God Friended Me: Pilot

September 30, 2018 6:55 PM - Season 1, Episode 1

Outspoken atheist podcaster Miles Finer finds his life turned upside down when he receives a friend request from "God" on social media and unwittingly becomes an agent of change in the lives and destinies of others around him.

IndieWire Review: This Sentimental CBS Drama Has Trouble Keeping Up With God as Its Star

Variety Review - If “God Friended Me” can convince viewers to get past its premise and develop the wholehearted drama fueling it, the series just might find its way.

TV Fanatic Review: I Found God

posted by oh yeah! (9 comments total)

All the 'millennial' trappings in the show were eye-rollingly dumb (where does Cara work that she can have six weeks of writer's block and remain employed? what kind of fancy radio station-looking place is Miles recording his podcast at?), in that Hallmark Channel way. Not to mention the way that tv-show atheists are always just people that stopped believing in God temporarily because Reasons and inevitably return to the fold by the end.

But all that aside, there's a glimmer of a decent 'Early Edition' vibe, schmaltz-fest in there, so, I'll probably keep watching. (Though, the CBS Sunday night timeslot really sucks - even on series premiere night, the show started 15 minutes late.)
posted by oh yeah! at 7:33 PM on September 30, 2018

I watched most of this pilot and spent most of the time fantasizing about the potential fascinating scifi premise it 100% will not end up going with: the God that friends Miles is no traditional deity or God that any Abrahamic religion would recognize. Instead, it's the god in the machine. An artificial intelligence that organically arises out of all those social media algorithms and the internet, an entity that can approximate a kind of omnipotence and omnipresence via all the devices and cameras that make up our lives, and that decides to find itself a prophet. So, sort of like a mix of Person of Interest, Early Edition, and Joan of Arcadia. Alas, this show will almost certainly not be that show.
posted by yasaman at 10:31 PM on September 30, 2018 [20 favorites]

I want to watch your show, yasaman
posted by Tabitha Someday at 7:50 AM on October 1, 2018 [7 favorites]

So, sort of like a mix of Person of Interest, Early Edition, and Joan of Arcadia. Alas, this show will almost certainly not be that show.

And Serial Experiments Lain (previously on the blue).
posted by filthy light thief at 1:05 PM on October 1, 2018 [2 favorites]

That would be a way better show.
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia at 1:48 PM on October 1, 2018

It could come on right after Catpeople of Yesteryear.
posted by under_petticoat_rule at 2:49 PM on October 1, 2018

Ah, so we have this years "Stairway to Heaven", "Touched by an Angel" or "Kevin (Probably) Saves the World" - it would definitely be nice to actually have a twist that yasaman hopes for... but, highly doubtful, this is no "The Good Place".
posted by jkaczor at 8:11 PM on October 3, 2018

I thought it was schmaltzy but still watchable if, like oh yeah says, you get past the millennial trappings and cliche atheist premise.

I really like the cast, mostly because that's friggin' Jessie Quick (Violett Beane) and I really missed her on the Flash. And also Henry Deacon (Joe Morton) from Eureka!
posted by numaner at 12:28 AM on October 5, 2018

But all that aside, there's a glimmer of a decent 'Early Edition' vibe, schmaltz-fest in there

Definitely! Unfortunately, I didn't like it as much as I remember liking Early Edition, in spite of an appealing cast, and I took it off my DVR.
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 1:20 PM on October 11, 2018