What makes it different from others?

Surprisingly incoherent and boring

Let's be realistic.

Yes, absolutely, there is fun to be had, as well as many, many things to go boom, all amid an atmospheric urban jungle.

When I saw that the six episodes of "Apparitions" were available for streaming on Netflix, I browsed the user reviews on two sites, and found them to be overwhelmingly glowing. And so, even before I had an opportunity to view the episodes myself, I drew them to the attention of a friend who is a fan, as am I, of Martin Shaw's work. I was surprised to learn from him, a few days later, that he had abandoned "Apparitions" after viewing the first episode. I understood why when I finally got around to viewing the series: I, too, wanted to quit after the first episode, but I stuck with it through three, after which I cut my losses and gave up. Afterwards, I looked again at the glowing user reviews and tried to reconcile them to what I had seen. I could not. Especially puzzling is the opinion that the stories are "thought-provoking." Really? Consider the following exchange, taken verbatim (my comments in brackets), from Episode 3.Father Jacob (Martin Shaw), exorcist extraordinary, is called to a prison to interview a convicted rapist named Cory who appears to be possessed by a woman. During the interview, Cory begins to sweat blood, a sure sign that demonic, or divine, powers are at work. (There's a fair amount of sweating and crying blood in the series–both by humans and by statues. But, hey, who among us hasn't encountered it?) Later, Cory is assaulted in the shower by a group of inmates. Afterwards, Father Jacob, the warden, and the prison priest discuss the possibly that Cory is possessed by a saint, and they speculate by which saint. WARDEN: "What about suspects? How many saints are there?" FATHER JACOB: "Ten thousand plus." WARDEN: "Possession then. Any of them got form {a police record} on that?" FATHER JACOB: "We're on our own there. There are no documented cases of saintly possession." WARDEN: "What about saints and rapists?" FATHER JACOB: "Maria Goretti is the patron saint of rape victims. She was murdered resisting a rape just over a hundred years ago." WARDEN: "Was she a virgin?" FATHER JACOB: {Nods} "She was eleven." WARDEN: "Should we dig up some background on her and Cory, and see if there are any other connections?" FATHER JACOB: "Cory was 20 when he was put behind bars. Maria Goretti's assailant, Alessandro Serenelli was also 20. Both gave their victims the same choice: lose your virginity or die. But Serenelli repented in prison. He attended Holy Communion with the victim's mother, and he went to her canonization. But Cory has never even admitted his guilt." WARDEN: "Right. Well, that's what I'm saying. She takes over a guy who raped virgins; gets him raped {in prison} till he owns up." PRISON PRIEST: "Does that sound like God? That is Satan making a mockery of everything we stand for!" FATHER JACOB: "But if it is Maria Goretti, perhaps she's trying to get him to reconcile with his victims."This scene cries out for Rod Serling, to step from the shadows, look into the camera, and address the audience. "Three seemingly intelligent adults discuss the possibility that an 11- year-old rape victim, 100 years dead, has taken possession of a convicted rapist, to provoke his rape in prison, forcing him to reconcile with his victims. These three men do not yet realize that they're no longer in Kansas, or anywhere else on Planet Earth. They're in… The Twilight Zone." On the positive side, production values are high; the settings are appropriately atmospheric; and the cast performs heroically in the face of some really bad dialog. But none of this succeeds in elevating "Apparitions" above silliness. There is a point when Cardinal Bukovak, who is trying to rein in Father Jacob, says of him: "I'm not denying his charisma. Exorcists are full of it." With his last point, the Cardinal has taken the words out of my mouth.

Acting: Well Done. Story-Line: Disappointingly unrealistic and seemingly bias. It requires significant "Suspension of Disbelief" for those who are more Objective and less Dogmatic. The program itself is not frightening in and of itself. The only "scary" bit in it is that it seems like a religious propaganda video. I can only speak toward the first episode, but It very much seems as if it is written by a fundamentalist that is writing for viewers with the same religious context: scaring them with atheists and homosexuals, as tools of Satan.If you like religious bullying, this storyline is framed for you:---SPOILERS FOR EPISODE ONE START HERE--- 1. A nun talks of Miracles regarding the healing of Leprosy - When a child asks why God's Miracle healed the Leprosy but not the fingers the boy had lost because of the Leprosy, the nun talks down to the child as if she was a fool for believing God would do that, too. (Hmmm, they WERE talking about "Miracles". Seems a fair question from anyone, especially a child.) 2. The priest(main character) tries to black-mail a Richard-Dawkins- reading father into undergoing an Exorcism because the father slapped his child and was not talking nice about Jesus, meanwhile the church is holding the man's daughter at the Church until he complies. When the father's access to his daughter is regained with the help of the police, he fulfills the claims of the priest by seemingly expressing an intent to kill his daughter. But just then the Super-Priest swoops in, quotes some Latin and saves the day by exorcising the demon from the Oxymoronical "Satanic-Atheist". (For those not getting this reference - Atheists are WITHOUT-Religion; the key here is "WITHOUT". Satanism, being inherently religious removes any "WITHOUT" from any religious status, thus allowing ONLY for WITH- Religion titling such as Satanic or Satanic-Theist). 3. A homosexual seminarian whose Leprosy most other characters believed was cured by Mother Theresa, was actually cured by Satan. He's kicked out of the Seminary because of his sexuality, even though he never acted on it. Depressed about being kicked out, a demon talks him into acting on his sexuality so he goes to a bathhouse, meets a man and the ex- seminarian is subsequently de-fleshed to death.---SPOILERS END HERE---Apparitions MIGHT make an interesting storyline IF it portrayed BOTH the church and the traditional church "villains" (atheists, gays, etc.) as each being imperfect in their own ways; To it's downfall, however, the storyline seems very-much framed for that Middle-Ages, as if the clergy is all knowing and everything the church does is justified. Therefore the program is thus more disturbing as by what is implied in the Framing of the story, rather than any actual 'suspense or horror' that may have been intentionally written into the story.

I had never heard of this miniseries until Chiller (cable) started announcing it. I have only seen the first two episodes and at the moment I simply cannot find any explanation to it's low ratings when it first aired (as I've read in the internet), except maybe the "timing" was inappropriate(??). Who knows! I have reasons to believe the idea was ahead of it's time, and it is now that it has relevancy. The actors, especially Martin Shaw (whom I had never met until now), are superb. The delivery is excellent. Flaws?? There surely are, but I have yet to ponder the four remaining episodes. I'll surely get back here as soon as that happens.

This is a very odd series that requires a lot of you as a viewer. My guess is that most will not make it through all six episodes. That is a pity, because "Apparitions" is not a TV series with sequential episodes but one long story, told in six parts. And, taken as what it is, it's one of the best such stories ever told.I don't much *like* the kind of story it is, but I understand it. It's *very* much like William Peter Blatty's "The Exorcist" and "The Ninth Configuration." Those were Catholic stories, too, about the question of faith, and the questioning of faith. But all three fall into a genre I would call "religious emotional drama queen fiction." That genre is about writers trying to manipulate audiences by showing them over-the-top miracle and possession stories to push their buttons and get them to associate those pushed emotional buttons with having had some kind of religious epiphany.Ordinary life and ordinary questioning of faith aren't *enough* for these writers. They have to "paint large," and can seemingly only believe in God or attempt to sway others into believing in God by creating larger-than-life situations based in conflict between good and evil, personified as a conflict between the man of faith and Satan. Such stories are IMO the spiritual equivalent of sappy romance fiction and manipulative emotional tearjerkers. There is little about them that could be described as "subtle." That said, I think that "Apparitions" is pretty *good* religious emotional drama queen fiction. It is FAR better than Blatty's "The Exorcist," and FAR more intelligent. The cast is excellent and the writing more so. But it's still religion dressed up like Carmen Miranda. I prefer subtler stuff.