Gospel Television Criticism

I spend a lot of time reading the A.V. Club.  It's a site that reviews movies, music, comics, video games, and TV, and produces features related to those media as well.  Check it out.  The writers swear sometimes, and are a little hoity-toity (they tend to favor artsy fare), so caveat emptor.

I read their recaps/reviews of all the shows and movies that I watch.  I recently read the review of the third season premiere of Community, and found a lot of Gospel truth in it.  Here are some quotes:

"Every character is longing to find a place where they’ll be accepted, where they’ll be taken in without being judged and loved unconditionally. But at the same time, not a one of these characters trusts that space because who does, really? The second you realize you’re loved is also the second that you start doubting that love and start wondering when things are going to fall apart." 

"At some point, you have to move from being someone who’s alone in the world, a person out on your own, to someone who is capable of being loved. And I’m not saying this is about becoming a better person. No. This is about knowing that you exist in a space where someone could love you no matter what you did, that you can exist in a space where forgiveness is always possible with enough time and healing."

The whole review is HERE, and is written by Todd VanDerWerff, to give credit where credit's due.  What do you think of those quotes?  Isn't it true that we desperately want unconditional love, but when we are faced with something that looks like it, we are immediately suspicious?  Isn't it because we know that WE'RE not capable of unconditional love, and therefore suspect that no other human is, either?  Aren't we suspicious of people who have appeared to become a better person?

Jesus, of course, breaks through all this doubt and suspicion.  Unconditionality is only possible through a perfect man who died for us.  That we'll believe.  A death in our place, too, is what makes forgiveness possible, not personal improvement or "time and healing."  The trend continues...messianic themes always break apart in the absence of the actual Messiah.