What are the best streaming shows right now for connecting faith and life through theological reflection? Compass shares their recommendations.
It’s a big episode! It’s episode 100 for the Compass podcast! And we’re introducing a new member to the Compass team. In order to get to know our team, we’re recommending several shows and movies to stream right now that help us start theological reflection and connect the Divine to our day-to-day lives.
What are you watching this year? Get some watching and streaming recommendations here!
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What are our recommended shows to stream for theological reflection?
00:00 Introduction
00:43 Introducing our new co-host, Michelle Maldonado!
07:12 Agents of SHIELD
11:20 Good Omens
15:05 Buffy the Vampire Slayer
17:46 Emancipation
20:24 Smallville
24:09 Signs
26:39 Star Trek
29:08 Bill and Ted Face the Music
32:15 Lucifer
33:23 Glitch
Related episodes
- How gaming inspires faith
- Pastors of TikTok
- Experiencing God in nature
- Do UFOs have anything to do with faith?
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This episode posted on January 11, 2023.
Episode transcript
Ryan Dunn:
This is the Compass Podcast where we disrupt the everyday with glimpses of divine movement. One of the ways we disrupt is through identifying theological questions and themes in the entertainment we consume, like shows we watch on Prime or something like Disney+. And in this episode, we're going to give you 10 ideas or shows or movies you can watch right now to get thinking theologically and awaking a sense of divine movement in your life.
Lots going on in this episode. It's our 100th-ish episode of Compass, so you can cue the celebratory soundbites, we're celebrating that milestone. And one of the ways that we're celebrating is by saying hi to someone new. We have a new co-host and producer, if you're looking at the video, a new face. Michelle Maldonado is part of the team. Michelle, I'm going to throw you, not under the bus, I'm going to throw the spotlight you right off the bat here. What are three things that we should know about you?
Michelle Maldonado:
Hi, I'm Michelle. Three things to know about me.
Ryan Dunn:
That can be one. We got your name.
Michelle Maldonado:
Yeah. Got my name. I'm a sci-fi nerd. There's two. And three, I don't know, I'm boring. I like to travel.
Ryan Dunn:
Ah, there you go. Yeah, one of the things that we'll see about Michelle is that she generally works from different locations. At any given time, you are not only at different places within the US, but you've had some curious other spots. What has been maybe the most abnormal working location that you've enjoyed over the past couple years?
Michelle Maldonado:
Oh my God, that's easy. Cairo, Egypt. That was fantastic. It was really trippy for people on Zoom to see the background because it was the three pyramids and sunset. So around 9:00 AM, the sun is setting for me, which is four something in the afternoon. And people would just tell me like, "Oh, that is such a cool digital background. How did you do that?" Well, I flew 20 hours to Africa.
Ryan Dunn:
There are no green screens involved-
Michelle Maldonado:
No green screens. And the other cool thing is the call to prayer several times a day while working. That was pretty cool.
Ryan Dunn:
Did you find that being a reminder to yourself? Would you pause down in the course of-
Michelle Maldonado:
I would.
Ryan Dunn:
... doing that? Yeah, cool.
Michelle Maldonado:
I would, I just felt like it was a respectful thing to do.
Ryan Dunn:
Yeah, totally.
Michelle Maldonado:
When I got back, I actually missed that a lot.
Ryan Dunn:
Yeah. Well, one of the things that we hope to do in this podcast is be that clearing and call for people to pause down and have a little, I guess, inspirational reflection. Of course, Michelle's presence here might stir up some questions about our friend, Pierce Drake, who has been a huge part of the previous 100 episodes of the Compass Podcast. And Pierce started a new ministry position, moved his family in the course of 2022, and initially we thought that was going to be making a temporary break, and that turned an extended break, both as he adjusted to life in new climbs, and as we had some altering circumstances in United Methodist Communications, which is the parent company, so to speak, of the Compass Podcast.
And at that time, it became clear that if we were going to move forward with having a co-host, and co-producer, it was really going to need to be somebody inside of UMCOM, and Michelle is one of those people. And after a rigorous hazing and audition process, Michelle was the only person who didn't say, "This is stupid," and just quit. I'm kidding. Michelle was just the right fit in bringing some fresh and unique perspective and some vitality and some new ideas, now that we're a hundred episodes in, it was time for just a little freshness. Michelle, we're really looking forward to you bringing that. And before we get to streaming, one of our questions of initiation on this podcast comes from our shared Methodist tradition. How goes with your soul?
Michelle Maldonado:
Well, I can easily say everything is good, all is good. Especially after Christmas, I got to go home to Florida and spend a month with my family, and that was really nice. I was very stressed out before and I just feel at peace now.
Ryan Dunn:
Right on. Okay. Hey, and how cool was it that, in your experience, the family is peace bringing and not more anxiety delivering?
Michelle Maldonado:
I know. I think it's just because it's like that, oh, I hate to say the cliche, but what's that saying, the distance makes the heart grow fonder.
Ryan Dunn:
Grow fonder, yeah.
Michelle Maldonado:
Yeah, I just miss my family, so being home with them is just nice, especially since my parents are getting older too. I guess I've realized, let me not be annoyed by them because someday I'm going to miss this.
Ryan Dunn:
Yeah, where all their, I guess little quirks and idiosyncrasies are not annoying any longer, but they're kind of cute. Cool. All right, well, let's talk streaming. We were looking for a fun, disarming way for you, the listener, to get to know Michelle and maybe even a little bit more about me. And we also wanted to give you some useful ideas, tips and information. And so we thought it would be cool to talk about some of the things that we've watched, that got us thinking about aspects or occurrences of the Divine. And Michelle, we didn't really establish a whole lot of ground rules on this. One of the things that we decided is that we would just each propose five shows or movies that got us thinking theologically, and we haven't compared our lists, so this could totally blow up. Theoretically, we could have the same five items on our list, but knowing each other, I don't think that's going to be the case.
Real quick, before we get to listing, I want to note that we're recording this at the start of 2023, so if you're listening down the road of time, in some course, these things may not be available where we say that they are, but also a number of streaming sources have introductory periods going on right now, so you can sample them for free. For example, one of my recommendations comes from Apple TV, which is not a service that I normally have a subscription for, but we picked up a month-long sampler somehow over the Christmas season. And if there's something that really catches your fancy, you might be able to do something like that too. Anyways, let's get to the business, listing our 10 shows or movies you can stream right now for theological reflection. Michelle, you want to go first? You want me to jump in?
Michelle Maldonado:
I can go first.
Ryan Dunn:
All right, take it.
Michelle Maldonado:
I don't have a list, but this list is large because...
Ryan Dunn:
All right.
Michelle Maldonado:
It's going to make sense in a second. Over the month that I was in Florida, I was like, "You know what? Let me just finally get to this goal I've had for years to watch the entire Marvel Universe in chronological order.
Ryan Dunn:
Okay.
Michelle Maldonado:
See, I don't have it exactly a list, but this one is very, very large.
Ryan Dunn:
How many hours did you sink into that, do you think?
Michelle Maldonado:
Oh, I'm already at Loki.
Ryan Dunn:
Okay.
Michelle Maldonado:
Many hours. Yeah, I don't know. It's many hours. But no, it's been really interesting just that the overarching theme of the good versus evil, but then these gray areas where you're like" "I kind of see the bad guy's point, but they're not going about it right, so I guess that makes them the villain of the story." That's just been really interesting to watch, especially as an adult, because when I first started watching the Marvel Universe, it started with Iron Man way back in the day. I think I was probably still either in high school or in college. Watching it now as an adult with different perspective, has been really interesting.
Ryan Dunn:
Yeah, it does get to you somewhat when it's like you start to identify a little bit with the villain, like Thanos for all the chaos that ensues when Thanos does what Thanos does. You get where he is coming from there and just trying to offer people better lives, that's the ultimate goal.
Michelle Maldonado:
Yeah, he totally went about it in questionable way. But yeah, I got it. I get it. I didn't see him as this a big evil villain the way I did as a kid.
Ryan Dunn:
Did you have one movie or show so far that's stuck out to you that you want to bring up first?
Michelle Maldonado:
Probably Agents of Shield. It's interwoven throughout all of the cinematic movies, so it ties a lot of things together and they're really good about that fine line between being the good guy and the bad guy in that gray area, so it's been fun to watch.
Ryan Dunn:
Okay. I am generally a Marvel fan. I haven't watched Agents of Shield. Is there a particular way that you saw the good versus evil storyline lived out there?
Michelle Maldonado:
With every character, even the good guys because they've had to make tough calls that can be life and death for other people, and you see their struggle with it, but you also get why they might've done that tough call that turned them into the evil villain of the episode or the season.
Ryan Dunn:
And what do you know where we can stream that? Is that a Disney+ thing?
Michelle Maldonado:
That is Disney+. It used to be Netflix, but now it's Disney+.
Ryan Dunn:
Okay. All right. See, we're learning already. That's one thing I haven't made a priority to watch, that I need to go back and look through. Again-
Michelle Maldonado:
And mind you that I'm a DC fan.
Ryan Dunn:
Yeah. Oh man, we watched Black Adam over the weekend. We're going to have to talk about that in a little bit.
Michelle Maldonado:
Oh, I haven't watched it yet. It's on my cue. I was going to watch it today, actually.
Ryan Dunn:
Okay. All right. Yeah, it probably doesn't match. Well, maybe it would match into what we're talking about here, but it wasn't readily there for me, so I didn't quite see the theological tie-in. That being said, for my own list, I know that we didn't have ground rules, but I did improvise my own. And the first thing was that I didn't want to go for anything too obvious. Movies that were made for the express purpose of causing theological discourse, I just threw those out. God's not Dead movies are not on my list. We're not going to have Facing the Giants. Nothing with Lorenzo Lamas or Kirk Cameron on my list. I also wanted to just for my own purposes, try to stay away from things that were super well covered in the spiritual circles that I circulate around. I tried to identify things that were accessible, of course, but not already super popular, at least in my mind, although that's really subjective and people are probably going to look at my list and be like, "Well, duh, I've already seen all that."
But these were things that I thought might have some fresh perspective, including my first pick. And I feel like it's the lowest hanging fruit on my list as it's pretty theological and fairly popular. And it hits the same theme that you were just talking about with the good verse evil stuff. It's a show called Good Omens on Amazon Prime. And just to give a snapshot of what's going on in that show, there's an angel and a demon, and they figure out that all they ever do on their various actions over the course of time is cancel each other's works out. They come up to an agreement to help each other out from time to time. And through doing that, they become friends.
And so when signs start popping up that the end of the world is near while they join efforts to literally save the world. And that's really where the story ensues. And I thought it was cool in that there's a sense of innocence in the series. It's relatively free of violent scenes. Violent actions occur, but they aren't spattering blood everywhere. There's no really disgusting stuff that happens. The only sex scene is treated rather whimsically, and it's mostly just an illusion. You don't see what's actually going on there. And I think that the innocence that they portray, plays into the key theological themes of the show, because it's really this fascinating journey into theodicy, which is that dealing with the existence of good and evil.
And it's fun to think about then, who is the more empathetic character. What you were talking about with the Marvel stuff. Do I really identify with the angel or with the demon? Because there's a lot to dislike about the demon. He's played by David Tennant. Not that that's a bad thing. I like David Tennant as an actor-
Michelle Maldonado:
I love him.
Ryan Dunn:
Yeah, former Dr. Who. Are you a Dr. Who person?
Michelle Maldonado:
Oh, yes. I am.
Ryan Dunn:
I forgot. Okay-
Michelle Maldonado:
Which by the way, he's going to be you back as 10 with [inaudible 00:13:17] and the special coming up.
Ryan Dunn:
Okay. All right. See, here we go. We're going down that sci-fi rabbit hole. Anyway, in this case, he's really smug in the character, and of course he's self-centered, he's a demon, but he grows on us when he starts to do these unselfish things in the interest of helping his angelic friend. And then he helps all of humanity and who can't get behind that. And then Michael Sheen plays the angel, and he's so sweetly good, both as an actor, but also the character is just so saccharin. Everything that he does is good. And it's hard not to enjoy that kind of innocence. But his storyline really makes us, the viewers, wonder if someone can completely be good and exist in this world. Because there are a number of times where the angel's goodness lands him in situations that are really only going to be survived by committing a little connivery and some self-interest.
And ultimately then we get to entertain ideas of redemption as we watch both the demon and the actual anti-Christ, figure out what's important for a happy existence. And while grace is never really mentioned, it's definitely present in the story. All kinds of things going on there. It's a lot of fun. I've binged it in one weekend, so not terribly long. Not a super long commitment. Just several hours. And it's available again on Amazon Prime, Whew. Exhausted that one. All right. You got a second thing on the list?
Michelle Maldonado:
I do. You were just talking about redemption and the struggles between the angels and demons, and that reminded me of one of my favorite shows ever. Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and then the spinoff, Angel, which that is exactly what the whole theme is about. Yeah, you just reminded me of that.
Ryan Dunn:
Dang, I thought I would be the only one digging back to the...
Michelle Maldonado:
Oh, no.
Ryan Dunn:
The old movies. All right.
Michelle Maldonado:
I have a whole complete series of DVD's somewhere back here in my shelf.
Ryan Dunn:
Right, do you actually have a DVD player where you can pull it out and watch it?
Michelle Maldonado:
I do. Yeah.
Ryan Dunn:
Good for you. That's hilarious. Is there a part of the storyline that sticks out to you from Buffy?
Michelle Maldonado:
The redemption part, because that's all that Angel is trying to find, and then Spike eventually is on the same path because they want a soul, two demons want a soul.
Ryan Dunn:
Yeah.
Michelle Maldonado:
The whole storyline is just fascinating.
Ryan Dunn:
Yeah. Okay. I can see that. All right. Well, do you remember what the years were on Buffy the Vampire Slayer?
Michelle Maldonado:
'96.
Ryan Dunn:
Okay. Yeah, sounds about right.
Michelle Maldonado:
1996, and then the spinoff of Angel, 2000, 2001.
Ryan Dunn:
Hmm. All right. Here's total deep dive inner nerdery. Do you know the name of the band who did the Buffy the Vampire Slayer theme song, and then what the significance of their name is?
Michelle Maldonado:
I don't remember.
Ryan Dunn:
The name of the band is Nerve Hurter.
Michelle Maldonado:
Oh.
Ryan Dunn:
You know where that name comes from?
Michelle Maldonado:
I Dd not.
Ryan Dunn:
Oh, it's a Star Wars reference, so it's nerdery all the way around. Yeah, when Princess Leia's insulting Hans Solo at one point, she calls him a scruffy looking nerve hurter, and there we get the band Nerve Hurter.
Michelle Maldonado:
That's awesome.
Ryan Dunn:
Yeah, who sang the theme song for Buffy the Vampire Slayer and gave us other hits such as, We Opened for Weezer.
Michelle Maldonado:
If you would've asked me the theme, who's the band that did the theme song, Smallville, that's my number one show right there. Second is Buffy. I'd be like, "Yep, Remy Zero."
Ryan Dunn:
Remy Zero?
Michelle Maldonado:
Remy Zero.
Ryan Dunn:
See, I didn't know that one. Okay, well, I'll jump in with my number two pick. I feel like we've been lighthearted. This one goes deep. I'm disrupting right here because it's like the record scratch like, "Oh, we're going to go there?" Yes, we're going to go there. It's Emancipation with Will Smith. And this is the story of an enslaved black man living in Louisiana during the Civil War. And Will Smith, of course, is that lead character. And ultimately, he escapes captivity, and then he goes on this odyssey like quest to reunite with his family. And it's tough to watch because it does not depict the better side of humanity and expectedly, it has a lot of scenes of mistreatment of people and violence. But theologically, there are a couple fascinating things going on in this movie because Will Smith's character is expressed as a very faithful man.
He often repeats the phrase, "God is good." It's a mantra for him at many points in the movie. And we get a sense through that, that for him, faith is hope. His character trusts by saying that God is good. His character trusts in the ultimate goodness of God, despite all these circumstances, which he's subjected to, all this harm, oppression, violence that would really take away from that message. And it really reminded me of a book by Victor Frankl called, Man's Search for Meaning. And Frankl sets his book in a Nazi concentration camp, it's his actual-lived experience. Instead, this movie takes place in slave camps in the American South. But the truth that both of these things point to is that those who persevere in conditions that are challenging like that or oppressive like that, are the people who do so out of a sense of higher purpose.
They're not just living out of self-preservation, it's about bearing witness to a possibility of a better world, which Will Smith's character seems to pursue it just about every possible story point, even if it means putting himself in harm's way. And then on the flip side of that, we have the religion of the oppressors who utilize faith to maintain the status quo. There's this scene where there's a preacher who's preaching about what good slaves do. And I really appreciate about the movie, one of the things that I really appreciate is that it exposes the idea that that faith holds us in place because there's a sense of inevitability in Will Smith's character and his faith, prevailing over that of the oppressors who continually speak that the system of slavery is God's will. Anyway, that's Emancipation with Will Smith, and you can stream that on Apple TV currently.
All right. What you got for number three?
Michelle Maldonado:
Number three? Well, I briefly mentioned Smallville. That was going to be more of an honorable mention, fun fact in the comics, they're Methodist.
Ryan Dunn:
Oh, yeah.
Michelle Maldonado:
Yeah. Superman is Methodist in case nobody knew that, but no, Smallville, it's such an interesting take on the whole story of Superman, because its before he was Superman, he was a kid in high school and early college, so a young adult age, and the whole theme of the show, yes, good versus evil. That's the first thing that you're going to think of. Clark Kent, Superman versus Lex Luther. The overarching theme is fear.
It's fear that the Kents' have of somebody finding out that their child is an alien from outer space with superhuman powers. Clark Kent, because he's not Superman yet, so he's Clark Kent. He is always afraid and carries his fear of being discovered, of harming his friends because he is so strong. And then you have the Luthers', so Lex Luther, who is a major part of the show, his fear is being rejected by his father, rejected by his best friend, Clark Kent, reject because they're friends at this point. They're not evil yet. It's just that fear of rejection by everybody.
Ryan Dunn:
Does Clark Kent grow up knowing the extent of his power?
Michelle Maldonado:
Yes, he does.
Ryan Dunn:
Okay.
Michelle Maldonado:
So that's why his fear just keeps growing because he doesn't know what's going to happen next. He doesn't know what power he's going to get next. He doesn't know how to control them. It's just fear, fear all around and how to manage it and live life.
Ryan Dunn:
Yeah. I've always wondered, did Jesus grow up in a similar way with these things being revealed over time? So often we see Jesus portrayed as being totally in control and always knowing what's going to happen in the next step. But I wonder if sometimes Jesus was just as surprised as everybody else that things came out. And I think, if we talk about Jesus being fully human, there has to be an aspect of that. There have to be times where when Jesus was just like, "I didn't know that was possible. I didn't think that would work."
Michelle Maldonado:
There's this story. This book was not in the Bible cannon that we used, but I learned about it when I was doing my doctorate. Fun fact, I'm a doctor, not a medical doctor. I learned this story. I don't remember all of it, but the main point of it was that when Jesus was a kid, he was probably six or seven years old, he saw this dead bird and he got really sad, "Oh no, this little birdie died." He picked it up and brought it back to life, and people saw it and people freaked out. His parents had to come running and explain to him, "You can't do that out in public." Yeah, it reminded me a lot about Smallville, and I started seeing those parallels, yeah, there's probably some of that, until he kind of figured out what was going on.
Ryan Dunn:
Yeah, there are some crazy stories like apocryphal stories like that, that exist outside the Bible about some of the things that Jesus did growing up. Some of which are questionable, but you picked one of the better ones, the restoration of the bird, and not when he struck down a fellow player who angered him. Those are out there as well. You can look them up on your own time. Let's see, what are we at, number three? Am I at number three? It's funny. I thought I would be the one going old school, but you've outdated me so far. Well, no, I am going to reach back farther, but this one goes back to 2002, and it's one of M. Night Shymalan's first films called, Signs. It's currently streaming on HBOMax. And this is the story of a pastor, I guess, really a former pastor when we find him in the movie, who has lost his faith after the death of his wife. And then strange things start happening around his family farm, which ultimately, were in sides of an alien invasion, things that happen in everyday life.
Michelle Maldonado:
That's another Wednesday.
Ryan Dunn:
The key question that pops up in the movie is whether or not everything happens for a reason, which everybody who invests themselves into a life of faith, I think we all struggle with that question at some point. For the pastor who's played by Mel Gibson, he made a decision that there's no way that everything could happen for a reason, since that would mean that his wife's premature death happened for some purpose, or there was some divine mechanism behind it or something like that.
And that's the interesting part, because at the end of the movie, we really have to ask ourselves that if we're going to accept that so many of the other signs that popped up through the movie were in some way divinely planted, does that mean that the horrific traumatic death of a parent or spouse was divinely inspired too? And does that mean that everything in life is inevitable as well?
M. Night has a role in the movie as a character. He plays the person in the movie who caused the death of the wife and his character is wrestling with a feeling that if anything else had changed, if he had just done this one little thing different, or if one little action had been shifted around just a little bit, then everything would've been different. And it's similar to the self-talk that a lot of us endure after difficult or even disappointing events, we beat ourselves up in retrospect. Now, I don't think the movie wraps up any of these questions for us. Instead, I think we're just given the series of events portrayed in these extraordinary circumstances, and then we get to make the same decisions that the characters are invited to make. Is all this random? Is it all on purpose, or is there something else at play there? Is it a little bit of both, or is it neither?
Michelle Maldonado:
Right.
Ryan Dunn:
Anyway, 2002, which it's HBOMax, the movie, Signs. All right, we're pressing on. What you got, number four?
Michelle Maldonado:
Taking it even further back.
Ryan Dunn:
Oh man.
Michelle Maldonado:
They don't make them like they used to.
Ryan Dunn:
I suppose not.
Michelle Maldonado:
Star Trek, the OGs
Ryan Dunn:
The original Star Trek?
Michelle Maldonado:
The OG, yeah. All the way from the sixties through Next Gen, even to the current one, Picard starts next month.
Ryan Dunn:
Oh, that's right.
Michelle Maldonado:
It's been decades of episodes, but the way that they still portray social justice, they portray socioeconomic situations, immigration, everything that we go through in life, they portray it in such a way that you forget you're going through it, but you see it from a different lens, so you start rooting for the aliens, that mirror undocumented folks, for example, and you're rooting for them. It mirrors so much of our real life, and my hope has always been, I hope that people realize that when they're rooting for these people in the shows, it's mirroring the exact same situations that real folks are going through. It gives people perspective, like, "Oh, okay. I understand now, just from seeing it from that perspective."
Ryan Dunn:
It can be a little maddening though. So that show started in the '60s, correct?
Michelle Maldonado:
Yes.
Ryan Dunn:
And the social issues that they're speaking to today are really still dealt with.
Michelle Maldonado:
Yes.
Ryan Dunn:
That they were speaking to in their day are really still and dealt with in our day, right?
Michelle Maldonado:
Yeah. It's sad.
Ryan Dunn:
Yeah.
Michelle Maldonado:
It's sad. But yeah, it is what it is. It's an escape, but it's not at the same time. Almost you can work through issues, social issues, while watching these shows.
Ryan Dunn:
Yeah, no, I get it. Well, and that goes to say that in terms of us watching it from today's perspective, there's still a sense of relevance there. We're not just looking at a time capsule in the past, there's still some truth to be learned in our day and age. All right. Well, I'm going to jump back into the past sort of, minus part of a franchise that's been going on for a long time. This is from Amazon Prime, Bill and Ted Face the Music, and this is one that that's definitely relative to people of a certain age. The original Bill and Ted came out when I was in middle school. I'm not going to put a year on that, but you can look it up. And I'll tell you, really, I could add all three Bill and Ted movies to this list, but I thought that would be just a little too redundant.
We're just picking out Bill and Ted Face the Music. And in this case, Bill and Ted are two aged, I don't know how to really put it, they're just two aged idiots. Originally, they're portrayed as the stereotypical teenager, full of naivete and closed worldview and all that stuff. Well, we've just taken that stereotype and we've advanced it into middle agedness. And so all that naivete is still somewhat present, but the series revolves around these two bringing peace to the world through their rock band. And they've been told by time travelers from the future, that their music is going to bring peace and alignment to all of creation.
Well, the challenge in Bill and Ted Face the Music is that Bill and Ted are now middle-aged, and they haven't yet produced the music that delivers on this promised future. And to me, this is a total allegory for what we Christians believe is happening in the world because we believe that the world is on course to come together in justice and peace. We always find ourselves asking like, "When oh when, oh God? When's it going to happen? And what's it going to take from us?"
Well, of course we have the witness of Jesus to suggest that here's what it's going to take from humanity for this to happen. And I feel like this movie, and the Bill and Ted movies in general, they provide reminders that the goal of the Christian life is not just to be removed to some other happy place when we die, but that the teachings of Jesus and the goal of the Christian life, revolve around the idea that God's kingdom is breaking into earth in the here and now, and that we're agents of establishing that peaceful kingdom on Earth. And Bill and Ted Face the Music is all about then what it takes from humanity to inspire the establishment of a heaven on earth.
And that's a lot of theological listing from two naive and really imperfect dudes. And I will caveat to say that if you don't like slapstick humor or outlandish humor, then this probably isn't the movie series for you. And if you do, do the deep dive back into the past movies, there are scenes that are reflective of the times in which they were produced. But one of the things that I appreciate about Bill and Ted Face the Music, is that the franchise seems to have grown in wisdom and awareness since they were originally produced, just like the rest of us have grown in wisdom and awareness too. That's Bill and Ted Face the Music, it's on Amazon Prime. And I think I'm down to my last one. You down to your last one?
Michelle Maldonado:
Yeah, actually my last one is, I'll mention it quickly. Interestingly enough, my last one is Lucifer, that is on Netflix. Now, that one is such an interesting take on the story of angels, the Devil. It's such a fascinating way of telling a different take on that story of the good and the evil and redemption. Have you seen that one?
Ryan Dunn:
I've seen episodes of it. I have not seen the whole series in full.
Michelle Maldonado:
Its worth it. It took some convincing for my parents to watch it.
Ryan Dunn:
Yeah.
Michelle Maldonado:
My mom's a pastor. I had to explain what it was for them to be like, "I don't know about that." Get past the name. It's a good show. Give it a chance. But no, it's really good. It makes you really think about the different perspectives. Again, the same theme with the good versus the evil, the confusion and how it's just a really good show. I don't want to spoil it, so I'll leave it at that.
Ryan Dunn:
Okay. All right. Well, I'll dive into my last one real quick. It's on Netflix. It's called Glitch. It's an Australian series, and the premise is weird. It's a number of people who are buried in a cemetery near a rural town.
Michelle Maldonado:
I've seen that.
Ryan Dunn:
Oh, have you? Okay. Yeah. They all of a sudden come back to life and they have all their faculties. They're not zombies, but they don't have their memories of their past lives, at least when they first wake up and things get real crazy then, when they start to get recognized and they come across former family members or loved one. And the questions for much of the series is why and how did these people come back? And for us, that really brings to mind the big question of, why are any of us here? Is there purpose? Is it just random? Or what are we meant to do with our lives? Is there purpose behind it all? And we get to wrestle with one of the questions posed to Jesus through this. Jesus was challenged with the idea that if we're resurrected, if we do come back to life, what would happen to a person who was married, but then their spouse died and then they remarried and then it happened again? Who would they be married to in the resurrection? Well, that happens in this show. We come across that instance-
Michelle Maldonado:
And they can't leave.
Ryan Dunn:
Yeah, They can't escape. They cease to be if they do leave. And I think what's really important about the questions about life calling and purpose, that the show does bring up. And again, that's, Glitch. You get to listen to everyone's cool Australian accent. And it's on Netflix. And I probably should mention a couple trigger warnings about sexual violence in the show and sex in general. That one can be, it's probably more on the more gratuitous end. Cool. Well, we are wrapping this up. You got any that you just want to add in there as honorable mentions?
Michelle Maldonado:
I'll throw some Spanish ones in there. The English translation that Netflix has is the Unbroken Voice. This one's not sci-fi, it's a little bit more regular series. It's a Colombian series and it's, I believe it's a real life story. It's set in the '70s and '80s, and it follows the story of this girl and her family. She's trying to get out of poverty with music and she's very, very feminist, for her time in the eighties. It's that struggle too, of trying to be the breadwinner for her family, but still facing all that sexism. There's some racism elements too, because Columbia is not except from that, unfortunately, it's a worldwide plague. She also struggles with her faith when she feels that she's not getting any backup from God, it's very interesting.
Ryan Dunn:
But my honorable mention might be Midnight Mass on Netflix, but I think everybody's seen that, so I don't have to go into a whole lot about that. Cool. Well, hey, we're wrapping up episode 100 or episode number one for Michelle. How you feel?
Michelle Maldonado:
It's good.
Ryan Dunn:
All right.
Michelle Maldonado:
I was nervous, but no, it's been nice.
Ryan Dunn:
Yeah, we're having a good time here. And if you listener are having a good time, then I invite you to go back and listen to some of our past episodes of Compass. Hey, there's 100 of them or so to choose from, so many episodes in there as well. And that's actually listening to another episode is one of the ways that you can pay it forward for us. And while you're clicking through stuff, go ahead and leave a rating and review. If you want to get ahold of us, you can email us, either of us, at rethinkchurch@umcom.org. We'd love to converse with you there, especially if you have some episode ideas or questions that we might be able to address for you in a future episode. Big thanks to United Methodist Communications who produces this podcast and to you, listener for making it all possible. You're the reason we're here. Thanks so much. We'll catch you again with a new episode in two weeks. In the meantime, peace.
Michelle Maldonado:
Have a good one.
