What this show needed.....


I love this show, but there are some things I wish could have been different about it. Here is my list, and feel free to comment on them if you like and or add your own list of what you would have liked to see:

1. And this is the biggie right here: mentions of Jesus Christ. For a show that's suppose to be Christian themed, it sure lacked mention of the primary star person of it. I don't know why Martha Williamson done this, but for her to be a Christian herself and not even mention Jesus all like that it's odd. Yes, there were some references here and there, but they were brief, vague, and not even stating Christ by name. The purpose of Christianity is to have salvation in Christ, not so much God himself, as the only way to God is through Jesus. So it rather hurts the show's theme when it mentions God all the time but skips through Jesus entirely.

2. More talk on accepting God. For a Christian show where Christianity is real, it surprises me that the angels never really persuade people to follow Christ. I'm sure a lot of the cases they dealt with people who are not religious, and while they may say "God loves you" and all that, they don't really get strict when it comes to their assignments needing to go to church and stuff. They'll basically just talk about the relationship dramas and how the families needs to fix it, but not really on them needing to follow Jesus and God.

3. Failure endings. I have yet to see an episode where it has this and tried to loom for some. Every episode I know about ends with characters learning their lessons and it's all happy. We needed some endings where the assignment characters just prove to be too much for the angels they're not able to help them and have to call it quits. Now I've seen a couple episodes when Monica calls it quits when she's needed on a case, but she later comes to her senses an helps close it up. I want episodes where they ended with a case not being brought to closure and people have shown to be unhelpful. If there are any episodes like this, please tell me. But we certainly would have needed a lot more of them than what we have been treated with if there's any out there.

4. More displays of Heaven and Hell. I don't think the show has featured both of this enough. A lot of views of Heaven would have been nice and seeing all the other angels and displays of Hell and seeing the souls of the lost being tortured.

5. Monica should have always been doing assignments even before the start of the show. In the first episode, she's just now working as a case worker. But she's been an angel for thousands of years so why is this now all of a sudden new to her? Especially in flashback episodes when we see her performing case duties.

6. More demons involved. Demons have played a role in the show, but they were put to use very little. There should have been some recurring demon characters, particularly that Monique character that was Monica's look-alike. She should have been featured early on in the show and appeared in about twenty episodes and managing to succeed in her duties to bring bad outcomes too. Jasmine Guy's character should have been in more episodes too, rather than the three she did appear in. I also liked to have seen the demons try to set up huge incidents like plane crashes, building explosions, whatever to claim souls, something like on "Ghost Whisperer". Perhaps some possession.

7. More use of Satan. I don't think he was in the show enough. I also liked to have seen him cause some major disasters across the world. I also would have had Paul Winfield's Sam character appear more than he did. I also would have used him in the episodes where Ossie Davis appeared as the angel Gabriel. I always thought it was weird they brought in a character pretty much similar to Sam rather than using Sam, and furthermore portraying him by an actor who had already appeared in the show multiple times as another character. Ossie played that Erasmus character in the "Promised Land" backdoor pilot as well as the spinoff show's crossover episodes with this show. So to see him pop back up as some one else months following the end of "Promised Land" (which was cancelled in 1999) was weird.

8. I probably would have cut back on the role of Andrew. He's an angel of death and should only appear when someone dies or is on the verge of death. The fact that he appeared as an ordinary social worker like Monica most of the time kind of bothered me. If they needed an eye candy male main character to support Monica and Tess, it should have been some one like Rafael. Speaking of Rafael, I think he should have appeared more. Sixteen episodes over the course of six years was ridiculous. He should have been a main and Andrew should have been an off an on character.

9. People dying and ending up being lost. The only time I've seen this happen was in the John Wilkes Booth episode where Tess teaches a class of kids about him and he died in his sins and ended up in Hell. I don't think there was any other episodes like this.

10. I definitely would have given the show a tenth season. Cutting it off at nine bothers me, only because ten straight years is more even and you could have had a little anniversary finale at the end of the season. Plus it would have been another season we could have gotten use to Gloria. I felt her two year stint on the show was rather short for her. I think she could have used another year to flesh her out some more.

So that's my list. What do you guys think of it and what do you have to share on what you would have which you saw differently in the show?

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I won't stop watching due to the appeal it still has to me, but I just wish things could have been different to make it more to the Bible and dark. Hell, I wish the show was still going on and wrapping up now with it's last seven years being that of the tribulation period at the end of the age when the rapture happens and the antichrist comes and we have the angels helping those on Earth come to God during that time of trouble. That would have been an interesting era of the show.

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I take it you didn't notice you posted this twice. You may want to delete the top comment since I've replied to the bottom one. Thanks. 

Anyway, I never had a problem with the angels revealing themselves. It helps the person know they're legit, especially if they're an atheist, and help guide them to live a new life. Anyone can claim they're an angel but no one is really going to believe you unless you reveal yourself. Then how you live your life is really on you because you know that there is a God and have an obligation to live your life a certain way. Besides, while the angels reveal themselves to certain people, there's still everyone around them they DON'T reveal themselves too so you still have those concerns and wonders on THEIR part if these people have seen real angels or if they're lying.

People in real life who claim to have seen angels, just may have and it's up to us to figure out if they're lying or not.

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"Touched By An Angel" wasn't Christian enough for you?

The show was meant to entertain and uplift, not preach and proselytize. It aired on CBS, not TBN.

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I don't care where this show aired. Considering it was created by a CHRISTIAN woman and followed the CHRISTIAN Bible as we've seen throughout the show, it should have been preachy and proselytize. That doesn't mean it couldn't also be entertaining, but it should have been more true to the Bible. For the angels to not tell all those people they helped who was not religious to covert to Christ, and there's been a lot of them they came across, IS rather odd. The world of a show is where Christianity exists for sure so why not persuade others to live how they should besides just helping them with their own family issues?

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Even Jesus communicated in parables.

Not every Christian denomination is fire-and-brimstone Pentecostal and most people do not respond to heavy handed sermons.

If you want something that "on the nose" you should stick to Tyler Perry movies or shows on Trinity Broadcasting Network.



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Jesus may have communicated in parables but the angels but he still made it clear they had to BELIEVE onto God. The angels didn't really do that all that much. Most of the time it's "God loves you" and "Get things right with your family" or whoever they need to get things right with. A show doesn't have to be on TBN to get it in here.

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I think the reason it didn't focus heavily on The Bible was because the show was meant to appeal to more than just Christians. I've read where atheists actually enjoyed watching this show as well. So, that could be why.

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Even if it's to appeal to more than just Christians, the non-Christians should be able to be taught on what Christianity is about then vaguely being told on things and then stuck believing in their OWN ignorant interpretations.

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I personally liked that the show wasn't that preachy. I am gay myself, and there are a lot of denominations that look down on people who are gay. I was happy that this show didn't take that approach. I can see where your coming from as well too. I wish there was a current show on TV now similar to it but there aren't.

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I agree that I would have liked the show to share the Christian faith. I'm pretty sure that I heard the creator wanted it to appeal to people of many faiths than just one.

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You've listed what you needed. What the show needed was to have a wide appeal, which is why it was not what you wanted it to be and why it stayed on air for as long as it did.

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Um no. I listed what I would have liked the show to have, not what I needed. There's a difference. I'm not a show so I don't need these things. The show is to be Christian themed so it should have went about actually being one. If non-religious people didn't like hardcore teaching then they can always turn the channel.

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I agree with some of these things, not all. Having Andrew around a lot even though no one was dying was an odd choice -- I preferred him as the Angel of Death and feel having kept him in that role would have made his appearances more emotionally impacting. That being said, he was always my favorite angel. Emotional and deep, but not as reactive as Monica.

I personally like Christian entertainment to be powerful but not preachy. I enjoyed "A.D." for that reason (and I hear good things about "Risen" too). I believe Christians should create art, not merely use entertainment as an evangelism tool. Reading "The Lord of the Rings" gives you a powerful sense of J.R.R. Tolkien's profound Catholic faith, but the story speaks to you through its depth, meaning, and symbolism, rather than heavy-handed moral messages.

It's always easy to backseat drive or be an armchair critic -- writing shows is much harder than criticizing them. Working with CBS heads is difficult. The reason the show lasted as long as it did is BECAUSE the messages were not that heavy handed. Yet, many of them are intensely profound, deep, and impacting. I randomly picked up a season from the library and have been rewatching -- and I'd forgotten how strong the show was in its early seasons. Courageous in giving solid answers to hard questions.

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It would definitely be a different and probably better show if the angels were more reluctant to reveal their identities (for something big like trying to prevent suicide or violence against others), more often competing with demons trying to tempt/corrupt people and there were some failure and even death endings. Monica didn't succeed with one of the cases but did with the "main" one in "Children of the Night"; "In the Name of God" kind of ends on a bad note aside from for the main character.

Most of the episodes the cases already were Christians/believers and pretty moral but it would be better if there were more that were a bit more hostile. It could be too challenging to depict a really big conversion in an episode but there could be more variety.

It would make more sense if Andrew had a somewhat more judgmental style and his relationship with Monica had a bit more tension and conflict - in general, his showing up would feel more like bad news.

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You put a great deal of thought into your objections, so congrats on that. But the sad reality of big-network programming is their insistence on reaching the most people at once...usually above any other concern. The original version of the show's pilot episode treated Monica more like a fairy, with wings and a wand; I am very grateful they ditched that.

When it comes to Christian programming on a big network, there's usually a line that you're required to balance, like a creative tightrope. My guess is that the more vague approach was done to keep the show on the air...and while its easy to yell about people sacrificing their principles, the fact remains we don't know why everything turned out as it did behind-the-scenes. I do know the show faced cancellation after the first year, only being renewed after a huge letter-writing campaign by fans.

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Good thing they did. The show got better and better every season.

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