Over the years, TV writers have found inventive ways to get characters to find and help one another. One show had a magical newspaper. Another used a computer algorithm. Sometimes they take the easy path (a Highway to Heaven, if you will) and use an angel. With social media being used by everyone from teens to their grandparents, it only makes sense that we have God Friended Me, now in its second season on CBS, where connections are made through a mysterious Facebook account.
It’s less Touched By An Angel and more Poked By The Divine.
Miles Finer (Brandon Micheall Hall) was a pastor’s kid who grew up and became an atheist podcaster. When he got a Facebook friend request from “God” and new friend suggestions through it, Miles was pulled away from his microphone and into the busy streets of New York City. What he found out there, as he helped strangers through difficult times, changed him and every relationship in his life. Convenient coincidences follow him at every turn, but that doesn’t prove it’s really God’s Facebook account, right?
At the end of the first season, while still an atheist, Miles accepted that he has a responsibility to help those in need. As season two opens, Miles hasn’t been getting friend suggestions from what he and his friends have dubbed “The God Account,” but he’s led to a young woman, Joy (Jessica Lu) who has. With scars and history of her own, Joy is anything but joyful. She needs a mentor, whether she wants one or not, and Miles enthusiastically drags her into his world. Across the ocean in Paris, Miles’ girlfriend Cara (Violette Beane) is having her own encounters with The God Account that seem to be taking her on a private journey.
More than just a case-of-the-week procedural, God Friended Me is about the characters in Miles’ ever-expanding orbit: his podcast producer, his family, his girlfriend. Many of the people he helps later become important connections. Interested viewers should be aware, though, that the values held by some of the characters are far from traditional. As the showrunners try to be all-inclusive, they fail to realize that their target audience may not appreciate their efforts.
Social media, and Facebook specifically, has been part of our everyday lives for almost two decades now. God Friended Me is a good reminder that it’s a tool, not a substitute for life. Sometimes we have to step away from the screen and go help a stranger. (CBS Television Studios)
About the Author
Trevor Denning is an alumni of Cornerstone University and lives, lifts weights, and spends too much time in his kitchen in Alma, Mich. His first short story collection is St. George Drive and Other Stories.