If You Want To Live
I try to steer away from TV recommendations, but I have found one that is quickly becoming a great show: the Sarah Connor Chronicles.
This review from the International Herald Tribune claims the show is subversively trying to tell us that faith makes us human.
The Tribune (along with its parent company, the New York Times) has a strong bias against evangelical Christianity, and the article has a whiney tone about the whole thing.
This element of the show is definitely there. In the last episode there is an extended reading from 2 Corinthians, and in an earlier episode Cameron (the cyborg intent on protecting John Connor) asks Sarah if she believes in the resurrection.
While I do like the apocalyptic story-line and the edgy questions about faith, the style of the show is what really sells it for me. The characters and the acting are definitely part of that.
The premise of the show is an collection of vagrants trying to postpone the end of the world ("doomsday"). The grimness of the approaching crisis weighs heavily on the characters while the people around them are content with facades and distraction (true to the James Cameron films, particularly the first Terminator).
There are moments of happiness in the uncertainty for some of the characters. It is not like the Sunday school stories where someone discovers an equation and the sun shines down on them. It is more like a subtle joy while "standing over the abyss".
Jesus spent a lot of time teaching that death and judgment can come at any time, and so can the unmerited favor of God. This film plays heavily on the absurdities (harsh and joyous) of life and questions of identity that would have drawn in Luther, Shakespeare, and Kierkegaard.
I recommend giving it a watch, especially if you are male. The episodes are free to watch off the fox website.
This review from the International Herald Tribune claims the show is subversively trying to tell us that faith makes us human.
The Tribune (along with its parent company, the New York Times) has a strong bias against evangelical Christianity, and the article has a whiney tone about the whole thing.
This element of the show is definitely there. In the last episode there is an extended reading from 2 Corinthians, and in an earlier episode Cameron (the cyborg intent on protecting John Connor) asks Sarah if she believes in the resurrection.
While I do like the apocalyptic story-line and the edgy questions about faith, the style of the show is what really sells it for me. The characters and the acting are definitely part of that.
The premise of the show is an collection of vagrants trying to postpone the end of the world ("doomsday"). The grimness of the approaching crisis weighs heavily on the characters while the people around them are content with facades and distraction (true to the James Cameron films, particularly the first Terminator).
There are moments of happiness in the uncertainty for some of the characters. It is not like the Sunday school stories where someone discovers an equation and the sun shines down on them. It is more like a subtle joy while "standing over the abyss".
Jesus spent a lot of time teaching that death and judgment can come at any time, and so can the unmerited favor of God. This film plays heavily on the absurdities (harsh and joyous) of life and questions of identity that would have drawn in Luther, Shakespeare, and Kierkegaard.
I recommend giving it a watch, especially if you are male. The episodes are free to watch off the fox website.
3 Comments:
It sounds interesting, i'll have to check it out! Speaking of shows with existentialist themes, one show that I have fallen in love with recently is Neon Genesis Evangelion. It's an anime, which I understand is not everybodies cup of tea. However, in the latter half of the series it really explores the mind of a young teenager until at the end of the series he finds happiness. The journey draws alot from Kierkegaard's psychological insights, and indeed one of the episodes is titled "the sickness unto death."
Just as an aside, what has the New York Times criticised about evangelical Christianity that you don't agree with?
Argh that website only allows US residents to view the episodes for free.
Sorry about that one, Tim. The US probably needs to contain itself in case SkyNet ever breaks loose ...
I have wanted to like anime, but I haven't been exposed to much of it (although all my college friends were all over that scene). That one sounds like it might be a good one for me.
Maybe I'm getting my associations mixed up or I'm over-generalizing, but it seems like the NY Times editorial staff really comes down hard on evangelical Christianity. To be fair, I should be able to give an example. I don't want to stray too far down the politics route, but I think they were among the newspapers that basically declared war on those S Korean missionaries who were captured by the Taliban (personally, I would have blamed the Taliban). And I think they came down on US soldiers for telling Iraqis about Jesus. But I always get the NYT and the AP mixed up.
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