In this segment we will consider the TV shows:
Reaper and
Supernatural
Reaper
Reaper is meant to be a fun, hip, young whipper snapper TV show starring fun, hip, young whipper snapper actors playing fun, hip, young whipper snapper characters.
Basically, the main character Sam Oliver (played by Bret Harrison) had his soul sold to the devil by his parents in exchange for the healing of his mother from a deadly disease. At the age of 21 the devil informs Sam that he has become the devil’s bounty hunter. Occasionally, souls escape from hell and return to Earth to wreak havoc. Sam’s job is to hunt them down and return them. Sam does this by employing various devices, “vessels,” which capture the soul which he then deposits into a portal to hell—the local MVD.
I was interested in this goofy show early on because the devil states, or admits, that he knows how it all will end; God wins. Yet, he is the devil and does not (cannot?) repent. He also intimates that he misses being with God.
The theology of Reaper is very confused and while employing common terminology such as God, the devil, angels, demons and souls each, of course, has its own un-kosher twist.
Demons are bat-winged, horn protruding creatures who can take human form and live amongst us. One of Sam’s friends, Benjamin Casper Perez Gonzalez (played by Rick Gonzalez) is dating, and fornicating with, a demoness in human form.
There are also homosexual demons who eventually became angels. I am not a regular viewer and so provide a mere sketch: the change from demon to angel had something to do with some demons who conspired against the devil in order to get on God’s good side—a failed attempt but apparently praiseworthy nonetheless.
Another of Sam’s friends, Bert “Sock” Wysocki (played by Tyler Labine) had taken to fornicating with his step sister and had gotten frisky with a demon at one point. I do not recall why but he had taken to kissing a demon whilst knowing that each kiss took a year off of his life. Yet, each kiss gave him a jolt of energy that he could not resist experiencing again (I do not recall how may kisses he indulged in). This led to a very funny scene in which he is seen bench pressing a huge stone statue of the Buddha.
One very funny, very telling and very terrifying scene depicted the devil leading an Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) meeting. The devil is played by Ray Wise and looks like a normal, handsome man in a suit and tie. He tells the AA group that what they need in order to beat alcoholism is power. They can exercise this power by going to a bar directly after the meeting, ordering their favorite drink and then simply turning around and walking away.
Needless to say, by the next meeting only one person is left. The devil tells him that he has done it, he was no longer an alcoholic and as a parting gift gives him a big bottle of booze.
Basically, Reaper delivers on the fun which it is meant to deliver but is certainly putting forth much faulty theology.
Supernatural
Supernatural is another hip, young whipper snapper TV show and yet is much, much darker and more serious than Reaper and deeply occult. It is the sort of story in which the occult is used to fight the occult. Also, as it is common with such stories, such as Constantine, Latin incantations seem to work the best on demons yet, since theology is not taken seriously, virtually anything from any religion/theology goes.
Again, terminology such as God, the devil, angels, demons and souls is employed and reworked. Angels posses the bodies of humans with the permission of the possessed. Demons appear as clouds of black smoke that can move from possessing one person to another at, apparent, will.
Angels in their human bodies
The protagonists are the brothers Sam and Dean Winchester (played by Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles). They are “hunters”: those who hunt down supernatural creatures of all sorts and kill them or otherwise exorcize them. Typically, they kill demons by plunging a special knife into the body of the person who is possessed. However, the unfortunate side effect is that this means the death of the possessed person as well. Yet, Sam has long been developing psychic powers one of which is the ability to exorcize demons with his mind alone.
Sam discovered that these powers of mental exorcism were accentuated quite a bit by drinking the blood of a demoness with whom he was fornicating. Part of the issue is that demoness was manipulating Sam into getting basically addicted to her blood all towards her own ends which has to do with the breaking of seals and the eventual arrival on Earth of the devil.
Dean had a bit of a stay in hell when he traded places with his dad. Yet, he was pulled out of hell by angels who had a task for him to accomplish—related to the show’s concept of the apocalypse.
In the story line there is an author of fictional books about two brothers who are hunters. This author, Chuck, turns out to be, initially unbeknownst even to him, a “prophet” who is in reality writing the real life events that are occurring to Sam and Dean. He does this mostly before the events occur, as they are happening or in order to make something happen (if I recall correctly). The angels proclaim that the prophet is writing “The Gospel of Winchester”—which, of course, is no gospel at all but biblically speaking; anathema.
At the season finale Sam realizes that the demoness was playing him and the final seal broke allowing the devil to begin his emergence.
In the most recent season the focus is upon hunting down the Four Horsemen of the apocalypse. At one point Dean confronts the personification of the rider called Death who references his own great age. When Dean asks him how old he is he responds that he is as old as God, maybe older and states that neither of them can remember. He also notes that someday he will “reap” God Himself.
There is an angel character who states that only four angels have seen God and that the rest of them have to accept God’s existence on faith. Other angels contemplate that God may be dead as they cannot seem to locate Him. Various references to the the problem of evil surface as well which, of course, are not tackled but simply asserted—see Was “the Problem of Evil” Solved Before it was Ever Proposed?, part 1 and part 2.
As stated in part 1, every bit of fiction could be considered in theological terms and particular attention is to be paid to those who play off of real themes in their weaving of fictional tales. This is so because many people’s exposure to theological matters may exclusively come from the media and also because we are to remain sharp enough to discern truth from falsehood.
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Products:
Reaper:
Supernatural: