The Almighty on the Internet?
A Review of “God Friended Me”
Greetings and hallucinations, ladies and gentle-geeks, and welcome.
For all of you who have ever enjoyed Joan of Arcadia and Person of Interest, this new series has elements of both in the best of ways.
The show centers around Miles Finer (Brandon Micheal Hall), a self-proclaimed atheist who wants to get his podcast out to a wider audience. He describes his relationship with his father Arthur (Joe Morton), an Episcopal minister, as a “Luke/ Vader” dynamic, while his sister Ali (Javicia Leslie) not only wants them to get along better, but is also studying them for her psych thesis. One day, Miles gets a friend request on Facebook from someone calling themselves God. He keeps treating it as a joke… until everything involved with his electronics goes haywire. The WiFi-enabled thermostat is cranked up to 100; his proposal to a satellite-radio company is replaced with images and clips from religious movies; and his radio blares music that he doesn’t subscribe to.
Still thinking it’s a hoax, he accepts the friend request, and enlists his friend Rakesh (Suraj Sharma) to try to trace the account. Meanwhile, the God Account sends him friend suggestions, leading to people who need help. First he saves a man from throwing himself in front of a subway train. Then he’s led to Cara Bloom (Violett Beane), a reporter who’s been suffering from writer’s block. Intrigued by Miles’ story, she wants to follow where it leads, from a mother with an autistic son, to a widowed P.I. still mourning his wife, to reuniting two childhood sweethearts after 20 years apart.
Miles’ disbelief in God stems from family tragedy: after his mother beat cancer, she died in a car accident. During the first few episodes, instead of spouting his views into the ether of the Internet, he wants a real conversation of God vs. not-God. There’s a spark developing between him and Cara, but both are wary of going beyond friendship. Rakesh feels his way through his relationship with Jaya (Shazi Raja), a third-year med student he meets through their respective families.
Arthur has his own moments of mourning and reconciliation, from being on speaking terms with Miles again, to dealing with Ali’s relationship (which isn’t apparent until Episode 3, when she moves in with her significant other without telling either of them), to trying to give away a beloved instrument that had been in the same accident that took his wife. The relationships are subtle and well-played.
God may or may not be using social media to fix the world one relationship at a time. Or POI’s Machine has taken its programming to the next level. (Even Rakesh makes this observation, describing the encryption as next-level artificial intelligence.) Either way, this is a sweet, uplifting series, and I enjoyed seeing it develop.
It had been showed (appropriately) on Sunday nights after 60 Minutes (usually 8–8:30 PM EST) from 2018 to 2020. I want to see if I can find it on DVD or streaming.
Thank you for reading my ramblings, my dears, and I hope to hear from you. If you’d like to recommend a book for me to read and review, or even need me as an editor for your own work, please contact me on my Facebook page, for Just Write! Ink.
In the meantime, keep reading, keep writing, and never give up making your own magic. Be well, my dears.
(edited 12/29/23)