Book of Daniel

[Master Moron]

Did anyone watch this show last night? Its about this preacher who has a gay son who's being set up with a girl by his unaware grandfather, an Asian son who's dating the daughter of a racist, and a daughter who's selling drugs to make money to further her career as a comic artist. Father Daniel Webster also had money for a contruction project stolen by his brother-in-law. The mob found the money for him, but now he owes them a favor. Oh yeah, he also sees Jesus.

Anyway, in general I liked this show. Not much else to say really...

[G. Wen]

I've never seen the show, but I don't agree with all the controversy surrounding it. Basically, people are upset because it protrays a Christian who doesn't have his life together. Guess what people? Just because you're a Christian, it doesn't mean you're automatically a good family man. You still need to work at that, and hiding behind Jesus won't solve anything.

[DisneyBoy]

My Dad just told me that apparently many stations are afraid to carry it because it's too "controversial".

It sounds interesting, if a bit heavy on the irony/Desperate Housewives-everyone-has-problems-brewing style. When does it next air?

[Peter Paltridge]

I've never seen the show, but I don't agree with all the controversy surrounding it. Basically, people are upset because it protrays a Christian who doesn't have his life together. Guess what people? Just because you're a Christian, it doesn't mean you're automatically a good family man. You still need to work at that, and hiding behind Jesus won't solve anything.
The problem with THIS show is that your point could be set up a lot more effectively by just using one or two life problems, instead of every single thing the producers could think of at once. This is absolute overkill and it looks more like they're trying to make people angry than say anything meaningful, despite what their motives might be.

[Karl Olson]

The second they said she needed 4 grand for software to be a manga artist, I really couldn't take the show seriously. Not when T-Pop's selling pro-grade software explicitly meant for the purpose at 50 bucks, not when the GIMP is free, not when Photoshop even it's most insane iteration is 1.5k. Plus they didn't even keep consistant as to whether she needed animation software or graphic design software. Even it were animation software, industry standard software like Toon Boom Studio only runs 130 for a student. Flash runs only about 100 bucks or more at the student level, and the full version off amazon is only 700 bucks + tax. Even with a massive wacom table to go with it, she'd only be in it a grand, 2 grand max, because her laptop is already good enough to the run software - I can tell by looking at it. Really people, talk to people about the subjects you want to tackle.

Is it nit-picky? Yeah, and I doubt the average person would even know what manga is. In fact, much to my chagrin, they probably believe it's that junk the daughter makes. So was it distracting for me though, thus detracting from the show? Undeniably. Oh yeah, the fact that she's not really writing an original story, but that it's basically fan-fiction of her life (a la Bonus Stage,) was sort of the finishing blow for that storyline (though the community service for piracy was really lame.)

On the whole, it really struck me as trying to "edgy and hip" but instead ended up feeling atleast 5 years late to the party. Maybe more like 10. It's desperate and cliched. And NBC wonders why they are in last place.

PS: Before anyone takes this path of attack, I'm not even Christian, and usually I don't mind sacrilege when it's actually provocative or intelligent or witty or funny. Actually, Vicodin-hallucination Jesus probably was the only one with good lines in the show. Pity the rest of the concept is so hurried, formulaic and unfeeling that he can't save it.

[The Penguin]

I was going to watch it, but I missed it on Friday with my Sunday TV listings saying it played again on Saturday. It didn't and so I'm not watching after missing the premiere episode. "Ah well" I suppose.

[Master Moron]

The second they said she needed 4 grand for software to be a manga artist, I really couldn't take the show seriously. Not when T-Pop's selling pro-grade software explicitly meant for the purpose at 50 bucks, not when the GIMP is free, not when Photoshop even it's most insane iteration is 1.5k. Plus they didn't even keep consistant as to whether she needed animation software or graphic design software. Even it were animation software, industry standard software like Toon Boom Studio only runs 130 for a student. Flash runs only about 100 bucks or more at the student level, and the full version off amazon is only 700 bucks + tax. Even with a massive wacom table to go with it, she'd only be in it a grand, 2 grand max, because her laptop is already good enough to the run software - I can tell by looking at it. Really people, talk to people about the subjects you want to tackle.

Is it nit-picky? Yeah, and I doubt the average person would even know what manga is. In fact, much to my chagrin, they probably believe it's that junk the daughter makes. So was it distracting for me though, thus detracting from the show? Undeniably. Oh yeah, the fact that she's not really writing an original story, but that it's basically fan-fiction of her life (a la Bonus Stage,) was sort of the finishing blow for that storyline (though the community service for piracy was really lame.)

Honestly, I wasn't paying any attention to the prices. But, I have to say, I've known people who've sold pot before and they weren't exactly rolling in dough. Of course, that's probably because they smoked most of their money up. Since she's not smoking it she's making more profit. The problem is that most drug dealers test out the drugs before they sell it. If she sells the drugs but doesn't use it she could be selling people oregano, which would lead to her getting her ass kicked.

I do kind of agree with the manga thing though. I mean, her designs didn't look manga inspired at all. I'm not sure why they called it manga.


On the whole, it really struck me as trying to "edgy and hip" but instead ended up feeling atleast 5 years late to the party. Maybe more like 10. It's desperate and cliched. And NBC wonders why they are in last place.

Hmmm...I actually read an interview with the creator and he said the concept came to him in a dream. I suppose its possible that NBC added things to the script to make it more hip. Actually, that's very possible.


PS: Before anyone takes this path of attack, I'm not even Christian, and usually I don't mind sacrilege when it's actually provocative or intelligent or witty or funny. Actually, Vicodin-hallucination Jesus probably was the only one with good lines in the show. Pity the rest of the concept is so hurried, formulaic and unfeeling that he can't save it.

Hmmm...of course, the Jesus hallucination was already done on Rescue Me.


I was going to watch it, but I missed it on Friday with my Sunday TV listings saying it played again on Saturday. It didn't and so I'm not watching after missing the premiere episode. "Ah well" I suppose.

I really don't see the point in not watching it just because you missed the premiere episode. If the show is successful, then they'll be sure to rerun the premiere at some point. If its not, then it will be cancelled in no time anyway. Besides, I'm sure they'll have a recap next episode.

[Karl Olson]

Honestly, I wasn't paying any attention to the prices. But, I have to say, I've known people who've sold pot before and they weren't exactly rolling in dough. Of course, that's probably because they smoked most of their money up. Since she's not smoking it she's making more profit. The problem is that most drug dealers test out the drugs before they sell it. If she sells the drugs but doesn't use it she could be selling people oregano, which would lead to her getting her ass kicked.

Yeah, from a logistics-of-drug-dealing point of view, there is a problem. I mean, unless she had a closet hydroponics setup, she'd have no clue whether she was dealing legit stuff.

But yeah, I've looked into the cost of software and hardware for 2D art creation repeatedly (and if I weren't doing music, and if I didn't have friends with more talent than myself to do my album artwork, I'd probably have bought it,) so I'm pretty familiar with the logistics of this kind of thing.


I do kind of agree with the manga thing though. I mean, her designs didn't look manga inspired at all. I'm not sure why they called it manga.

Probably because it's faux-trendy. One of the writer's kids probably reads manga or has a friend that reads it, and rather than at least put a call into TokyoPop or talk to someone who is into it so they can have their facts straight, they left it up to some random lackey in the graphic design department who could probably care less about the details. I mean, if there was research put in, they totally missed their mark. It's sorta indie comics, when it doesn't serious issues with perspective and facial proportions.

The funny thing is that the following sunday, Tokyopop started serializing Peach Fuzz in various newspapers nationwide, so as far as this series being able to rely on manga being a niche interest to cover how wrong it gets the look is out. Everyone's going to know what half-decent American manga looks like. After all, if it was good enough to look the same as Japanese to the manga team known as Peach Pit (works include DearS, Rozen Maiden,) it passes for manga a lot better than what's on Book of Daniel.

Remember though, I'm the kind of whiny critic who picks apart the various artist styles with in the manga/anime medium. I'm still not your average person, so maybe this plot element still worked. I hope it didn't though.


Hmmm...I actually read an interview with the creator and he said the concept came to him in a dream. I suppose its possible that NBC added things to the script to make it more hip. Actually, that's very possible.

If NBC is the entity responsible for cluttering the pilot up so bad, then NBC's also given up the right to blame the series' creator when it flops. It's the cluttered intro and pseudo-in-your-face attitude which makes it so tacky and unwatchable. The very baseline premise had potential, had it not been so overloaded and underdeveloped.


Hmmm...of course, the Jesus hallucination was already done on Rescue Me.

A lot of people have played with Jesus in that fashion. Heck, NBC itself had God the Devil and Bob, which though not featuring Jesus still featured a layed back, funny take on the Judeo-Christian God, and really, it yields about the same results.

All in all, I think it could have been an interesting show. However, rather than being about crisises of faith, it's about suburban angst and issues with a pretense of religion. It's sorta like Eva (atleast in terms of religious facade over a human crisis core,) but without the build into the main thrust of the plot which better developed the world and the characters with in it, and with more comedy misfires.