With the Disney Channel reviving the popular ABC sitcom-darling Boy Meets World through its much-anticipated sequel Girl Meets World, the original show (currently in rerun syndication) has nostalgically regained a bit of its social cachet. In one episode of interest, “Cult Fiction” from ‘97 (online HERE; stream it on Amazon), a lonely and belief-less Shawn Hunter … Continue reading
Religious music is a huge industry. It has global fan bases that react viscerally to its messages and tunes, bringing in over a half-billion dollars a year in record sales alone. Yet it was not a part of Sunday’s three-and-a-half hour prime time Grammy Award presentation. Peculiar. TV’s “biggest night in music” hosted by CBS … Continue reading
The Warner Brothers (and the Warner Sister) did a good deal to chart what it means to be irreverently funny in television animation. Before Comedy Central’s “South Park” and FOX’s “Family Guy” took the post-Al Bundy television cue of crudeness and sacrilege to new heights (er, depths?), the Animaniacs gave viewers a full helping of … Continue reading
Western society has never been very good at discussing religion. It’s “not polite,” many say, when really they mean that most people are not able to talk about religious differences without quarrelling. The surprise international/public television smash, “Downton Abbey” gave it a try, craftily portraying much of what we already know: most people aren’t very … Continue reading
ABC’s hit medical drama “Grey’s Anatomy” finds its best religious tone yet in last night’s “Bad Blood” episode. A patient dies on the table because his Jehovah’s Witness faith prohibits blood transfusions, one intern struggles with the ethics of the situation, and the family is cast as distraught-but-not-crazy in their faithfulness to their beliefs. Even … Continue reading
It didn’t work out so well for France’s Joan of Arc, and it didn’t work out so well for American Idol’s Anastacia Freeman either. In the last round of auditions before Hollywood, the show made use of one contestant’s belief in hearing messages from God as material for one of its ridicule-bits, leaving viewers with … Continue reading
“I’m an atheist.” There. She said it. So much for St. Alicia. We’ve been wondering for a couple seasons now exactly how Alicia would describe her own religious beliefs on CBS’s solid legal drama “The Good Wife.” In season 2, we first saw the likeable, semi-elite mother Alicia Florrick (Julianna Margulies) wrestle with her daughter … Continue reading
It’s been called “the most religious show on TV.” With an image of God, a quippy church corner marquee, and an earnest prayer’s prayer, FOX’s recent “The Simpsons” episode proves why. This episode is not actually focused on a religious theme, which may actually confirm the claim that much more. In the 11th “Changing of … Continue reading
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