Amazon Prime recently dropped the trailer for their upcoming Prime series, Good Omens.
Featuring a host of notable TV and movie actors, such as Michael Sheen, Jon Hamm, David Tennant, and Miranda Richardson, the six-part series is based on the best-selling book by fantasy author Neil Gaiman and the late Terry Pratchett.
Good Omens follows the relationship between a demon, Crowley (Tennant), and an angel, Aziraphale (Sheen). Both characters have lived on Earth since creation and the series shows them forming an unlikely alliance to prevent the coming of the Antichrist, and with it, the final battle between Heaven and Hell.
Obviously, these are big, biblical ideas: angels, demons, and the end times are key parts of Christianity. They’re also familiar themes in Hollywood. The supernatural is big business, for both movies and television. Netflix, for example, has just released another original series called The Order about a student, who joins a secret order that’s at war against werewolves. Check your local movie theater listings and you’ll be sure to see at least one movie involving the paranormal/supernatural.
How should Christians respond to Good Omens – and other shows like it? Should we reject them outright because of the way such serious subjects are handled? Should we watch them without a second thought, since it’s ‘only a show’?
Only you can make the final decision, but it is worth pausing to consider what we watch – and indeed, what we read. Movies and TV shows are huge influences in our lives. Stories have the power to shape us, to make us feel deep emotions, even to change our minds. What we watch can alter how we think and how we think guides how we live.
In Philippians 4:8, Paul says it like this: “Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable — if anything is excellent or praiseworthy — think about such things and the God of peace will be with you.”
This verse in Philippians is a really helpful filter to run our viewing habits through. Is this noble? Is this true? Is this pure, admirable, lovely? If not, then we have an obligation to question whether it really is the right thing to be watching. What we allow our eyes and minds to dwell on does affect us and we have a responsibility to take that seriously.
What shows like Good Omens, and others like it, should always do is remind us of The Story – that good and evil exist, that we are part of a bigger picture, that the supernatural world is real and that as Christians, we have been saved and brought into the kingdom of light. In our age of science and proof, humans are still intrigued by the supernatural; both the good and the bad.
Whether you decide to watch Good Omens or not, the truth remains the same. There is a Day coming where good will finally and totally triumph over evil, not team up with it.
Do you watch supernatural movies and TV shows? Let us know your take on them and what Fin shares in this article below.