Tuesday, May 02, 2006
Someone better man the viewer log...
PRIEST-Y! The Book Of Daniel, ITV4, 9.00pm
We do like a bit of healthy controversy here at LOWCULTURE towers. Remember all the furore a little while back about the episode of Will & Grace that was meant to feature Britney Spears as the host of a cooking show called Cruci-fixin's on a Christian TV network? Apparently the appearance of such a concept on national TV would immediately cast the entire world into the deepest pits of hell, so the Christian fundamentalists, bless them, immediately sought to have it cancelled. All for the sake of our souls, you understand. Or possibly "arseholes", we may have misheard.
Anyway, before all that cropped up, there was a lot of hoo-ha about this. This EVIL, BLASPHEMOUS show is about a priest with a gay son and a pot-dealing daughter and all other kinds of family problems. So to keep his head straight, he chats to an actual Jesus who pops up now and then to offer advice. This might sound like a familiar device to those of you who watched Joan Of Arcadia, but the reason why that show survived for two seasons and this one barely made it past the starting line is because Joan was a sweet family drama that had a heart and at the end of the day promoted wholesome values, whereas this show shows Jesus condoning casual sex.
The Christian pressure groups claimed the moral victory, of course, but the disappointing viewing figures could well have been because the show was full of stereotypes and heavy-handed exposition. And EastEnders managed to do that without sullying the good name of Jesus, so you can see why people were kind of peeved. Still, if you want to see what the fuss is about, ITV4 will be screening the episodes that actually got made before the inevitable Act of God.
By Steve :: Post link
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