God Friended Me.
 

http://www.vulture.com/2018/10/tv-sh...his-is-us.html

I really enjoyed the premiere of God Friended Me. Those details in the first show were quite thrilling for me.

Some people could use some fire and brimstone and the like in their life as well as the gentler features of God's love.

I minored in Religious Studies in of all places, Reno, Nevada while getting dual BAs in Philosophy/History. I wanted to understand the problem of evil more because of events near the University of Nevada, Reno campus as well as in Reno in the late 1970s.

Then went to the BYU Law school for a short time. I had thought it would be interesting to immerse myself in a different religion like the Mormon Church rather than my own Lutheran up-bringing. Was way too much to deal with though at that time.

This show does seem to address why bad things happen and how do people of faith deal with these when confronted with an all knowing and all powerful God.

This show was a lot better than I expected it to be. I thought it would be another just another silly comedy but it was quite well done.

It had some serious parts-- sort of. :popcorn::popcorn:

I agree--will keep watching.

Strangers’ lives interconnecting in good ways — I liked it.

It is along the same lines as “Joan of Arcadia.” I liked that one, too.

I almost wasn't going to watch...but did TIVO it and watched it. I'm glad I did!!! So far, it's pretty good!! Sometimes when Christianity and God are depicted on the screen it becomes pretty cheesey or it denigrates people of faith. So time will tell how well this show fares.

It will cover other faiths as well from what I have read.

I had a friend while in Graduate School in Librarianship at the University of Denver in 1983-1984. He was a cataloger at the University of Mosul in Iraq. Here in the US to get advanced training. Learned a lot about this Muslim religion for him but he soon became very anti-American after returning to Mosul and was caught up in the emotions of various wars over there. Mainly he was drawn into the horrors of the Iran-Iraq War in the 1980s. Terrible what happened to the library and many of its books and/or other holdings. It was pillaged by ISIS even though it sounded like some of the librarians tried to rescue some of the books in that collection.

I do hope that they cover the Muslim religion with a view to its complexity. Each Muslim I met at the U of Denver was different as they were from different countries for the most part and also from different economic backgrounds.

Then (to me at least) the 1st show was just a hook. I probably won't watch it long-term. Too many reasons to go into here.

The new show called FBI went into the Muslim religion a bit. This was quite interesting. It was about US born women aged in their high school years and how they could be recruited into ISIS often because they were alienated from their friends and family members as well as often bullied online and in person.

This show God Friended Me is set in NYC where their are hundreds of languages spoken by its citizens and just about as many faiths there with different visions of what God looks like.

I think they missed an opportunity with this show. The leads are well played, the stories OK, if not slightly stretched reality at this point. Sure, everyone has a super hacker friend. don't you? And I laughed out loud, (not because it was funny) when it was announced, "I found God in New Jersey," took me out of the moment of the story. A what's up with the enlightened room? Will it be mysteriously filled with more paintings as the show goes on? This would have been a better show about coincidence. Rather than announcing the spiritual instigator of events, wouldn't it be better not to know? Something like the excellent, "Person of Interest." If God works in mysterious ways, why limit her to Facebook posts. Might get trite after a while. I remember reading "The Celestine Prophecy" in the 90's. Which nicely dealt with the concept of synchronicity. Coincidences fascinate me. A few years ago, by chance, I ran into an old high school flame at the Eifel tower who is now my book editor. Who knows, maybe my posts here on TOTV will eventually lead selling a screenplay.

I'll watch a few more episodes. 6/10

None of the shows on TV are based much on reality. They are strictly for entertainment. Even Person of Interest was pretty far fetched but interesting to watch. Might work and might not but I am going to give it a chance.

FBI was another show that was better than I expected.

Quite true.
Reality leaves a lot to the imagination. – John Lennon

The crafting of a successful story/tv show/movie has to do with maintaining the 'suspension of disbelief' of the viewer. In this show, the moments I mentioned above completely pulled me out of the story. I lost interest in the fiction. I can only pray they can improve on this.

Suspension of disbelief - Wikipedia

New TV this season has been very disappointing. Dramas I have seen so far:

Manifest - 6/10 Will the story become LOST in all the personal turmoil? This passenger list goes on and on..
FBI - 8/10 Well done 42-minute mini-thriller. Sela Ward a plus.
New Amsterdam -4/10 Super duper hospital administrator. Wasted top-notch talent.
Magnum PI - 4/10 He's too short. Poor voice-over voice. (There ain 't gonna be a poster of him on my daughters' wall!) Is it supposed to be campy?

I agree that Magnum PI has no real charisma. They could have done better.

Magnum no. God friended me YES. (Because of what many of you wrote on this thread, I watched it) Really didn't want sermons or religious uplifting. Not that they aren't good in the right place.

And for all who are not religious, you may very well like it. I found it well acted and it was just so good not to have to fend off "messages" like Murphy Brown or late night TV and others who just want to keep making half the country mad. I saw it once and wish the main actor was in MY family.

Try it. You'll like it!!