Oh yes, Netflix is starting the new year with a nice thriller series

Of course, that's really fun, all those Christmas movies. Nice and romantic, nice and cheesy, mostly clichés… It just belongs to it, of course, you won't hear me complain about that. But when Netflix announces a new thriller series, I am also very happy again. I was actually ready for that and out of desperation, I started watching Bates Motel (I still don't know what to think of it). So I can stop that, because Messiah is the series I want to see and that can start from January 1.

In Messiah, CIA agent Eva Geller (Michelle Monaghan) is tasked with investigating Mehdi Dehbi. He has managed to gather quite a few followers in a short time, and that is, to say the least, suspicious. This also immediately explains the title of the series; is he the new Messiah? His followers believe so, and the Jesus look that this Mehdi has fits that picture.

A bit of a cult-like theme, and I love it. Throughout the series, we see the story from different perspectives: the CIA agent, a journalist, a preacher from Texas and his daughter, and a Palestinian refugee. An interesting addition is that Messiah simply takes place in the present, so we also deal with the influence of social media. Imagine if someone suddenly stands up and claims to be the son of God, gets a huge following, and is continuously trending on Twitter, that can only become grim, right?

The question of whether he is really the Messiah remains in the air for a while. Secretly, I hope that nothing supernatural is going on: the more realistic, the scarier, the bigger fan I am. Perhaps a bit Black Mirror-like. From the trailer, it looks like there will be a lot of special effects involved, tornadoes and shootouts, and we travel from Syria to the United States. Verdict: the trailer looks pretty cool. And I guess that the majority of the Netherlands won't be feeling completely fresh and fruity on January 1 (or lying down), so we have an excuse not to go out.