Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Catholic
Religious Music & Entertainment
Netflix’s ‘Messiah’ Wants to Have Its Eschatological Cake and Eat It, Too

Netflix’s ‘Messiah’ Wants to Have Its Eschatological Cake and Eat It, Too

Last updated on: January 2, 2020 at 10:11 am by Kate O'Hare

Netflix’s ‘Messiah’ Wants to Have Its Eschatological Cake and Eat It, Too 2020-01-02T10:11:58-08:00 Kate O'Hare

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Mehdi Debhi in ‘Messiah’/Netflix

Throughout the day on New Year’s Eve, I rung out 2019 by watching all 10 episodes of Netflix’s Messiah, which started streaming on New Year’s Day. Once again, I watch so you don’t have to.

This is going to be kind of spoiler-y, so if you want to watch Messiah and be pure as the driven snow, go off and come back later.

The show (official site here), executive-produced by Mark Burnett and Roma Downey, is supposed to be about a monumental event — the arrival of a man claiming to be the Second Coming — but it’s fuzzy and contradictory and theologically hazy, and it rolls out in ways that are, while not entirely unimaginative, ultimately utterly predictable.

The alleged messiah — played by Belgian-Tunisian actor Mehdi Debhi — shows up in the Middle East, all liquid dark eyes and sculpted cheekbones (looking rather like the dreamy Jesuses of Burnett and Downey’s The Bible and A.D.: The Bible Continues).

He preaches first to Muslims, leading Syrian followers to the unwelcoming border of Israel. Then he vanishes, only to show up in a border town in Texas, where he preaches to a Baptist minister (John Ortiz), and his wayward daughter (Stefania LaVie Owen).

Along the way, al-Masih, as he is called, attracts the attention of a kinda Jewish CIA officer (Michelle Monaghan) and an agnostic Israeli special-operations officer (Tomer Sisley), and tells them all sorts of unsettling things about their pasts.

He winds up in Washington, D.C., where he tells the LDS U.S. president to withdraw all American troops from around the world, which will somehow bring about world peace (even Jesus didn’t try to give Caesar military advice).

Along the way, his complicated and questionable identity and background are revealed, while he appears to perform actual miracles.

And, his preaching? It’s a pile of New Age-y, peace-and-love, we-are-all-one-family stuff, with no deep theological grounding or specificity. Is he the Messiah? Is he the Antichrist? Is he supernatural, or just a super-good con man? The show says yes to all of these, at one point or another, offering kinda solid evidence that he’s a fraud and kinda solid evidence that he’s not.

The media jackals are there, led by a CNN reporter eager to do the government’s bidding. And, obviously, al-Masih becomes a star on social media — not least because he’s very pretty, extremely cryptic and looks good in a hoodie.

Oh, on a technical note, the languages are all mixed up, with Israeli characters talking to each other in Hebrew, and then, incongruously, in English, while Muslims speak only Arabic; and an Algerian (?) boy speaks to an Israeli stranger in English, when we were just hearing him speak French.

Messiah is everything you might expect in a story about a modern-day savior landing in our media-soaked world, while, in the end, not having very much to do with a recognizable Judeo-Christian God.

One thing you can say about the real Messiah, He wasn’t fuzzy or ambiguous or cryptic or vague. He said what He meant, and He meant what He said. We have no idea if He was pretty or not, but he didn’t seek the limelight by landing in Rome, or try to be all things to all people. And He certainly didn’t wind up in the First Century equivalent of a luxury hotel, working out on the treadmill and presumably enjoying room service (but, to be fair, we never actually see al-Masih eat or drink anything, or take a shower).

Before the series premiered, there was also a controversy about the name al-Masih, which is one Islamic term for Jesus. But, as many outlets pointed out, it could be half of another name.

From Refinery29:

The buzz grew after Netflix shared a trailer for the series and Muslims and Arabic speakers pointed out a giant giveaway about the plot. Al-Masih, which translates to “the messiah,” is a name for Jesus Christ in Islam — but according to the BBC, it also a name associated with Dajjal, a false prophet akin to the Antichrist, who announces himself to the world as al-Masih. In Islamic theology, Dajjal impersonates the true messiah and is often described as having curly hair, being blind in one eye, and sporting the word “kafir” (“unbeliever”) on his forehead.

This may have been intentional or not — as al-Masih does not have curly hair, is not blind in one eye and has no words on his forehead — as the article notes:

But others also pointed out how this could be more than just lazy storytelling, arguing that the move feels ignorant of Islamic theology and shows an obvious pandering to English-speaking, non-Islamic audiences.

A review in The Hollywood Reporter says:

Here, that man is the unnamed figure known as Al-Masih (Mehdi Dehbi) — early reports that the character was named “Al-Masih ad-Dajjal,” a very specific Muslim figure, were completely false.

OK. Whatever.

And there’s a sandstorm in the Syrian desert, a tornado in Texas and flooding in Florida — which are played as if these were unusual, End-Times sorts of things. Give me a sandstorm in Minneapolis, a tornado in the Arctic, and flooding in the Sahara, and we’ll talk.

The only real Christian presence in the show is the Baptist preacher and his family, and the preacher’s father-in-law (Beau Bridges), a predictably rich and smarmy televangelist. The Vatican shows up once, as part of a news report saying that it’s doing an investigation, which has been referred to the Congregation for the Causes of Saints — which, no. Nobody is considered for sainthood if he or she is still alive.

Also, there’s a quote from Oprah, which says, “You become what you believe.” Yup, a show purporting to be about the Second Coming of the Son of God quotes Oprah.

Throughout the whole 10 hours, Messiah is a series of head fakes. Did the CIA agent have an abortion, or does she have cancer, oh, wait, no, it’s something else altogether. Can al-Masih heal illness and raise the dead (maybe, no and apparently yes … maybe). It wants you to doubt, and it wants you to believe … something. It tosses Muslims, Jews, Christians and a Mormon into a big stewpot full of portentous pronouncements and platitudes.

Messiah wants very badly to be profound, but it can’t figure out what its message is, either as a story or as theology. At the end, at least one of the Jewish skeptics has a reason to believe, the Baptist pastor is disillusioned and crushed, and the Muslims — well, a mosque gets blown up.

I suspect the lack of a definitive answer is because the producers want a second season.

The creator of Messiah is Australian writer Michael Petroni, who worked on the TV series Miracles (which I quite liked), and wrote the screenplays for The Book Thief, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, Queen of the Damned and the excellent exorcism drama The Rite (so he does have some religious cred).

In an interview with News.com.au, he said:

“The show is an invitation for the viewer to make their minds up,” Michael Petroni told news.com.au. “That way you can never really know the central character’s point of view or what his motive is or what he thinks of himself or what he thinks is going on.

“That’s up to the viewer. Until the very last scene of the season, that question is always placed back in the viewer’s lap.

“The show isn’t a singular experience, I think it’s the kind of show that you watch with people or discuss with people after you’ve watched because it’s about what you think. You end up with a mosaic of opinions about this person. The show never tells you what or who he is.”

He’s right about that. The real Messiah didn’t leave folks guessing, but this one does. That’s TV for ya.

Content note: There is some nudity, a bit of sex, lots of violence and plenty of bad language.

Image: Netflix

Don’t miss a thing: Subscribe to all that I write at Authory.com/KateOHare

About Kate O'Hare

Based in Los Angeles, Kate O'Hare is a recovering entertainment journalist, social-media manager for Catholic production company Family Theater Productions and a screenwriter. You can read more about the author here.

Previous Post

December 30, 2019

In the End, 'Silicon Valley' Shows How to Make the World a Better Place

Next Post

January 8, 2020 '1917': The Courage and Grace of Two Ordinary, Extraordinary Young Men

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category books breaking news digital media Faith practice food interview jane the virgin media movies music NFL Pope Francis Showbiz 101 social media sports technology television Uncategorized video

Select a Month November 2026 October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz