This entry is one of a series of articles covering religions depicted on TV as being true. For full details and a list of the other religions covered, go to the introduction.
Judaism and Christianity
Christianity has been the dominate religion in most of the West, especially Europe, for hundreds of years. There are, of course, many denominations of Christianity, each with their own beliefs, and much of Western literature either includes Christian figures or embodies Christian values in some ways. It stemmed from Judaism and the two religions still share certain core beliefs and figures: God, angels and so on. However, Jesus is particular to Christianity, of course, while Mary and the saints are really only prominent in Catholicism and Orthodox religions.
Mormonism, a (debatably) Christian denomination, almost gets its own show - Battlestar Galactica, which is based in part on the Book of Mormon - but that show doesn't prove Mormonism's truth or show Mormon teachings.
In terms of TV, God actually shows up surprisingly infrequently - or unsurprisingly, given he doesn't have a physical form in the Bible - although he appears in metaphor in shows such as Home Improvement. Jesus shows up occasionally, but far more common are the Devil and demons.
As for shows that show the truth of Judaism and Jewish religious stories but that couldn't also be Christian stories, there aren't any that I can think of, beyond an episode of The X-Files featuring a golem that despite trying very hard, gets a whole bunch of stuff wrong.
In the US: Thursdays, 8/7c, ABC. Starts September 27th In the UK: Not yet acquired
You'll have seen the scenario before, in films like Crimson Tide: a nuclear submarine receives the order to fire its missiles at the enemy. Will the captain have the guts to nuke the target? Will he chicken out? Or has it really all been a big mistake and war hasn't actually been declared? It's usually that last one.
Having not read much of the publicity material around The Last Resort, I assumed that this was going to be Crimson Tride all over again. But lo and behold, here we have something new and interesting. For now.
The Last Resort, featuring the ever-interesting Andre Braugher (last seen being wasted by House, Miami Medical and Men of a Certain Age), comes from the pen of Shawn Ryan, who can usually be relied to turn in something both interesting and manly (cf The Shield, Chicago Code, Terriers). Here, the crew of a nuclear submarine are given a suspicious order to fire nuclear missiles at Pakistan. And when the captain (Braugher) questions the order, he's first relieved of command and then shot at... by a US ship, which goes on to nuke Pakistan itself in supposed retaliation for shooting the submarine.
So, in another interesting twist, the submarine heads off for the Caribbean and declares itself an independent nation, ready to stop the war between the US and Pakistan. And if anyone comes after them... well, there's a silo of nuclear missiles waiting for them, too.
Yesterday, we had (multiple) looks at the new shows that NBC is planning for 2012-3. Today, we're going to take a gander at the shows Fox has in the pipeline.
Seeing as Fox is a considerably more successful network than NBC - it does at least have a few successful shows, even if House is on the way out - it's commissioned fewer new shows than NBC to fill its empty slots, so we're only going to be looking at The Mob Doctor with My Boys' Jordana Spiro, Ben & Kate, The Mindy Project with The Office's Mindy Kaling, Kevin Williamson's The Following with Kevin Bacon, James Purefoy and Natalie Zea, and The Goodwin Games with Becki Newton and Scrubs/The Unit's Scott Foley.
Yes, for some reason - mercury poisoning, temporary insanity - Fox hasn't picked up The Asset with Ali Larter. Nutters.
My general conclusion: the shows may look as bad as NBC's, but Fox knows how to make better trailers.
My specific conclusion: The Following looks passable thanks almost purely to James Purefoy and The Goodwin Games actually seems okay. The rest need euthanising.
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About me
I'm Rob Buckley, a freelance journalist who writes for UK media magazines that most people have never heard of, although you might have heard me on Radio 5 Live's Saturday Edition. I've edited Dreamwatch, Sprocket and Cambridge Film Festival Daily; been technical editor for trade magazine Televisual; reviewed films for the short-lived newspaper Cambridge Insider and the equally short-lived Death Ray and Filmstar magazines; written features for the even shorter-lived newspaper Soho Independent; and was regularly sarcastic about television on the blink-and-you-missed-it "web site for urban hedonists" The Tribe. I'm freelance now and have contributed to the likes of Broadcast, Total Content + Media, Action TV, Off The Telly, Action Network and TV Scoop.
