The Messengers

I actually like this show and DVR it. Considering I'm an atheist, that's a pretty good review. Yeah, it's not for everybody, but if you kept an open mind and just enter the storyline with a grain of salt, it wasn't a bad show. The character building progressed with each episode and became more informative as the show progressed. Unfortunately, the shows shelf life is a little under the gun, do to its nature, unless of course they followed the "7 years" which would have made for a great rewrite of the bibles revaluations story. In short, I liked it, I watched it and enjoyed it. When I seen it was being canceled, I was disapproving. Everybody loves a good story about the end of the world.

First, I wanted to like this. CW's "I, Zombie" has been a truly clever new series, and "The Flash" understands the fine line between Super Hero Fantasy versus Super Hero Science Fiction, favoring the latter. Both series have likable characters who you grow to care about, and they become deeper and more nuanced as the series progresses.

This delivers none of that. Instead you are immediately confronted as to why Lucifer needs to show up via a Meteor Impact, or why God has chosen the actions of these six people to stop the Apocalypse. He's VERY unhappy with us, but what's really mysterious is why He chooses any of these characters to give us one last chance!?!. Trust me, none of them are Noah nor Lot.

The series suffers from trying to bring too many main players too quickly onto the screen for you to develop that much attachment to them. What is supremely annoying though is that instead of cleverly weaving the characters to ending up at the same place, evidently God is heavy handed and just pushes them all to the same locations with the subtlety of a Political Attack Ad. This happens both at the beginning, sort of, and then at the end of the second episode. Since nothing terribly significant come from this it's not even a plot spoiler. THAT'S an even bigger problem.

The acting ranges from decent to more than a bit over the top, though I don't know if the latter is due to the script, director, or the actors involved. It's not a good sign when the viewers ask themselves that question. Plus the series cannot make up it's mind about Science versus Divine and Infernal meddling, with an unhealthy does of conspiracy theory thrown in for either paranoia or simple stupidity.

So you have heavy-handed, disjointed, and lazy script writing combined with multiple weakly acted/scripted/directed characters who appear more or less central to the series, and whom you don't care about particularly. I figure I'm only out less than two hours of my life, and I'll forgive CW after their other good series debuting this year. Everyone gets to screw up occasionally. If Apocalyptic is your preference, "Sleepy Hollow" is a much better alternative.

I want to like this show, I really do. But I can't. It's a little too simple, like a rough first draft. The characters are so far one dimensional and each of them has a one track mind. Of course there is the Latino who is into drugs (but really has a heart of gold), the mystical African American who knows all (and what is up with the clichéd African music attached to her revelations?), the scientist who does not want to believe in anything but science (and of course there must be a scientific explanation for God). It could be good, but instead of delving into the mythology, or really exploring these characters, it stifles itself with surface meaning. Oh, and the glowing eyes, a little over that already. Surely there is another way of showing that someone is evil than changing their eyes?

It's one of those shows.

You know, the ones where extraterrestrial or supernatural or other-dimensional stuff happens, and then we watch flat and uninteresting characters navigate contrived plot twists for the rest of the season while some sort of "conspiracy" unfolds.

It didn't forget to include teenagers in the mix, because, you know, the committee which designed this show wanted to appeal to all possible demographics.

At the end of the season there will be a stupid cliffhanger which the writers won't know how to resolve, and then the show will be mercifully canceled and free up the air slot for something far more entertaining, such as a show about optimal ways to fold laundry.

Who greenlit this derivative, soulless schlock in 2014 and thought it was a good idea?

This TV series offers some interesting interpretations of scripture. The array of flawed characters are almost believable. The twists are often confusing, yet there is a sort of old school charm. I wish the writers did more than google the bible...