Last Friday night, NBC aired the initial episode of The Book of Daniel, the show that unnecessarily had everyone’s frocks in bunch last week because, God forbid, it mixed the topic of religion with a frothy dose of humor and human imperfection. Not dainty Starbucks-style froth but full-on, blender-busting froth in the form of a pill-popping priest, a gay son, a martini-swilling wife, a daughter who sells pot to support a manga cartoon hobby, another son who likes to have sex with a bishop’s daughter, a priest who cheats on his wife, a relative who steals $3 million from the church, a mafia-connected priest who blackmails the pill-popping priest and a self-referential, wise-cracking Jesus who doles out less than traditional religious advice. Four NBC affiliates couldn’t take the heat and pulled the show from their schedules.
Upon viewing the two hour premiere, we just don’t know what all the fuss is about. The show was funny. Really funny. It took the very serious subject of religion, did away with the usual collection of unrealistically pious people and turned the whole thing on its head by dropping the kid gloves to portray people as they are in real life, full of flaws, faults and foibles.
The flippant Jesus character, which religious types are calling blasphemous, was nothing more than a humorous look at what life might be like for Jesus after having to deal with every single Christian’s prayers, desires and aspirations day in and day out week after week, month after month, year after year, decade after decade, century after century, millennium after millennium. The poor guy hung on a cross for us, died for us and listens to billions of our prayers every second. The least we can do is let him crack a few jokes once in a while on a harmless TV show. After all, the show is not a Sunday sermon. We have church for that. People are smart enough to tell the difference between the two and we don’t need a few religious extremists forcing their views upon the rest of us, depriving us of a few hours respite watching one of the few things on TV that’s actually worth watching. Give it a rest. Go back to your prayer group.
