''God Friended Me'' is an American comedy-drama television series created by Steven Lilien and Bryan Wynbrandt. It stars Brandon Micheal Hall,

Violett Beane Violett Beane (born May 18, 1996) is an American actress. She played Jesse Wells/Jesse Quick in The CW's '' The Flash'', as well as Markie Cameron in the 2018 horror film '' Truth or Dare''. From 2018 to 2020, she starred as Cara Bloom in the ...

Suraj Sharma Suraj Sharma (born 21 March 1993) is an Indian actor who made his debut in the 2012 film '' Life of Pi''. Directed by Ang Lee, the film was adapted from the novel of the same name, and earned Sharma critical acclaim as well as a BAFTA Rising ...

Javicia Leslie Javicia Leslie ( ; born May 30, 1987) is an American actress. After landing her first major role in the Lifetime film ''Swim at Your Own Risk'' (2016), she appeared as a series regular on the BET drama '' The Family Business'' (2018–present) a ...

Joe Morton Joseph Thomas Morton Jr. (born October 18, 1947) is an American stage, television and film actor. He has worked with film director John Sayles in '' The Brother from Another Planet'' (1984), '' City of Hope'' (1991) and '' Lone Star'' (1996). Ot ...

and Erica Gimpel. The series was ordered on May 11, 2018 and premiered on September 30, 2018, and concluded with a two-hour series finale on April 26, 2020, on CBS. CBS renewed the series for a second season which premiered on September 29, 2019. In March 2020, season 2 filming was suspended due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identified ...

. In April 2020, the series was canceled after two seasons.

Plot

The series chronicles the life of Miles Finer (Hall), an outspoken

atheist Atheism, in the broadest sense, is an absence of belief in the existence of deities. Less broadly, atheism is a rejection of the belief that any deities exist. In an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there no ...

and

podcast A podcast is a program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. For example, an episodic series of digital audio or video files that a user can download to a personal device to listen to at a time of their choosing ...

er, who is sent a friend request on

Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin ...

by an account named "

God In monotheistic thought, God is usually viewed as the supreme being, creator, and principal object of faith. Swinburne, R.G. "God" in Honderich, Ted. (ed)''The Oxford Companion to Philosophy'', Oxford University Press, 1995. God is typically ...

". This account suggests new friends to Miles, people in his hometown of

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the U ...

, who will require assistance. Initially skeptical, Miles decides to follow these suggestions to help people. His first suggestion is a doctor who lost a patient and is on the verge of losing his girlfriend. While following up on his second suggestion, he meets and befriends Cara (Beane), a struggling magazine writer. Together with Cara and his

hacker A hacker is a person skilled in information technology who uses their technical knowledge to achieve a goal or overcome an obstacle, within a computerized system by non-standard means. Though the term ''hacker'' has become associated in popu ...

friend Rakesh (Sharma), Miles tries to find out who is behind the "God" account while still providing help to the account's continuing friend suggestions. Miles' atheist views sometimes cause friction with his father (Morton), who is the pastor of an

Episcopal Episcopal may refer to: *Of or relating to a bishop, an overseer in the Christian church *Episcopate, the see of a bishop – a diocese *Episcopal Church (disambiguation), any church with "Episcopal" in its name ** Episcopal Church (United State ...

church in

Harlem Harlem is a neighborhood in Upper Manhattan, New York City. It is bounded roughly by the Hudson River on the west; the Harlem River and 155th Street on the north; Fifth Avenue on the east; and Central Park North on the south. The greater Harl ...

Use of Facebook

''God Friended Me'' uses

frequently as a narrative device. The "Friended" in the title ''God Friended Me'' refers to the act of

friending Friending is the act of adding someone to a list of "friends" on a social networking service. The notion does not necessarily involve the concept of friendship. It is also distinct from the idea of a " fan"—as employed on the WWW sites of busi ...

someone on social media, granting that person special privileges (on the service in question) with respect to oneself. In ''God Friended Me'', this allows for God to contact Miles. While the majority of Facebook's revenue is advertisement-derived, show creator Steven Lilien says that their conversations with Facebook have been limited to discussing "how much we can portray it." According to executive producer Bryan Wynbrandt, the "God" of the show will be active on Facebook outside the show, with liking pages and changing their profile picture given as examples of their possible online activities.

Cast

Main

* Brandon Micheal Hall as Miles Finer, a skeptical atheist who hosts a podcast about his atheism. Miles’ life is thrown into chaos when he is friended by an account named "God" on Facebook, which then sends him friend suggestions. This sends him on journeys to change people's lives. *

as Cara Bloom, a journalist who is Miles' second friend suggestion. She becomes friends with Miles and Rakesh, helping them with God account cases. She and Miles start a romantic relationship, which is tested when a God account case comes between them. *

as Rakesh Singh, a hacker and friend of Miles *

as Arthur Finer, Miles' father who is the long-time pastor of Harlem Episcopal church and later the Bishop of New York *

as Ali Finer, Miles' sister and Arthur's daughter * Erica Gimpel as Trish Allen, Arthur's girlfriend and then wife (season 2; recurring season 1)

Recurring

Notable guest stars

Episodes

Season 1 (2018–19)

Season 2 (2019–20)

Production

Development

On August 31, 2017, it was announced that Steven Lilien and Wynbrandt had decided to develop the pilot and had teamed with

Greg Berlanti Gregory Berlanti (born May 24, 1972) is an American screenwriter, producer and director of film and television. He is known for his work on the television series ''Dawson's Creek'', '' Brothers & Sisters'', '' Everwood'', '' Political Animals'', ...

and

Sarah Schechter Sarah Schechter is the first female rabbi in the U.S. Air Force. She joined the Air Force as a chaplain candidate, and became a chaplain when she was ordained as a Reform rabbi in 2003. Her father was an Air Force chaplain in 1960. She grew ...

to develop the concept. Warner Bros. Television was shopping the show to the American broadcast networks. Both Lilien and Wynbrandt would write the series, while Berlanti and Schechter would serve as executive producers through

Berlanti Productions Berlanti Productions is an American film and television production company founded by screenwriter, producer and filmmaker Greg Berlanti and producer Mickey Liddell. History The company was founded in 2000 as Berlanti-Liddell Productions by ...

, and

Marcos Siega Marcos Siega (born June 8, 1969, in New York City) is a film, television, commercial and music video director. He has also worked as a producer, a musician and an artist. In the late 1980s, he helped to form the New York-based punk band Bad Trip, ...

would direct the pilot. CBS ordered a pilot on January 23, 2018. In addition to Berlanti and Schechter, Lilien and Wynbrandt would also serve as executive producers for the series. The pilot was picked up straight-to-series by CBS on May 11, 2018 and the series premiered on September 30, 2018. On October 19, 2018, CBS picked up the series for a full season of 20 episodes. On January 29, 2019, the series was renewed for a second season which premiered on September 29, 2019. On March 13, 2020, Warner Bros. Television announced that production would be suspended due to the

. On April 14, 2020, CBS announced the series had been canceled after two seasons, and the last two episodes aired on April 26, 2020. The last-filmed episode was reworked into a series finale, mainly by using unused footage originally filmed for the pilot.

Casting

On February 5, 2018, it was announced that Brandon Micheal Hall had joined the production as Miles Finer. Several additional cast members were announced in February 2018.

and Javicia Leslie would portray Rakesh Singh and Ali Finer, then four days later

was announced as Rev. Arthur Finer. Finally,

was cast as Cara Bloom. On June 11, 2019, it was reported that Erica Gimpel was promoted as a series regular for second season.

Reception

Critical response

On the

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wan ...

, the series has an approval rating of 59% based on 29 reviews, with an average rating of 6.36 out of 10. The site's critical consensus for season one reads, "A sincere and thoughtful handling of spiritual themes helps ''God Friended Me'' overcome—and even benefit from—its earnest approach to a potentially off-putting premise."

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

, which uses a weighted average, assigned a score of 57 out of 100 based on 14 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". In his review of the show's pilot episode, Matthew Gilbert of ''

The Boston Globe ''The Boston Globe'' is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes, and has a total circulation of close to 300,000 print and digital subscribers. ''The Boston Glob ...

'' wrote that "Based on the title alone, I was fully prepared to despise this show", but declared that "the premiere holds some promise as a thoughtful feel-good drama." Michael Starr of the ''

New York Post The ''New York Post'' (''NY Post'') is a conservative daily tabloid newspaper published in New York City. The ''Post'' also operates NYPost.com, the celebrity gossip site PageSix.com, and the entertainment site Decider.com. It was established ...

'' wrote that "While 'God Friended Me' does sometimes stray into saccharine-sweet, '

Touched By An Angel ''Touched by an Angel'' is an American fantasy drama television series that premiered on CBS on September 21, 1994, and ran for 211 episodes over nine seasons until its conclusion on April 27, 2003. Created by John Masius and executive produced ...

'-type territory ..it doesn't overstay its welcome and seems to know when to dial it back and inject some levity into the proceedings." Steve Greene of

IndieWire IndieWire (sometimes stylized as indieWIRE or Indiewire) is a film industry and review website that was established in 1996. The site's focus was predominantly independent film, although its coverage has grown to "to include all aspects of Holl ...

gave the show a grade of "C", writing that "It's anchored by a likable cast, and works from an admirably high-concept premise, but for now the result is an overstuffed hodgepodge of exaggerated emotions and familiar swings at family drama." Vinnie Mancuso of

Collider A collider is a type of particle accelerator which brings two opposing particle beams together such that the particles collide. Colliders may either be ring accelerators or linear accelerators. Colliders are used as a research tool in particle ...

gave the show a rating of three stars, calling Hall's performance as Miles "endlessly likable" but writing that the show is "heavy on the hamminess, rooted in religion and old-fashioned morality, and misunderstands the lifestyle of your average human under the age of 35 on every fundamental level".

Hemant Mehta Hemant Mehta (born February 25, 1983) is an American author, blogger, and atheist activist. Mehta is a regular speaker at atheist events, and has been a board member of charitable organizations such as the Secular Student Alliance and the Founda ...

Patheos Patheos is a non-denominational, non-partisan online media company providing information and commentary from various religious and nonreligious perspectives. Upon its launch in May 2009, the website was primarily geared toward learning about r ...

wrote that ''God Friended Me'' is "not a bad show", but criticized the show for presenting Miles' atheism as being a result of his mother's death. Mehta wrote that "In short, he's an atheist because he went through something traumatic ..it bears no resemblance to why so many atheists today don't believe in God."

Ratings

The website ''TV Series Finale'' acknowledged that during the show's second season, ratings averaged 25% less in the key 18-49 demo compared to the first season. Overall viewership fell 20% compared to the first season.

TV Line ''TVLine'' is a website devoted to information, news, and spoilers of television programs. History In late 2010, ''Entertainment Weekly''s Michael Ausiello announced that he would be leaving ''EW'' after nearly two years in their employ to es ...

reported that God Friended Me had the "smallest gain via Live+7 DVR playback — just 23 percent — of any scripted CBS program."

Season 1

Season 2

Broadcast

''God Friended Me'' premiered in the United States and Canada on September 30, 2018. The series premiered in Australia on November 5, 2018.

References

External links

* *{{IMDb title, 7948998, God Friended Me 2010s American comedy-drama television series 2018 American television series debuts 2020 American television series endings 2020s American comedy-drama television series Atheism in television American fantasy drama television series American fantasy television series CBS original programming English-language television shows Fiction about God Religious comedy television series Religious drama television series Television productions cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic Television series by CBS Studios Television series about social media Television series by Warner Bros. Television Studios Television shows set in New York City Works about Facebook