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The Book of Daniel
Jan. 7th, 2006 12:47 amI normally don't comment on television, but I figured that since I actually watched a show in order to see what all the scandal was about, I'd comment a little.
NBC has a new show that premiered this evening called The Book of Daniel. It's a dramedy about a married Episcopal priest somewhere in I think New York State, who occasionally has conversations with Jesus. (Sort of like Joan of Arcadia but different.) There's also his family and their associated problems: wife, kids, parents, and his boss, whom happens to be shtupping his father. (Don't get ideas, his boss is a woman.) A number of fundies and right-wingers were shitting themselves over the program: the American Family Association, Focus on the Family, and the Catholic League, among others. Jack Kenny, the creator of the show, happens to be gay and a lapsed Catholic (similar to me, ironically enough) and has been blasted by these organizations.
An example of the commentary: "Even Kenny was attacked by the right-wing groups. 'The desire to paint this Christian family as totally dysfunctional is the work of an embittered ex-Catholic homosexual,' Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League, said in a prepared statement."
I watched the episode this evening. So this is a typical television dramedy family: husband, wife, kids, and other characters. So the husband happens to be a man of the cloth. His wife is a lush. One son is gay, the other's a horndog, and the daughter is dealing pot. I see no scandal in this! Besides, Catholics have NO grounding to complain about this program. Last I heard, Catholic priests are forbidden to marry. To be honest, if every family were carbon-copies of Ozzie and Harriet Nelson, then frankly the world would be boring, or worse, Camazotzian. WHAT IS THEIR DEAL?!
Frankly, I find it refreshing that the family is being realistic. The gay son is dealing with not being out to part of the family (his grandfather set him up with a girl in this episode, where I think he's more interested in her brother), the family is dealing with the Alzheimer's-related dementia and other problems of the grandmother (I won't go into the potential scandal there) and frankly, if you put two teenagers in love together, hormones may take over!
We'll see how this show turns out. It's a midseason replacement, will it last? Is it going to be NBC's answer to Desperate Housewives? Who knows.
(My differences with Catholicism are not germane to this commentary.)
NBC has a new show that premiered this evening called The Book of Daniel. It's a dramedy about a married Episcopal priest somewhere in I think New York State, who occasionally has conversations with Jesus. (Sort of like Joan of Arcadia but different.) There's also his family and their associated problems: wife, kids, parents, and his boss, whom happens to be shtupping his father. (Don't get ideas, his boss is a woman.) A number of fundies and right-wingers were shitting themselves over the program: the American Family Association, Focus on the Family, and the Catholic League, among others. Jack Kenny, the creator of the show, happens to be gay and a lapsed Catholic (similar to me, ironically enough) and has been blasted by these organizations.
An example of the commentary: "Even Kenny was attacked by the right-wing groups. 'The desire to paint this Christian family as totally dysfunctional is the work of an embittered ex-Catholic homosexual,' Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League, said in a prepared statement."
I watched the episode this evening. So this is a typical television dramedy family: husband, wife, kids, and other characters. So the husband happens to be a man of the cloth. His wife is a lush. One son is gay, the other's a horndog, and the daughter is dealing pot. I see no scandal in this! Besides, Catholics have NO grounding to complain about this program. Last I heard, Catholic priests are forbidden to marry. To be honest, if every family were carbon-copies of Ozzie and Harriet Nelson, then frankly the world would be boring, or worse, Camazotzian. WHAT IS THEIR DEAL?!
Frankly, I find it refreshing that the family is being realistic. The gay son is dealing with not being out to part of the family (his grandfather set him up with a girl in this episode, where I think he's more interested in her brother), the family is dealing with the Alzheimer's-related dementia and other problems of the grandmother (I won't go into the potential scandal there) and frankly, if you put two teenagers in love together, hormones may take over!
We'll see how this show turns out. It's a midseason replacement, will it last? Is it going to be NBC's answer to Desperate Housewives? Who knows.
(My differences with Catholicism are not germane to this commentary.)
