Prompted by something eireannaigh posted

[avanta7]

I watched the premiere of NBC's new show, The Book Of Daniel, and tried to watch the next episode. Sadly, however, the show is terrible.

I think it's a wonderful idea: an attempt to show a different side of Christianity, one that isn't screaming hellfire and damnation, one that tries to practice what it preaches -- love, tolerance, acceptance -- but suffers in its human failings. I desperately wanted to like the show, because I believe that's a side of Christianity too many people don't see: they're too distracted by the Falwells and the Robertsons and the Phelpses of the world.

It had great potential with its diverse characters: the gay son, the mother stricken with Alzheimer's, the lesbian sister-in-law. But...the dialogue is poorly written, the transitions are clunky, the plots points are incredible, and could Jesus be any more clichéd? Even my decades-long crush on Aidan Quinn couldn't keep me interested enough to put up with the insipidity.

NBC would have been better off picking up CBS's marvelous Joan Of Arcadia after its cancellation than developing this badly executed doppelganger.

Comments

[resqgeek]

I was so disappointed when they canceled Joan of Arcadia. I completely identified with the misfit characters, and the show was beginning to really hit its stride. I haven't watched The Book of Daniel, in spite of finding the early adds intriguing. I've heard way too many bad reviews to justify making time for the show.

[resqgeek]

Doh! *note to self: remember to turn off any html tags you insert!*

[enigmacat.livejournal.com]

I was disappointed too (and I, too, wanted very much to like it!). I thought it was trying too hard to be like Six Feet Under (even to the point of having a temperamental strawberry blonde artist daughter) and that it just kept piling on the drama - one thing happening after another. Too damn much.

[mojosmom.livejournal.com]

I read an article prior to the show's premiere in which Quinn was quoted as explaining the clichéd Jesus as the way the character would visualize Him.

I guess that should have forewarned me . . .

Yeah, I'd hoped for better as well...

[gorydetails.livejournal.com]

...though I admit that my main reason for tuning in was to see Christian Campbell, who plays the gay son and who is, IMO, thoroughly adorable. [Check him out in the movie Trick (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0162710/); it wasn't flawless but I thought it worked a lot better than "The Book of Daniel" has so far!]

I think part of the problem with the setup of the show is that a lot of the humor depends on knowing something about the Episcopalian church - at least, as an Episcopalian, I picked up on lots of bits that I suspect meant nothing to most viewers. Even more of a problem: it just seems to keep piling on the quirky behavior without much rhyme or reason, so that while individual performers were giving it their best it just didn't hang together. [Now, Comedy Central's "Drawn Together (http://www.comedycentral.com/shows/drawn_together/index.jhtml)" also tends to pile on as many disparate jokes and references as the writers can come up with, and seem to have given up any attempt at linear story-telling, but at least it's funny. (And crude. Very crude. But I laugh a lot.)]