Copied from my blog at lastmidnight.blogspot.com...
So I watched "Revelations" tonight. I love disaster movies, and this promised to have plenty of unexplainable death 'n' despair. Sort of like Independence Day, but with demons, right?
(continue for spoilers & commentary)
First off, you have the chick in a coma who starts spouting Latin. Only to the ears of the Token Black Priest, mind you. In rushes the flying nun, who goes to the WASPy Skeptic Who's Only Skeptic Because A Psycho Killed His Daughter. I'm down with all of this so far. I'm even down with his goofy explanation about how a volcanic eruption was the cause of the Ten Plagues. Sure. Why not. We all know Faith Will Win The Day. It does in all such things.
Cut to Convention of Equally WASPy, Equally Skeptical Doctors. First line of the scene:
"It's called a persistent vegetative state."
They then go on and rather callously explain how the talking is involuntary, etc. etc. But hey, we have already seen that it's perfectly understandable Latin. Quoting (gasp!) Revelations. So the decision has already been made for us. Durn dockters n their psciense.
A little later on, the girl is flatlining. Everyone's arguing. They're going to harvest her organs. The Flying Nun's fur is standing on end. Skeptic Scientist is reminded of his daughter, and in the midst of the fray, he goes over to the girl and holds her hand. The only one thinking about her in the midst of the debacle.
She squeezes his hand and her heartbeat returns.
Hrm. Message much?
So this is where the Witch tries to have faith. Not in babbling veggies or in flying nuns, mind you, but in something that SHOULD be easily verifiable. Was this series in production before the Schiavo case became big news, and/or before it had the potential to be big news? That is, before Komodo Dragon Rove or Salamander DeLay could have first looked at it and thought "Hey, we could exploit this?" If it was, then I will do my level best not to believe this is propaganda.
But it's hard to believe that something like this isn't thrown out to those people who look at TV and make their moral decisions based on what they see. People who don't know what to think until a compelling drama tells them. And let's face it-- there are a lot of such people. I will admit to being influenced by good television and good drama. It humanizes stories, brings it right to the home and heart of people. That isn't always propaganda, and when it is, it isn't always deliberate propaganda. But this feels a little too relevant to me. It feels just a tad deliberate. I welcome comments and information to confirm and/or to deny my suspicious, as well as your opinions.