I have developed an interest over the last few years in eschatology,
the concept of the Apocalypse, Armageddon, End Times or whatever else you like
to call it. I believe it is a fundamental archetype that emerges in most people
in different ways. For full details, see the background links below. For my
research I have taken an interest in how the notion is portrayed in modern fiction
and give some examples such as
The Omen,
the
Left Behind series and,
The Second Coming. I have now found
another one,
Messiah. This is a 2020
TV series in
ten forty-five minute
episodes and it follows the story of a man who appears to be the Second Coming.
The programme was made during Peak Woke and avidly champions that toxicity. The
most horrible excesses are found in episode one during the first few scenes;
and this is a pattern I've noticed with other TV programmes. Maybe it is
because they know most people pay ninety percent of their attention to the
first few minutes of a TV show. There is only one white male character in the
first episode and he is a job applicant who is turned down ruthlessly and
contemptuously by Eva Geller, one of the main characters. Eva is a senior CIA case
officer, and she is a "Sassy!", "Strong!",
"Independent!" and "Empowered!" "Woman!". She is
abrupt, wilful and pragmatic; and she feels the need to assert herself among
the "EEEEEEEvil white males!" she has continuously to compete with.
She is scathing, sarcastic and casually dismissive of her underlings,
especially if they are white men. I don't think the writers realize how much of
a cliché this type of character is. It is Erin Brockovich; it is Diana
Christensen; it is Kate Blackwell. Actually by episode four we see a different
side of Eva. She becomes a deeper and more complex person and therefore more
likeable. The programme also promotes bad fatherhood as a male ideal in the
form of Aviram Dahan, a Mossad agent. He is divorced from his wife and a
visiting dad to his daughter. That is not unusual for fictional detectives;
however Aviram is recklessly neglectful of her. In one scene he is driving
along with his daughter, who is four years old; and he jumps out of the car and
abandons her in the back seat to pursue a suspect on foot. He also carries a
gun in the glove compartment with his child in the car. He is depicted torturing
and beating Jibril, a teenage boy. He then dumps him on the side of a road,
thinking he is dead. And to put the cherry on the cake, he's a functional
alcoholic. That's what qualifies you as an alpha male in today's media...
Anyway, that's enough moaning, Ben; I hear you say. What's the show about?
The mysterious individual is not introduced with any name at
first. He is simply called
Al-Masih,
Arabic for "Messiah". He is a thin young man with long hair and a sparse
beard, deliberately making him resemble our popular image of Jesus. He first
appears in
Damascus during the
siege by the Al-Nusra Front where he wanders around reassuring people and
preaching calmness. He wears yellow robes and is fearless of the bombs and
bullets which never seem to hit him. He them performs another miracle at the
Temple
Mount. A young boy is shot by the
police and the stranger heals him with his hands. By now he has a huge
following and people are openly declaring him to be the Second Coming of
Isa ibn Maryam, Jesus Christ. Amazingly
he then pops up in Texas USA, at a border town recently destroyed by a tornado;
and the only building left standing is the church. The local pastor becomes one
of
Al-Masih's first disciples. The
CIA and Mossad decide to put a trace on
Al-Masih.
To begin with, they are uncertain of who he is. For example they find evidence
that he didn't just materialize in
Texas
by supernatural means; he went to
Mexico
in a private jet and sneaked across the border. Could he simply be a conman? What
about a Russian disinformer? The true status of this enigmatic figure is also
kept from the viewer, making the plot considerably different to
The Second Coming where one is left in
no doubt about Stephen Baxter's divinity after he fills a night-time football
stadium with daylight early on in the story. The ambiguity of the crypto-Jesus character
is jealously guarded; this very skilfully creates a sense of intrigue. At one
point he has his own Sermon on the Mount moment, but it totally lacks the drama
and menace of Baxter's manifesto despite the fact that it ends with another
supposed miracle, see:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=--S8yIAhDB8.
My favourite scene is one which is copied almost perfectly from the story in
the Gospels where Jesus meets Mary Magdalene; and it is very moving. I'm
pleased to report that the programme casts the brilliant Beau Bridges in a
supporting role, star of one of my favourite films,
Voyage of the Unicorn, see:
https://hpanwo.blogspot.com/2014/05/voyage-of-unicorn.html.
It also has a guest appearance by James Randi the super-skeptic. Messiah is
technically very good. I like its style, score and production design. The
acting is top notch, but it does not have the gritty and vivid punch delivered
by
The Second Coming, its vision of ordinary
society in an extraordinary situation; nor does it match the gothic
sophistication of
The Omen. The Jesus
figure in
Messiah is a hollow and shadow character compared to Stephen Baxter.
It's still well worth watching though. There was originally going to be a
second season, but it was cancelled.
See here for
background: https://hpanwo-tv.blogspot.com/2020/08/apocalypse-soon.html.
And: https://hpanwo-tv.blogspot.com/2023/01/ben-emlyn-jones-live-at-truth-seekers.html.
