‘The Story of God with Morgan Freeman’

If we could choose anyone to tell the story of our lives, charmingly imbuing our ups, downs and the everyday with a benevolent spark of magic, many of us would pick Morgan Freeman.

The cinematic voice of God both in character and as a narrator, the actor is the man at the centre of ‘The Story of God with Morgan Freeman’. A six-part National Geographic documentary series which sees Freeman traverse the world in search of insight into life beyond death, the apocalypse, the identity of God, the myths of creation, why evil exists and the power of miracles.

Both a personal and universal quest that begins in Freeman’s hometown of Greenwood, Mississippi, ‘The Story of God’ catapults viewers back in time and across the world in search of answers to the questions of God, truth and meaning that seem par for the course of human existence.

Calling on the expertise of historians, psychologists, scientists and religious leaders in seven countries in 20 cities across the world, the series considers why and how the story of one’s man’s rebirth was so powerful it swept the globe as well as the parallels between monotheistic religions such as Judaism, Christianity and Islam in contrast to the many gods of Hinduism, the quest for enlightenment in Buddhism and man’s agency in Zoroastrianism.

An investigation into how science and religion overlap and the universal nature of near death experiences, ‘The Story of God’ is a crash course in familiar ideas about ancient Egyptian tombs, the Maya’s blood sacrifices and the Mexican tradition of Dios dos Muertos interspersed with lesser told stories of the Navajo ‘Changing Woman’ and the Arrernte creation story.

Allowing us into the actor’s spiritual and personal life in which he lost a brother, recalls segregated bus stations and his own experience of the edge, Freeman is an inquisitive and deferential guide whose calming cadence and star power lend legitimacy to various religions and ideas in a way that highlights what disparate belief systems share rather than sometimes violently disagree on.

Easy watching filled with beautiful scenes ranging from inside the Church of the Holy Sepulcher to the Al-Hussein Mosque, the series is one that ruminates on the big questions without delving particularly deeply into the theories.

Playing much like an extended conversation, ‘The Story of God’ – given Freeman’s familiar face, voice and incredible humility – feels like walking the world and considering how it came to be with a beloved friend.

Stream this for a little of that.

It’s feel-good and relatively superficial fare angled towards piquing your curiosity, augmenting your level of tolerance and opening your mind.