Classic shows that have almost been forgotten, as well as shows that should probably have been forgotten
Hey, you! Yes, you, you moron! What do you think you’re doing with that fridge? For God’s sake, take its door off at the very least! You could kill someone!
We’re going to have a little departure from our normal Nostalgia Corner this week as part of my somewhat unplanned ‘Pagan Week’ on the blog. Today, we’re going to look at all the scripted shows (or as many as I can remember) on Western, English-language TV that have not just featured religions but have actually shown them to be true in some way or other.
Now, it might be tempting to instantly think that Christianity would dominate here – and certainly it shows up a lot, particularly on US TV. When it does it appear, it’s also taken more seriously and is dealt with largely more accurately than other religions.
But TV is largely secular, either because the writers are atheists or agnostics or because they’re afraid of offending or marginalising other religious groups, particularly when it comes to overseas sales. As a result, religion often lies unexamined in drama or when it does, it deals with ‘safe’ religions, doesn’t make claims for the ‘truth’ of a particular religion or is ‘fantasy’ so doesn’t pretend to say what it depicts is true.
Nevertheless, a few shows have done just that and I’m going to be running through them today. A few I’ve already covered in much greater detail elsewhere, so I’ll link to those posts if necessary, but I’ll still be looking at them from the point of view of religion, rather than as dramas, so there probably won’t be much overlap with what I’ve already written.
To be included on the list (and these aren’t 100% firm rules), the show has to fit into one of the following categories:
I won’t be including shows that
Before we leap straight into the list, though, I’d like to give a big thanks to Jim Smith, Stuart Douglas, Dave Hoskin, Simon Bucher-Jones, Naomi Jacobs, Philip Purser-Hallard, Ian Mond, SK and Jon Arnold for their invaluable help in its compilation. Cheers, everyone!
The list
I’m going to break this down by religion. There are a number of ‘mixed faith’ shows out there, that have shown more than one religion to be true, but these generally show one religion to predominate and so will be listed according to that primary religion.
If I’ve left out any shows or religions, leave a comment below or on the relevant entry and I’ll update the list accordingly.
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.
Continue reading “Your handy guide to true religions on TV – Judaism and Christianity”
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.
Islam
Nope. No one’s touching this one with a bargepole. Although having much in common with Judaism and Christianity, Islam has particular beliefs about the depiction of its prophet, Mohammed, making it hard to make series featuring him, at least. In fact, the only vaguely Islamic show I could think of is Born of Fire, which includes djinn and other figures from Islamic mythology.
This entry is one of a list of articles covering TV shows depicted on TV as being true. For full details and a list of the other religions covered, go to the introduction.
Hinduism
The world’s number three religion after Christianity and Islam, this has had perilously few TV shows based on its tenets. However, Channel 4’s The Mahabharata did manage to condense down its central work to a mere 10 hours or so – although that did mean the Bhagavad Gita was squished down to just six minutes:
Buddhism
Obviously, one of the more popular Eastern religions in the West, it’s also one that’s hard to demonstrate as ‘true’ because many branches of Buddhism don’t include a belief in supernatural figures such as gods and demons. However, there are a number of shows that depict the truth of Buddhism.
Continue reading “Your handy guide to true religions on TV – Hinduism and Buddhism”
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