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Warrior Nun

Credits

Cast

Network

Reviewer

Paul Asay

TV Series Review

Ava has a halo—not one hovering around her head, but one buried in her back.

She’s lucky to have it, too: Without it, she’d be six feet under by now. She was already dead and stiffening when a desperate nun plastered the halo—a literal, glowing, angelic halo—inside Ava. Not only did the divine accoutrement give Ava the ability to do a mean Lazarus impression, but it gave her superpowers, too.

But the halo comes with strings attached.

For one, Ava’s now apparently part of a secret society of demon-fighting nuns. Did she ask to be part of this secret society? Hardly. The halo made her do it. Still, her fellow nuns seem cool, and the demons definitely need fighting. 

But it’s dangerous work. And neither she nor her fellow warrior nuns will necessarily see the end of it.

No Angel

Netflix’s Warrior Nun is loosely based on Ben Dunn’s American manga character Warrior Nun Areala, a character who’s been pretty polarizing for both Christian and secular audiences. Some Catholics have taken issue with the nun’s rather, ahem, revealing attire, and even less-religious readers have accused the writer of “nunsploitation.”

Meanwhile, other readers thought that Areala and her crew were just far too sincere about their faith. Clothing aside, Dunn’s warrior clergy were truly committed to fighting evil and doing the right thing. Dunn, who was educated in Catholic schools, presented the Catholic Church as a force for real good in this made-up world of his, even as Catholicism in the real world was often mired in controversy and corruption. (At least one later story did deal with the Catholic sexual abuse scandal.)

But while the Netflix show does exist in the same general world as Dunn’s creation, this story and many of its characters—including Ava—are entirely new. And that brings some new wrinkles as well.

It seems as though the show takes its good-vs.-evil underpinnings seriously. God is real here, and the show suggests that Ava—despite her initial disbelief, frequent missteps and fractured relationship with the Catholic church—was chosen to carry this grand and glorious power. Ava, in time, senses that divine design. Every episode is titled after a Bible verse—a verse that not only offers a broad-brush hint about what lies ahead, but one that emphasizes there’s a divine Hand in play as well.

While not every priest or nun we meet here are good people—some are, in fact, downright diabolical—the show offers more sincere Christians (using the term a bit loosely) than we typically see, particularly amongst Ava’s fellow fighters.

But just like Ava’s halo, these hints of spiritual sincerity are buried deep under flesh … and blood.

Don’t Make It a Habit

If Dunn’s nun garb looked like a cross between a traditional habit and a French maid Halloween costume, Ava and her television-based cohorts are typically dressed more modestly. (Non-nuns—including Ava when she strays from the path—can’t always say the same.)

But for a show that depicts the members of an ancient order obeying their ancient edicts, Warrior Nun certainly doesn’t embrace the ancient teaching that romantic love should be exclusively between a man and woman. We meet a transsexual character in the very first episode; and in Episode 8, there’s a flashback to an overtly lesbian member of the order who tears into a bunch of Nazis.

That’s not the only place where we can expect Warrior Nun to stray from biblical teachings. Indeed, fantastic flights from spiritual orthodoxy are pretty much part of the point here, right? No one involved in this show ever meant for it to be a depiction of orthodox Christian faith in action.

We also hear some really, really bad language here—not to mention loads of fake blood and the occasional muscle and sinew and stray organ. The demons here often first take the form of a red mist, but that’s about the least disturbing use of red here.

Netflix’s Warrior Nun places its emphasis on the warrior part of the character. And while some genuine spiritual elements aren’t completely missing here, the positives are nun-too-obvious.

Episode Reviews

July 2, 2020, Episode 1: “Psalm 46:5”

If you look up the title’s verse, it reads like this: “God is within her, she will not fall; God will help her at break of day.”

It’s a fitting verse to introduce viewers to Ava, who’s lying dead in a church-like morgue in Andalusia, Spain, before a nun sticks a glowing angelic halo in her back. Ava revives and marvels not only that she’s alive, but she can walk and run and dance. (She had been a paraplegic since the age of 7.) But as she falls in with a group of young, hedonistic squatters in Andalusia, a holy order of fighting nuns begins their search for her.

We see a split between “good” Catholics and “bad” ones early on. The head of the orphanage that raises Ava is clearly glad she’s dead. “The devil may present a pleasing visage,” she scolds a priest gently attending to Ava’s body. “The better to seduce and influence the weak-minded.” She then says that Ava’s soul’s surely burning in hell.

“She cannot ask for forgiveness anymore, so it’s up to us to forgive her,” the priest tells her. “For God knows all and sees all and will be thy judge.”

“I’ll take my chances,” the nun says.

After she’s revived, Ava talks (as the show’s narrator) of her “God powers.” She looks at her reflection in a storeroom window and asks, “What are you up to, God?” And she wonders whether the nuns at the orphanage actually knew what they were talking about when they spoke of miracles. But she’s clearly no fan of the Catholic Church: “The Catholics are a little twitchy about who gets to be resurrected unless they can control the narrative.”

We see demons mostly in the form of red smoke. We’re told that some influence people, encouraging them to do evil. Others take a more active, bloody role in the affairs of men—a comment that’s emphasized by a demon apparently killing someone in a closed room. (The victim’s blood splashes against a stained-glass window.)

Someone’s neck is broken. (We see and hear the snap.) People’s faces are gorily gouged by impromptu weapons. Ava’s hit by a van, throwing her supernaturally through a wall. Her leg is horrifically damaged by the accident, but the halo in her back causes her to heal within seconds. Someone dies from serious injuries (caused, we’re told, by “divinium shrapnel”). A halo, dropped on the ground, is picked up by an evildoer—and he promptly discovers his grasping fingers have been burned/cut off. A monster gets hit by something and vanishes into ashes.

Ava’s new friends are squatting in a Spanish mansion (though one of them says they’ll need to get the place professionally cleaned before they leave, and the real owners return). One is transsexual, and all can dress a bit provocatively. They take Ava to a rave, where one of them gives Ava some sort of party drug at her request. (We see others taking the drug as well.) Ava also downs a glass of an alcoholic beverage—the 19-year-old’s first, apparently. A priest orders a glass of whiskey, but he says he only plans to look at it, not drink it. People kiss on the dance floor.

Nuns express their love for each other, and it’d be easy to imagine that they’re speaking of romantic love. But at this point in the story, it seems that the nuns are only deeply committed to each other as friends.

Ava vomits on somebody and wonders whether she’s “coming down from some powerful drugs” (instead of coming back from the dead). Characters say the f-word 10 times and the s-word six times. We also hear “a–” and four misuses of God’s name—half of those with the word “d–n.”

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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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