Revelations: Primetime Cheese or the Second Coming?

[Chovexani]

(...of ABC's Miracles)

After being innundated with promo after promo for NBC's upcoming Revelations miniseries, I'm beginning to detect more than a faint whiff of aged cheddar. Which is good, I mean I willingly watched the atrocious 10.5 with cheap wine coolers on hand purely to make fun of it. (Too bad the second night was so boring. All the cool landmarks went down on night one and all I could think about was poor President Beau Bridges and his obviously forbidden love for Dead FEMA Guy.)

But I've been doing some poking around and it actually sounds like it might be less cheesy Left Behind disaster flick stuff despite the presence of Bill Pullman and, more like the late, lamented Miracles that ABC unceremoniously cancelled a while back. Dunno if any of you ever watched it, but Skeet Ulrich was in it and it was one of those really smart, cult shows with a lot of mystery that never last because network suits are too busy counting beans to nurture a good show. IIRC it ended on a fairly bad cliffhanger, too (I could be confusing it with Fox's John Doe in that regard, so don't quote me on it).

So, any thoughts? Anyone else going to watch it? I hope it's more like Miracles, but I mean this is NBC we're talking about here, so I'm totally prepared to break out the wine coolers and call my friends over again. :P

[name not needed]

1. After seeing the guy's finger get chopped off in the promo,

I have come to a conclusion. Wendy's should sponsor it.

I have a feeling it's gonna be another disaster flick, but with Jesus in it. I'll probably watch it. I love cheesy disaster tv-movies.

[truebrit71]

2. I am definitely going to check out tonight's episode...

..we'll have to see if I'll watch it next week.....

[ernstbass]

3. Looks cheesy to me

I'm going to pass

[mandyky]

4. I had intended to boycott it but

I think I'll watch a bit of it, tonight. NBC is sure panderin' to those values voters...

[lady lib]

5. There's an interesting review in the NYT. Here's the link

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/13/arts/television/13stan.html?pagewanted=print&position=

[mandyky]

6. What a waste of an hours time!

The story lines are hard to follow, and it really stunk on over levels too. I hope Medium is on next Monday.

[onager]

7. I was...

:rofl:

As I wrote in another thread: this thing did stupid like Michelangelo did ceilings. I'm an atheist who was raised among Southern Fundamentalists, and I can confidently state that this POS had something in it to offend just about everybody.

Natasha The Know-It-All Nun was really a hoot. I'm sure those guys in the Vatican...the ones who love to pronounce on Original Sin and birth control...would let a female run loose, interpreting the end of the world.

Then there was the little girl getting blasted by lightning, not just once but TWICE.

Was it Voltaire who wisecracked about Gawd having really bad aim?

[imenja]

8. I thought it was sort of interesting

I'll watch the next one. But I love Carnivale, and I thought this was the network's attempt at making something like that. I suppose it might be simply pandering to the Christian Right, but they are bound to include some blasphemous element in the script that will get the Right up in arms.

[lavenderdiva]

9. I thought the same thing about it sorta trying to be networks' answer

to Carnivale. I LOVE Carnivale, but I'm still reserving judgement about Revelations. Tonight's episode had some issues that if you really thought about them, you had to go 'Huh?'. For example, they told you that the 'evil' character who chopped his finger off in the last episode, had it reattached via quote 'microsurgery'. Now, the reason he chopped it off was to prove he didn't bleed. Microsurgery necessitates reattaching the nerves and blood supply via the reattachment of vessels! If indeed, the surgeon reattached the finger without finding any arteries or vessels, dontcha think the surgeon would have been kinda surprised and made a fuss? No scrutiny given to this, it seems. Another query: when the nun and the professor escaped the hospital with the latin-uttering coma girl, somehow they got out of the hospital without interference from hospital security, or parental approval. Where are the girl's parents? Things that make you go hmmmm.... Maybe I'm just too analytical.

I don't know if this qualifies as a 'blasphemous element' or not, but according to scripture, when Christ does indeed come back (in His Second Coming), he will return in all His Glory as an adult. In this dramatization they have Jesus returning to earth as a baby-- scripturally inaccurate. I'm sure many fundies (if they are watching) would be up-in-arms over this, but I don't think anyone should be watching it for anything other than entertainment value... Just my opinion.

[onager]

10. I think I'm done with it after tonight...

At first it made me ROFL, but the story is already wearing really thin after two episodes. Satanic fashion models in red Ferraris? Nah, they wouldn't stand out too much on that dirt-poor island of Patmos.

I noted the same questions you did, and a few others. And good catch on the microsurgery!

I was eye-rolling about 1 minute in, when that blowhard professor in the wheelchair went on and on about Good and Evil and The Creation Of The Earth.

Apparently, this uber-smart professor has ONLY heard the Xian stories about creation etc. I'm still waiting for someone to acknowledge the fact that, oh, a few billion people on earth are not Xians.

I was kinda hoping he would bring up the Shinto creation myth, that the universe was created in an act of incest among the gods.

That might have spiced things up.

[lavenderdiva]

11. I have it Tivo'd for the future,

and at the point there are only 4 more episodes left, I may continue watching, if nothing else better is on. I find Carnivale much better written and far more intriguing. I think it makes the viewer 'think' more than Revelations, because it uses more allegorical devices rather than literal, which can hang you up, if you know what the literal stuff should be, and they are not following it. The professor character is going to have to be developed a bit more for him to be credible. And what's all this with the young nun part of a cloister that has access to lots of $$, but saying last night that the 'mother church' doesn't recognize them because of their slant on world happenings. Where do they get all the dough? Not to mention the medical facility that would be required for a young person in a coma induced from electric shock. How would they instantaneously have that available at the nun's home base?

I have decided, during writing this, that I think too much for this show. :rant:

[Ilsa]

12. I disliked it. No real punch to it.

I never got grossed out or goosebumps. Waste of time; left me feeling cheated.

[Chovexani]

13. Yeah, I was pretty disappointed.

I guess I was looking for Carnivale methadone, or something to laugh at, but it really wasn't good enough for either. It took itself way too seriously to be a fun piece of cheese, but it was way too dumb to be a thinking person's show.

Oh well. :(