The Promised Land: Writer/Director Mitch Hudson Discusses the Balance Between Comedy and Reverence

“Imagine the Exodus in the style of The Office.”  That’s the elevator pitch for the new hit series The Promised Land (read our review here). With new free-to-watch episodes released every Wednesday on YouTube, the show has found a large audience, with the pilot episode having already amassed more than two million views. The series’ writer and director Mitch Hudson, who also serves as assistant director for the megahit show The Chosen, spoke with The Collision about the genesis of the concept, the importance and redemptive power of comedy, and his long-term hopes for the show.  

When approached with the idea of making a biblical drama in the format of popular sitcoms like The Office and Parks and Recreation, Hudson was intrigued but wondered how to apply the template to sacred Scripture. He found the answer when he realized the show would fundamentally be about people. 

 “That’s when it all clicked for me,” he said. “This is a show about leadership, about the triumphs and the failures of being basically a middle manager where God is the leader. The people are the rest of the team, and you’re the one who’s taking the orders and giving it to them.” 

Comedy has been the missing element in many faith-based stories, and it presents some unique challenges when it comes to biblical narratives. Hudson noted, “What’s funny about the comedy of our show is that we are not making fun of the Bible. We are relating to how difficult it is to be a leader and the comedy and failure of trying to lead a nation of people who don’t want to be led.” 

As a Christian, he’s keenly aware of the importance of not making light of sacred things. “For me, the line that I’ve always walked with making the show has been that I’m always going to be reverent of God and of Scripture. That’s always been step number one. Don’t touch that aspect of it, because this is my faith as well.”  

Therefore, the key to unlocking the comedic potential of the show rests with its human characters. “People are imperfect. People make mistakes. We can make jokes about people because we are people. It’s essentially an inside joke, even though it’s going across thousands of years . . .. The perspective of our show is that the characters in the Bible were people. People who are imperfect, people who made mistakes, but people who God used then in the same way that God is still using imperfect people today . . .. And I think that’s why I’ve been able to take a comedic tone without it crossing boundaries in terms of making fun of the faith.” 

As an assistant director for The Chosen and now the lead creative for The Promised Land, Hudson has had a front-row seat to see the growth of the faith-based entertainment industry. “Right now is the best time for faith-based media because we have such great art that is being made, and that I think is the thing that’s been missing for so long from the [faith-based genre], filmmakers who are very art minded.” 

He noted that the growth of faith-based entertainment has been fueled by a shift in creative approach, “ I think for a long time, faith-based media was kind of message led, art supported, if that makes sense. It was, ‘Here’s the sermon we are trying to tell, and we’re going to wrap enough art around it that the sermon gets out.’ I think what’s exciting about right now, with The Chosen, with House of David, with The Promised Land, and with more of those types of projects that are coming out is we’re saying, ‘We’re going to make the best art that we can make using the material that God has already provided, which is the Bible.’” 

As a goofy comedy, Hudson hopes The Promised Land entertains people. But on a deeper level, his desire is for audiences to take away some important truth from the show: “I hope when they see it they say, ‘I can’t believe that God used these imperfect people…. I wonder if he could use me today too?’ And then they go back and read the Bible and see all [God’s] ever done is use imperfect people, and he does want to have a relationship with you too. That’s the core inner goal.” Yet, he also noted, “The outer goal is that I just want to make a show that people see themselves in, even though it’s thousands of years ago in the desert with a documentary crew.” 

Watch The Promised Land on YouTube (new episodes released every Wednesday) and read our review of the show here.