NBC is now trying their hand at a religiously oriented television show. The Book of Daniel will be a mid-season replacement series this coming season, and it ain't pretty:
The NBC network, eager for new hits to reverse a ratings slump, said on Friday it has given a mid-season 2005-06 commitment to a new drama titled "The Book of Daniel," depicting Christ as a contemporary confidant to a pill-popping priest.
The series stars Aidan Quinn ("Legends of the Fall") as conflicted Episcopal minister and family man, the Rev. Daniel Webster, and Oscar-winner Ellen Burstyn as his bishop.
And what sort of character will "Jesus" be?
[NBC President Kevin] Reilly has said NBC's development of the show was inspired in part by the success of religion-themed novels like the "Left Behind" series and Mel Gibson's movie "The Passion of the Christ."
"Daniel," however, is a far cry from "Passion" or the conventional Easter-season TV specials that portray Christ in a biblical context. According to NBC promotional materials, the Jesus character on "Daniel" is depicted as a "contemporary, cool" figure who appears only to the minister.
A Jesus that Hollywood thinks is "cool". And the hits just keep on coming in the wake of "The Passion," but, of course, none of them actually try to do what "The Passion" did. Mel Gibson approached the Biblical account and the Person of Jesus with respect and faithfulness to the Biblical account. The tv networks, instead, want Jesus to be "cool". It's Lot in a pirate ship all over again.
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