"I am your host Miles Finer, reminding you that there is no God, and that is okay."
- Miles Finer aka The Millenium Prophet
Miles Finer (Brandon Micheal Hall) is the "Millenium Prophet", a podcaster whose show is centered around his debating and defending his atheist views who one day is sent a friend request on his Facebook account from someone calling themselves God. This account directs Miles via a friend suggestion to a man named John Dove whose life is saved after he intentionally steps in front of a subway train. Despite his initial skepticism, Miles follows the next suggestion to reporter Cara Bloom who becomes curious about Miles and his story. In turn, she gains help in finding her mother who disappeared years ago while discovering an unexpected connection to Miles' family.
Miles chooses to continue following the friend suggestions in hopes of finding clues as to why he was chosen and who is behind the "God account." Along with his friend Rakesh Singh (Suraj Sharma), and joined by Cara (Violett Beane), they begin to find people and help them, changing their lives and that of the three of them including Miles reconciling with his father Arthur (Joe Morton), the long-time reverend of Harlem Episcopal church.
God Friended Me is an American Dramedy series that premiered on CBS on September 30, 2018. On January 29, 2019, CBS renewed the series for a second season. The show was canceled on April 14, 2020. The finale aired on the 26th of the same month.
God Friended Me provides examples of:
- Aborted Arc:
- The writers clearly intended to do something with Cara's stepfather going to prison (he is one of the few friend suggestions without a satisfying resolution), and the final episode reveals that Cara's family is moving away. However, due to the show's cancellation, we never get to see what impact this had. Which makes the episode with Cara's stepfather more depressing in hindsight.
- Ambiguous Situation: At the end of the series, it is somewhat unclear whether or not Miles is continuing to receive friend suggestions. He mentions receiving a message from the God Account about its identity, but not about continuing to help friend suggestions, and his successful relationship with Cara casts more doubt upon this.
- Beta Couple: Rakesh and Jaya. They start dating in the pilot episode, and continue dating until partway into Season 2, when they fake break up due to pressure from Jaya's parents to get engaged. They continue dating secretly, but ultimately break up for real after a failed proposal from Rakesh. However, they ultimately get back together in the Distant Finale, and end up engaged at last.
- Also, Arthur and Trish. They do midway through Season 2.
- Big Applesauce: The show is set in New York City.
- Blithe Spirit: From the perspectives of those they help, Miles and Cara (and Rakesh) are seen as this. They essentially barge into people's lives and consistently try to help them despite usually making things worse at first. None they less they don't give up and manage to help them solve whatever problem.
- Cheated Death, Died Anyway: Miles' mother was suffering from cancer when he was eight. He'd pray every night for her to get better. It seemed like his prayers were answered when his mother went into remission. Then on the way home from the doctor's, she died in a car accident. The sheer unfairness of the situation drove Miles to become an atheist.
- Chekhov's Gunman: Characters that Miles helps often turn out to be important later. For example, Miles saves the life of his first friend suggestion, John Dove. Later in the episode, John Dove happens to be nearby, happens to be a doctor, and happens to save the life of another of Miles' friend suggestions.
- Later in the first season, characters from previous episodes show up to help with the current Friend Request. John Dove from the very first episode appears late in the season as the doctor/surgeon that saved the life of a young girl. Long story short: The girl had bought a violin from another who had passed away and the parents wanted it back not wanting to let go of something so important. As it turns out, the parents had donated their daughter's organs including her heart of which the recipient was none other than the girl whose mother bought the violin in the first place.
- Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Uncle Terrence. He appears in a 3-episode arc in Season 1, and is clearly very close to the Finer family. After being a friend suggestion, he leaves the city to go after his wife and try to fix his marriage, but is never seen or mentioned again. He does not even return for Arthur's wedding in Season 2.
- Commuting on a Bus: After being Put on a Bus in early Season 2, Joy returns for a few episodes later in the season, before quickly departing again between episodes. She is still mentioned though a few times after her departure.
- Contrived Coincidence: Most episodes end due to events happening coincidentally, due to the intervention of the God Account. Some of these are especially contrived, such as "The Fugitive", when it turns out their friend suggestion and the bounty hunter lived in the same foster home.
- Distant Finale: One year, but a lot changes in that year.
- Fire-Forged Friends: In "17 Years", Miles struggles to try to forgive the drunk driver who accidentally killed his mother, but then puts his resentment aside when the two literally rush into a burning building to save people who are still inside. Miles then helps the man to become a firefighter.
- Got Volunteered: God sends multiple friend requests before Miles accepts one. Then Miles tries to figure out who is behind the "God account", but also why they picked him.
- Happily Ever After: The Grand Finale
- Happily Failed Suicide: The man Miles saves in the first episode. Miles just barely manages to yank him back before he jumps in front of a train, and when they cross paths again a couple days later, the man thanks him for having saved his life. The fact that his suicide attempt came just after his girlfriend dumped him and he failed to save a patient on the same day implies that it was probably a case of impulsive suicide rather than something planned in advance, and he was able to get in a better headspace after he was rescued.
- Hollywood Atheist: Miles' mother's death leads to his atheism. When she was being treated for cancer, Miles prayed to God and asked to Him to cure her cancer. When she went into remission his prayers were seemingly answered...and then she was killed by a drunk driver the very day she was released from the hospital.
- I Don't Want to Ruin Our Friendship: Both Miles and Cara are concerned about this.
- In Mysterious Ways: The God account sends Miles friend suggestions, likes things and locations locations. Each epiosde starts with Miles, Cara, and Rakesh investigating and always show up at the exact time as the problem they're meant to solve is made apparent.
- Legacy Character: Of a non-lethal variety. Season 1 ends with the reveal that Joy has been selected by the God Account to take over from Miles, at least temporarily, and midway through Season 2, we are introduced to Gideon, a previous "prophet" of the God Account.
- Locked Out of the Loop: At least part of the problem Miles and his friends find when trying to help their Friend Suggestions is that here are things neither they are willing to reveal or can't be found on the Internet. As a result they end continually making things worse, though in the end its doing so that forces the Friend Suggestions to con front those problems head-on as they should.
- Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane:
- Miles is convinced that a person is behind the "God account", but the series leaves its nature ambiguous and several characters including the guy who worked for the God Account before Miles have brought up whether or not the person behind it could in fact be The Man himself.
- This is left even more ambiguous by the final scene of the series, in which Miles travels to the top of a mountain in the Himalayas to learn the identity of the God Account, where a child monk leads him to the "she" who is behind the account. Note that at this point, we have met the man, Corey Smith, who wrote the code for the God account, but had it stolen from him.
- Myth Arc: Whonote is behind the God account? Why was Miles chosen? How does the account seem to know exactly where and when to send him and his friends to help people? And is there a practical, scientific, explanation or something possibly more divine in nature?. The season ends with Miles deciding that finding out whose behind the account isn't nearly as important as the good he does by helping people and decides to stop investigating.
- No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Season 2's episode Prohpet & Loss has Miles receiving Cara's stepfather as his latest Friend Suggestion where it turns that he's been committing insider trading to get back money he lost for his clients. Near the end of the episode, the stepfather is about to flee the country when he's convinced not to. Unfortunately his actions were still illegal and he's arrested and looking at least a year of prison time. Neither Cara or her family is happy about this and greatly strains their relationship with Miles.
- The Pastor's Queer Kid: When Ali came out of the closet, a lot of longtime members of Arthur's congregation left because they believed Arthur was wrong to accept her. Arthur never told Ali, but she eventually reveals that she noticed.
- Podcast: "The Millennial Prophet" is Miles' podcast.
- Put on a Bus: Joy returns to Chicago four episodes into Season 2, returning the "prophet" role of the God Account to Miles, after resolving her storyline with her daughter.
- Refusal of the Call: Miles refuses God's friend requests at first and it responds by blaring his phone with friend requests and somehow hacking his stereo system to play Rag'n'Bone Man
's Human at all hours until he accepts it. Miles quickly wises up follows the friend suggestions simply to avoid the account's pranks. - Secret-Keeper: Averted as Miles' begins to chronicle his investigation into the God account through his podcast and he talks openly about in public places with his family and friends.
- Special Edition Title: The first "God Friended Me" title card sometimes has a thematically relevant variation. For example, an image of the Leaning Tower of Pisa in "Scenes from an Italian Restaurant" (S1E16), or an image of a package in "Return to Sender" (S1E18).
-
Spiritual Successor: To at least 3 other CBS series.- A Lighter and Softer version of Person of Interest strangely enough. A man is chosen by a Mysterious Backer who directs him to people in trouble, always giving little to no information besides vague clues. The parallels become even more apparent when a theory surfaces that it may be an Artificial Intelligence pulling Batman Gambit before being subverted.
- Another obvious one is Joan of Arcadia, as it has the same plot, only there is no ambiguity about God's presence.
- Then there's Early Edition, seeing as
Word of God for the latter is that God made a bet with Mark Twain and thus sends certain people tomorrow's newspaper to see if they will prevent tragedy.
- Took a Level in Idealism: Miles is introduce with his podcast centered around his atheist beliefs but after he starts following the friend suggestions, he sees the positive effect he has Mies' podcast becomes far more optimistic.
- Again in the Series Finale when Miles reclaims his belief in God Almighty after all these years.
- Wham Line: Almost every episode features one in regards to the episode's friend suggestion. Most friend suggestions try to hide their problems initially, which leads to a wham moment when the truth is revealed.
- The whole thing ends with a Wham Word: Miles tracks the person behind the God Account to a mountain in the Himalayas, where a child monk tells him that she is waiting for him.
- Will They or Won't They?: Miles and Cara are obviously close, to the point that other characters often assume that they are a couple.
- At the end of the series, despite breaking up in Season 2 due to the God Account, Miles reveals in his monologue that he and Cara find their way back to each other after a few months.
