“The Messengers” Television Series Review

“The Angels of the Apocalypse” is how the dialog of the trailer defines this new CW television series “The Messengers.”

IMDB describes “The Messengers” as follows: “A mysterious object crashes on earth and a group of unconnected strangers die from an energy pulse it emits, but then re-awaken to find out that they have been deemed responsible for preventing the impending Apocalypse.”

Two very different descriptions: the trailer offers us religious overtones with the mention of Angels and God; IMDB, secular. From all the research I gathered, don’t expect this, under any circumstance, to be Biblically based.

The show’s many trailers describe a fight between good and evil. Five strangers are chosen when what appears to be a meteor strikes earth. They are chosen to fight against evil. One trailer actually used the word “Devil.” The five are described as a Preacher, Scientist, Mother, Son, and a Fugitive. They unite to fight, heal, and save all humanity.

In an interview with the cast at WonderCon, Trey Callaway stated, “not only do each of our characters represent different faiths, even the writers…are all coming at this story from different places. This is not a show about religion really; it’s a show about faith…No matter what you believe in, in the end, it is about the hope that you hold for each other, and for the people who mean the most to you.”

Trey Callaway is a producer and writer, known for “CSI: NY” (2004), “I Still Know What You Did Last Summer” (1998) and “Revolution” (2012).

“It’s not just about a specific faith or message, it’s about coming together and uniting,” stated actress Shantel VanSanten.

Actress Anna Diop begs the question: “if you had the opportunity to save mankind from itself, would you?”

…”They say with great power comes great responsibility. I think with each gift [referring to the gifts given to the chosen five], you find that there’s a flip side to it.” – J.D Pardo

From these statements, I think it is safe to say this series will be try to pull the heart strings as we cheer for the five underdogs. I expect them to show the gifted as partially flawed. I expect the writers perhaps borrowed a bit from the Book of Revelation in the Bible, but made is as heroic — in the comic book superhero kind of way — as possible to attract a mostly secular audience.

Faith void of religion seems to be the theme — probably along the lines of the moral relativism of Hollywood that avoids the uncomfortable (and unpopular, at least in LA) mentality that, not only can a person believe in absolute truth, but he or she can stand up for that specific belief with passion and boldness. Hollywood’s not really into that kind of boldness. This show, as described so far, fits very well with the postmodern mindset which says, “all belief systems are of equal value” (though, frankly, that postmodern mantra is easily shown to be irrational).

It’s sad that we as Christians can’t produce a Biblically based project with the same high-end budget and quality, though we are definitely getting closer to being able to do that. However, I am always intrigued by stories of inspiration, so I’ll give this show a chance. It will be interesting to see if my analysis is accurate, and to see if this show’s marketing matches its actual content.