NETFLIX: "Messiah" ... all I can say is "Wow!!"

Terry

Netflix : MESSIAH

Remember how you felt watching Close Encounters of the 3rd Kind
for the first time?
That's what I'm feeling at the end of Season 1 Episode 2 of
MESSIAH.
It's not what you think it's going to be.
It's not Jeffrey Hunter in King of Kings, or Mel Gibson's Passion of the Christ, or the Left Behind series, or Temptation of the Christ, or The Greatest Story Ever Told.

This isn't a Hollywood version of anything.

Folks, at the end of Episode 2 I'm thinking I'm watching extraordinary storytelling fresh, original, superbly acted and -
best of all: no bullshit.

Don't read anything about it. Don't watch previews. Go into it cold.
I don't know what's up ahead but for now - this is the best thing I've seen of its kind.

Give a couple of episodes a try.

"Who are you?"
"I am the Word."
______

Time passes

______

I'm on Episode 9 with 1 to go.
Each character is a living, breathing, flesh and blood person given time to develop. How rare this is!
I love how the slow unfolding of plot always leaves the viewer revising an opinion as to WHO this man is. Just when you think you know - there is more information.
That's why my Close Encounters of the Third Kind analogy is apt.

Exactly how would we react - each of us?
We all bring our point of view and expectations and doubts.
Is seeing the same as believing?

The Sunni Muslims see Messiah as either an Anti-Christ demonic persona - OR - the arrival of the actual promised figure bringing about the end.
Christians, Buddhists and Jews - how do they see and react?
What about the sick and dying?
Atheists, Agnostics?

One by one these human beings are confronted with a true test of their humanity, spirituality, and suspicious intelligence.

This is a GREAT MYSTERY to be solved.
Here I am with two episodes to go and I cannot guess what comes next. I have been wrong again and again.

Folks, give it look-see!

Antonio_Madaleno

I Love it! Great argument!

Terry

Finished watching the ten episode Netflix MESSIAH.
Oh man - magnificent!
No matter what you disbelieve or believe you are depicted and represented by a character in this series.
Skeptic, True-believer, on the fence, on both sides of the fence, angry at the idea of blasphemy or open-minded : it's ALL there and it's for you.
Let's put it this way. A great novel makes you want to keep reading it and never end. A great mystery novel makes your race along to the end and hope for a surprise.
This series is a combination of both.
If you are simply curious and want to get it over with - let me save you the trouble. The real identity of this possible Messiah is way more complicated than a yes or no.
It's a series closely examining what it is that drives people toward and away from the very idea of God.
How demanding, how gullible, how beautiful, how ugly the entire idea of "faith" is and mostly...how contagious and explosive.

This is SEASON ONE (there's plenty of room for more if Netflix has the guts.)

babygirl30

Watched all the eps I a day...and they were amazing!!!!! I watched a review video and read some reviews, and the theory is that the character (Al-Misah) is actually the anti-Christ?!?! Very excited to see season 2...

But did you notice how everyones motives around this man started out genuine and religious, but ended up that they were so selfish and greedy??? And that everyone he touched or was in close contact with - ended up having BAD things happen???

Terry

This is the only instance I know of or remember where the creators of a religious-themed story
have no obvious bias one way or other.
The fact that it is so neutral and yet has come in for heavy criticism anyway is mind boggling.
The political aspects of migration, Israel v Palestine, Muslim v Christianity, Liberal v Conservative,
C.I.A. v F.B.I, etc, were presented in such a practical and pragmatic fashion, it is practically a miracle in itself.

I like how the rug is pulled from under my expectations time and again. That's hard to do.
I thought I saw things coming a mile off that were inevitable only to discover I was soooo wrong.
Nothing tickles me more than being wrong. I love it.

JimmyYoung

Personally I could not get through this slow moving IMO garbage.

Terry

It's a slow building character study for sure.
Each and every character comes to life as a real person and that takes time.

Wasanelder Once

I like the way they set up individuals to manifest their own standards and beliefs, from the Israeli cop to the suicide bomber who is conflicted. The minister's daughter and mother seeking a healing for her child show how people see what they wish. Tell me Terry, wasn't it fantastic how they set the shepherd boy up as an unreliable narrator with his shepherding stories casting doubt on the big reveal at the end? You can't be sure if it is what it seems. Did you want to believe he did what they imply? That appears the gist of the whole show. I wish they left the subtitles on longer damn-it.

slimboyfat

I watched the first episode on your recommendation, but I misunderstood because I thought it was about Jesus in first century Palestine, but it seems to be set in the modern Middle East. Not your fault, I didn’t read carefully.

It was quite good. It reminds me more of Homeland than Passion of the Christ.

It also strikes me just how complicated the religious and ethnic situation in Israel/Palestine is because a lot of these people it seems difficult to tell an Israeli apart from a Palestinian just by physical appearance, at least it is for me.

Terry

wasanelderonce: "Terry, wasn't it fantastic how they set the shepherd boy up as an unreliable narrator with his shepherding stories casting doubt on the big reveal at the end? You can't be sure if it is what it seems. Did you want to believe he did what they imply? That appears the gist of the whole show. I wish they left the subtitles on longer damn-it."

____
My favorite gimmick in drama is the unreliable narrator. Mostly because people who speak "their own truth" always think reality belongs to their perception.
I had to freeze frame MOST of the subtitles!

NETFLIX: "Messiah" ... all I can say is "Wow!!"

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