Reading the Bible as a Comedy Patrick Downey Review

The setup reads like cynical Hollywood screenwriting humor: What if y'all crossed "Touched past an Affections" with "Survivor"?

Simply those paths do cantankerous in the hubby-and-married woman team backside CBS'south 4-hour, 2-nighttime miniseries "The Dovekeepers," executive produced by the star of the former and the creator of the latter and boasting equal doses of spirituality and hardscrabble living.

"The Dovekeepers," based on Alice Hoffman's fictional novel near the siege of Masada, stars extra Cote de Pablo ("NCIS"), Rachel Brosnahan ("House of Cards") and Kathryn Prescott ("Reign") as 3 strong-willed Jewish women carved from hardship, hobbled by their own passions and fighting for survival when Rome's legendary Tenth Legion descends on ancient Israel.

Despite some muscular sword-and-sandals work when cultures disharmonism, this tale is really about first century girl power — at least, every bit much as you can get away with while yet tossing around lines like, "God won't punish you; you did as your hubby demanded," every bit if all a gal's got to practice to avoid perdition is to blame her spouse. Virtually convenient.

Likewise Read: 'Dovekeepers' EP Roma Downey Says Viewers Are 'Hungry' for Inspirational Programming (Video)

The Dovekeepers, Cote de Pablo (Kurt Arrigo/CBS)

Shirah (de Pablo) and Yael (Brosnahan) unfold their story before Josephus (Sam Neill), a Jewish collaborator with the Roman invaders, who appears to sit in judgement on the women for reasons not immediately divulged. Shirah tells of her hard life in Alexandria every bit the daughter of a Jewish "witch" (a medicine adult female), who had been cast out of Israel for her practices. Upon her female parent'due south decease, she returns to Israel to watch over her uncle's two young motherless children. The youngest is Yael, whose flame-kissed red hair, sparkling blue eyes and pale pare brand her more of an oddball in their customs than a dazzler. Shirah promptly falls into bed with a married man, becomes pregnant and is banished to the desert.

The remainder of the tale — Shirah'due south fate in the unforgiving desert, how she and Yael are reunited and the path of her warrior-daughter Aziza — comprises the dramatic swings of loves lost, found and sometimes lost once again and hard choices made against the backdrop of slavery, war and decease. Mysticism in the miniseries is blessedly limited to a scattering of moments that could be explained away past coincidence, science or extreme intuition; Shirah's summoning of a much-neededrain, for instance, could be credited to her desert living and sensitivity to weather changes — that is, she saw that a storm was coming and cast it in her theatrics for result.

"The Dovekeepers'" human bandage is a mélange of international flavors with nigh every continent deemed for — from the atomic number 82 actresses representing the Americas and Europe to New Zealander Neill, Egyptian Mido Hamada as Shirah's honey Eleazar Ben Ya'ir and on. The miniseries scores points for equal(ish) opportunity that way — though the palette of racial diversity swings wild in one direction with Brosnahan'southward jarring Scottish coloring and Irish gaelic player Diarmaid Murtagh playing a slave/castaway from the set of "Vikings."

Also Read: 'Killing Jesus' Slays Nat Geo Record With 3.7 Meg Viewers

The Dovekeepers, Cote de Pablo (Mark Cassar/CBS)

This is not your grandma'due south Bible tale; the ladies hither get their hands dirty and sensuality is a biological constant, not some male sex-fantasy plot exclamation bespeak. The dewy leads brand y'all forget that in real life, the oppressive desert heat probably made for some intense torso odor, as when Aziza fights a fierce battle clothed every bit a homo, withal somehow manages to look fresh as a buttercup after changing back into her dress. (That'due south female fantasists at work.)

In all, the actors deliver even when the dialogue feels a bit starched and the story seems to hew a bit too faithfully to Josephus' existent documentation of the Masada siege's survivor tales. It's a problem with history that it sometimes feels outdated.

If Biblical-mode fantasy is your pocketbook, then its for y'all, simply audiences who accept feminist leanings volition find the number of times the women are — as with also many Bible tales — chosen whores and prostitutes extremely grating, when a woman with an opinion and a sexual appetite is no unlike from their male partners and deserving of no more (or less) blame for bad beliefs.

Without giving as well much away, the cult-like ending is in no way romantic and may set up off some viewers who will feel their fourth dimension would accept been better spent ensuring their kids don't grow up to be religious zealots.

"The Dovekeepers" airs Tuesday and Wednesday at 9 p.m. on CBS.

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