Having just watched the finale to BSG, my thoughts have turned to religion as portrayed in television, and, more specifically, how my enjoyment of two specific shows has been marred by it.
When it comes to reality-based shows (Bones, One Tree Hill etc), it doesn’t really matter what they do about the characters’ religious beliefs. What they believe or don’t believe is obviously an integral part of that character, but that’s where it ends. It’s a personal choice, and while it may reflect that beliefs of the show’s writers/creators, I don’t have a problem with it.
A problem arises for me when, by the very genre of the show, the show itself is called upon to make comment as to the existence of the ‘supernatural’. Now, shows like Buffy or Charmed work all right for me. The supernatural is presented as an alternative dimension to our ordinary lives, something that exists alongside what we already know. In Buffy, Hell seems to be just another alternate dimension. Even though Heaven is expressly referred to, it is only very loosely conceptualised, and there is no suggestion of God or even the Devil. There is no creation myth – not for the beginning of the world, at any rate, just the separation of ‘our’ world and the demonic world. Even the Powers That Be in Angel are not really identifiable as God: though they exist in a dimension beyond ours and have power over our existence, both on a day-to-day basis and also in a futuristic prophecy kind of way, there is no suggestion that they created the world, and their intentions are not always benevolent: they are there to maintain the balance between good and evil.
Again, Supernatural started out with a mythos that I could understand, where most supernatural entities (werewolves, wendigos or whatever) were based in a physical world, with rules which, if different than ours, were still a constant. The introduction of demons brings with it, again, the idea of an alternative dimension to ours, but within the context of the show, that’s fine.
Where Supernatural went wrong, for me, is when they introduced an explicitly Christian element to the show. Angels, God, Lucifer, Hell (and not just a random alternative dimension, but actual hellfire-and-brimstone Hell with eternal damnation and Lucifer ruling over it all). I don’t believe in God. If I did, there’s no reason to believe in one religion’s deity over another’s. I don’t understand why they would want to pin themselves down like that. While the devil is in the detail, surely the more they identify with one particular religion, the more they risk alienating people who expressly disbelieve that religion. I mean, angels? Actual angels, as named in the Bible? Come off it.
Similarly, I found the religious themes in Battlestar Galactica off-putting. Initially, the Cylons choosing to believe in a monotheistic deity was interesting, and intellectually involving, looking at the question of how they construct their reality and their place in the universe. I enjoyed how they contrasted Caprica’s faith with Gaius Baltar’s scepticism. It was a clash of one person’s beliefs against another’s, and I always find that fascinating. Where it went wrong, for me, is when the show itself began to take sides. Towards the end, it was pretty much expressly stated that there was some higher power at work, whether it be God or Fate – call it what you will, they insisted that there was a power beyond us that guided our lives. And I am not cool with that.
So, joyous TV that I love: please take note. Have religious characters. Have religious debate (it’s actually very interesting). But don’t take sides, or I’ll stop liking you.
ETA: Thinking about it further, I think, actually, my main problem is that with shows like Buffy, all the demons and Hell etc, you're not meant to actually believe it - it's just fiction. In BSG, with their God/Fate thing - it feels like they actually want us to believe it. Which makes it a very different kettle of fish for me.
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