Plot Summary
When new Christian Blake Goodman breaks his arm, he loses his (provisional) scholarship to play football at a big university and gets stuck going to the OCCCCC, where they have no sports. However, they do have a quirky student population, a local campus ministry where most of the series takes place, and of course, a raging atheist professor bent on destroying Blake’s new faith. What Christian entertainment about higher education would be complete with all of these tropes? But that’s not all! No, this series has many more zany elements to offer that put David A. R. White and Tommy Blaze to shame.
Production Quality (1 point)
Though the budget is small, the production really isn’t even half of the problems with this series. Video and audio quality, for the most part, are fine. There are some odd camera angles, however, as well as a lot of weird special effects, overlays, and annoyingly interruptive flashbacks or character imaginations. The soundtrack is a ridiculous cheap track, and there are constant annoying sound effects that are enough to make you go crazy. It goes without mentioning that one episode where half of the dialogue is sung (very badly), along with horrible lip-synching. Elsewhere, sets, locations, and props are fairly and understandably limited, and there is really no editing to speak of. However, as previously mentioned, this isn’t even the beginning of the problems with this horrific series.
Plot and Storyline Quality (-3 points)
Peculiar is rightly named as such, even though Insanity or Stupidity or Offensive would also work. This series is majorly childish in its approach and downright stupid at times. Many portions feel like Tommy Blaze gone wrong (as if that’s possible) due to off-the-wall and even offensive humor that takes cheap shots at Jews and people who could be special needs. Other ‘comedy’ is only funny because it is so poorly executed that it seems like a child wrote this. Space probably won’t permit a full exploration of the problems in this section, but we will try our best. Besides the absurdly predictable atheist professor character, all of the other characters are just generally off-beat as they espouse an odd brand of Christianity and mishandle otherwise important topics that they try to explore. The series is also full of obnoxious ‘funny’ asides and head-scratching tongue-in-cheek jokes about itself, as if this whole thing is a satire. I would believe that it is making fun of Christians on purpose, except for the fact that each episode tries to spoon-feed the audience a cute and trite little Christian platitude. Also, as if things aren’t bad enough at first, the musical episode really takes the cake. As whole, Peculiar is very unexplainable and generally strange in basically every way. To fully experience the zany madness, you have to see it for yourself.
Acting Quality (0 points)
The lead actor bears a very striking resemblance to the maniacal mannerisms of David A. R. White, with awkward delivery, forced humor, and an air of superiority. The other cast members aren’t much better, just less full of themselves and more awkward. Most lines are overly enunciated, and emotions are greatly lacking in realism. Torry Martin isn’t even enough to save this very small cast from itself, even though there are some attempts in the end to improve. The improvement isn’t significant enough to register any life here, especially when it started out so bad.
Continuity Quality (0 points)
As episodes end in awkward and weird ways, this series churns out one thing after the next in very (mercifully) short episodes. Though there are slight attempts at plot arcs, they are just cheesy romantic nonsense, and there are no character arcs. Each episode also begins with an unwanted and long recap of previous episodes, as if you missed anything. Essentially, not much can pull this series out of the nose dive it started out with.
Conclusion
Peculiar is a very surreal experience, almost like a Christianity twilight zone. In this possibly worst series ever, all nightmarish clichés and caricatures of Christians come to life in a ten-episode experience from Sheol. Every bad thing we’ve ever pointed out in Christian entertainment is rolled into one series as a package deal, along with even worse things. This series should have been canned, banned, and whatever else it took to make it go away forever.
Final Rating: -2 out of 14 points
Box Office Revolution 