Quick Takes about The Bible on The History Channel

1. Snaps for the effort. but…… Mel Gibson OWNS the franchise. 

I watched The Passion with Jesse the Saturday before Easter. 

Not fair. The Bible, Easter edition was thin in comparison, anything would be.
Actually, I would put Jesus of Nazareth in second place for cinematography.
Of course it was shot by Franco Zefferelli who also directed Romeo and Juliet.

2. Give Them a Break.  I've seen the blogs micro critical of the series. I even saw CNN with the web headline: 'Five Heresies on The Bible'

(How ironic, CNN wouldn't know a heresy if it bit them…..)

Nonetheless, this was a huge undertaking, the producers, Mark and Roma, deserve applause for the vision.  They live in the belly of the beast, yet, nothing heretical here.  Sorry CNN.
Remember, if Hollywood had its way, The Bible would be on the Comedy Channel.  I am impressed Mark cut a deal with The History Channel. Good for them.

3. Jot and Tittle. I cringed at some of the unneeded, 'artistic license' in the flow and detail. It was predictable that every nano second of this project would be fact checked against the  King James. My inner pastor wanted to keep score.  You can't mess with the facts, better  consulting QC  would have saved some grief in the blogosphere.

4. Who Knew Samson was a Brother?  It was a calculated risk to avoid using any known actors in the project. Fine.  But, surfer Jesus was slightly stereo-typical, uh, he was Jewish. If the Satan/Obama controversy was intentional, it was a lame and short-sighted shot, beneath the dignity of this project.  Plus, The Bible series will be showing when this Administration is a distant  memory.
It is rough casting some of the best known and loved characters ever, not to mention the Son of God. I once spent time on stage with Jim Caviezel, it was confusing, I was sure he knew what I was thinking. 

5. Liar,Liar: The bad timing award goes to Jim Carey. Just before Easter, he mocked Believers, saying, 'Charleton Heston movies are no longer in demand.'
As 'fate' would have it, his  new movie  opened  Easter weekend and sold 2.5  million tickets. Meanwhile, the 57 year-old Ten Commandments was viewed  over the same period by 5.9 million. Heston is not around to defend himself or his work. Doesn't need to. 

6. Ratings from the Remnant. Consistently, The Bible was the #1 rated program on TV. However, there are over 300 million people in the USA. Certainly in the fragmented broadcast world we live in, The Bible's 12+ million viewers each week was a  hit.  But the closing segment of Mash cumed 125 million viewers.
How good is it that this week, The Bible tied mega-hit The Walking Dead? Now that is something TV exec's will take note of.  Of course many of them are walking dead.

7. We Need More of This. The most watched movie of all time is 'Jesus,' from Campus Crusade.

This is due to free viewings in hundreds of languages worldwide. The movie is absolutely faithful, word for word to the Book of Luke. (Jesus' hair still makes me nervous however). Every film can't be chapter and verse. Remember C.S. Lewis.  Narnia did okay and still made the point.

We need more biblical influence in the public square. All in all, bravo and encore.