LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY sunfell)

An article in Salon talks about the upcoming "Revelations" series premiering tomorrow:

Welcome to the latest nugget in a hailstorm of fundamentalist invective, from "The Passion of the Christ," to Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins' bestselling "Left Behind" series, in which skeptics and agnostics are left to fight for their lives against the forces of the Antichrist (centered in Baghdad, led by the head of U.N.), while true believers are whisked away to the comfort and safety of heaven like the lucky winners on "The Apprentice," whisked off to shop for $600 Jimmy Choo sandals at Bergdorf Goodman. All of the divine signs point to the same conclusion: The rest of us, it seems, are headed to the boardroom.

But what better way for NBC to round up a full month of hand-wringing and candlelight vigils for Terri Schiavo and the pope, than by ushering in a miniseries sure to capitalize on the fear whipped up by these two deaths, not to mention more terrorist arrests, the tsunami disaster, the war in Iraq, you name it? "All the signs and symbols set forth in the Bible are currently in place for the end of days," breathes Sister Josepha, and we believe her, because she looks like the Virgin Mary, except with cheekbones like Isabella Rossellini's. But is she talking about the latest tragedy in Baghdad, or the upcoming made-for-TV movie "Locusts"?

Like "Locusts," which airs Sunday, April 24, at 9 p.m. on CBS, surely "Revelations" is just another bit of crassly commercial entertainment to flesh out May sweeps, custom-fit though it may be for mass Bible Belt consumption. After all, Seltzer has been importing creepy Bible verse into the horror genre since he wrote the hit movie "The Omen" in 1976. As dark and foreboding as his series might be, Seltzer must have a sense of humor about it all.

"We're looking at 35 wars going on in the world, any one of which could become a flash point that would end our lives," Seltzer solemnly told a handful of reporters on a recent conference call. "And with all the geological-social-political events lining up with what the Book of Revelation says are the End of Days, it is time to start taking it seriously."

Ah, yeah- doom TV. What fun. I am not much of a TV person, and the pap that passes for entertainment bores me out of my mind. It's more fun watching Discovery Channel's tornadoes or SciFi's Battlestar Galactica than any of this. But if anyone does watch it, let me know what you think.