God Friended Me is a sweet show with a terrible title

USA Today

"The CBS series sounds too much like an article in The Onion or a sketch on Funny or Die," says Kelly Lawler. "It signals that you're about to watch the spiritual equivalent of Steve Buscemi in 30 Rock trying, and hilariously failing, to go undercover in a high school: 'How do you do, fellow kids?' But this is an extreme case where you shouldn't judge a series by its title, a phenomenon fans of Cougar Town may be familiar with. (God Friended Me) is a sweet, surprisingly watchable series that essentially gives Joan of Arcadia a Silicon Valley tuneup: Young atheist Miles (Brandon Micheal Hall) is friended on Facebook by someone claiming to be God, and a series of fated events (or maybe just happy coincidences) follows.  While we've seen supernatural and faith-based series such as this before – Arcadia, Touched by an Angel or last year's short-lived ABC drama Kevin (Probably) Saves the World – what Friended has going for it is earnestness. It's not something you can fake, for obvious reasons."

ALSO:

• God Friended Me is the best of the this fall's This Is Us wannabes
• God Friended Me just might succeed if it gets past its premise and develops the wholehearted drama fueling it
• It presents its many, many heavy-handed themes with such a wide-eyed straight face you can’t possibly be mad at it
• Predictable muck: God Friended Me loses steam in the second half with contrived plot points that extend far beyond the realm of believability