Celebrating the Beautiful World of Traditional and Continuing Anglicanism
Saturday, January 07, 2006
"Book of Daniel" Television Show
Last night when my wife and I got back from church for the feast of the Epiphany, we were just kind of lazing around watching some tv, and we came across this incredibly idiotic NBC program, that is apparently new, called "Book of Daniel". It is about a middle aged episcopal priest who lives with his wife and family in a small, wealthy suburban town. This show is a real piece of work. Let's see... in this episode we learned: the wishy-washy priest is addicted to prescription meds; his son is openly homosexual and is in love with a guy in the choir; his father - who is the diocesan bishop - is having a clandestine affair with a woman because his wife has dementia; one of his vestryman's wife (also a neighbor) is a racist; his daughter is pot-head; another church "family" is openly lesbian (oh, but they just broke up - plot twist!); and all of the older women on the show get toasted on martinis all day long. The most ridiculous thing of all? "Jesus" makes cameo appearances and talks to the priest giving him counsel. For example, when one of the priest's sons goes off one night to spend time with his girlfriend, the priest suspects that some hanky-panky is going to go on. As he watches his son skateboard away, "Jesus" wanders by and they talk about it. Jesus' words are "Well, boys will be boys". There's also a Roman Catholic priest on the show who has mob connections and is trying to use them to help the Episcopal priest build a Christian school or something weird like that. This show is offensive in so many ways. From an artistic perspective, the acting is awful, and the writing is banal. Everyone mumbles - especially the Jesus character. I wonder if any mainline episcopal bishops have come down hard on this show? It doesn't make their church look good at all. Actually, I guess it doesn't make any ministerial family look good. Anyway, it was the first - and LAST - time I will waste time watching that trash. It's too bad that this is how Anglicanism gets mainstream exposure. Why not do a drama about an episcopal priest that is positive?