Messiah (2020) review by Brian M Downing
A ten-part Netflix series with several directors
8/10
This is an ambitious and well executed look at faith and despair in the Middle East and US. A Middle Eastern man appears before a fearful crowd in Damascus just as ISIL troops are about to attack. He calls for faith and a sudden sandstorm delivers the city from conquest. The man, now deemed a messiah, takes his following to the Israel-Jordan border where he is taken into custody by Israel’s counter-terrorism unit (Shin Bet).
The messiah mysteriously escapes and shows up in rural Texas and seems to prevent a tornado from doing further damage. He becomes a national phenomenon and the subject of a CIA investigation to learn of his past.
Some people feel he’s a charlatan, others a mental case, still others part of a foreign plot to sow chaos and a threat to national security, but many believe him to be the messiah. Lots of loose ends at the conclusion but they are intriguing rather than annoying. That of course sets the stage for a second season. Remarkably, some scenes were filmed on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem – a very sensitive site.
© 2020 Brian M Downing
Brian M Downing is a national security analyst who’s written for outlets across the political spectrum. He studied at Georgetown University and the University of Chicago, and did post-graduate work at Harvard’s Center for International Affairs. Thanks as ever to Susan Ganosellis.