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The new Fox series The Faithful: Women Of The Bible is positioned as an event , with each of the three two-hour episodes telling the story of a different phase of the book of Genesis from the women’s perspective. The first episode is the story of Sarah (Minnie Driver) and Hagar (Natacha Karam); the second episode will be from the perspective of Isaac’s wife Rebekah (Alexa Davalos), and the third episode is about sisters Rachel (Blu Hunt) and Leah (Millie Brady), the wives of Jacob (Tom Payne).
THE FAITHFUL: WOMEN OF THE BIBLE: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?
Opening Shot: “Our names were whispered through time, from generation to generation.” We see the Pyramids of Giza, then a pharaoh being rowed down the Nile. Everyone working and living life on the riverbank bows down to him — except for one woman. One of the Egyptian slaves on the pharaoh’s boat takes notice.
The Gist: Sarah (Ludovica Francesconi) has vowed never to bow to any man, and that goes back to when she was growing up in Harran and her parents tried to marry her off to a land owner named Abim (Andrew Mockler). A young Abraham (Alex Harvey), sees that strength and offers his hand in marriage.
Twenty-five years later, Sarah (Minnie Driver) and Abraham (Jeffrey Donovan) have built a life for themselves, but Sarah is concerned that she can’t bear her husband any children. He refuses to take another wife, though, as he’s devoted to her.
One night, Abraham is called by God to find and settle a new land that the deity will show him, and there he will have a child and continue his bloodline. Sarah is skeptical that it actually happened, thinking that it was a dream. But Abraham is convinced it was real. She of course goes with him to what ends up being Canaan.
It’s in Canaan where Sarah refuses to bow in the presence of the pharaoh (Amr Waked). The slave who took notice, Hagar (Natacha Karam), ends up being assigned to Sarah when the pharaoh captures Sarah and decides to make her one of his wives. But a power bigger than the pharaoh helps Sarah escape, and she brings Hagar back with her to Abraham.
Years go by, and Abraham insists that Sarah will still bear a child for him. Sarah, knowing she’s too old, insists that her husband have relations with Hagar, and she will raise the resulting child as her own. Hagar agrees at first, and will be rewarded by being reunited with her family in Egypt. But Hagar rethinks the pact she and Sarah signed, and wants to be a part of the life of her son Ishmael (Francesco Petit).
More years go by, and Abraham’s covenant with God results in a pregnancy for the elderly Sarah, producing a son named Isaac (Tom Mison plays Isaac as an adult). But what will become of Ishmael, and will Sarah tell him that Hagar is really his mother?
Photo: Stefano Cristiano Montesi/FoxWhat Shows Will It Remind You Of? Created by Carol Mendelsohn, Julie Weitz and René Echevarria, The Faithful: Women Of The Bible is in the same category as shows like The Chosen and House Of David.
Our Take: As with most recent biblical adaptations, Mendelsohn and company use the basic framework of the stories in the book — Genesis in this case — to expand and really dig into the narrative in a more human way. It certainly helps that Driver is at the center of Sarah’s story, as her performance elevates what could be a hokey presentation into a compelling view of a woman who was wracked by guilt but ultimately found her faith via her belief in Abraham and her friendship with Hagar.
In essence, Driver’s performance is what humanizes Sarah; the writing doesn’t reach The Chosen‘s level of making the characters real-seeming people with actual flaws and emotional depth. The insistence on using old-fashioned syntax puts distance between them and the characters’ true selves. There’s also still too much piety to both Sarah and Abraham to make them people viewers can relate to, which makes Driver have to do more heavy lifting with her performance.
Photo: Stefano Cristiano Montesi/FoxPerformance Worth Watching: We already discussed Driver, so here’s where we’ll mention Donovan, who manages to make Abraham look like a caring man called by God, but also a bit of a fanatic. His wide-eyed belief in his connection to God makes Sarah’s skeptical reaction to it make more sense.
Sex And Skin: None, aside from Abraham going into Hagar’s tent in order to make a baby with her.
Parting Shot: Sarah is laid to rest, with both a wizened Abraham and an older Hagar paying tribute to her.
Sleeper Star: Natacha Karam does a great job of showing the devotion Hagar had to Sarah, and the awkward position Sarah put her in in order to ensure Abraham’s blood line continued.
Most Pilot-y Line: It was an interesting choice by the show’s producers to not age up Sarah until she had Isaac; the lore in the Bible was that Sarah was 90 and Abraham was 100 when Isaac was born. Even if neither of them were close to that age — and the way the episode is written, it puts both closer to maybe their 60s and 70s — Sarah stays basically the same. It was a subtle way to show how Sarah might have been able to bear children at an advanced age, but it was also strange to see Sarah look the same while everyone around her was getting older.
Our Call: STREAM IT. The Faithful: Women Of The Bible spins a compelling view of the book of Genesis that hasn’t been explored to this point, with performances that humanize the figures being featured, overcoming some clumsy writing.
Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.
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