I am not a Christian -- in fact, I consider myself a recovering ex-Christian -- so my viewpoint may be biased as far as the theology contained in this series, but I am not commenting on theology, only on presentation. Yes, I can separate the two and keep an open mind.
This first episode regurgitated every tired bugaboo of fundamentalist Christianity, and the effect was not a good one. Do you think we should include a Satanic child murderer? What a great idea! How about something that would appeal to the Guadalupe and face-in-the-tortilla believers? Super! I know, I think we should include a sexy nun and a cute baby! Wow, that's absolutely brilliant! Hey, why don't we fan the Intelligent Design-Evolution flames a bit in the opening scene? Pure genius!
Natascha McElhone is a talented actress, on the plus side. Bill Pullman is adequate, as Bill Pullman always is. John Rhys-Davies I adore, but I hope he was embarrassed by his role in this. The dialog was wooden, every moment was predictable, but at least the F/X weren't sub-par.
The production values were as good as I would expect, so no bonus points there. I didn't notice the music, so it must not have been annoying. Still, the hokeyness was so omnipresent that I was barely able to watch the entire thing, so negative points there.
I will watch at least the next episode to see whether it improves, and it might, but in my opinion it would take a miracle.
This first episode regurgitated every tired bugaboo of fundamentalist Christianity, and the effect was not a good one. Do you think we should include a Satanic child murderer? What a great idea! How about something that would appeal to the Guadalupe and face-in-the-tortilla believers? Super! I know, I think we should include a sexy nun and a cute baby! Wow, that's absolutely brilliant! Hey, why don't we fan the Intelligent Design-Evolution flames a bit in the opening scene? Pure genius!
Natascha McElhone is a talented actress, on the plus side. Bill Pullman is adequate, as Bill Pullman always is. John Rhys-Davies I adore, but I hope he was embarrassed by his role in this. The dialog was wooden, every moment was predictable, but at least the F/X weren't sub-par.
The production values were as good as I would expect, so no bonus points there. I didn't notice the music, so it must not have been annoying. Still, the hokeyness was so omnipresent that I was barely able to watch the entire thing, so negative points there.
I will watch at least the next episode to see whether it improves, and it might, but in my opinion it would take a miracle.