Monday, May 16, 2005

Revelations - Must-Wince TV Has anyone else been watching NBC's hysterical "Revelations?"  Oh, my goodness.   It's been a very long time since I watched anything this bad. I've been taping the episodes, and I'm not going to pretend I thought it would be good.  I wanted to see how bad it was, how shamelessly NBC tipped their hands to the radical right, how carefully they tried (or not) to walk the line between evangelical zealotry and ... um ... good tv.  And I'll admit that I wanted to see a little end-of-the-world flare - seven-headed lambs, rains of blood, maybe a fading shot of the four horsemen.   And what do I get?  Bill Pullman in a "character-driven" melodrama that moves with the speed of turtles toward the riveting get-it-over-with-already conclusion this Wednesday. From the very first scenes, I knew it was headed for disaster.  A young'un shows disrespect to her father.  As punishment (hah!) he threatens to make her go to church.  But then!  A sudden storm blows onto the soundstage, and she gets hit by lightning!  And knocked into a tree!  And then, as if God was taking batting practice, another bolt of holy lightning finds her again!  And I thought to myself, "This is your first message, that God punishes disobedient kids by blowing them to bits?  I'm not sure Billy Graham would approve."  I could tell you more, but the good people at SoMAReview have already done a masterful writeup of the tragedy that is "Revelations."  Go read it here.  7:46:48 PM     Speak up!  []