Now It's Official

Two series currently airing high-profile episodes during May Sweeps represent diametrically opposed emotional mind sets, but their subject matters have nicely dove-tailed. These programs are NBC's miniseries "Revelations" and the best comedy show ever on TV, Fox's "The Simpsons." While the former has dragged us painfully through much of Biblical pseudoprophecy, the latter, as is its great contribution, lampoons current issues inpublic awareness. and does so with intelligence and reasonably good taste (unlike the hilarious but often overwrought "South Park.")

Last night "The Simpsons" graced us with two new high-concept episodes, one a riff on "American Idol," with Homer as a demonic stage father; the other installing Homer as the Harbinger of the Rapture, after viewing a "Left Behind" movie (cleverly retitled "Left Below"). The spoof of the movie was funny enough to provide a month's worth of laughs. Then the newly converted Homer leads Springfield's citizens to a desert mesa (I love Springfield's topography) where they were all to ascend to Heaven. It doesn't happen, but to satisfy the zealots among the TV viewers who are expecting the End Time, Homer is permitted a sneak peak of Heaven through a dream sequence. He runs riot over the entire place, of course, exasperating an extremely patient Deity.

I could devote columns and columns as to why "The Simpsons" is the best TV comedy ever. For now I'll just point out how brilliantly it maximizes the potential for story-telling that animation provides. Characters can go to Hell, to Heaven, to a bizarre Twilight Zone 3-D dimensional nexus, even emerge into filmic reality. It also helps that they never have to age, unless the story demands it. You know, there are perhaps another twenty years of storylines if Bart and Lisa are permitted to become teen-agers. And some day there'll be a "Simpsons" movie, or twenty. A nice prospect to contemplate.

Not so nice to contemplate is the continuing story of "Revelations" on NBC. Now despite my antipathy to chiliastic scenarios, which only serve to underscore the maniacal beliefs of dangerously influential fringe groups, I was willing to give this miniseries a chance. I mean, the End of the World is an inherently intriguing subject, and the critical word on this one was good, as opposed to the "Left Behind" nonsense. It was billed as "The Rapture" meets "The X-Files." I liked both of those, and can be sucked into a well-told suspense tale with supernatural overtones.

We're already four episodes into the six that have been ordered so far, and all I've witnessed is some of the ugliest and sickest doings I've seen on TV, even dwarfing the nasty shenanigans of the terrorists of "24." "Revelations" supposedly documents--if that's the correct word (it isn't)--the miraculous signs of the Second Coming while at the same time the AntiChrist is brewing up trouble in the name of Satan. Okay, Good vs. Evil, standard fare. But we've been served a hell of a lot (right word there) more evil than good. The only potentially uplifting miracles so far are the appearance of a weird shadow on a mountain suggesting the crucifixion, and a bizarre nova trying to recapture Star of Bethlehem cachet. Meanwhile a mysterious baby Jesus, supposedly immaculately conceived, has survived a tragic ferry capsizing and is performing off-stage miracles that we never get to see. And Sister Josepha, the ecstatic nun trying to piece the signs together, is hip-hip-hooraying all the time, as though on an extreme Prozac high.

But then there's the antiChrist figure, a self-avowed Satanist who has already gruesomely sacrificed one daughter of our "skeptical" hero, Harvard Professor Dr. Massey (eerily the actor who plays the villain is also named Massee). After disembowling the girl for a ritual, and then recruiting an army of acolytes from his prison cell, he has commanded others to kidnap the Doctor's stepson for more nefarious purposes. And it turns out that other virgin births are occurring all over the world, not to mention the rape of a poor Croatian woman who apparently was knocked up by Satan in a scene stolen entirely from "Rosemary's Baby," down to the faun-like feet of the demonic rapist. While we are never treated to the uplifiting antics of the good miracle child, we do get treated to the ultrasound of the demon-baby, which looks very much like a velociraptor embryo. Sweet. Now Sister Josepha is "puzzled."

I don't mind the depiction of unpleasantness in order to villify the Evil One. A strong repulsive villain is important to emotional involvement and to the basis of the legend of Armageddon itself. But this drama really seems to relish its goriness and vile expression to the point of depression. It's like being forced to watch Hitler at his Nurembeurg rally, or Fellini's "Satyricon", or listen to Slim Whitman. I may or may not watch the final two episodes, which supposedly offer a few optimistic moments among the Boschean tortures. But I'm sure at the same time I can turn onto several of my 800 or so channels and find a "Simpsons" to truly soothe my soul.