I will congratulate this series for great production values and not coming off like another corny Bible based movie with cheesy looking costumes, sets, etc. The three episode story is crafted with great care to be taken seriously. It also provided some useful cultural explanations about the Egyptian belief system and how they viewed their gods and Pharaoh. However, that's where my praise ends.
Full disclosure: I'm an atheist and don't believe the Bible is an accurate history book at all.
1. This is NOT a documentary. This comes across more like a religious propaganda piece trying to portray the events as actual facts. So when you watch it, take that "docuseries" or "documentary" label with a HUGE amount of salt. The only thing that makes it a "documentary" is the fact that you have commentary interspersed throughout from various religious adherents from the Judeo-Christian, Muslim, and Jewish faiths, and various authors of books based on the fable of Moses and the Exodus.
2. This three part series really leans heavily on only citing the Bible for events depicted and doesn't show chapter / verse references from the Torah or the Quran. I kept looking in the bottom left corner and all I would see were references to various chapters and verses from the Biblical book of Exodus. There are a number of scenes depicted that the Biblical account does not have in it that I have to assume are from one of the other two books. And if they aren't, then this film is definitely taking a lot of poetic license with the source material for the sake of drama. I'll give it the benefit of the doubt since I have not read either of the other two accounts and have zero intention of doing so. But relying heavily on only citing the Bible book of Exodus makes it feel biased towards just one "sacred book".
3. The events depicted gloss over a lot of the more gruesome events that are even depicted in the Bible. True, it paused to discuss how horrific the 10th plague is and how monstrous this paints the Hebrew God and in the end shrugs its shoulders and says, "Well....yeah. There's no justification we can think of to explain this horrendous genocide from a so-called 'loving god'." But let's not fool ourselves, because the genocidal accounts don't stop there. When depicting the account of the Golden Calf, this film does not make mention of the fact that the Bible talks about Moses coming down from the mountain and ordering the slaughter of over 3000 people for their worshipping and dancing around this idol created. It also doesn't bother to discuss how much the Hebrew God plagues this people as punishment for even daring to grumble about him letting them go for days without water or food.
The Biblical account has numerous accounts of literally thousands being burned alive, killed in a plague, or even a few hundred being swallowed alive by the earth simply for questioning Moses' leadership. Instead, this film comes across as some sort of apologist piece for any heinous acts performed by "The Lord" and calls them "lessons".
When/if you watch this series, watch it, not with the idea that it is a true story and an accurate and complete history of events, but instead is a faith piece that depicts a fabled story that three of the world's biggest religions all share in common, and try to ignore the plot holes such as the fifth plague wiping out all of the livestock, but the seventh plague talks about killing even the beasts in the field, and the tenth plague killing the firstborn of the animals.
Ummmmm, did God kill the same animals three times then?
Also, last I checked, you can survive for roughly 3-5 days without water. So, after the first plague, how is it that people aren't dropping dead left and right when there's no water to be had anywhere for 7 days in the middle of a hot and arid climate?
Even on the basic of science, this story falls apart really fast.
Full disclosure: I'm an atheist and don't believe the Bible is an accurate history book at all.
1. This is NOT a documentary. This comes across more like a religious propaganda piece trying to portray the events as actual facts. So when you watch it, take that "docuseries" or "documentary" label with a HUGE amount of salt. The only thing that makes it a "documentary" is the fact that you have commentary interspersed throughout from various religious adherents from the Judeo-Christian, Muslim, and Jewish faiths, and various authors of books based on the fable of Moses and the Exodus.
2. This three part series really leans heavily on only citing the Bible for events depicted and doesn't show chapter / verse references from the Torah or the Quran. I kept looking in the bottom left corner and all I would see were references to various chapters and verses from the Biblical book of Exodus. There are a number of scenes depicted that the Biblical account does not have in it that I have to assume are from one of the other two books. And if they aren't, then this film is definitely taking a lot of poetic license with the source material for the sake of drama. I'll give it the benefit of the doubt since I have not read either of the other two accounts and have zero intention of doing so. But relying heavily on only citing the Bible book of Exodus makes it feel biased towards just one "sacred book".
3. The events depicted gloss over a lot of the more gruesome events that are even depicted in the Bible. True, it paused to discuss how horrific the 10th plague is and how monstrous this paints the Hebrew God and in the end shrugs its shoulders and says, "Well....yeah. There's no justification we can think of to explain this horrendous genocide from a so-called 'loving god'." But let's not fool ourselves, because the genocidal accounts don't stop there. When depicting the account of the Golden Calf, this film does not make mention of the fact that the Bible talks about Moses coming down from the mountain and ordering the slaughter of over 3000 people for their worshipping and dancing around this idol created. It also doesn't bother to discuss how much the Hebrew God plagues this people as punishment for even daring to grumble about him letting them go for days without water or food.
The Biblical account has numerous accounts of literally thousands being burned alive, killed in a plague, or even a few hundred being swallowed alive by the earth simply for questioning Moses' leadership. Instead, this film comes across as some sort of apologist piece for any heinous acts performed by "The Lord" and calls them "lessons".
When/if you watch this series, watch it, not with the idea that it is a true story and an accurate and complete history of events, but instead is a faith piece that depicts a fabled story that three of the world's biggest religions all share in common, and try to ignore the plot holes such as the fifth plague wiping out all of the livestock, but the seventh plague talks about killing even the beasts in the field, and the tenth plague killing the firstborn of the animals.
Ummmmm, did God kill the same animals three times then?
Also, last I checked, you can survive for roughly 3-5 days without water. So, after the first plague, how is it that people aren't dropping dead left and right when there's no water to be had anywhere for 7 days in the middle of a hot and arid climate?
Even on the basic of science, this story falls apart really fast.