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Some years ago, Mark Millar (the creator of Kick-Ass, Kingsman, etc.) hit on yet another brilliant conceit for one of his comic-book stories: a three-part series based on the premise that Bible-believing Christians are right, that the Antichrist walks among us and that only the second coming will save us — eventually — from the horrors depicted in Revelation.
“I have nothing but happy memories of growing up as a Catholic, and I wanted to do a book about faith that was both intelligent and respectful,” said Millar. “If we can do a thoughtful take on Batman surely we can do the same with Jesus?” He named his trilogy American Jesus because it is — at least partly — about what it would be like if you were just an ordinary US kid who suddenly began to realize that you were the new Messiah.
It’s possibly my favorite Millar adventure (characteristically weird, dark, funny, satirical, blood-spattered and completely on the money) but for years a screen version seemed highly unlikely because the movie and television industries have long since tended to bat for the other team. Sure, there have been exceptions such as (devout Catholic) Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ, plus the earlier Biblical epics. But in general, especially since the late 1960s, screenwriters have tended to give the devil all the best tunes, from Rosemary’s Baby and the various Omen movies, to all those contemporary series where the really bad guys are made to seem like goodies — for example, Hannibal, Dexter, Lucifer, Good Omens and the rest.
Happily, American Jesus has now escaped development hell by being transposed to one of those parts of the world where the TV people don’t find Christianity quite so lame, embarrassing or toxic: Mexico. Taken on by Mexican show runners Everardo and Leopoldo Gout, it has been relocated to the country’s Baja California region, with mostly Spanish dialogue, and renamed El Elegido or The Chosen One. The protagonist remains a likable, bilingual twelve-year-old American kid called Jodie (charmingly played by Bobby Luhnow) who suddenly discovers he has Jesus-like powers after miraculously surviving a freak accident.
I’ll try not to give away too many spoilers but I fear I’ll have to, a bit, because if you were judging it on the basis of the first episode you wouldn’t have a clue where it was going. It starts out like a mash-up between City of God (the ramshackle, urban Latino setting, brimming with urchins, street characters, fiestas and so on), The Terminator (attractive, Sarah Connor-style mom on the run to save her progeny from dark pursuing forces revealed via confusing flashback) and Stand by Me.
This last influence betrays itself in the form of a meandering quest undertaken by Jodie and his gang of similarly likable friends through the desert and out to sea to search for a mysterious siren-like creature which supposedly attacked someone’s uncle. It’s a bit of a red herring but it does give us time to enjoy the unusual location and get to know the characters, who resemble a sort of Hispanic version of the kids in Stranger Things, including the sweet love-interest girl; the plucky, pint-size native Mexican kid; the nervy but brainy one; the handsome leader; and so on. Where Millar’s storylines tend to be very punchy and cut-to-the-chase, this more languid, expansive Mexican version wants to us enjoy a leisurely siesta first.
Anyway — spoiler alert — having cheated death in episode one, Jodie does what any normal twelve-year-old boy would do if he found himself to be the Chosen One: he wonders how he can exploit his new powers.
Or rather his enterprising friends do. Can he perhaps make the blind see? (Or at any rate the semi-blind in the shape of one gang member’s short-sighted kid brother.) And what about the water into wine? The gang decide to market Jodie’s skills as a circus-style performance for paying customers. And, of course, just in case Jodie’s abilities fall short of Christ’s, they have a back-up plan to sprinkle something into the water whose delayed chemical reaction will turn it red.
Though it gets off to a slow, slightly messy start, this is a series with bags of charm, some delightful performances, a gripping plot and lots of local color. As I’ve said many times before: foreign Netflix is so much better and more original than its US and UK versions. I suspect that it’s going to be a huge hit, definitely with the Hispanic/Latino market and probably worldwide. Well, I hope so because Book Two of American Jesus is even better, and Book Three truly apocalyptic, and I can’t wait to see them realized on screen.
This article was originally published in The Spectator’s UK magazine. Subscribe to the World edition here.
