Monthly column on the arts

Launched with relatively little kerfuffle, BBC2's new imported cartoon series God, The Devil and Bob features God (said to resemble Gerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead, but to my eye a dead ringer for Steven Spielberg) and the Devil (played as camp and English).

God has become disillusioned with humanity and wants to wipe it out and start again (there goes Genesis 8:21, for a start). The devil objects: they decide that if one human being can demonstrate that humanity is worth saving, God will abandon his plan. The devil chooses the human being at random - Bob, a family man, fond of beer, pornography and sport.

The show was created by American TV giant NBC, nine of whose affiliates promptly refused to screen it. Possibly they were put off by NBC's promises of dance nights in hell, a beer-swilling God, and a girlfriend for God. BBC2, however, had no such scruples.

I tried to like this programme, I really did. There's a lot of talent involved, the voices are those of big-time actors, and the animation is pretty good. And fiction featuring God and the devil has in the past provided food for meaningful thought: for example C S Lewis's Screwtape, the mediaeval mystery plays and, not least, the book of Job. Maybe this series had something to say.

Barbecue

In the first episode I watched Bob's son had bragged to his sceptical friends that his father was a special friend of God. He wanted Bob to persuade God personally to appear to them to prove his claim. God refused point-blank, Bob attempted a failed ruse to impress his son's friends, but only made matters worse; the episode ended with God, invisible to all but Bob, watching the son playing baseball and helping him to a famous victory. So God is a good sport, after all.

The second concerned the devil's birthday; the denizens of hell had arranged a surprise party, but he wasn't happy. God was very unsympathetic. Bob arranged a barbecue to bring them together. The episode ended in a mish-mash of homespun psychoanalysis, as we learned that the devil's problem stemmed from being rejected from heaven and God's from being let down by the devil-'You were my most shining angel!'

Those involved in making the programme say that it shouldn't be compared with Job. Executive Producer Matthew Carlson, who once intended to become a priest, denies that the show is even about religious issues - 'I'm more drawn to the characters than the religious aspects of the show... it's a sort of metaphor for everybody's internal battles with good and evil, God is simply part of the story.' James Garner, who voices God, has hardly brought many theological concerns to the part: 'I mean, how do you prepare for God? You just try to be yourself and hopefully they cast the right guy.'

Trivialising

There are some sharp observations in the show. God, who is munching nuts, offers Bob one. Bob immediately responds: 'If anyone doubts I have a relationship with you, all I have to do is to show them this nut!'- an acute dig at some contemporary theories of Christian evidences. Again, when Bob is having trouble understanding what sin is, God points out: 'It's written down on stone tablets ... what do you want me to do, scribble it on a bar napkin for you?'

But these are random insights, whereas Screwtape, for example, succeeded wholly because of the brilliance of its basic inversion concept and its author's deep understanding of God's ways with the human heart. The mystery plays portrayed God in all sorts of ways, but any biblical content was always played straight, using the biblical words. In Job, the devil appears in the courts of God where God reigns over all: in the cartoon, they frequently meet over drinks at a sidewalk cafe, and swap banter. The cartoon's most profound messages come by accident: Bob's statement of what following God means is unconsciously (I'm certain) the testimony of many people struggling towards faith: 'I can't begin to understand why he wants me to do the things he wants me to do. All I can do is just obey and hope for the best.'

For most Christians, however, the central problem of the cartoons is their trivialising of things that the Bible holds to be of cosmic significance: eternal punishment; divine and personal holiness; the love of God towards mankind and his grief when people will not be saved; the stake God has taken in the salvation of his people. Whether you like this programme, I suspect, comes down to whether or not you are really comfortable with a God who can say, 'You really don't want to p*** me off.'

For myself I can only say that my video recorder stopped prematurely before the last episode I recorded had finished. I considered it a merciful dispensation.

God, the Devil & Bob

Barbecue

Trivialising

David Porter

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