The Pitt is the first TV show where the reaction videos are more intriguing to me than the drama of the show itself. Maybe its just the anti-science cultural moment we seem to be living through right now, but there is something mesmerizing about watching what I presume to be subject matter experts break down the difference between drama and reality featured in the show.

I’m sure some of the reaction videos are just algorithm chasing, but for now I’ll lean into them and hope we haven’t become socially isolated by our media echo chambers that we can no longer accept expertise as a valuable resource for policymaking.

Side-note: television programming rarely makes me cry, but a particular scene from the show where the main protagonist starts having PTSD related flashbacks to COVID era ER memories momentarily broke me. Our understanding of what happened that first year of COVID has become so obscured by our partisan bickering over public health policy that I feel like we completely forgot the absolute hell our medical providers were subjected to not only by the wave of deaths, but the politicized backlash they received for their efforts to flatten the curve.

The Andor series dropped a season 2 trailer announcing an April 22 release date.

Instead of posting the new trailer, I’m just gonna post one of the many moments of writing that made this show a revelation:

I fear for you.

We’ve been sleeping.

We’ve had each other and Ferrix, our work, our days.

We had each other, and they left us alone.

We kept the trade lanes open, and they left us alone.

We took their money and ignored them. We kept their engines turning and the moment they pulled away we forgot them.

Because we had each other.

We had Ferrix.

But we were sleeping. I’ve been sleeping. I’ve been turning away from a truth I’ve wanted not to face.

There is a wound that won’t heal at the center of the galaxy.

There is a darkness like rust, reaching into everything around us.

We let it grow and now it’s here. It’s here and it’s not visiting anymore.

It want’s to stay.

The Empire is a disease that thrives in darkness. It is never more alive than when we sleep…

Having grown up in evangelical/quasi-fundamentalist spaces I have always been a bit of a sucker for high production value efforts to articulate the Gospel or Christian life. This particular stream of the Way of Jesus may be presumed to be like Ned Flanders in their affect, but generally, are quite sophisticated in their use of media for broadcasting their message (for every cringey God’s-Not-Dead movie there’s also the legacy of pre-bankruptcy Veggietales).

Growing up, Mars Hill’s Nooma video series left a long lasting impression on me. Those short form films combined genuinely creative storytelling, filmmaking, and Biblical teaching. For a 12 year old kid who’d spent his life immersed in Bible stories told with a steady (and stale) cadence they were a revelation. I think they left such an impression because they really tried to honor and work within the medium of film’s strengths and limitations for articulating Christian claims.

All of the above is background to say that I think Practicing The Way’s trailers for their online courses recaptures the old Nooma magic a little bit. I’m glad they’re out there and I hope the teachings they are meant to spark interest for find fertile soil.

The series so far:

Sabbath

”…it’s a rhythm that God the creator built into the fabric of the human body and creation itself.”

Prayer

”…to pray is to commune with the God who is closer to us than we are to ourselves.”

Fasting (my favorite vid so far)

”…it’s an ancient practice whose time has come.”

Solitude (the production values jump from here onward)

”…solitude is the furnace of transformation.”

Generosity

”…little by little He makes our souls incandescent.”

Scripture

”…our part is to remember.”

For at least the past decade, whenever I reflect on the life, legacy, or oratory of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. I repeatedly find myself returning to his final speech. Its most famous for the closing soliloquy about the Mountaintop, but in our times the whole speech is worth contending with. Those final prophetic words build on the other 40 minutes of reflection King offers on the state of the Prophetic/nonviolent wing of the Civil Rights movement.

Here’s the portion most folks have encountered (starting at 41:48):

Well, I don’t know what will happen now. We’ve got some difficult days ahead. But it really doesn’t matter with me now, because I’ve been to the Mountaintop.

And I don’t mind.

Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I’m not concerned about that now. I just want to do God’s will. And He’s allowed me to go up to the Mountain. And I’ve looked over. And I’ve seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land!

And so I’m happy, tonight.

I’m not worried about anything.

I’m not fearing any man!

Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord!!