NBC's "The Book of Daniel"

We saw that there was some controversy brewing over this new NBC show The Book of Daniel so we decided to see what the hype was all about. Interestingly, we and probably many others would likely have missed it and helped send it to Cancellation Land faster if not for all the hubbub. Here are the players:

• Father Daniel, an Episcopalian priest with a Vicodin addiction;
• His alcoholic wife;
• Their gay son who apparently shared a lover with
• Their teenage daughter, who is arrested for selling marijuana in the beginning of the show;
• Their ethnically Chinese adoptive son who is having sex with the 16 year old daughter of
• Fr. Dan's golfing partner, who appears to have some influence over him;
• The golfing partner's abusive and racist wife who stops her daughter from dating the adoptive son because she doesn't want "little oriental grandchildren running around the Christmas tree;"
• His wife's sister who is having a lesbian affair with
• Her late husband's secretary (who they both met swinging to spice things up), who helped his brother-in-law embezzle $3 million from the Church school fund;
• His mother, who suffers from Alzheimer's and
• His father, who is also a bishop and who is having an affair with
• His bishop (played by Ellen Burstyn), who shares his addiction to pills;
• The Catholic priest, whose mob connections find Daniel's dead brother-in-law in a motel with foreign objects up his caboose, and who knows where the money is with the proviso that the school is built by his mob builder;
• The black maid, who smokes pot from his daughter's stash in the yard;
• An engaged couple in pre-marital instruction with whom Daniel engages in a casual discussion of their pre-marital sex ("How are things in bed?"). They can only have sex when she's high, and then decide against marriage to just continue to co-habitate after his counsel;
• Lastly, Jesus, who appears to Daniel every so often a la Highway to Heaven and is, to be kind, feckless.

I'm not sure if I missed anyone. I will leave the reader to determine if this is a sincere attempt to portray realism and/or human (& divine, I guess) imperfection. In fairness, I have to ask: if this were set outside of an Episcopalian priest's family, would anyone notice?

Comments

[St. Jimbob of the Apokalypse]

Sound like the writer is projecting his own inadequecies and anxieties on a churchman, a life of faith he cannot concieve of, and a media network is gladly enabling him to. C'est la Guerre.

I watched the movie "Constantine" recently, and found it facinating in it's depiction of Hell, and it's lack of continuity. The exorcist does his prayers in Latin, but cannot remember that Jesus doles out forgiveness for sins. A schlocky apocalyptic prophecy is appended to Corinthians, which is a less-than apocalyptic epistle. Not to mention Keanu's acting, but at least there were no CGI kung-fu fights.

Operative lesson: The Boob Toob is the LAST place to look for sound spiritual guidance on anything.

[Josh Cohen]

When I first read the precis for Book of Daniel, I thought it would be a more serious show with occasional humor injected, a la Joan of Arcadia (probably one of the best G-d-based TV shows I ever watched). But when I started seeing previews for BoD, it struck me as nothing more than an everyone-is-bad version of 7th Heaven (which is so saccharine that it makes my teeth hurt, hence my not watching it). I suppose the point of BoD is to try and grab some disgruntled JoA viewers, but it didn't grab me. I didn't even think about watching it.

[panasianbiz]

I stumbled across your blog while I was doing some online research. It is really disheartening to see how Hollywood can only envision the life of a religious in terms of scandal and titillation. What a disservice to those who serve faithfully and with integrity.