Messiah

While Ive written a few books so far, I always have a couple more bouncing around in my head at any given moment. One wild idea Ive had for a few years now was based on my Christian upbringing, where Jesus returns for the second coming and starts performing miracles to wow everyone.

Only, plot twist! Actually, the man is a time-traveler who arrives from the future and is using nanotech and advanced science to perform what looks like miracles in an effort to trick everyone and end up ruling the world.

I am spoiling my own idea for you here because now that Ive seen Messiah, I am definitely never going to write it. Though the idea is what hooked me into the concept of the show to begin with, as the Netflix drama asks the question, what would happen if a man claiming to be the second coming of Jesus arrived and started performing miracles? Would we believe him? Would he be exposed as a fraud? Could he be the real deal?

Its a question I found fundamentally interesting, given my own idea, and its what pushed me through to the end of the season to figure out the answer.

It was not worth it.

No, the Messiah isnt a time-traveler, that much Ill say up front, but the show and the answers it provides are not worth spending 10 episodes on it with so many better TV options out there.

The biggest problem with Messiah is that outside of the somewhat interesting question of whether the central figure is real or fake, there is quite literally nothing else of value in the series. I did appreciate Mehdi Dehbis performance as would-be Jesus, asking the question of what Christ might look like if he showed up on earth as an Iranian supermodel. And the best performance of the series is probably from the only cast member you know, Michelle Monaghan as a CIA officer determined to uncover the truth about Al-Masih (The Messiah).

Messiah

Every other character and storyline in the series is bad. You simply do not care about any of them. There are two boys who are initial followers of Al-Masih that end up having storylines so disconnected from the rest of the plot I have no idea why they exist in the first place. Theres a tormented Israeli spy who is half protagonist, half foil to Al-Masih, and always irritating. Theres a pastor and his family who serve as Al-Masihs American disciples/handlers and yet none of them ever become compelling characters in the least, not even after a tremendous amount of time is devoted to them for at least eight of the ten episodes. Even Monaghans spy is dull, and weirdly, is one of the least fleshed-out characters of the bunch.

So that leaves the only compelling thing about the show as its central mystery. Is Al-Masih for real?

Im going to just going ahead and spoil it now, because honestly, I dont think you should waste your time watching this series to find out. But if you dont want to know, turn back now.

The show really goes out of its way to do everything possible to make you believe that Al-Masih is a fraud. The show ends up coming up with this concept where Al-Masih studied in America under a man who turned out to be a Russian spy, and that he was raised as a child by his uncle who was a magician, hence his ability to perform miracles. His own brother testifies that he believes hes a fraud, and its revealed that he spent some time in a psychological facility for, what else, having a Messiah complex.

But as I watched the show, these breadcrumbs made no sense. They did not explain two of the biggest moments of the series, one where Al-Masih preaches through a sandstorm that buries an entire advancing army on Damascus, and then two episodes later where he shows up in Texas just as a tornado is hitting, and he saves the pastors daughter. If the idea is that hes some Russian psyop social disruption project, you cant plan moments like that. Nor that he knows detailed, personal background information on two random interrogators (the CIA agent and Israeli spy), like Russia could know exactly who would interview him if he was taken into custody. It doesnt make any sense. And they try to play up the magician angle, but theres a sequence where Al-Masih walks on water on the Washington DC mall, something that would be impossible to fake from that many angles without some very detailed and elaborate planning ahead of time, which we know he couldnt have done.

Messiah

So if it doesnt make sense that hes faking, it only leaves one answer, that he isnt. And in the closing moments of the show, thats whats revealed.

Al-Masih is snatched by the Israeli spy and is going to be taken to some deep dark prison somewhere. But the plane crashes, apparently sabotaged by the American government. Its revealed that Al-Masih not only survives the crash without a scratch (very Bruce Willis in Unbreakable of him), but he starts resurrecting people in the plane from the dead, including the spy. So, hes either the true Messiah or he sure has Messiah-like powers.

Its bad, its all just very bad. This reveal makes you think about so many other things in the show and how very little of it makes sense if he was telling the truth the whole time. And yet if he wasnt, that wouldnt have been very good either, as the show is justnot very good. And the series seems to misunderstand Jesus in general, as a pretty key component of his time on earth was that he was mercilessly beaten, bloodied and hung on a cross. He wasnt a superhero who walks out of the wreckage of a burning plane without so much as a cut, but honestly, whatever, I cant bring myself to care.

This is not a good show. It has a fundamentally interesting concept, at least to me, but honestly, I think my time traveler story is better. Maybe Ill still write it after all, just dont tell anyone the ending.

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More here:

Netflixs Messiah Is Not Worth Suffering Through In Order To Solve Its Mysteries - Forbes