Sarcasm Alert

Forgive me if I'm indelicate, but...

NBC has launched a new (undoubtedly short-lived) program called "The Book of Daniel." The star, Aidan Quinn, describes himself thus:

I'm an Episcopalian priest who struggles with a little self-medication problem,
and I have a 23-year-old son who's gay, and a 16-year-old daughter who's caught
dealing pot, and another son who's jumping on every high school girl he sees,
and a wife who's very loving but also likes her martinis.

But there's more. Oh, so much more:

His gay son, Peter (Christian Campbell), actually beds a bishop's niece, albeit
in the backseat of that church elder's luxury sedan. Not that the bishop herself
(Ellen Burstyn) can cast the first stone: she's the sideline lover of Daniel's
father, himself a bishop whose wife is lost in the drift of Alzheimer's disease.

The priest also has face-to-face talks with a New Age Jesus. According to David DiCerto of the Office for Film and Broadcasting of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, Our Lord and Savior "dismissively shrugs off Rev. Webster's kids having casual sex in the back seats of cars."

1. I wonder how long before this show goes the way of "Nothing Sacred." (Remember that "groundbreaking," "iconoclastic" show?)

2. How long before one of the Big Three give us "The Book of Mohammed," about a "controversial" imam whose brother is in love with a Jewish man; his daughter is involved in internet porn; his wife is great but loves ham sandiwches; and he publicly questions the existence of Allah, the efficacy of suicide bombing, and why Muslim women can't go outside in hotpants?

3. So, the show presents a morally/spiritually confused Episcopal priest whose family is in shambles dealing with morally/spiritually confused bishops and bishopesses whose apostasy dates back at least a generation -- and who believes Jesus has no problem with premarital sex? Where on earth do they get this stuff?