THE BIBLE: History Channel

[Samson]

Just watched the first 2 hour episode; Beginnings

Regardless of your religious persuasion I heartily endorse this series.

The editing makes the events very easy to follow. Acting, unlike so many biblical portrayals is realistic; e.g. Lot's wife thinks that wandering off with Abraham is just loony.

The only rough spot in the plot was explaining Moses' origin.....sort of fast forwarded through it....but really, I suppose, exactly why the infant was floating downstream in a basket isn't really germain.

Hopefully the thread will be about the show, and a bunch of religious fruitcakes or athiests won't inflate it with a bunch of hot air.

 

[bodecea]

Cheesy...they lost me with the ninja angel in Sodom.

 

[slackjawed]

Moses' origin is problematic for Christians. The fact he wasn't circumcised, was a murderer who ran away, and had to be coerced by a miracle to return to Egypt gives them fits. I am not surprised that all got glossed over.

 

[waltky]

Granny says, "Dat's right - Hollywood ain't got a clue `cause dey's a buncha lefty, Bible-hatin' lib'rals...

Sacred mystery: Blockbuster ratings for ‘The Bible’ confound Hollywood
Thursday, March 14, 2013 - Sure, it’s easy to criticize Hollywood, but try to remember that the entertainment industry today is an intellectually demanding environment, fraught with cognitively challenging, even intractable, questions, like, to take one recent example: How can the cable mini-series “The Bible” be such a ratings hit when there is no audience for overtly religious entertainment programming?

According to the latest Nielsens, released Tuesday, Sunday night’s telecast of “The Bible,” produced by husband-and-wife team Mark Burnett and Roma Downey for basic cable’s History channel, managed to attract more viewers than anything on broadcast network NBC … during the entire week. The second installment of this five-part mini-series airing at 8-10 p.m. Sundays through Easter — the first foray into scripted drama for “Survivor” creator Burnett — drew 10.8 million viewers, good for number one in its timeslot and number 11 overall for the week.

Even bigger was part one the week before, which amassed an audience of 13.1 million viewers, cable’s largest of the year. That series premiere topped the ratings for both of the week’s episodes of “American Idol.” (Not the first time the Almighty has bested idols in head-to-head competition in this ancient rivalry — but, still, an impressive feat, even if Fox’s longtime ratings juggernaut is showing signs of slippage.) Blockbuster ratings for a compilation of bible stories from a reality TV producer taking his first crack at drama? Can’t be. If there was a market for biblical epics, then Hollywood wouldn’t have long ago abandoned the genre, a staple of the feature film industry back in the days of Cinerama. Or was it Cinemascope? Don’t ask me. I wasn’t even alive. Or if I was, I was only just beginning to grasp the essentials of widescreen projection techniques, which was offered as an elective at the nursery school where I was then enrolled.

Makes no sense. It’s not as if “The Bible” got any help from TV critics. Its Metacritic scores averaged just 44, the low end of the “mixed reviews” range as measured by the review aggregation site. As a cable series, “The Bible” lacked the ready-made, large scale promotional platform and popular lead-in that can drive strong ratings for a new show on a major broadcast network, of the kind NBC was, for many years. And we all know better than to credit the mini-series’ success to its unembarrassed reverence for its sacred source material. After all, last year History had an even bigger hit with “Hatfields and McCoys” — and that was a bloody saga of trigger-happy mountain clans who were not big on turning the other cheek.

Read more: Sacred mystery: Blockbuster ratings for 'The Bible' confound Hollywood - Washington Times

 

[Gracie]

Sorry..I started a thread about this show too but will post in this one. Maybe the admin can combine mine with yours?

Anyway..I missed the beginning shows. Caught the one about Jericho and Samson though.

 

[Gracie]

http://www.usmessageboard.com/reviews/283560-history-channel-s-series-the-bible.html

 

[American_Jihad]

'The Bible' creators, History Channel deny show's Satan resembles President Obama​

Published March 18, 2013
FoxNews.com


The creators of the miniseries "The Bible" and the network that airs it are denying reports that the character Satan intentionally resembles President Barack Obama.

The couple behind the show, Mark Burnett and Roma Downey, dismissed what they called “foolish” reports that their show’s villain looked like the President.

...

Read more: 'The Bible' creators, History Channel deny show's Satan resembles President Obama | Fox News

 

[Foxfyre]

I have watched the first three segments. My main criticism is that those who know the Bible are likely to be frustrated that the emphasis sometimes is on the wrong point of the story and misses the deeper message.

And because they are moving the story so quickly, at least in the earlier going, those who don't know their Bible are probably having trouble following the story line.

On the positive side they really are doing a good job of staying with the theme of the Bible rather than rewriting and/or reinterpreting it.

 

[Samson]

I have watched the first three segments. My main criticism is that those who know the Bible are likely to be frustrated that the emphasis sometimes is on the wrong point of the story and misses the deeper message.

And because they are moving the story so quickly, at least in the earlier going, those who don't know their Bible are probably having trouble following the story line.

On the positive side they really are doing a good job of staying with the theme of the Bible rather than rewriting and/or reinterpreting it.

I need to catch up on my recordings of the second and third episodes.

Clearly, no movie or miniseries is made for "those that know the Bible." Certainly any movie is quite unnecessary for anyone who has already derived a "deeper message" from any religious conveyance.

The point of the miniseries is to entertain a contemporary audience.

So when angels smite Sodomites, they do so with Quintanerian Flair reminescent of a scene from "Kill Bill 1." Entertaining. Contemporary.

With a wildly popular script, the real challenge is editing. The producers have done an outstanding job whittling down the script while maintaining the story's theme WITHIN a VERY LOW BUDGET. The acting is as terrific (from what little I've seen) as any Showtime or HBO Miniseries: Refreshing after only having seen Charlton Heston's Vaudvillian portrayal of Moses.

 

[Samson]

The couple behind the show, Mark Burnett and Roma Downey, dismissed what they called “foolish” reports that their show’s villain looked like the President.

Satan was going to look like someone.

“History channel has the highest respect for President Obama,” the network said in a statement. “It's unfortunate that anyone made this false connection. History’s ‘The Bible’ is meant to enlighten people on its rich stories and deep history.”

It would be interesting to determine if the series becomes more or less popular because of the resemblence.



One doesn't need much imagination to conclude that the series will be more popular, another stroke of casting genius for the producers.



Brilliant!


However I could be wrong: Has viewership dropped off precipitously since Satan-Obama appeared?

 

[American_Jihad]

The couple behind the show, Mark Burnett and Roma Downey, dismissed what they called “foolish” reports that their show’s villain looked like the President.

Satan was going to look like someone.

“History channel has the highest respect for President Obama,” the network said in a statement. “It's unfortunate that anyone made this false connection. History’s ‘The Bible’ is meant to enlighten people on its rich stories and deep history.”

It would be interesting to determine if the series becomes more or less popular because of the resemblence.



One doesn't need much imagination to conclude that the series will be more popular, another stroke of casting genius for the producers.



Brilliant!


However I could be wrong: Has viewership dropped off precipitously since Satan-Obama appeared?

I like an evil looking devil...

WARNING if you're an obongo supporter do not go HERE.

 

[koshergrl]

Moses' origin is problematic for Christians. The fact he wasn't circumcised, was a murderer who ran away, and had to be coerced by a miracle to return to Egypt gives them fits. I am not surprised that all got glossed over.

It's not problematic for me at all.

Color me surprised....another anti-Christian who is incapable of grasping the big picture. Murderers can be saved...David was a murderer, an adulterer....Peter forswore Christ 3 times...and yet still was loved by God and Jesus, and was still saved.

That's the whole point. It's about faith, not works. The OT shows us in one way, and prophesizes the NT..which then comes to fulfill the prophecies and reflect God's will for us.

 

[koshergrl]

It's funny the devil looks like Obama. Almost as funny as Obama claiming that if he had a son, he would look like Trayvon Martin.

 

[CandySlice]

The casting of an Obama Satan look-alike is just genius.

 

[Foxfyre]

Moses' origin is problematic for Christians. The fact he wasn't circumcised, was a murderer who ran away, and had to be coerced by a miracle to return to Egypt gives them fits. I am not surprised that all got glossed over.

But the fact is, Moses was around three month's old when his mother put him in the river, and it is a near certainty that she would have taken care of the requisite circumcision long before that - except - that in the ancient Hebrew texts, the language in Exodus refers to Moses' mother, when he was born, seeing that he was 'good' which would mean that he was already chosen and annointed by YHWH (God) i.e. he was born circumcised. And wouldn't circumcision have been a dead giveaway to Pharoah's daughter identifying Moses as a Hebrew baby rather than an abandoned Egyptian baby? The text indicates she recognized him as a Hebrew baby.

Among the standard most accepted historical Rabbincial interpretations, Midrash Tanchuma1 lists seven people who were born circumcised. They are: Adam, Seth, Noah, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, and Job.

Avot D’Rabbi Natan2 cites Adam, Seth, Noah, Shem, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Balaam, Samuel, David, Jeremiah, Zerubabel, and Job.

The later passage in which Moses' son is circumcised would therefore be symbolic as the wife seeks to save Moses' life required because he did not have one of his sons circumcised at the requisite time. It is one of those stories in which there is probably much more to it, but we have only a fragment and it was dutifully woven into the text.

These are details that are usually learned only through serious and dedicated Bible study and of course there will generally be more than one interpretation depending on who is doing the teaching. There would be no time in a television documentary to get into that amount of detail.

 

[koshergrl]

That makes the supposition that Pharoah's daughter cared..they were a law unto themselves, that's the whole thing. Pharoah had complete power over everybody; chances are Pharoah's daughter knew very well who the baby was; she HIRED HIS MOTHER as wetnurse; chances are his mother was in her service when she *found* the child. Who is going to question Pharoah's daughter if she wants to raise a baby as her own? He wasn't in line to the throne....he was afforded roughly the same significance as any illegitimate child of royalty would be.

 

[koshergrl]

Royalty have *adopted* children down through the millennia...Mary Queen of Scots had to contend all her life with her bastard brother, James...wealthy and powerful in his own right. Questions about the legitimacy and the origin of Elizabeth Tudor plagued her to her death. It's a common theme among royals.

 

[uscitizen]

Tha casting of Satan to look like Obama proves out the Jewish controlled media.

 

[koshergrl]

Lol. yeah, cuz Jews hate him more than the rest of America.

 

[Samson]

Tha casting of Satan to look like Obama proves out the Jewish controlled media.

What does the casting of Jesus as the Son of God, "prove out?"