This is a show I want to check out. What do you think?
On TV: Become a priest? A&E looks for answers
By MELANIE McFARLAND
P-I TELEVISION CRITIC
"God or the girl."
Sounds like a game show spoof, doesn't it? You can almost envision the scenario -- blinking stage lights, a cheesy set, doors No. 1, 2 and 3. Perhaps there's a nun waiting to whisk the boy away to the seminary behind the first, a Bettie Page impersonator wriggling her hips beyond the second, and behind door No. 3, a lovely set of cookware.
Having a serious girlfriend makes wrestling with whether to become a priest that much harder for Mike Lechniak, right. Joe Adair, behind, is desperate to find direction in life.
A scene like that is only slightly beyond the taste level of today's A&E, purveyor of Cheez Whiz reality masquerading as pseudo-serious views of the tacky underbelly of American culture. Fortunately "God or the Girl" is more intriguing than its sensational title suggests, albeit with its share of flaws.
The five-part series runs its first two hours Sunday night from 9 to 11 on the cable channel, with hours three and four following Monday at the same time, and the finale airing April 23 at 10 p.m.
But soon into the first night, you'll realize that title is fairly misleading. Of the four young men wrestling with whether to take the path toward priesthood and celibacy or to pursue married life as a faithful Catholic, only one, 24-year-old Mike Lechniak, has a serious girlfriend.
Another, an extremely zealous 21-year-old named Dan DeMatte, put his faith before his relationship to the point that she's described as an ex-girlfriend in the rare times she appears. To help him contemplate whether to enter the seminary, his priest challenges him to walk 20 miles while carrying a cross. (DeMatte not only accepts, but constructs one that weighs 80 pounds.)
The other two, 28-year-old Joe Adair and 25-year-old Steve Horvath, are unattached. But Adair is desperate to find direction in his life -- beyond figuring out whether to become a priest -- and heads to Cologne, Germany, for World Youth Day. His mission is to catch a glimpse of the pope -- and, oh yeah, look up a German girl he was friends with in school.
It's closer to the truth to say the woman holding the most sway over all these guys is the Virgin Mary.
"God or the Girl's" creators Darryl Silver, Stephen David and David Eilenberg, have somewhat bucked the A&E image here by delivering four non-judgmental portraits of young men exploring the depths of their faith. And it's not always easy to watch. Adair's inability to make up his mind can be frustrating to witness, and DeMatte's displays of religious fire -- which includes praying outside of abortion clinics and strip clubs -- are going to polarize audiences.
He presented the producers with plenty of ammunition to paint him as a religious nut. That they restrained themselves, treating his story as carefully as the other three, is to their credit.
Even so, "God or the Girl" could have been more effective by focusing on each man in his own free-standing hour instead of veering from one to the next. That's a minor annoyance compared with the hokey stock footage separating each scene, complete with holy statues, a nameless priest folding his hands and casting his eyes heavenward. Throw in an anxiety-laced rock score reminiscent of "A Current Affair," punctuated by a church bell's bong! and the homage to MTV's cornball approach to documentary editing is complete.
You'll either get used to the heavy, odd score or by about the fifth bong! you'll have to squelch the desire to commit a mortal sin upon your television set.
Beyond this, "God or the Girl" is propelled by that "door No. 1 or door No. 2" question, presenting interesting ideas of how and why one comes to his decision.
The priests they look up to come off as a bit manipulative. Lechniak, in particular, would be joined at the hip to Father Pauselli if not for his girlfriend Aly, whom his mentor sees as a threat to Lechniak's decision. (As an aside, there's an interesting moment in which Lechniak admits to the camera that he knows he must fight his urge to hug and kiss Aly. That's lust, he innocently explains, and "it's sick and disgusting.")
What the series leaves you wishing for is more of a portrayal of the power and mystery that binds a person to the Catholic faith. Or, in the spirit of full disclosure, it doesn't commit as sufficiently as I, a lapsed cradle Catholic, would have liked it to.
The other question so desperate to be answered these days is why young men are still attracted to the priesthood at all -- an institution associated with an outdated patriarchal ideal at best and rampant sex-abuse scandals at the very worst.
In the middle are many other notions "God or the Girl" fails to sufficiently explore, such as why, in a culture that equates success with power and wealth, would young men choose a life of celibacy and service?
Only Horvath's journey comes closest to addressing that. Having left a high-paying job and a $500,000 townhouse behind to become a missionary, Horvath expresses trepidation about sharing his decision with his fraternity brothers. Eventually he heads to a mission in Guatemala, wearing his fears of traveling to a Third World country on his sleeve. What he finds there makes his pursuit the most heartfelt and transformative out of everyone involved.
"A relative of mine said, 'Aw, why are you going to do that? Everyone's going think you're a child molester,' " Horvath says as the series begins. "... And I basically said, 'Your attitude is exactly why I want to do this.' "
And what do you know -- there's no girl involved. Struggling with such a weighty decision is enough of a challenge.
On TV: Become a priest? A&E looks for answers
By MELANIE McFARLAND
P-I TELEVISION CRITIC
"God or the girl."
Sounds like a game show spoof, doesn't it? You can almost envision the scenario -- blinking stage lights, a cheesy set, doors No. 1, 2 and 3. Perhaps there's a nun waiting to whisk the boy away to the seminary behind the first, a Bettie Page impersonator wriggling her hips beyond the second, and behind door No. 3, a lovely set of cookware.
Having a serious girlfriend makes wrestling with whether to become a priest that much harder for Mike Lechniak, right. Joe Adair, behind, is desperate to find direction in life.
A scene like that is only slightly beyond the taste level of today's A&E, purveyor of Cheez Whiz reality masquerading as pseudo-serious views of the tacky underbelly of American culture. Fortunately "God or the Girl" is more intriguing than its sensational title suggests, albeit with its share of flaws.
The five-part series runs its first two hours Sunday night from 9 to 11 on the cable channel, with hours three and four following Monday at the same time, and the finale airing April 23 at 10 p.m.
But soon into the first night, you'll realize that title is fairly misleading. Of the four young men wrestling with whether to take the path toward priesthood and celibacy or to pursue married life as a faithful Catholic, only one, 24-year-old Mike Lechniak, has a serious girlfriend.
Another, an extremely zealous 21-year-old named Dan DeMatte, put his faith before his relationship to the point that she's described as an ex-girlfriend in the rare times she appears. To help him contemplate whether to enter the seminary, his priest challenges him to walk 20 miles while carrying a cross. (DeMatte not only accepts, but constructs one that weighs 80 pounds.)
The other two, 28-year-old Joe Adair and 25-year-old Steve Horvath, are unattached. But Adair is desperate to find direction in his life -- beyond figuring out whether to become a priest -- and heads to Cologne, Germany, for World Youth Day. His mission is to catch a glimpse of the pope -- and, oh yeah, look up a German girl he was friends with in school.
It's closer to the truth to say the woman holding the most sway over all these guys is the Virgin Mary.
"God or the Girl's" creators Darryl Silver, Stephen David and David Eilenberg, have somewhat bucked the A&E image here by delivering four non-judgmental portraits of young men exploring the depths of their faith. And it's not always easy to watch. Adair's inability to make up his mind can be frustrating to witness, and DeMatte's displays of religious fire -- which includes praying outside of abortion clinics and strip clubs -- are going to polarize audiences.
He presented the producers with plenty of ammunition to paint him as a religious nut. That they restrained themselves, treating his story as carefully as the other three, is to their credit.
Even so, "God or the Girl" could have been more effective by focusing on each man in his own free-standing hour instead of veering from one to the next. That's a minor annoyance compared with the hokey stock footage separating each scene, complete with holy statues, a nameless priest folding his hands and casting his eyes heavenward. Throw in an anxiety-laced rock score reminiscent of "A Current Affair," punctuated by a church bell's bong! and the homage to MTV's cornball approach to documentary editing is complete.
You'll either get used to the heavy, odd score or by about the fifth bong! you'll have to squelch the desire to commit a mortal sin upon your television set.
Beyond this, "God or the Girl" is propelled by that "door No. 1 or door No. 2" question, presenting interesting ideas of how and why one comes to his decision.
The priests they look up to come off as a bit manipulative. Lechniak, in particular, would be joined at the hip to Father Pauselli if not for his girlfriend Aly, whom his mentor sees as a threat to Lechniak's decision. (As an aside, there's an interesting moment in which Lechniak admits to the camera that he knows he must fight his urge to hug and kiss Aly. That's lust, he innocently explains, and "it's sick and disgusting.")
What the series leaves you wishing for is more of a portrayal of the power and mystery that binds a person to the Catholic faith. Or, in the spirit of full disclosure, it doesn't commit as sufficiently as I, a lapsed cradle Catholic, would have liked it to.
The other question so desperate to be answered these days is why young men are still attracted to the priesthood at all -- an institution associated with an outdated patriarchal ideal at best and rampant sex-abuse scandals at the very worst.
In the middle are many other notions "God or the Girl" fails to sufficiently explore, such as why, in a culture that equates success with power and wealth, would young men choose a life of celibacy and service?
Only Horvath's journey comes closest to addressing that. Having left a high-paying job and a $500,000 townhouse behind to become a missionary, Horvath expresses trepidation about sharing his decision with his fraternity brothers. Eventually he heads to a mission in Guatemala, wearing his fears of traveling to a Third World country on his sleeve. What he finds there makes his pursuit the most heartfelt and transformative out of everyone involved.
"A relative of mine said, 'Aw, why are you going to do that? Everyone's going think you're a child molester,' " Horvath says as the series begins. "... And I basically said, 'Your attitude is exactly why I want to do this.' "
And what do you know -- there's no girl involved. Struggling with such a weighty decision is enough of a challenge.
