User reviews

What an incredible content start to 2020. Messiah on Netflix is worth the binge. It's smart, emotional, and the themes are both socially and politically relevant. #Messiah #MessiahNetflix

I think this tv show bases its story on the beliefs of Bahaism. Bahaism is a religion originated in Iran and then spread to the Middle East. Its leader was exiled to Israel and he was prosecuted there. Does it sound familiar? As far as I know, this belief system doesn't deny other religions and figuratively, it "walks with all men". Bahaism is still active in the world, particularly Haifa of Israel and Marakesh of Morocco.

In my opinion, the Messiah might be a Manifestation of God, not a harbinger of doom as the other major religions claim to be. I am putting some explanatory text I took from British Library's website:

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The Baha'i Faith is strictly monotheistic. There is only one God, he is exalted above human understanding, so can only be understood and approached via his prophets and messengers (the 'Manifestations of God'). All the major world religions originally stem from the teachings of the Manifestations of God and comprise an essential unity. The Manifestations of God include Abraham, Moses, Jesus, Muhammad, Zoroaster, Krishna and the Buddha, and in the contemporary period, the Bab and Baha'u'llah. There will be more Manifestations in the distant future.

Each Manifestation addresses both eternal spiritual truths and the particular needs of his time. These needs change over time, so divine revelation is progressive in nature.

Baha'u'llah's key theme is world unity. The goal of developing a new world society is a paramount need at the present time. Central to the Baha'i Faith is that all human beings are equally God's creation regardless of gender, race, nationality or creed and should be respected and treated without prejudice. It is essential to work for the equality of men and women and the emancipation of minority groups. For the world's peoples and nations to live together in peace, international institutions need to be developed and systems of governance have to promote justice and human wellbeing for all.

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It's an interesting narrative but I kept thinking there would be a point to all of this. I'm only 5 episodes so it might change but I'm starting to think it's just a bunch of religious mumbo jumbo. Lots of good acting though.

I'm less curious to see where this goes.

And I am completely disinterested in American preacher.

And even less interested in his cliche angst daughter

And the cliche CIA agent.

It almost seems lazy script writing to an interesting plot outline

This is going nowhere

The US government is threaten by the overwhelming god messenger that may harm the national security. Whatever it takes it had to be stopped. The officials work in this case even cannot deny and admit what they saw. It's like a ufo, you won't believe it unless you saw it. I thought Netflix finally go to screw up this time when watching ep10. As it upset all the messenger supporters and will get controversy. But yet, Netflix saved it. It's a boring theme but nice to watch as the production and story telling is great.

Two first episodes come up with a bang inviting to a binge watch, then new characters pop up and central subject shatters into the personal lifes of the secondary characters restoring the main line of intrigue for final chapters. Good idea, original screenplay, ending opened to a second season. Can improve

Good to watch if you have time to burn. There are a few lines that are just awesome, real and funny

I do find a lot of comments about how religious believes affect how people rate this show. So here comes what a non-religious think of this show.

It's a good show with a level of tension to keep you watching. However, it is not one of those shows that keep you on the edge of your seat. The mystery of who he is is well kept throughout the season. There are sufficient reason to believe he is Messiah, and enough reason to doubt him. The different frontiers of the story, AKA what happens to people touched by him, are plenty and various. But to me, they feel a bit trivial due to the lack of an overarching storytelling-purpose. Stories follow this general trend: he meets people, make them believe, then they either do stuff or stuff happen to them. I do not see the connections to these events.

All in all. I did not feel the need to binge this show. If there is second season, I will watch it. However, I would not recommend it to my friends. That is not to say it's a bad show, just that there are better shows I can recommend. I believe the current ratings 7.7/10 does the show justice. I don't think it has been underrated due to votes from people who feel offended or for whatever belief reasons.

"Messiah" (S01, 10 eps, 40-50 mins, Netflix) is Michael Petroni's (creator, head writer) vehicle for playing mind games with you. He designed the protag to be ambiguously Christ-like so you - as the audience - can never be sure whether he's genuine or charlatan. Some people will like this, it makes for a good, engaging series. However, I kept feeling intentionally manipulated which pissed me off more than entertained me. There's enough underlying themes to run a film class for a semester. For instance, a good discussion point would be why are so many so willing to sacrifice common sense for someone whose background they're ignorant of? Then there are the nagging narrative inaccuracies that will annoy some, like the CIA as an investigative agency, and it's not. This story should have FBI and/or JTTF all through it but I guess Petroni couldn't be bothered with such details. Finally, this first season could've wrapped nicely at its season finale, but Michael threw us a twist that keeps it alive for a sophomore season, but I won't want to be jerked around anymore by this series. Anyway, it rates a "7" from me, not great, not bad, has its flaws, and has some genuinely good moments, but in the end it's too obvious you're being toyed with by Petroni and that's a turn off. (Nailed it! Cancelled after season one.)

I wanted to give this show atleast 9 out of 10 as I found this show pretty unique and with great story about a person who does his own things in his own way. But world gets attractive to him and his messaging and each individual feel connected to him and through him, their version of God. Intertwined stories among people from across different countries was interesting twist.

Each episode felt like something was missing (slow and character acting was not up to the mark) but it ended such that you feel like watching more and more. Now I can't wait for next season!

It started extremely strongly for me and I was tempted to give it 10 stars on the spot. However, around the fifth episode things slowed down significantly and the story got very much lost. The entire plot is not worth ten hours but six in my opinion. The end is not satisfying. But still an enjoyable series

Reviewing it for only its storyline, and it is compelling. If you watch it detached from religious sentiments, just as a drama, it shakes you at some points. Yes there is unjustified portrayal of Palestinians. The writer has tried to show them their own culprits who disturb their neighbors too. Then there are depictions that contradict Islamic point of view but I think it is worthwhile to know others' point of view. And I'm surprised to know that christian belief about resurrection of Jesus isn't much different from Islamic belief. Waiting for season 2!

This whole thing is taken from an episode called : "messianic myths and ancient peoples" from a Netflix series called community.

I admire the authors for the bravery to touch so sensitive subjects not particularly within the US mainstream narratives.

It's actually not a story but a mix of a few and they were all left with very open endings. Everyone can interpret them the way they prefer. You can presume all: from the main character be Jesus reborn through him being a successful manipulator to even being the anti-Christ himself. Everyone can watch a different story.

Regretfully I find it quite naive in too many aspects. It is targeting people with very low knowledge of Middle East, intelligence agencies and Geo-politics.