catsidhe: (Default)
catsidhe ([personal profile] catsidhe) wrote2005-05-02 10:04 am

Thoughts, rare as they are.

As I was watching The Second Coming last night. The one with Chris Eccleston as the Son of God.

As I watched, in between dissecting the hideous mess that is Perl::HTML and reading Hat Full of Sky, I found myself thinking "I wonder what they thought of this in the States?"

Then, as the climax happened (one which I did not see coming, by the way, and it was very pleasantly surprising to be surprised by TV), I came to a conclusion. They haven't seen this in the States. This would never be allowed to air.

I stand to be corrected. Indeed, I hope to be corrected, as the denoumont was one that demanded Deep Thinking about God and his place in our lives, even for atheists. But my cynical (and therefore, usually correct) view is that it is precisely the shock and stress of such thought which would have it struck from the air. We can't have religion-riots, now, can we? Outraged fundie evangelicals and Catholics and Baptists finding common cause and burning the Godless PBS to the ground? We can't risk offendng our Sponsors...

The more I think about it, the less likely I think it is that this program could have been shown in the US. Let's not even talk about the likelyhood of it having been made there.

I also think that it would not have been shown on the commercial channels here, and it would have been a farce and a travesty if it had. Such thoughts on the place of God in the universe do not fit well with 'Zoom zoom'.

On another tack, I saw an ad on a tram this morning, but the background to the text caused me to misread it slightly.
I read it as 'SPORTSCRÆFT', and it looked somehow more right that way.

Britene igland is egte hund mile lang ond twa brad, ond on þas igland fif geþeode...

[identity profile] mikeybidness.livejournal.com 2005-05-01 06:05 pm (UTC)(link)
I missed out about half an hour just after Chris started piling up the Third Testament - when I got back, he was wandering around a deserted city - what happened in between?

I dunno, I don't see myself as a rather religious guy, but the whole 'we're better off without a God' thing at the end was...I dunno, well I felt rubbed the wrong way. Mission accomplished, I guess.

[identity profile] catsidhe.livejournal.com 2005-05-01 06:51 pm (UTC)(link)
Let's see how my memory is...

The potential Third Testaments are piling up, and there is deep despair about how he's going to read them all. He calls his 'disciples' in; his girlfriend, his mate (the one who drove him to the stadium) and his 'father'. While they are going over the submissions (including novels, badly photoshopped pictures of Christ, and 'kill the faggots, kill the Jews, kill the Niggers' rants), the girlfriend asks what would happen if they don't find the Third Testament. Steve looks into himself, and comes back with 'I see Nothing. No Heaven, no Hell, Armageddon.' The Police Commissioner (who shows the eyes of a demon) takes the tape and has it broadcast. Needless to say, the Son of God declaring Armageddon causes social breakdown. While the world begins to dissassemble itself, demons affect Steve's 'father', and cause him to go mad and attempt to shoot Steve. Steve's mate stands in the way and is killed. Steve's GF wants to go home, but the cop who drives her takes her instead to the fat git's place. She proves that she knows that he is a demon, and he tells her his plan: the demons want her to despair, knowing that Steve would follow her. Then, when Judgment happens, the Son of God must be Judged against, and he ends up ruling Hell. All it would take is one more lost soul... she realises who he means and races to get to her friend's house. Her friend's husband in the Armageddon Panic decided to leave her and go to his mistress, so in despair she mixes sleeping tablets into fruit juice and intends to kill herself and her two children. Steve's GF gets there just in time, but she has an idea. She goes home, calls Steve, and tells him that she knows what the Third Testament is, and can he meet her at home? He replies 'of course,' and slips out of the police station and walks to her.

The rest you know.