Christianity is serving as the punching bag for ABC's new anti-Catholic show "The Real O'Neals," which is executive produced by gay activist Dan Savage.
Alexa Moutevelis Coombs writes in an article for Charisma News that the show "makes fun of Catholic teachings and believers to the point that if the network had targeted any other religious group for these attacks, journalists would call it hate speech."
In the show's two-episode premiere alone, Coombs says 93 separate visual or verbal reminders were seen or heard that poke fun of Catholics plus eight "admissions of Catholic sins."
There were also numerous ridiculous scenes, adds Coombs, and one of these included that of gay 16-year-old protagonist Kenny O'Neal (Noah Galvin), who was handed condoms and pressured to have sex with his girlfriend. Because he clearly did not want to, Kenny had a conversation with an imaginary hunky male model in the mirror. When he tried to flush the condoms on the toilet bowl, he pleaded with a statue of Mary above the bowl, "Come on, girl, help me out."
Kenny's mother Eileen (Martha Plimpton) is not helping with his struggles either. She is described as a "a stereotypical holier-than-thou character who lays the Catholic guilt on thick and makes everything about religion." She is in denial about her son's gender preference and even urges him to have sex with his girlfriend.
"It's like when you were little and you said you hated papaya, but you hadn't even tried it. Then once you tried it, you couldn't get enough," she told him.
Coombs says the show's "vile attempt at humour" should not be lauded. "Critics are already bashing the show and, bigotry aside, it is simply not funny. I'm just being real," she says, adding that she expects the show will not last long.
