Touched By An Angel
A couple of day ago I caught an episode of Touched By An Angel on early morning TV and thought I’d write a review of the show in general.
Touched By An Angel was a show that was produced by Paramount; it ran from 1994 to 2003 and lasted a whole 9 seasons! The show is reminiscent in many ways of the classic Michael Landon vehicle, Highway To Heaven, although Highway is a far better show.
The show revolves around an angel in human form, Monica, as she sets about doing good deeds for those who cannot seem to help themselves. She is helped in turn by another, more superior angel, Tessa, and the Angel of Death, Andrew (a good guy in this show), and together they are like a spiritual A-Team.
For the most part the show is engaging, although at times the “feel good” factor does border on becoming too much; there are occasions when the show becomes as sickly sweet as eating a pound of fudge while drinking a two litre bottle of Pepsi. Thankfully this doesn’t happen too often.
Although I like the show as a whole, I have issues with some of the material presented. For example, the shows theology is more than a little off in places (as stated above, the Angel of Death is a good guy?) and it features a very strong pluralistic worldview throughout, i.e. the name of Jesus and salvation through Jesus are never mentioned (maybe hinted at on occasion) and all religions seem to be lumped together in an “all roads lead to God – pick and mix – one size fits all” kind of way. An example of this was when the Mormon Tabernacle Choir featured quite predominately in one episode. They were shown to be just another mainline Christian denomination, which I had a problem with as the book of Mormon and the Mormon church in general teach stuff contrary to what the Bible teaches.
Some stuff I did like – John (Dukes of Hazzard, Smallville) Schneider’s portrayal of the devil, who, may I add, never really got enough screen time, and I also liked that almost every show ended with Monica telling that weeks hapless victim that God loves them, a powerful reminder of the simple yet enduring message of the cross. I have also gotten used to the Angel of Death being portrayed as a good guy (a good guy?) and to be honest he is probably my favorite character in the show.
The writers of Touched tackled some pretty thought provoking and tough issues, even if they were always handled in a light and fluffy manner, which makes it all the better for family viewing; each episode could also be used as a “faith” discussion starter for families or homeschoolers.
Although this isn’t a show I watch on a regular basis, I do find myself smiling whenever I do. However, in my humble opinion, the show would have been made all the better by going a little darker at times with the story lines; maybe the angels failing a mission or two and resulting consequences, or some plain old hand to hand combat between the angels of light and the devil’s infernal forces; although on second thought, I cannot imagine Monica and Tess all dressed to nines in combat gear, wielding huge spiritual swords, and shouting “Lock and load, we’re going in.”
Bottom line: I like Touched - I don’t love it, I just like it. If you enjoy shows like Highway to Heaven Twice In a Lifetime, and 7th Heaven, aren’t too bothered by theological inconsistencies such as the Angel of Death being portrayed as a good guy!?!, can get past the “one-size-fits-all” world view of religion and God, and want a show that is 99.9% free of violence, bad language, and sexual content, then Touched may just be what the doctor ordered.
Christian St John
November, 2008
