In 2017, the producers of the Netflix series "Messiah" issued a statement about their show, which had not been cast or shot yet: "'Messiah' is a series that will have the audience asking big questions. What if someone showed up in 2018 amid strange occurrences and was thought to be the Messiah? What would society do? How would the media cover him? Would millions simply quit work? Could governments collapse? [...] It's a series that could change everything."

"Messiah" debuted on January 1, 2020, and with the benefit of hindsight, it's safe to say the show did not, despite the lofty hopes of its creators, "change everything." The series, which starred Mehdi Dehbi as a controversial figure who may or may not be a new messiah in the modern era and Michelle Monaghan as a CIA officer investigating his rise, failed to make waves upon its release; "Messiah" was canceled less than four...