Messiah (2020) Season 1 Review

Messiah Season 1 (2020) Review

 Netflix have been putting out a lot of content recently and this is the newest series that has come to the streaming platform : Messiah. The premise of the season sees a CIA agent go on the manhunt for a man who is being claimed to be the new Messiah and the word of God. 

Main Character 

Michelle Monaghan plays the lead in this series and she does a really good job in her role, it seemed like a role she was very natural in and born to play. Her character has a lot of emotional baggage to her and I did care about her character, we see this show from her eyes and we learn things at the same pace as her so we can relate to her and feel like we are with her in this journey.

Supporting Characters

Medhi Debi plays the one that is known as The Messiah in this show and he is one charismatic individual, you can see why these people would follow him throughout this series and he is obviously the thing that interests you in this show so it is good that he has a strong performance. His performance is so good that you can't tell where he is coming from and what his motivations exactly are and it provides an intriguing performance. Tomer Sisley plays an agent in this show and he probably has the best development of any character on this show, he is clearly a troubled individual and you see his character suffer and learn about himself as this whole investigation is going on. John Ortiz plays a priest that encounters the Messiah and he does a really good job on the show, he has a bit of a crisis of faith and meeting this Messiah provides him with more questions and it is interesting to see him having to deal with these events.

Story

This story is pretty interesting, the main story of trying to work out who this Messiah is really is pretty captivating and I thought the conclusion of the series provided an interesting take on this idea and kind of went in an interesting direction that I wasn't expecting. However, I thought some of the secondary storylines weren't particularly interesting and in some of them it just ends prematurely and doesn't give the payoff that made it worth the time in watching, this show could have done with being 8 episodes and focus some of the story up.

Script

The script is really quite serious, obviosuly with the subject matter it needs to be a pretty serious show. The dramatic dialogue was really good, there is some heavy drama in this show and there is plenty of intrigue, throughout which definitley keeps you watching. However, I mean I don't want it to be a comedy but a bit of humour would have helped flesh out the characters a bit more and make them feel even more interesting then just the drama that is happening. Plus the religious dialogue can come across quite heavy which if you watch a few episodes in a row it can be a bit too much.

Style

This show has a very tense tone to it, as you see the CIA try and find out more about The Messiah, you want to piece together the puzzle before they do but it is very difficult. I liked certain stylistic things like the use of local languages being used in the Middle East instead of using English and how there are multiple reactions to The Messiah which feels very real. But as mentioned a little bit before, this show could have benefited from being a few episodes shorter to make it more condensed and make it all interesting instead of having some less interesting side plots.

Overall

Overall, I suspect this show will offend different religous groups due to it's premise but if you give this show a chance it is a good show especially for a first season. If there is a second season I hope they condense the show and allow it to have 6-8 episodes instead of 10.

Rating - 7/10