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A.D. The Bible Continues

Credits

Cast

Network

Reviewer

Paul Asay

TV Series Review

It’s tricky to make a gripping miniseries when everyone knows the ending.

Take NBC’s A.D. The Bible Continues, a follow-up to Mark Burnett and Roma Downey’s spectacularly successful History Channel miniseries The Bible. This sequel of sorts begins with the death and resurrection of Christ and then goes on to chronicle the very earliest days of the Christian church—essentially the first several chapters of Acts.

It’s a given that most of us at least know the big narrative plot points of Christ’s death and resurrection. We’ve already been told that Peter recovers from his Good Friday bout of cowardice, and that Saul won’t always be the jerk we meet at first. Even non-believers know that Christianity survived those tense early days to become the biggest religion on Earth. The faith may look fragile here, but as reliably as Rocky, it’ll still be standing at the end.

Without that element of suspense to push the series forward, A.D. must rely on the drama in the details—the whos and wherefores and whys. And those details in this 12-week miniseries—one that Focus on the Family has taken an active role in supporting—make for worthwhile watching, both as a television show and as an expression of faith.

And make no mistake, A.D. is indeed an expression of faith. Burnett and Downey have not crafted some imaginative, quasi-biblical story like Noah, wherein the source material is gutted and stuffed with the director’s own divergent vision. Instead, just as they did with their Bible project, they’ve approached the story with reverence and a true believer’s understanding. “[God] might not always call the qualified,” Downey said during a visit to Focus on the Family, “but He always qualifies the called.”

This is not to say that Burnett and Downey don’t take liberties with the original script. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Burnett estimates that about half of the events from A.D. were pulled directly from the Bible. “We colored in between the lines with what we think would have been going on,” he said. Biblical timelines are also muddied a bit. In the opening episode, for instance, Peter denies his Lord three times as Jesus stands in front of a jeering crowd—not in the wee hours of the morning while sitting in a courtyard, as the Bible stipulates. And a rooster doesn’t even register a cameo.

Burnett understands that some Christians will be troubled by the extra-biblical material, and he’s prepared for the inevitable crit. “As Christians, we tend to eat our own young,” he quipped at Focus on the Family. While he and Downey wanted to create an epic that was true to the spirit of the Bible, they also wanted to craft a compelling TV series that’d grab your attention while sandwiched between the likes of Blacklist and Homeland. As such, A.D. spends much of its time concentrating on the fractious political and religious landscape of turn-of-the-epoch Roman Judea—a time and place filled with power plays, intrigue and the rumblings of rebellion. “This is mainstream programming,” Burnett told The Hollywood Reporter. “It’s like taking House of Cards and dropping it into 1st-century Jerusalem.”

Fortunately for families, A.D. does not take the sort of content license that House of Cards does. No ear-blackening language here. And visual representations of 1st-century sordid sexual situations are at least restrained if still suggestive and evocative. Violence, not so much, though. The crucifixion of Christ is grisly, for example, full of agonized cries and copious amounts of blood. (“We’re not going to pull punches on that,” Burnett told Focus.) While early Acts doesn’t tell of anyone getting fed to the lions, it does chronicle moments of martyrdom. A.D. also adds violent/debauched elements related to the movers and shakers of the time.

A.D. serves as both a lavish spectacle and a tense dramatic narrative. What sets it apart from its peers is that it also encourages viewers to crack open their Bibles or visit a local church. Indeed, that’s what Downey and Burnett hope will happen, gladly turning over their viewers to churches that can untie what they call the “fishing knots” of their production. So while some may say that A.D. The Bible Continues is hardly perfect—and they’d be right—Focus on the Family president Jim Daly counters (in a promotional video for the miniseries), “I believe that God is using these adaptations of Scripture to touch the hearts and to call people to Himself.”

Episode Reviews

A.D.: May 24, 2015

“The Road to Damascus”

Newly minted Christians flee from Saul’s campaign to stamp out this new “heresy.” But when the Jewish rabbi travels to Damascus in a quest to bring Peter to terminal justice, he has a run-in with the last person he’d expect: Jesus Himself. Meanwhile, Pilate curries favor by visiting Emperor Tiberius while trying not to kill his successor-in-waiting, Caligula.

Caligula and Herod Agrippa are best of friends in the worst way, engaging in all manner of hedonistic revelry. Both drink, and sloppily spill, wine. We see them passed out, naked (strategically covered), with a couple of barely clad women, also unconscious. (One woman lies on a desk, her back bare. Another has the name of Pilate’s wife, Claudia, scrawled right above her breasts.)

Later, Pilate confronts Caligula in a bathhouse (we see men wearing only underwear-like garments), holding a knife to the future emperor’s throat. When Pilate demands an apology, Caligula says, “Is it possible to insult a man’s wife when she’s the daughter of a whore?” Agrippa, for his part, seems to want to rape a married Christian handmaiden in a hallway. We observe him leering over her before his sister tells him to stop playing with her “things.”

A magician joins the new faith in hopes of buying some of Peter’s “magical” abilities. God takes offense, and the man begins bleeding out of his eyes and mouth before Peter pleads for the Almighty to let him live. Claudia has ominous dreams—including one in which Tiberius is smothered in his sleep. (It comes true.)

We see miracles and hear of Jesus’ resurrection. Jesus appears to and talks with His followers.

A.D.: April 5, 2015

“The Tomb Is Open”

Jesus is condemned and crucified, and those who had a hand in His death are relieved at what they see only as a troublesome rabbi’s passing. “The Nazarene’s doctrine will decompose with his corpse,” Caiaphas says. Still, others aren’t so sure. Pontius Pilate’s wife, Claudia, is having dreams about Jesus, and Caiaphas sees the need to place more guards around that rabbi’s tomb to prevent overzealous followers from stealing the body. Meanwhile, Christ followers themselves find themselves (ironically) in limbo, wondering whether to flee Jerusalem or stick around—just in case Jesus really comes back like He promised.

Jesus’ crucifixion is shown in detail, with a blood-covered, clearly suffering Savior dying in agony. The camera even shows one of the nails being driven into His hand as He screams. The postmortem stab in His side is also depicted, heard rather than seen. (The men suffering on the crosses are, of course, nearly naked.) We see Judas hang himself. Buildings fall down around fleeing citizens. Men brandish knives and swords. Temple workers wash blood off walls.

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Paul Asay

Paul Asay has been part of the Plugged In staff since 2007, watching and reviewing roughly 15 quintillion movies and television shows. He’s written for a number of other publications, too, including Time, The Washington Post and Christianity Today. The author of several books, Paul loves to find spirituality in unexpected places, including popular entertainment, and he loves all things superhero. His vices include James Bond films, Mountain Dew and terrible B-grade movies. He’s married, has two children and a neurotic dog, runs marathons on occasion and hopes to someday own his own tuxedo. Feel free to follow him on Twitter @AsayPaul.

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