c. 2006 Religion News Service
(UNDATED) Who says well-heeled, well-raised, outwardly righteous people don’t rate their own prime-time soap?
Case in point: My own personal youth was lived largely in the shadow of just this sort of gold-filigreed clan. We’re talking old money. Dad wore vestments. Mom was an energetic civic do-gooder. Kids were tall, blond, athletic, charismatic honor-student types. Really nice, too. But when it came to gothic secrets … let’s just say there were a few.
More than a few, actually.
As such, my old friends make eerily accurate role models for the preacher’s family at the core of NBC’s sudsy new family drama “The Book of Daniel.”
The show, which premiered Friday, airs at 10 p.m. EST.
Set in an upscale suburb of New York, the show stars Aidan Quinn as the Rev. Daniel Webster, an Episcopal priest whose faith is tested on what appears to be an hourly basis. The premiere began with Daniel and wife Judith (Susanna Thompson) making a midnight drive to the police station to bail teenage daughter Grace (Alison Pill) out of jail following an arrest for dealing pot.
And when it comes to the teenaged Websters, Grace _ who quickly points out that at least she wasn’t using drugs, just selling them _ is the least of Rev. Webster’s problems. Adopted son Adam (Ivan Shaw) is a fast-talking ladies’ man. Older son Peter (Christian Campbell) is gay and not quite out of the closet. The family lost another son to leukemia, a tragedy that may have led to Judith’s thirst for martinis and Daniel’s own dependence on painkillers.
Daniel’s father is a starchy, stern priest whose wife is falling rapidly into Alzheimer’s-related dementia. This ongoing tragedy sends him into the arms of Daniel’s immediate supervisor, Bishop Beatrice Congreve (Ellen Burstyn), another outwardly starchy character with tales to tell.
Don’t even ask about the brother-in-law who embezzled $3 million in church money. Or the relationship he had with his secretary. And did I mention that Daniel talks to Jesus Christ (Garret Dillahunt), who pops in and out at opportune times to give (much needed) advice?
And this is before things begin to get complicated.
So yes, “The Book of Daniel” comes with a lot of spinning wheels and fast-moving parts. But it works, thanks both to a slew of delicate performances (particularly Quinn) and to a creative vision that owes as much to the remembered lessons of Sunday school as it does to the Sunday night flamboyance seen each week on “Desperate Housewives.”
Like CBS’ “Joan of Arcadia,” the last talking-to-God show to hit the airwaves, “Daniel” comes with a spiritual subtext that hovers somewhere between traditional Christianity and New-Age-style, hands-on spirituality.
And though it’s not clear if Daniel’s visions of Jesus _ who appears to him as a laid-back, witty, hippie of a deity _ are the real thing or merely a side effect of his Vicodin-heavy diet, they both affirm his faith and leave him with a kind of transcendent grace.
For instance, when Jesus comforts him by observing, “Life is hard for everyone … that’s why there’s such a nice reward at the end of it,” Daniel uses the line in his next sermon and clearly touches his audience.
The show’s real point, it seems, is that forgiveness is next to godliness. Just as Daniel’s visions of Jesus reveal him to be infinitely gentle and understanding, the mortals he tends are just as infinitely flawed. They drink to excess, and they indulge appetites for forbidden sex, drugs and larceny.
Daniel is so desperate to reclaim the church’s stolen money that he ends up contracting with Mafiosi (through his Catholic counterpart … a plot twist that seems a bit troubling when you think about it) to track down his brother-in-law. And yet Jesus continues to visit, and always with the same attitude of loving, sympathetic acceptance.
Some viewers may find this scandalous. Others will find it enormously moving. Either way, “Daniel” is a thought-provoking drama that digs deep into the heart of its flawed, yet entirely human characters.
It’s unclear how long the series will last _ at this point NBC is committing only to a limited run. But with such a vibrant cast and imaginative writing it could, with the grace of good ratings, go on for years.
(Peter Ames Carlin writes about television for The Oregonian in Portland, Ore.)
KRE/PH END CARLIN
Editors: To obtain photos from “The Book of Daniel,” go to the RNS Web site at https://religionnews.com. On the lower right, click on “photos,” then search by subject or slug. If searching by subject, designate “exact phrase” for best results.
