User Reviews

The religious-based thriller series, Messiah, is one of the first new Netflix Originals of 2020. Created by Michael Petroni, known for writing films such as, The Book Thief and The Rite, the story unfolds from the points of view of multiple narrators.

When CIA officer Eva Geller (Michelle Monaghan) uncovers information about a man (Mehdi Dehbi) gaining international attention through acts of public disruption, she begins an investigation into his origins. As he continues to cultivate followers who allege he's performing miracles, the global media become increasingly beguiled by this charismatic figure. Geller must race to unravel the mystery of whether he really is a divine entity or a deceptive con artist capable of dismantling the world's geopolitical order.

It's interesting to see a series about politics and religion, and the criticism on both subjects being made by a platform like Netflix, in the way they present it like they do, with Messiah. Not only do they cover different religions and similarities between them, but also the locations in which the entire story takes place, is on a more international level, to which at least one third of the series is subtitled, due to different languages (in this case Hebrew and Arabic) being spoken by our main characters. This way the series reaches a broader audience, and discussion leads to word of mouth, which leads to more viewers checking out the series.

As the story unfolds, multiple perspectives are interwoven including that of an Israeli intelligence officer (Tomer Sisley), a Texas preacher (John Ortiz) and his daughter (Stefania LaVie Owen), a Palestinian refuge (Sayyid El Alami) and the journalist (Jane Adams) who covers the story. All of these very diverse characters have an important role in how the "Messiah"'s actions will develop and in to which extent the world will try and stop or encourage his message. This influences the viewer to go either way in believing this mysterious man's vision, when more and more weirdly inexplicable phenomena take place all over the world.

A sandstorm of biblical proportions is the start of a political, military and religious shift in the world, but with social media and videos/news going viral in no time, what is real and what has been altered to entertain and push the masses into believing what governments or criminals want you to believe?Messiah makes you think about religion and politics, without ever judging anyone's beliefs.

One of the stars of the series, Michelle Monaghan (Mission: Impossible - Fallout), as the driven CIA officer Geller, brings us a composed and strong female character with her own personal problems, who's constantly worrying about her sick father and questions everything she's ever believed in. She's here to ask the real questions and investigate if this isn't all just part of a cult or some sort of apocalyptic propaganda. Monaghan gets to showcase some of her dramatic talent early on in the series. She does seem to be presented as the poster child of the series in earlier news articles and trailers, but this isn't the case. She shares most of her precious screen time with other international actors who have a big part to play in the whole of the story. Tomer Sisley (We're The Millers) is one hell of an actor, he plays a seriously troubled Israeli intelligence officer, who has to deal with some personal issues. His performance is pretty typical for the character he's playing, but with his accent and rough looks, it gives him that extra edge at being tough and menacing, ready to shoot anyone that looks in his direction.

The real star of the show is Mehdi Dehbi (Tyrant). The man he plays is smart, he's highly educated and knows everything about everyone - he sees you like you really are. Dehbi, with his piercing eyes, is perfectly cast as the main character. The looks and somewhat arrogant confidence, make him seem dangerous, when he tries to portray himself as someone safe and someone you can confide in. He makes mistakes, but this could all be part of a bigger plan he has in his mind. Dehbi embodies his character and steals the spotlight in each scene he's in, even with the most established actors, such as Monaghan herself.

The writing isn't as focused as one might hope for. It's confusing at times, while jumping between different locations and following several different main characters at the same time. This does get better later on in the series, when everything starts to come together and settles down. The writers do make an effort at keeping everything eventful and exhilarating, with a few spectacular special effects heavy scenes, which are designed wonderfully.

Messiah is an incendiary thriller that explores the power of influence and disbelief in the age of social media, made to provoke and look beyond what's right in front of you. A geopolitical scam or a miraculous resurrection?

I'm really puzzled by how this show has an almost 8 rating.

Literally nothing happened... I love/am all for slow burn, higher level thinking, introspective shows. But this gave me nothing to work with. Nothing at all. The Messiah himself did nothing. He spent like 60% of the episodes in a hotel room. I am so perplexed. I thought the concept of the show seemed intriguing and that there would be suspense, action, events that would hook me in. But I was bored for 10 hours.

Aside from that, there were no good characters to attach to, root for, or feel all that compelled by. The most interesting was Aviram who got much less screen time than many other less interesting characters. For example Felix, who was by far the most annoying character I've seen in awhile.

I'll give a 2 star for some rare moments of intrigue, but honestly I can't find too many redeeming qualities.

I wanted to share some reflections about the controversial new series, "The Messiah", as I believe there is a lot of confusion surrounding it. But what is more important than the disputed identity of the so called "messiah" is what's happening around him.

There is, of course, the typical political agenda of the show. For example, it isn't the Israeli military occupier that is shown killing people in Israel. It is only the Muslim suicide bombers. In fact, the Israeli army is shown to be so benevolent that they allow hundreds of Muslim refugees safe passage into Israel, and never harm a single one of them. Even the one Israeli intelligence agent who has harmed people, is humanized and multi-dimensional. We meet his little daughter and her mother, and we see him tormented by what he had to do in his line of work. We even get an explanation of why he harmed the boy (because his father was a terrorist who killed the Isreali agent's mother). The violent Isreali agent is shown as redeemable and is told by the "Messiah" that God loves him.

In contrast to the Isreali character, we see a "Muslim" character who teaches Quran at a madrasa (school). We know absolutely nothing about him, except that he has a long beard and walks around in a thowb, looking angry and reciting Quran in Arabic. And this leads to what is most disturbing and sinister about this series.

This "Quran teacher" never speaks about politics. He expresses no political views or even grievances. There is no "political brainwashing". No grooming. No training. Just Quran. One verse in particular:

"O you who have believed, what is (the matter) with you that, when you are told to go forth in the cause of Allah , you adhere heavily to the earth? Are you satisfied with the life of this world rather than the Hereafter? But what is the enjoyment of worldly life compared to the Hereafter except a very little." (9:38)

The man just walks around reciting this verse a few times. And that's it. That's all it took. Reciting the Quran in Arabic a few times and he has created a mass killer. His "student" suddenly transforms from being a benevolent boy, into a suicide bomber--just by reciting Quran. No political manifesto or ideas. No manipulative brainwashing. Just Quran.

And this is the most poisonous narrative which need to recognize, reject, and speak out against.

I enjoyed this story a great deal and love that it tackled how might someone with abilities beyond the norm be percieved in todays society... !st off people are so eager to Follow and not think for themselves..we want a figure, be it religious or political ect to Fix the world and our lives because we dont want to take the responsibility to do it ourselves...Spoilers ahead ,be warned..It became clear early on that the figure himself never claimed to be "the messiah" nor did he try to aquire followers or want cults, christian or otherwise forming around him...the minister had this idea in mind, thought the character knew all the answers, and tried to form a christian cult around him with of course, the minister at its head... the ego in this! it has been going on from time immemorial that the church formed a cult around christ and his teachings and placed its popes at the head ect ect.. This man here, was a rebel..he was not to be anyones puppet..he turned to the crowds at washington dc and said point blank that if you are here for answers you will not find them, if you expect me to give you something you will be dissapointed... he was discouraging followers, and pushing people back upon themselves..any real teacher would do the same thing..so we are left with a scene of a man walking on water before 1,000's of people on camera...Im certain that if the people claiming he was hoaxing it wanted to prove if it was genuine, they could Easily retrace his steps in the pond and see if there was a substructure under there ..yes or no...it could easily be laid to rest whether that was genuine or fake...heck if people really wanted to know, just follow his path in the water! wade on in there after him..either you will sink or you wont but it would end the debate on whether it was hoaxed.. so the story takes you in one direction, then swings in with doubt to discredit the idea and does this back and forth many times..great writing here! and in the end, you see the character predict and tell the israeli guy that he would see the boy he killed as his last thoughts b4 he died and thats exactly what happenned...the very final scene of him being unscathed after the crash and bringing the 2 men back to life was awesome and laid to rest as to whether he had genuine abilities or not.... was he Christ returned? maybe or maybe not..but was he just a fake? no I dont think so after how that ending played out and likely he Did walk on water... there Are extraordinary human beings out there with abilities that are staggering and far beyond even what you see in movies like this..anything is possible! very thought provoking series that Really could take off with another season. thumbs up!

The idea is interesting and unique and that's what made me watch it. But there are so many plot holes and weak character developments that do not make sense and leave you confused. The main question is what is this guy's mission/message and is he truly connected to a divine/spiritual source? Why is he so hesitant and vague in his interactions with people? If he has a mission to save the world then why doesn't he express it properly and confuses everyone? Also why would he have such a naive approach to the concept of world peace? America withdrawing all its troops sounded like quite a stupid thing to ask for. Even in reality we know doing such a thing wouldn't result in world peace. World peace would be possible when nations' and leaders' reach such high level of maturity to come and strive together to save the world from its turmoil. We are way far from that level of maturity and still a lot of education needs to be done around this matter.

Excellent show that grabs you from the beginning. Compelling character arch's, smart writing, and a message that you'd hope the second coming would bring. However as a Christian the part when the Messiah said to a character that her dead loved ones watch over her, I had a problem with. Bringing current events like the tensions in the Middle East was great and loved that they used middle eastern actors but the immigration crisis in America as a sub plot was very lefty narrative. That's said, it did make you think.