Metro Voice News Celebrating Faith, Family & Community
The intersection of faith and crime investigation takes center stage in “Vindication,” an engrossing police drama, now available on multiple streaming platforms. The series has earned recognition for its unique crime drama approach, with each episode crafted to engage viewers while maintaining family-friendly content.
Jarod O’Flaherty developed the series after he watched a mainstream crime drama with his wife, who is a fan of the genre.
“I wasn’t really into them,” he told “The Epoch Times” about police dramas. “One night when she was watching one of these shows, it sparked the idea of what would it be like to blend a faith-based storyline with one of these cop shows.”
About half of all Americans say they enjoy crime shows, with 13 percent saying it’s their favorite, according to YouGov. Meanwhile, faith-based movies and TV shows are rising in popularity.
“I think there’s going to be a shift into the episodic space by faith-based content creators where right now there are only a couple,” O’Flaherty said. “You don’t see many faith-based series, because they are hard to produce. One season of our show is the equivalent to three feature films. That’s a lot of work to keep the resources and the people together.”
“Vindication” follows Detective Gary Travis, a born-again Christian but young in his faith. In each episode, he handles cases that test his wisdom, faith and resolve.
“Detective Travis is not going around quoting scripture and preaching sermons to everyone,” O’Flaherty said. “Instead, he is learning this new faith-guided lifestyle as he goes about dealing with difficult situations as a law enforcement officer.”
“Vindication” focuses on the positive instead of dwelling on the gory details of crime.
“We follow people’s lives, what’s happening with them and then God naturally shows up at different points,” O’Flaherty said. “We don’t try to sear images into your brain of how awful a crime was. Instead, there’s a focus on the good that’s happening around it.”
Although the main character is a Christian, episodes rarely take place in a church, because O’Flaherty avoids stereotypes. “In our lives, we don’t go to church and everything gets instantly solved,” he said.
Season 4 premieres March on Angel.com and the Angel App. New episodes release weekly, with seasons one through three available for rent or purchase on Amazon Prime, while seasons one and two are free on YouTube, Tubi and PlutoTV.
–Alan Goforth with The Epoch Times
