What I particularly liked was the ordinariness of the world with which we were presented. It must be very difficult to portray the miraculous without the whole thing looking like a CGI version of a blockbuster movie. Given that most of our modern-day heroes have to be spectacular, it's probably not a bad thing to portray Jesus as an ordinary man. No Mr Anderson in dark glasses this time.
A nice touch, I thought, was the use of two different actors portraying the risen Christ along with the original. Those who know the story, know that there was confusion: Was it him, wasn't it him? So I thought this was a neat little device to show that. And the walk away at the end too was simple yet effective, if inaccurate as far as the New Testament goes.
To be honest I'm less worried about the problems of narrative inaccuracy than I am excited about the possible conversations that might arise. I'm not about to suggest that this is the greatest evangelistic opportunity of the 21st century so far, but I do think the BBC has done us a great favour in that they have given up something to talk about with our not-yet-Christian friends. They've given us a portrayal of Jesus that sits in an historical context as well as a faith context.
It was, for me, good television and worth watching.
2 comments:
I have to say I agree with you richard. yes I'm sure there has been and will continue to be debates galore about how good or bad it was in terms of it's biblical accuracy but at the end of the day I think it was just good to have it on the tv and for it to have been such a good watch. Ok yes I ddid spot a few things that didn't seem to fit with what I know of the new Testament and yes this is a bit sad but well at the end of the day I think they captured well the sense of the main events and like you I was struck with the ordinariness of the way Jesus and his disciples interacted with each other, their real human emotions and feelings and we let our 7 year old daughter watch last night's episode and it was great to see her saying "ah that's the bit when jesus,...is that when...?". so thank you BBC, it certainly beats the tired old debates between academics on whether or not the resurrection really took place etc etc - important stuff yes but I think people are more and more intrested in the actual story of Easter and how it affected those invovled.
Hi Phil
Good to hear from you. Thanks for the comment. A friend of mine form College days has also reviewed it quite positively. Many of the comments on the bbc website are positive too.
Watch out for a 6-part telling of the the whole story of the Bible some time next year!
Glad you found it "a good watch".
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