plenty of this stuff going on. This really is 'Gimmee a break' writing.

Worth watching, but way too many flaws.

Can't find a movie or TV show? Login to create it.

Global

s focus the search bar
p open profile menu
esc close an open window
? open keyboard shortcut window

On media pages

b go back (or to parent when applicable)
e go to edit page

On TV season pages

(right arrow) go to next season
(left arrow) go to previous season

On TV episode pages

(right arrow) go to next episode
(left arrow) go to previous episode

On all image pages

a open add image window

On all edit pages

t open translation selector
ctrl+ s submit form

On discussion pages

n create new discussion
w toggle watching status
p toggle public/private
c toggle close/open
a open activity
r reply to discussion
l go to last reply
ctrl+ enter submit your message
(right arrow) next page
(left arrow) previous page

Settings

Want to rate or add this item to a list?

Login