The Messengers (TV series)


The Messengers is an American supernatural mystery drama television series that aired on The CW during the 2014–15 season. The series was officially picked up on May 8, 2014, and premiered on April 17, 2015. The series was cancelled by the CW on May 7, 2015, but aired all of its episodes, and concluded on July 24, 2015.

Plot

A mysterious object plummets to Earth, sending out a shock wave that causes five strangers to die, only to miraculously come back to life moments later. The members of the group are Vera, a struggling radio-astronomer living in New Mexico who is searching for her missing son; Erin, a young mother in Tucson, Arizona, who is desperate to protect her seven-year-old daughter Amy from her abusive policeman ex-husband; Peter, a troubled high school student and orphan in Little Rock, Arkansas; Raul, a federal agent in Mexico who is looking to escape his dangerous and violent undercover assignment; and Joshua, a charismatic second-generation televangelist in Houston, Texas.
Most mysterious of all is the figure known only as The Man, who offers Vera the location of her abducted son if she will help him with one morally complicated task. The task puts her on a collision course with Rose, a nurse in Houston who has been in a coma for seven years, after being shot by an unknown hitman. Drawn together by fate and biblical prophecy, "The Messengers" soon learn that they now have supernatural gifts which might be the only hope for preventing the impending Rapture.

Cast and characters

The Messengers

The main characters of the series are the Messengers, a group of ordinary humans chosen by God to determine if humanity is worth saving. They are hit by an energy wave from the meteorite that brought The Man to earth, which causes them to die for a few minutes. Then they awaken with strange supernatural abilities denominated as "gifts". However, their gifts have side-effects on their bodies unless the seven true Messengers are united.
Every generation there are four people who commit a grievous sin and are assigned to become the Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Rose Arvale, the Horseman of Death, is the leader of the current generation, and they want to use The Man's meteorite as their ultimate weapon for the end of humanity. In contrast to the angel Messengers, the Horsemen immediately become aware of their powers upon a seal being broken as well as their destiny, and about each other's identity. It is also implied that all four of them are telepathic and can read each other's minds.
  • Anna Diop as Rose Arvale
  • Lauren Bowles as Cindy Richards
  • Sam Littlefield as Leland Schiller
  • Riley Smith as Mark Plowman

    Others

  • Robb Moon as the patron of the "Last Supper Bar and Grill".
  • Lexi Atkins as Alice, a student who attends Peter's school.
  • Katy Rowe as Charlotte Silburn, Joshua Jr.'s wife who is pregnant with his child despite having a short affair with her father-in-law, Joshua Snr.
  • Bernardo Saracino as Cesar Garcia, Raul's brother, Gabriela's husband and Nadia's legal father.
  • Loren Escandon as Gabriela Garcia, Cesar's widowed wife who has an extramarital affair with his brother Raul, conceiving their daughter Nadia.
  • Navid Negahban as the Prime Minister of Afghanistan, Senator Richards' target during her attempted assassination.
  • Hannah Marshall as Hope Silburn, Joshua Jr.'s sister whose father discarded her after she came out as a lesbian.
  • Roberta Isgreen as Margaret Schiller, Leland's late mother.
  • J.B. Tuttle and Fawnda McMahan as Dave and Melissa Cooper, Peter's last foster family who later returned him to Social Services because of his suicidal tendencies, but they are still in contact with him.
  • Jamie Bamber as Vincent Plowman, the co-chairman of Plowman Family Farms and the younger brother of Mark Plowman. He is described as unapologetic and aggressive; he is the favorite son which may uproot his ambitious plans.
  • Jodi Lynn Thomas as Anne Moore, Peter's biological mother who lived in psychiatric hospital until she killed herself for not having her son with her.
  • Jack O'Donnell as Dr. Simon, the lead scientist in charge of the Black Site Laboratory. He is one of the people in charge of investigating the Devil's meteorite, but he and his workers feel threatened by the Four Horsemen.
  • Toby Azeem as one of the Patient in Houston hospital in the awakening episode

    Episodes

Reception

Critical reception

The Messengers has received mixed reviews from critics. Rotten Tomatoes gives the show a rating of 47% based on 17 reviews with an average rating of 5.6 out of 10. The site's consensus reads: "The Messengers flashes bursts of potential, but ultimately sags beneath derivative, muddled storytelling". Metacritic gave the show a score of 56 out of 100, based on 15 reviews, indicating "mixed or average reviews".

Release

The Messengers was scheduled to premiere on April 10, 2015, but was moved back a week to April 17, 2015. In Australia, the series premiered on FOX8 on June 3, 2015.