TLC's "The Monastery": A Look into the Cloisters

The Learning Channel's new series "The Monastery" is, in a way, a little like a reflection of some of its characters, who stand on the edge between Christianity and… well, anything ranging from fearful doubt to agnosticism.

It can't decide what it wants to be.

The title, the graphics in the opening sequence and preceding each commercial break, the catchy tense phrases uttered to hook viewers before said breaks… it's all meant to suggest a reality TV series of the sort where we would expect one monk-in-training to be voted off each week. But what TLC has on its hands is a slow-moving documentary series edited into reality television, right down to the time-lapse footage of clouds streaking across the sky for no particular reason.

(To be fair, the photography of the blue skies of New Mexico is quite breathtaking.)

The story: five troubled men commit to a Benedictine monastery for forty days, a life of constant group prayer, long silent patches and total introspection. As one might imagine, this lifestyle limits visual variety, and the eerie rhythms of monastic life-returning over and over again to the chapel to chant-create a hypnotic effect.

Some of these men are clearly more troubled than others, and the show quickly picks its 'stars'. Things balance out more over time over the course of "The Monastery", but it grows odd to watch the program seeing little of half the cast. Most conspicuous by his absence is a young man advertised as a former Satanist, whose flirtation with Satanism gets more air time in the opening titles than in any of the content of the episodes.

"The Monastery" has a puzzling tendency to underexplain aspects of monastic life, or withhold key facts until it's too late. When people stealing beer from the monastery, only next episode does the narrator note that yes, these monks are allowed to drink beer in moderation. Other subjects left confused too long are basic facts about how the monastery keeps itself going with no perceivable income and why the monks even let a TV show and five outsiders invade their lives in the first place.

TLC's mistake is in trying to stretch out a show about introspection to five episodes; there's enough material in "The Monastery" for a solid feature documentary, or a three-parter at most. The issues are inner and personal, more suited for text than screen, and creating drama in the editing room comes off comical when half your interviewees are quiet, unassuming monks. Why create a cliffhanger when there's never much of an outcome? (Will someone learn a lesson about life? Tune in next week!)

Where the show ultimately succeeds is in looking behind the scenes at a Benedictine monastery, operating under rules set down fifteen hundred years ago. One monk himself suggests that our popular image of a monk may be wrong, and indeed we receive great insight into the human and ordinary sides of today's monk, be it in a glimpse of their sense of humor (or enjoyment of Ping-Pong) or a rather disarming visit to a friendly old hermit who transcends all preconceived notions of a hermit's personality.

Missing from all this, oddly, is God; the people seem warm and friendly, but spiritual benevolence is replaced by a reliance on ritual that approaches the faith equivalent of doing 'trust falls'. "The Monastery" is both a place and a show more about religion than God, and has a strangely cold feel as time goes on and we set into the strictly controlled rhythm of monastic life. It's not uplifting; it's kind, even comforting, yet spiritually deadening. "The Monastery" will not appeal to those in crises of faith, but rather the faithful who want to see religion shown to outsiders in hopes of salvation. It may be a case of preaching to the choir.

But such lovely scenery.