Thank you for taking the time to write a thoughtful response to my comments.

I suppose the core concern for the writer of the series is to determine what kind of challenge the hero needs to confront – the Old Testament Jehovah challenge or the New Testament challenge put forth by Jesus.

It’s usually a lot more difficult to act with forgiveness and love towards someone that hurt me than to murder someone who, while helpless at the moment, was trying to hurt me. I realize that the scene is to make a reference between Jeremiah and the Book of Mormon. But surely there must be something in the Book of Mormon where someone acts with compassion and forgiveness towards someone who has harmed him or her.

For example, you bring up the situation of a gay member of a conservative church marrying a woman. If the guy goes forward without telling the woman, wouldn’t it be a greater challenge for the wife to forgive and act with compassion towards the guy rather than do something vengeful when she finds out.

I realize the series is a work in progress and I am definitely looking forward to the new season – if nothing else because it educates me on your church. At the same time I’m curious about what kinds of challenges await Jeremiah.

So. Glad to clear that up.

Yes, it might come off a little extremist to some people, and yes the Nephi/Laban allusion makes some people feel nauseous, but that’s not really the point. The scene isn’t there just to kill a guy, it’s not there to compare Jeremiah to another prophet of scripture, it’s a little more than that. Aren’t we, at times, asked to do things that are difficult for us, that seem to go against what all of our senses are telling us, but inside, we know it’s the right thing to do? Think of the trial of a gay member of any conservative religion. Their church tells them that to pursue those feelings, feelings that seem so right and natural, is wrong. And though it may be extremely difficult, they must forsake those feelings and either pursue marriage with a woman or remain celibate.
A person raised in one church who converts to another has to deal with similar situations. (though, admittedly, it’s no where near as severe as killing a man…)

Perhaps the scene didn’t work, but this show is an experimental venture. It’s a learning experience for all involved.
And in that regard, thank you for your honest, and from what I can tell, thought out feedback. And i’m glad that despite your concerns, you’re still a watcher of the show, and I’m looking forward to the next season right along with you.

One is minor – a few episodes in Porter tells how his great grandfather shot someone in the head for looking at Joseph Smith the wrong way. I live in Spanish Harlem and it is not unusual for a young man to shoot another in the head because he looks at him or one of his friends the wrong way. So while the comment, which was sort of gratuitous, might sound just great to Latter Day Saints, it sounds a little demented to everyone else – sort of like if the Jeremiah series was Catholic oriented and one of the main characters said that one of his ancestors shot some one in the head for looking at Pope St Pius X the wrong way.

More importantly the murder of the helpless man needs to be handled with a little more skill. I posted my concern after seeing the episode. There is no shortage of people out there that believe God is telling them to kill people as I am sure Scott Roeder will attest to. The usual response is to think the person is insane.

The way you can handle the problem is to make Jeremiah question the voice and then have the voice do a Job like intervention, answering out of the whirlwind and revealing eternity to Jeremiah. That would help but what would really show that Jeremiah was worthy would be to set aside Jehovah and bring in Jesus.

Jeremiah could be challenged to save the live of the person who murdered his parents. Manifestations of forgiveness and love by the son of an immortal Nephite might be of greater value to the Church than having God direct the hero to murder a helpless man.

However if this is going to be done the scene where Jeremiah tells Porter about the murder needs some work. Most guys wouldn’t immediately agree with their roommate who just confessed to a murder that God did indeed order the murder. Secular guys would think their roommate was insane and religious guys, like Porter, would think the roommate was under the influence of demons. The way out is for Porter to express doubt, Jeremiah reaches out and touches him and the divine vision passes to Porter who then has a reason to believe.

So, a couple of minor concerns and I’m definitely looking forward to the next season. I also think the series is generally good for the Latter Day Saints. Every once in awhile a full length feature displaying the Mormon way of thinking and entertaining of a professional level hit mainstream theaters. These movies have a generally positive effect on educating non-Mormons. This series has the same potential.

I’m new to this series having picked up on it from Salon.com a couple of days ago. The problem I have with this episode is that it’s not clear that Jeremiah wasn’t being instructed to kill by demons rather than God. Sweet music doesn’t mean the voice is God’s and since God says ‘Thou Shalt not Kill’ when I’m told that someone has killed a helpless man because a voice told him to I generally assume that the voice is Satanic. Perhaps this point has already been made. I scanned all of the other comments but didn’t read them in detail. Hopefully as I continue on with the other episodes it will become more clear that it was God and not a demon speaking to him as well as how Jeremiah was able to be so sure about the voice that he would break one of God’s commandments to do what the voice said to do.

Loved the final shot, BTW…

I killed him a guy. God told me to.

OK, let’s go up on campus and hang out.

Really?

I’d be saying, “My roommate is Dan Lafferty!”

I like the Jeremiah/Claire stuff mostly. (She’s so much better than the unbelievable reporter chick.) But her immediate offense that Jeremiah isn’t screeching for joy over Shakespeare in BOM times was so Molly Mormon stereotype. She doesn’t even know if she’ll like it because she hasn’t SEEN it. How about acting like people who can think?

Why does the girl hug her grandmother after looking for her in the library for just a few minutes? And really, would this girl date Porter?

And, yea, his “real parents” are the ones who raised him. You’ve heard about sealings, right?

OK, and the reporter chick totally bugs me, too.

Fun moment when he comes out and I’m going “Waaait, Penny Royale isn’t next to Sammy’s…oh yah, editing and story-telling.”

Anyway, overall this episode was really fun, but do we have to use the 24-cliche of Bluetooth=evil, and ultimate decision of good and evil is money vs. mission….wait that sounds familiar.

There is one legitimate suggestion I would like to give instead of my lame attempts at pithiness: The set-ups and payoffs that aren’t completely central to the plot are often set-up RIGHT before the payoff instead of several episodes before. Example: The whole Elizabethan Report is only mentioned a few minutes before we see them instead of having been at least lightly references episodes before so we get a sense early on that this is a hot band and get the pay-off later (and make the temptation more legitimate too!) Too often I think things are set up a minute or two before they happen which makes the pay-off less powerful and feel more contrived.

But this is still a fun ride. Jeremiah may have been a jerk this episode, but at least he finally made a decisive decision. I don’t think la hoochie is really bad either. Nice last moment with her looking bewildered and running away in her mini-dress (I take it SHE didn’t serve a mission.)

That being said, let’s be patient. I know it’s not perfect. I do have my criticisms with Jer3miah (that I plan to word as constructively as possible at the end of the series). But let’s not hasten to assemble all of the pieces of the “big picture” – we don’t have all of them yet (especially me – I haven’t even stepped digital foot onto davenportpapers and who knows what additional story there is to be found there). And it’s because we don’t have all the information that the show is able to sustain its audience, and even become mildly addictive (it consistently keeps me guessing, speculating, and seems to continue drawing in viewers – haters and lovers alike. That’s some kind of testament).

Point being, not everything has been laid out for us explicitly, though plenty has been implied to remind us that we don’t have all the information. For example, we don’t know the nature of the conversation between Porter and Jeremiah at the end of episode 8- it has yet to be revealed to the audience. However, from what was implied by an ending like that, well, I’m guessing there’s something in that conversation that could justify Porter’s response when Jeremiah confides that he killed the man. I respect the view that it’s unrealistic/glib. The scene does seem a little, let’s say, hurried. But moreso it’s refreshing that a scene like that actually reads so, unaffected, simple. No sweeping music, no mawkish dialogue – it would have been easy to go there. I actually would like to see MORE of this restraint in Jer3miah. It feels MORE real to me.

And as far as the spirituality being a forethought or afterthought, (this comment has been made on various episodes and I’m finally getting around to addressing it), I think it is THE singular, driving-thought of all of this. There is overt religious content in every single episode – it’s the bread and butter of the series. To say the filmmakers carelessly threw it in at the last minute doesn’t give them due credit. I mean, look at the title – The Book of Jer3miah. No, couldn’t be religious. No way.

I think the episodes are fun, and I like the relationships a lot, I just think the uses of serious spiritual subject matter were not very well thought-out. I would NOT show this episode to a non-religious person. Talking so casually about murder and God making them do it feeds a very unwanted stereo-type about people of faith.