God Friended Me is a CBS sitcom about an atheist who gets a Facebook friend request from God. That premise is clever, and the show spends two seasons trying to live up to it. Mostly, it doesn’t quite get there.
The show follows Miles Finer, played by Brandon Micheal Hall, a podcast host and self-described atheist who starts receiving friend requests from an account named “God.” Each request points him toward a stranger in need, and Miles reluctantly helps them. The catch is that Miles also wants to know who is actually behind the “God” account, which drives much of the show’s mystery subplot.
Trailer, via CBS.
Miles Finer and His Friends
Miles is the engine of the series. He is cynical, sarcastic, and deeply committed to his atheism, which puts him at odds with his father, Rev. Arthur Finer, played by Joe Morton. The father-son dynamic is the show’s emotional core, and it works better than the supernatural framing around it.
Violett Beane plays Cara Bloom, a struggling magazine writer who becomes Miles’ closest ally in his investigations. Together with hacker Rakesh Singh, played by Suraj Sharma, they chase down leads on who might be running the “God” account. Javicia Leslie rounds out the main cast as Ali Finer, Miles’ sister, while Erica Gimpel plays Trish, Miles’ mother.
Comedy vs. Drama
The show struggles to balance its two tones. It wants to be a comedy about faith, but it also wants to be a drama about family. The comedy often lands flat, and the drama feels forced. The humor leans heavily on Miles’ disbelief, but the jokes about religion rarely land with the kind of sharpness the show seems to aim for.
The mystery subplot, meanwhile, goes nowhere. The show never resolves the question of who runs the “God” account, and the audience is left wondering why they care about a question the characters themselves seem to have stopped asking halfway through the second season.
The CBS Setting
The show is set in New York City, and it uses the city as a backdrop for its stories about helping strangers. Miles and Cara travel across the boroughs to meet their assigned friends, which gives the show some visual variety. But the locations are mostly window dressing for a story that could be told anywhere.
The series was ordered on May 11, 2018 and premiered on September 30, 2018. CBS renewed it for a second season, which began on September 29, 2019. Season 2 filming was suspended in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the show was canceled in April 2020 after two seasons.
Key Facts
- Creator: Steven Lilien and Bryan Wynbrandt
- Network: CBS
- Premiere: September 30, 2018
- Finale: April 26, 2020
- Seasons: 2
- Episodes: 42
- Score: 5.7/10
What Works
The show’s best moments come from Miles’ relationships with the people he helps. The writers occasionally find genuine humanity in a stranger’s story, and those episodes are the ones that stick. The performances from Hall and Morton carry the weight of the show’s weaker writing.
The show also benefits from its setting. New York City provides a rich tapestry of neighborhoods and characters, and the show occasionally lets its camera linger on the streets in a way that feels lived-in.
What Doesn’t Work
The central mystery is a mess. The show introduces the “God” account as a driving force, but it never delivers on the promise of revealing who runs it. The show’s attempts to be both a faith comedy and a family drama dilute its identity, leaving it neither fish nor fowl.
The comedy also suffers from a lack of consistency. Some episodes are genuinely funny, while others feel like they are trying too hard to be clever. The show’s attempts to be both a faith comedy and a family drama dilute its identity, leaving it neither fish nor fowl.
Verdict
God Friended Me is a show with a great idea and a weak execution. Its heart is in the right place, but its brain is scattered. The performances are strong, the setting is vivid, and the premise is unique, but the writing fails to capitalize on any of it.
The show’s final score reflects that tension. It is a show that is easy to watch and hard to recommend.
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