Messiah - Friday Distractions, by Mike Norton

    While it landed on Netflix back on January 1st, it wasn't until this past weekend that I got around to taking a look at Messiah. (Ten episodes, each ranging from 38 to 55 minutes, for a cumulative run time of just under 7.5 hours.)
     As someone who does not believe in a Supreme Creator Being, this sort of project isn't what I'm usually watching for. The human elements, and that the actions people make based on their beliefs are what's more important and interesting than the validity of those beliefs, though, and are much of what makes this work for me. Beyond that, sure, a potentially supernatural or elaborate hoax mystery holds some appeal, too.
    The core premise: What would happen if here, in the 21st century, someone were to appear in the Middle East, claiming to be God's message, His Word made flesh, and began to amass a following who believe him to be The Messiah?

     The plot unfolds cannily, leaving it to the viewer to decide much as the other players in this drama do, whether the one dubbed "al-Masih" by his followers is the genuine article - or at least possessed of supernatural abilities, possibly even an anti-Christ or false prophet - or if it's an elaborate deception of wholly human devising, with a separate agenda in play, possibly involving a plot to destabilize the global power structure.
    From his first appearance, as a yellow-garbed (significant to followers of Islam, as Jesus/Isa is prophesied to be wearing yellow robes when he returns, appearing in Damascus during a time of war) street preacher in Damascus, a city under siege by the Islamic State/Daesh. He tells the fearful masses that God will protect them, and that the invaders will never take the city. A sandstorm of Biblical duration commences, lasting weeks, effectively burying ISIS' equipment and breaking their supply chain. As far as any know - since everyone else had to take cover and ride that out - he

remained outside, continuing to preach, for all of that time.
  In the aftermath, he leads roughly 2000 followers into the desert, bringing them to Israel's border by the Golan Heights. From there, the intrigue soon goes progressively international, and more things happen to make it seem that he is accomplishing things beyond human limitations -- or is it part of an elaborately rigged spectacle?  Events shift suddenly along the way to a small, poor Texas town, and a struggling ministry, which then become the center of attention. 
  Along the way we're given information that seems to feed or support each side. He has access to information about others, including interrogators, which he shouldn't. He seemingly disappears and appears in different places, and at one point he pulls off very Biblical spectacle in front of a large crowd and a great many cameras. At some times when we're expecting a specific miracle, he doesn't go that route. He eschews violence and anything that smacks of corruption, moves that often serve to either convince more people or at least shake their cynicism.
  Meanwhile, from the religious to the political, various institutions and people are threatened or at least challenged, by all this, each reacting to what they believe they're seeing.
   By the final moments of the final episode, we finally seem to be given a miracle we'd been waiting for earlier... but have we?

   The titular character is ably played by Belgian actor and theater director Mehdi Dehbi.    Tomer

Eva (Michelle Monahan) and Aviram (Tomer Sisley)

Sisley plays Aviram Dahan, an Israeli special forces interrogator, much of whose tactics are outside the bounds of law, tacitly sanctioned by superiors as a necessary evil.
   Michelle Monahan plays CIA Case Officer Eva Geller, and remains throughout the most unwavering in her conviction that this is an elaborate scheme.
   John Ortiz is Felix Iguero, a minister running a church in the very small, very poor Texas town of Dilley, who as we meet him is having a crisis of faith of his own. Few attend his services, and the bank is mere days away from foreclosing on his property.

Jibril (Sayyid El Amani), the first disciple

   Melinda Page Hamilton plays Felix's wife,  Anna, who is also the daughter of a very successful televangelist, Edmund DeGuilles, played by Beau Bridges.
  Stefania LaVie Owen plays Felix and Anna's daughter, Rebecca, who as we meet her is desperate to leave while she still has youth, life and hope, fearful that otherwise she'll be trapped in what passes for life in Dilley.   Sayyid El Amani plays Jibril Medina, a young man who has just lost his last living relative, his mother, and who becomes the first follower of al-Masih. A true innocent. He spends much of the series in a depleted state for one reason or another, such that much of what he experiences at key moments could be dismissed as hallucinations.
   The cast is considerably broader than this, but those are most of the key players.Many of them have complicated personal lives, making for a dense, layered story.
    It's all set in a very loosely contemporary timeline, even referencing as recent history the 2019

President Young (Dermot Mulroney)

troop pull-back and devolved situation in Syria, but none of the political figures are the ones we're dealing with here in the real world. The president, for instance, is John Young (played by Dermot Mulroney), and is an apparently devout member of the Church of Latter Day Saints.
    I moved through the full series fairly quickly, but would suggest spreading it out to permit you to soak in the various sets of events before moving on to each new chapter. I suspect my cramming it, along with watching it solo, found me missing or under-appreciating plot points along the way.
   As of this writing there's been no official word as to whether or not a season two has been approved. The show needs at least a second season to take us to a more definitive place, though lacking that I suppose it could stand on its own, leaving it to the audience to decide by their own lights.
   In the end, after all, it's a matter of faith.       -Mike

Shows and movies hit on in previous posts:

 Sept. 20th: Mindhunter (Netflix)

     Sept. 27th: What's The Matter With Helen, The French Connection, and Frenzy. (Early '70s R-rated movies I saw with my mom)

     Oct. 3rd:    Preacher (AMC), Stumptown (ABC), Sunnyside (NBC), The Good Place (NBC), and Jack Ryan (Amazon Prime).

     Oct. 11th:  Joker (still in theaters), and In The Tall Grass (Netflix)

     Oct. 18th:  El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie (Netflix)

     Oct. 25th: Dolemite Is My Name (Netflix)

     Nov. 1st:   Watchmen (HBO series), The Kominsky Method (Netflix)

     Nov. 8th:   Seconds (1966 movie, currently available as part of Amazon Prime)
     Nov. 15th: Dr. Sleep (current theatrical release, but probably not for long), Horace and Pete (2016 web-produced series, currently on Hulu)
     Nov. 22nd: NOS4A2 (AMC, now on Hulu) and Man In The High Castle (Amazon Prime)

     Nov. 29th: The Irishman (Netflix), The Mandalorian and The World According To Jeff Goldblum (both on Disney+), light touches on Watchmen (HBO) and Ray Donovan (Showtime)
  Dec, 6th: The Booth At the End (Amazon Prime), and Us (HBO).

Dec 13th:  Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (Amazon Prime), The Feed (Amazon Prime), 6 Underground (Netflix movie).

  Dec 20th:A Christmas Carol (FX), The Expanse (Amazon Prime), Killing Eve (BBC America)
  Dec 27th: Lost In Space season 2, and first impressions of The Witcher, both on Netflix.
  Jan. 3rd: Black Mirror (Netflix) and Phillip K. Dick's Electric Dreams (Amazon Prime). 
  Jan 10th: Undone (Amazon Prime), Witcher (Netflix) and Dracula (Netflix/BBC One). 
  Jan 17th: Kidding (Showtime) 
  Jan 24th: No shows, just some movie mentions as I recall some places that no longer exist.
  Jan 31st: October Faction (Netflix) and the finale of The Good Place (NBC).

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