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| Angels smite the wicked & anyone else who stands in their way |
Although I love werewolves, vampires, aliens, and androids (not so hot for zombies) after watching previews for SyFy's new series Dominion, I'm excited to see angels and humans battle in a post apocalyptic world. As much as I love TVD, The Originals, and The 100, I feel their concepts have all been done to death.
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| Humanity's last hope & greatest fear |
When you hear someone talk about doing a show that features angels and demons I wouldn't be surprised if someone's mind instantly went back to those greeting cards with the chubby winged babies or the Precious Moment dolls. People assume that angels are just boy scouts who are creatures of light and love but what people miss is that angels have a very deep mythology that your pastor, your priest, your rabbi don't talk about. In reality, angels can be violent, envious, vengeful and capricious inter dimensional beings who would sooner skewer you with their blades than help you unless it's what God ordered. They're not your regular divine post man although their job is to deliver heavenly messages. Yet in Dominion the angels only have one message for you: Death to all Mankind.
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| Welcome to Vega |
The premise is this: God has turned his back on everything and so the angels have split into 2 factions. Michael believes humanity deserves to live like God had wanted while his brother Gabriel believes that Earth is the angels' birth right. So 25 years into the future, Earth is practically a wasteland and we come to one of the few remaining human cities called Vega (a.k.a. Las Vegas). Of course the last fortress of humanity would be in a city that is notorious for its sinfulness. It's basically taking refuge in Babylon neighbored with Soddom and Gomorrah. Pretty cool. While you may think hope is all lost there is still one prophecy that may save the human race. There's a prophecy of a child, the Chosen One, who will save the human race. Some humans believe in this prophecy so much that they pray to a statue of a pair of hands holding a newborn child. Technically they're waiting for the 2nd coming but view it however you like.
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| Michael's gonna poke some new holes for you |
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| Michael has a little of the devil in him... |
Watching a few other clips I find that Michael isn't such an angel after all, at least not in the bed room. There seems to be a romance going on between the Archangel and a human woman named Becca Thorn who is in charge of the city's scientific and medical personnel. Most will probably argue: Wait, Angels can't have sex! Why not? There's a story about the Flood when God was angry with humanity. One other explanation behind the Deluge is that angels (more specifically the Watchers) saw the daughters of man and fell in love with them. The offspring of these forbidden unions were the Nephilim. The Nephilim were described as "giants" that had the powers of angels but the souls of men. I don't know if that was meant to make them more dangerous or not but God didn't like how these giants were terrorizing the planet so he sent a deluge to kill them all. The fathers of these terrible offspring were then cast out of heaven and into hell with Lucifer. People automatically think that because the angels aren't allowed to have sex that they're not allowed to love. Lust is more the Devil's domain (which is a whole different conversation just read my other blog post "Sex: Why Does It Feel So Dirty") but love and lust can intermingle to let someone express love if not only through daily action alone instead of in between the sheets. So again these angels aren't your grandmother's Precious Moments porcelain figurines. In Italian Renaissance art, angels were depicted as handsome men wearing gladiator armor and armed with swords held in ready to smite the enemies of God. Don't know about you but that seems pretty hot to me (the gladiator part not the killing me part). What woman would refuse a night with an angel?
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| Angels brought into the 21st century of warfare |
I think one of the issues from critics that the show may (big MAY I don't speak for all) face is from Christian factions but like with the film Noah that has faced such trials with Evangelicals, Catholics could prove to be a more open audience. The film was a huge hit in Mexico a country over populated with Catholicism and a representative of the Vatican thought the movie wonderful. Being as I'm Roman Catholic (lax) we kind of dive deeper into the angel mythology. We were raised to fear as well as love God and his angels. I was raised the old way where violence was depicted everywhere not just about Christ's crucifixion (which they call The Passion how sick is that?) but also that God has made terrifying creatures that can destroy us at any time whether it's their mood or because God told them to do it. Angels are messengers alright but their messages are sometimes of vengeance, destruction, fear, and death.
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| Did I take a wrong turn to the Star Trek set cause these future outfits are out of this world! |
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| Girls in flashy clothes, guys with AK-47s & neon lights? Yep it's still Vegas |
What it comes down to it, Dominion is a show about family, faith (whether lost or still maintained), hope, and survival. The vampire and zombie theme has been done to death (no pun intended) and to quote one of the actors, Anthony Head during an interview "Angels are the new vampires". Forget all those stereotypes you grew up with. Throw out the angel cards and glass figurines and thoughts about angels being the good guys. In this new series the angels are as divided in their beliefs and severe in their doubts as much as humans are. They are not perfect and can be anything but merciful. To me these angels are holding true to old traditions that Heaven can be one's salvation or one's doom. All you need is to keep faith alive and believe that you will come out of this alive that there is a future worth fighting for and that humanity deserves every second chance it's given; even if it doesn't appear that way.
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| Old fashioned "Brother vs Brother" |
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