At least according to The History Channel: The fact that this show is a huge hit just proves that there's no hope for the human race. The asteroid can't come soon enough to suit me.
I've peeked in on it, and it's fucking lousy. The Bible epics from the 1940's were better than that shit. And it brings nothing new! It's the same tired old truncated, perfunctory, shallow Sunday-school shit they tried to pump into me as a little kid with lame cartoons. The critics praising the thing are fucking morons.
We watched this last night with my sunday school class, and I saw it. Right. Away. Everyone else disagreed with me.
Oh, and while I'm in a ranting mood, can either History Channel clean out the trash, or change it's fucking name?? Fairy tales (bronze aged, or otherwise) aren't history. UFOs and ghosts aren't history. Militaristic nationalism isn't history, unless you're looking at it from a detached critical perspective, and not gun-cumming.
Roma Downey and Mark Burnett have never stated anything negative about the President. I think this is more an example of people seeing what they want to see. Is there a faint resemblance? Sure, but upon even a second glance, it's easy to see the large differences between the two images. It's people looking for something to be indignant/cackle with glee about. According to the producers, the actor has portrayed the role of Satan a number of times before, many of them well before Obama was ever elected President of the U.S.
And if you look at a photo of Obama with a different expression on his face, the resemblance disappears pretty quickly.
Why is it that all the people portrayed in these so-called "Biblical Historical Epics" are white? Other than the Romans there was nary a white man to be seen in that part of the world, especially in the stories of the Old Testament. And if Satan is supposed to be so bad, why is he always 1000 times more interesting of a character than anyone else portrayed?
Simple answer: most of the actors are English or British. That said, I've noticed many non-white people in a lot of the scenes.
I'm more annoyed by the fact that they're all filthy. From the King on down to the peasant blind man, they're covered in dirt and grime. If we went from "The Bible" to "Vikings", you wouldn't be able to tell the difference. I refer to this Bible series as "The Bible, as presented by the WWE", because it's all oiled up, grimy wrestler types shouting their lines and standing in a dramatic pose while they bust out mad fighting skillz, yo. Also, for a series that is supposed to be more of a push against Bible illiteracy, the series sure does get things incorrect and fudge over details quite often. I mean, I'm not surprised, but it's still annoying.
Exactly the same? The Devil's cheeks are rather drawn in, whereas the Prez at this point has jowls. The Prez's nose is longer, less upturned than Lucifer's. Satan's lips are fuller and more protruding. The line on the Prezzy's chin is far more pronounced. And there's no huge-ass mole there. And, although it's hard to tell with the hoodie...I don't think Old Nick's ears stick out as much. Anybody who sees a resemblance is only looking at skin tone...
Just a couple. Mostly it's the glossing over of unpleasantness, for example: *David's attraction and subsequent relationship with Bathsheba. It was not consensual, nor was it a power play. Telling your King "no" was a quick way to lose important parts of your body. *Joshua and his army killed every last man, woman, and child in the Canaanite city, but this is completely glossed over. Speaking of which, they present Rahab as a faithful follower, when she is nothing of the sort. She even uses the name "Yahweh" when describing the God of these people, which is absurd, because she doesn't know who the hell the god of these invaders are. She just doesn't want to die, and these scouts promise that she won't if she helps them. It's a lot less "I believe in God!" than it is "don't kill me like you did those pre-schoolers over there." * Angels with Ninja fighting skillz. The people at Fuller Theological Seminary have been keeping track of a number of errors on their FB page: https://www.facebook.com/Fuller.ANE For me, the most damning thing is that through all of this, none of it grabs me in any way that is positive. I can watch a movie like "The Apostle" (Robert Duvall), and totally feel the conviction of Sonny, and the scenes where people are converted. They touch me, I can feel the earnestness in those scenes. This miniseries does nothing of the sort. If anything, it afflicts me with boredom and trite cliches followed up by grand gestures that are empty and devoid of any real meaning. I am an atheist, but I like to be inspired. This miniseries does nothing at all for me. If I really want to feel something from a Bible miniseries, I go watch Jesus of Nazareth.
I haven't seen this miniseries so I have to ask if that is how the actor actually looks under makeup or is he wearing a mask? If it's the former than this is just a coincidence and if it's the latter then yes it's a non-subtle message and the History Channel should be ashamed of themselves. Edit: After looking at the picture some more I have to also ask if he kept the hood up the whole time or if he took it down at some point.
Producer Mark Burnett (previously known best for that ultimate televised expression of Ayn Rand's philosophy , Survivor ) was probably expressing, rather crudely, his own political outlook.
Disagree. I don't think they're twins or anything, but they have similar features other than skin color.
Mark Burnett has donated large sums of money to the DNC (he's also worked for them in various media productions). He has also helped produce Sarah Palin's television show, so I doubt very highly that he burns bridges wherever he goes. Like I said, I think people are reading more into this than is actually there, and their own biases are filling in the blanks.
I think you're right, and I also just noticed something somewhat odd -- I can't find one single picture of the actor other than the one that the "OMG OBOMBA LOOKALIKE!" articles use. Not even other screencaps of the guy as the devil.
I really would rather believe that it's a coincidence. Maybe it was just a subtle joke/attention ploy. Whatever...from what I can tell from the clips and the reaction from a broad selection of Word Forgers the show is a mess and not really worth my time.
I found a picture of Mohamen Mehdi Ouazanni without the makeup. He bears very vague resemblances in the lips and lower jaw, but that's about it. It's more of a passing glance resemblance at best. Ugh, it's really not. I mean, to each their own, but I've found it a waste of time. If you like WWE and Asylum films, you might like it. Otherwise, it's better to just read the real thing and make up the SFX in your head. Nothing against the producers. I realize they wanted to make it look cool, but in the process, they made it all irrelevant.
What that picture makes clear is that he was made up to look a lot darker skinned than he really is. I don't think he was made up to look like the President, but he was surely made up under the belief that darker skin is more menacing and evil looking.
How can you tell? Everyone's covered in dirt! Seriously, though, he looks like he was made to appear menacing, and yes, the darker skin adds to that, but I don't think that a racist undertone was the intent. Hell, one of my favorite portrayals of Satan is from Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?, and Daniel von Bargen is fair skinned.
Come to think of it, if his skin toned was lightened a little and you went off the eye/eyebrow area, he'd be as much a Tommy Lee Jones lookalike as he is an Obama lookalike from the nose down. So, yeah, it's people seeing what they want to see.
