God (be)friended me

I’ve been wanting to correct that title ever since this TV show started in the fall. I know that having a Facebook relationship is a friendship, and the act of linking up is called clicking  the “friend” button, but up until now ‘friend’ has never been used as a verb.

God Friended Me is the new ‘feel-good’ situation comedy being broadcast on Sunday nights. The atheist hero, Miles, has a podcast show called “The Millennial Prophet”, so you can see that the series is going to make use of a little ironic NEWSPEAK.

And just to be fair, this seems like an ‘honest’ attempt to bring Highway to Heaven and Twice in a Lifetime to a younger audience.

A Question of Faith

Miles’ father is a minister (Episcopalian, if you must know). As Miles is a practicing atheist, this makes for an interesting dynamic in their relationship. So there are a lot of questions about belief systems in every show. Especially the main ones: does God really exist and why would (S)He be using a “God account” on social media to recruit someone like Miles to do His/Her Work?

Last night’s show broadened the faith spectrum a little bit to include a Muslim girl wanting to elope with her Jewish boyfriend. The resolution of the episode (called “A House Divided”) was unlikely, but well-intended, in that the father of the girl finally relented, because he didn’t want to lose her. In reality, they would have been alienated for life.

But if the message is that these stories would turn out badly without divine intervention, then they have to turn out alright, or else the point is lost.

Conclusion

We are only six episodes into the series. Will it last? Only God knows.

In the meantime, I should like to share with you the ‘clincher’ from last night’s episode:

The Muslim taxi driver, who was having problems with his children, said to our hero and his friend, Cara, that Miles was sent by God to help him. Miles demurred. Then the taxi driver said that he now had two signs from God. They wanted to know what the other one was. He went on to explain that six weeks before, he had been driving a doctor through town when the car in front hit a young lady. He said the doctor jumped out to save the girl. Miles and Cara look at each other, and Cara says, “That was me.”

Coincidence or Something Else?