Netflix’s ‘Messiah’ may not be great and though slightly more complicated, fixes ‘Homeland’ craving
A lot can and has been said about Netflix’s new geopolitical religious thriller ‘Messiah’. A rave of bad reviews -- The Hollywood Reporter’s Daniel Fienberg wrote, “My saying it's a badly made show doesn't make it exist any less” -- however does not change the fact that it has a seemingly interesting premise: A man appears in 2019 claiming to be a prophet of God and builds a sizable following through media and social media attention by performing miracles.
But interesting as the premise may seem at first glance, it is ultimately “hair of the dog” for those who continue to live in a ‘Homeland’ hangover. The Showtime spy thriller series, based on the Israeli series ‘Prisoners of War’, follows Carrie Mathison (Claire Danes), a Central Intelligence Agency officer with bipolar disorder and her exploits in trying to counter terrorist plots.
When it started out, it was a one-of-a-kind show that dabbled with not run-of-the-mill procedural formats but with long-running conspiracies, diplomacy and middle-eastern geopolitics. Soon the show apparently turned out racist.
A Washington Post op-ed noted ‘Homeland’ “has churned out Islamophobic stereotypes as if its writers were getting paid by the cliché.” This can also be figured out from a real incident that took place in 2015. The showrunners had reportedly hired Arab graffiti artists to add some authenticity to the set of a Syrian refugee camp.
On one wall, the artists painted some phrases and no one cared to ask what they meant. Once the show aired, viewers noticed and translated the graffiti: “'Homeland' is racist.”
Aside from this glaring error, the show has plenty else it has either gotten wrong or was just careless about -- especially in matters of Islam, orientalist depictions of the Middle East and more. But did fans of ‘Homeland’ stick with eight seasons of it (the ninth and final season will air later this year), because of its gripping plot?
That would be presumptuous, considering the show’s plot always aimed to be convoluted but ended up being extremely basic and condescending to viewers even. Perhaps viewers, especially red-blooded Americans have always liked the show because it gives them their ideal version of what terrorism looks like, what the Middle East looks like.
And on both of those points, ‘Messiah’ remains the same. The plot, despite some beautiful work from director James McTeigue (of ‘V For Vendetta’ fame), remains largely insipid.
It tries to create an illusion of grandeur, or social disruption in the form of religion, of a global conspiracy, and even some magical realism. But it fails to keep viewers interested because, at the crux of it, it's just about the similarities and differences between the three Semitic religions, intercut with some brooding faces with great cheekbones.
The politics of ‘Messiah’ is more complicated than the simple American-good-Muslim-bad kind of fare that ‘Homeland’ offers. But it makes too much of a meal out of vague ideas that offer no cohesive structure to what the titular character hopes to achieve through his actions.
Is he against capitalism? Is he anti-war? Is he anti-scripture? Is he even a savior? Here again just like ‘Homeland’, despite its best efforts, the show’s ideology is lost in a risotto of too many ideas.
Is ‘Messiah’ a good show? The least subjective answer to that would be that it’s not terrible. And ‘Homeland’ minus its visible Islamophobia is quite the same. So, if you’ve had a taste for the latter (even after the death of Brody), you might as well give ‘Messiah’ a shot.
If nothing else, it’ll end up scratching some of that “Oh, I miss the old days of ‘Homeland’” itch. The show is available for streaming on Netflix.
