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January 5, 2006
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irst, full disclosure: I like Jesus. I think about Jesus almost every day. I write sermons about things Jesus said. I say prayers in Jesus's name. I represent Jesus when I do the mass. I even believe in some sense of his divinity. But boy, did he sure ruin NBC's new series The Book of Daniel. And what a shame, because there's actually an interesting show here. Daniel Webster (Aidan Quinn) is an Episcopal priest who pops Vicodin to cope with his personal and professional worries. His wife, Judith (Susannah Thompson), is liberal with the martinis. His oldest son is openly gay. His sixteen-year-old adopted son is the horniest teenager in the diocese. His younger daughter deals drugs. His mother has Alzheimer's. And his sister-in-law's husband has just disappeared — along with $3 million from the church coffers.
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Apparently, when it comes to Friday-night television, the first commandment is that it never hurts to appeal to the Desperate Housewives set, since they may be the only ones around to watch. For example, Daniel's sister-in-law turns out to be the lesbian lover of her husband's super-hot church secretary, the mastermind of the embezzlement scandal. Then we find the bishop (Ellen Burstyn) clandestinely dipping into Daniel's Vicodin supply shortly before we cut to her and the other elderly bishop sipping brandy after a little extramarital rough-and-tumble in the study. The live-in housekeeper takes up pot, and, of course, there's the ultra WASP-y doyenne of Newbury gossip who spies on people from her black Range Rover.
Yet despite such stunty plotting, Daniel succeeds in portraying a fairly convincing upper-class family with struggles we can recognize and even connect with (well, mostly). And best of all — at least from the perspective of this Episcopal priest — Daniel Webster is thoughtful and open-minded. It's not every day we get to see a priest on television who laughs at the term "living together in sin," doesn't scoff at a woman who gets high to make the sex with her fiancé better, and counsels a struggling parishioner that it's not a sin to be gay. And unlike, say, Dawn French in the BBC's Vicar of Dibley, whose main vice consists of ice-cream binges after morning mass, Daniel actually has a problem that's
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Never mind that Jesus is absurdly dressed in a 400-count Frette bed sheet.
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commensurate with some of the real day-to-day struggles of being a priest and father.
Problem is, Daniel also sees and talks to Jesus (Garret Dillahunt). That's right. To round out this ensemble, creator Jack Kenny felt the need to add a living, breathing, flesh-and-blood incarnation of Jesus. And wow, is he bad.
Never mind that he's absurdly dressed in a 400-count Frette bed sheet, or that he props up his socked foot on the antique Chippendale coffee table while Daniel tries to offer some serious counsel to a parishioner. Never mind, also, his on-cue appearances almost every time poor Daniel reaches for his Vicodin. It's when he opens his mouth that things really go wrong. Let's just sample a few lines.
Advice for everyday living: "You're tailgating," and "Oh, would you look at those clouds? Ho ho!"
Responses to complex issues: "Kids, huh?" "Boy, you never know, do ya?" And, worst of all, "Life is hard, Daniel. That's why there's such a nice reward at the end of it."
And finally, sermon feedback: "I'm not a speech writer. I'm just a one-liner kinda guy."
Compare such schlock with, say, some lines from the Sermon on the Mount — "Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; and
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How do you write Jesus out of a series?
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yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these" — and you wonder why Kenny didn't stick to the pre-existing script. Or better yet, just leave Jesus out.
Which sets up an interesting problem: How do you write Jesus out of a series? Well, let me offer a suggestion: give him something better to do than mope around the posh suburbs of New York clucking over people's painkiller intake and eavesdropping on marriage-counseling sessions. Ship him off to the starving children in Niger. Send him to Iraq or New Orleans. Or, if that's too tricky, why not just drop him right out of that script without any explanation? Why not leave him in the realm of belief, instead of rendering him so unbelievable?
Yes, I know it seems strange for a priest to say this, but — to paraphrase one of Judith's lines — unless Jesus goes, there just won't be enough vodka to get us through this series. So Mr. Kenny, please: Lose Jesus, and the show you save may be your own. n°
The Book of Daniel premieres January 6th.
| ABOUT THE AUTHOR: | |
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The Reverend Astrid Joy Storm is the Curate at Grace Church in New York City. |
Commentarium (9 Comments)
if i had two thousand years of VERY intense editors i'd sound like a genius too.
don't confuse the book with the work...
I am not sue what an Episcopal Priest is but after getting a glimpse of Astrid Storm I think I am ready to attend church...could we please get a full body shot? Sans collar preffered.
I think that the too white Jesus just kills it , well, along with his bad acting. I do not know about the rest of the country, but here in Alabama the TV station that ran the show had a survey set up to accept calls to get peoples opinions about the show. LOTS of conservatives had already called in to protest.Maybe the show just hits too close to home for some people. Life is strange and not real pretty most of the time. People need to realize that the people that they set up to be perfect are not immune to life and all that goes with it.
sounds a lot like
"rescue me."
Isn't this Jesus supposed to be the Jesus that Daniel imagines, not "actual" Jesus? I figured this was akin to Six Feet Under where each of the Fishers imagines the father through their own perspective (e.g., for David, he's always in a suit; for Claire he's in a loud Hawaiian shirt, etc.). Maybe part of Daniel's problem is that he is out of touch with the "actual" Jesus and we're seeing "his" Jesus -- all trite and one-linery?
maybe it's because i'm schizophrenic, but i liked the portrayal of Jesus in this show. he's so much more human than popular thought.
I haven't seen the series, but judging from the Rev's remarks, they certainly seem to have missd the boat. I'm a practising Christian (and a working actor - you see? Miracles still happen...)and find it silly and sad that producers feel a need to infantilise Jesus. He was many things, but never infantile. He still remains the reason for Christianity and for the faith of millions and he has real answers, not one liners. Go on... Read the Book. You might just like it.
I have to say that I love this show. I seem to remember another show that was really considered on the edge. All in the Family. If some preacher can ask "What woud jesus drive & go on an anti- SUV campaign, or one preacher saying that god told him that unless his people gave him a million dollars god would take him..or preachers getting away with what they please. or saying that if you have a different political view that you are against god.... SorryI can't buy any of that control stuff. Here is an excellent show that opens a door that a non beliver can at least see the human side of your religion & society. I tire of religion controling everything.
I am Native American & have had our traditions stolen & forced to believe in another's mythology. If you don't like a tv show.simply chang the channel. look how you portrayed the Native American... look at your sports teams making fun of us. I for one tire of christians pushing their stuff on others wit tv ads & coming door to door.
So get over this. If we as a society can't laugh at ourselves then something is very wrong. I love this show & hope they keep it going. so do many people i know.
BKJ
You know that the bible is one of the most owned, and least read books in the uniVerse right? *S*
Anyway, as a practicing believer, i think this is gonna hit right where it is needed most. It's great to know that TV is finally getting around to showing Ministers as PEOPLE, complete with flaws and messed up families.
AS far as your jesus stuff, how can you be so sure that he wouldn't be responding that way. After all, we haven't acutally had him around to speak for himself for the past t thousand years.