“Revelations” on NBC

I watched the first episode of what NBC is calling an “event series” rather than a mini-series. I had heard that the network was hoping that it would appeal to Christians in much the same way that The Passion of the Christ and the Left Behind book series has. And I have to ask: Why would they think that?

So far, this plot seems to have as much to do with the imagery of the book of Revelation (note it’s singular) as it does with the Harry Potter books. It seems like a quasi-religious horror story so far. As a blatant example of this, does anyone reading the book of Revelation come away with the idea that Christ will appear as a baby in the end times?

I think there are some dramatic/critical reasons why this series seems goofy. Why does the nun seem to be shouting so much? And why does she seem to quote scripture in every context but the one in which it appears in the Bible? (as well as all the little scripture bumpers between commercial breaks)

I found it a bit amusing that the author has used two very common apologetics arguments right in the first episode. During the opening monologue, the professor in the wheelchair says something to the effect, A tornado running through a junkyard has about as much chance of assembling a cathedral as life has of evolving from the big bang. But that’s what happened. (I’ve paraphrased that, but that was the gist of it). The tornado-in-a-junkyard analogy has been used for years by Creationists to refer to the chances of big-bang-to-life happening.

The second thing I heard that made me think “I’ve heard that before…” was the scientist character explaining away the 10 plagues on Egypt via scientific rationale. I’ve heard and/or read several versions of that, and I’ve heard and/or read many Christian defense responses to it. I think most naturalistic scientists would rather just claim the 10 plagues didn’t happen rather than try to explain it all away via science alone anymore. Most of these scientific explanations of the plagues aren’t very satisfactory to scientists or Biblical scholars.

And did they refer to the killer as a “Satanist”? I don’t remember. That character was anything other than a follower of the church of Satan. Real Satanists wouldn’t have anything to do with this spiritual kind of stuff. As I understand Satanism, it is a purposeful anti-religion that celebrates self. A true Satanist would not acknowledge the existence of any higher power or “lord” — God or Satan.

Well, that’s an hour of my life that I’d like to get back again, but I’ll probably watch the rest of the series anyway. It’s amusing in a “Wow, where’d they get that idea?” sort of way. And frankly, it’s fun to write about bad TV.