Messiah (Netflix) - General Discussion

[Anela]

Is anyone else watching this? I finished it tonight.

[Stiggs]

I watched it. Kept my interest enough, but I was underwhelmed. At least the messiah was good looking. 
 

I feel like the series really wanted to say something, but about halfway through it started petering out to the point that I really didn’t care much about how it ended. But it’s always good to see Beau Bridges. 🙂 

[libgirl2]

I am halfway through it. Not sure how I feel. It is prompting interesting discussion at our house. 

[jnymph]

I'm watching.  I have 2 more episodes left.   I'm really liking it a lot !

[Enero]

I recently finished watching this. It wasn’t the best thing Netflix has released, but it’s certainly not the worst either. 

I did think it made for very interesting viewing and brought with it a lot of questions about faith, projecting one’s personal beliefs onto a situation, perception, situations  that may appear different, but are actually the same, and the list goes on and on. 

I did think the show lost a little bit of its intrigue when the “Messiah” left Israel for the Bible Belt of America. Nonetheless it was still watchable.

The title character was attractive and also mesmerizing, I could see why, outside of personal beliefs, people would follow him. 

I do think something beyond the ordinary is going on with this guy, but that doesn’t mean I think he’s a beckon for good. Thus far he’s mostly brought chaos and confusion, which makes me wonder if he’s the godly figure some think he is. 

Again, interesting series. If they get a season 2, I’d watch. 

[Bizabra]

So good.

 

[howivesforever]

I thought the show was intriguing and it kept my interest. I walked away thinking  Al-Mashir was the Anti-Christ and Jabril is special not sure if he’s the Messiah but he’s definitely a prophet or something.

Edited January 15, 2020 by howivesforever

[DoctorAtomic]

Not great; not awful. The CIA woman isn't nearly as compelling as I would have liked. The actor is typically servicable so she's not awful, but I don't know why she chose/was directed to whisper when she was trying to be super serious.

I thought they added too much outside stuff with the characters - don't care about the miscarriage, the agent who was also gay, the Israeli family problems, the daughter's abortion, the mother drank. Not really bringing anything to the story and felt tacked on.

It was sad and chilling that the other kid turned into the suicide bomber. It really didn't take much to manipulate him.

Loved the multicultural cast though.

It's too easy of the guy is the messiah, and there's got to be something going on with the daughter and the kid with the bushy hair. I did like how her social media had an effect on events.

[libgirl2]

On 1/15/2020 at 12:37 PM, howivesforever said:

I thought the show was intriguing and it kept my interest. I walked away thinking  Al-Mashir was the Anti-Christ and Jabril is special not sure if he’s the Messiah but he’s definitely a prophet or something.

I feel that way too. 

[DoctorAtomic]

Any word on an S2.

[Anela]

6 hours ago, DoctorAtomic said:

Any word on an S2.

I don't think so. 

[limecoke]

At times I was bored and at other times intrigued.  It's pretty obvious to me that the messiah in the story is an antichristical character.  Maybe not THE Antichrist but a type of antichrist. Nice to see an international cast and a variety of locations. 

[GustavMahler]

I enjoyed it as it had a feel of Carnivale' where you have two avatars, one for good, the other evil. I am surprised that there is so little interest of this show as it is dumped into the "other" forum but if this is indicative of overall viewership, then a second season may not happen....

Edited January 24, 2020 by GustavMahler

[DoctorAtomic]

I'm not sure Netflix cares too much about overall viewership though.

[GustavMahler]

13 minutes ago, DoctorAtomic said:

I'm not sure Netflix cares too much about overall viewership though.

Not sure why they would not care, especially for a continuing series. A large view rating increases word of mouth to potential non subscribers to join Netflix. That will not happen if no one is watching. That attitude might be true for movies as they are one shots, but to drop millions into a series which no one is watching, well, that makes no sense.

[DoctorAtomic]

Because they never release ratings on anything. Similarly, HBO has a lot of low rated shows go on, like Treme, for a few years. Being premium, they don't have as much of an investment in ratings. Naturally, they want shows to do well, but the fact that it may not be highly rated doesn't predicate its renewal as much as it would. 

[libgirl2]

A lot of people I talk to are starting to watch this. Word of mouth gets around. 

[Anela]

On 1/23/2020 at 4:19 PM, GustavMahler said:

I enjoyed it as it had a feel of Carnivale' where you have two avatars, one for good, the other evil. I am surprised that there is so little interest of this show as it is dumped into the "other" forum but if this is indicative of overall viewership, then a second season may not happen....

I requested the forum, but didn't know how much interest there was, so I didn't think of different thread titles for a larger forum. If it gets a second season, and more interest, it could be changed to a regular forum, with individual threads.

[libgirl2]

15 hours ago, Anela said:

I requested the forum, but didn't know how much interest there was, so I didn't think of different thread titles for a larger forum. If it gets a second season, and more interest, it could be changed to a regular forum, with individual threads.

Thank you

[Anela]

3 hours ago, libgirl2 said:

Thank you

You're welcome. 🙂

[BaskingsharkGTX]

People I know are trying hard to convince me to watch this. I watched the pilot and found it one-dimensional, dull, unsubtle and filled with obvious choices and tropes I have seen 100 times before. Half the dialogue was so anvilicious it was more like the actors were inscribing their lines on sledgehammers and beating the audience over the head with them than actually speaking and the other half bore no resemblance to anything any actual human has or would ever say.

So... does it get any better? 

[DoctorAtomic]

Ish. The 'messiah' gets a little more compelling, and I do like the daughter. The shaggy headed kid also gets and interesting plot. 

[MaggieG]

Finished this last night. I thought it was good and I hope it gets a second season, just to see where it can go. I was a little confused by why Al-Mashir went with Avi in the end though, maybe I missed it.

From the first episode, when we see Ava trying to do IVF and getting miscarriages, my husband and I kept saying she's going to end the show pregnant. I was even more convinced when her and Avi had sex. It didn't happen, but if there is a season 2 it would be interesting. I think Avi and Ava were compelling characters, but there were a few that I just did not care for. They definitely had a bunch of side characters that weren't really necessary. 

[GustavMahler]

On 1/26/2020 at 3:33 PM, BaskingsharkGTX said:

People I know are trying hard to convince me to watch this. I watched the pilot and found it one-dimensional, dull, unsubtle and filled with obvious choices and tropes I have seen 100 times before. Half the dialogue was so anvilicious it was more like the actors were inscribing their lines on sledgehammers and beating the audience over the head with them than actually speaking and the other half bore no resemblance to anything any actual human has or would ever say.

So... does it get any better? 

I thought it did as it was compelling enough for me to continue.. to be fair to any episodic series though, one needs to get past pilot episodes in order to form a balanced opinion. If by the third episode your opinion has not changed then of course dump it.... 

[BaskingsharkGTX]

On 1/30/2020 at 7:53 PM, GustavMahler said:

I thought it did as it was compelling enough for me to continue.. to be fair to any episodic series though, one needs to get past pilot episodes in order to form a balanced opinion. If by the third episode your opinion has not changed then of course dump it.... 

I'm a little hard on things. I was once told I was too soft on scripts as a reader because I was willing to read past page 3 so maybe it stems from that 😉

I wiki-watched the rest of it and it doesn't seem like much happens.

[DoctorAtomic]

I would slightly disagree with that because there's a few character moments that are interesting. Al-Mashir with the daughter on the bridge, for example. The definition of 'stuff happening' is broad. I mean, this is a B-level show, which is fine. Not every show has to be The Show of All Shows You Have to Watch Now. There's a decent amount going on though.

 

[momo]

I enjoyed it!  Interesting to see how things would happen in the modern world.

[redpencil]

I just finished this and am not sure how I feel. It kept my attention plenty, and I kept vacillating on who/what he was (though it was clear the whole time that he wasn't really going to be connected to Russia or whatever other terrorist plots they thought he had going). I still don't know.

I did feel like they dropped a couple plots, even allowing for ambiguity with the Messiah character. Like, the president never made a decision. The last we saw, he asked the pentagon for analysis on withdrawing troops from Eastern Europe, and then we didn't hear anything more about it and never saw him again. I thought that would have been interesting to continue, with him trying to figure out what he believed and whether to take action (it was clear that the other guy who took down the plane was acting alone).

I also felt like they should have investigated the walking on water a bit more. They tried to explain it away with the bit about his uncle being a magician and him being taught the art of illusion, but he couldn't have done that with that many people watching without some sort of preparation ahead of time, or other people he was working with. It's not like it was just on a dubious internet video. Yet aside from the guy in Russia he talked to on the phone a bunch, there was never any indication that he was working with anyone.

So, I guess I'd be interested in seeing another season?

[Charone]

I echo what folks were saying.  If there is a second season, I will check it out.  

[BlackberryJam]

I enjoyed this enough to want to see a second season, but I'm not out there telling everyone they have to watch it. It was intriguing. The lead has charisma and plays the part well. There is plenty going on in his head, you just can't be sure of what it really is. 

[Enero]

‘Messiah’ Cancelled By Netflix After One Season

[libgirl2]

Phooey.  I liked it and was looking forward to learning more.

[DoctorAtomic]

I think they had at least another season in this. I'm surprised actually since Netflix doesn't really go by ratings for their shows. Maybe it was really expensive to produce and if it wasn't a breakout hit then that was it. 

I liked the truly international cast. 

[libgirl2]

22 hours ago, DoctorAtomic said:

I think they had at least another season in this. I'm surprised actually since Netflix doesn't really go by ratings for their shows. Maybe it was really expensive to produce and if it wasn't a breakout hit then that was it. 

I liked the truly international cast. 

I agree that they could have managed one more season. Too many loose ends.

[GustavMahler]

I referenced Carnivale’ when comparing the idea of the opposing forces of two Avatars, and now, Messiah too is cancelled prematurely.

[Ottis]

I am 3 eps in. The first two looked like a really interesting variation of Homeland, and I liked it. I couldn't figure out where the alleged miracles part would come in. After watching the third ep, I have no interest in the Texas story (church, etc.) and wish they would stick to the MIddle East. If this turns out to be some kind of Christianity thing I'll be hugely disappointed. Also, I like the CIA woman (actress) and think the minister's daughter is grating (and looks 40). 

Funny enough, I just came back today from San Antonio, and a week in west Texas, where it was 110-115 F every day. The people on these shows are wussies.

Update: Yeah, watched ep 4, skipping past all the nutty believer stuff, and this show isn’t what it appeared to be. Not interested in finding out if a fictional character is Bigfoot. I’m out.

Edited June 24, 2023 by Ottis