When I chatted recently with writer/producer René Echevarria about the new faith-based limited series The Faithful: Women of the Bible, premiering Sunday on Fox, I couldn’t quite remember if our paths had ever crossed.
Turns out they did, but not connected to the production I expected.
Finding the Connection … and the Catholicism
Since I loved Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (or, as I’ve always called it, Deep Six Nine) in the ’90s, when I began covering TV, maybe it would be that.
Or maybe, it would be for USA’s The 4400 (I was on location in Vancouver for the filming of the first episode of that, which aired in 2004), or Fox’s Terra Nova, which launched in 2011.
Actually, it turns out we talked for Echevarria’s short-lived Fox series Dark Angel — back around 2001.
And, in all that time, I never knew he was a Christian, let alone a fellow Catholic. But now it makes more sense that Echevarria’s a writer and the showrunner for The Faithful: Women of the Bible, launching March 22 on Fox.
He said, “Well, my parents are from Cuba, so I grew up in Florida, and I went to Catholic school and graduated from St. Pete Catholic High School in St. Petersburg, Florida.
“But my personal journey was a little … I had a long time in the wilderness.”
We’ll get back to that, but first, let’s focus on the show.
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What’s the Show About?
From Fox:
[The series airs in] three, two-hour installments leading into the finale on Easter Sunday, April 5. The series … will air throughout the Easter and Passover season on FOX and the next day on Hulu.
This landmark drama series is based on the best-selling book of all time, the Bible, and showcases a faithful dramatization of the Book of Genesis as told through the eyes of the courageous and passionate, yet flawed women whose descendants would shape the future of faith as we know it today.
Dimensional, dramatic, intimate, even surprising, The Faithful is about discovering and losing love, the challenges of marriage, the joys and heartbreak of children, confronting temptation, and finding faith.
Carol Mendelsohn (CSI: Crime Scene Investigation) serves as executive producer along with Julie Weitz (Game of Silence) and Rene Echevarria (Carnival Row, The 4400), who penned the pilot and will also serve as showrunner.
Episodes of The Faithful will be told through the lens of five of the Old Testament’s most legendary women: Sarah and her servant Hagar, Sarah’s great-niece Rebekah, and Rebekah’s nieces, sisters Leah and Rachel.
Minnie Driver plays the adult Sarah; Jeffrey Donovan plays Abraham; Alexa Davalos plays Rebekah; and Millie Brady and Blu Hunt plays Leah and Rachel, respectively. Other cast membes include Tom Mison (Isaac), Tom Payne (Jacob), and James Purefoy (Laban).
Is The Faithful: Women of the Bible Actually Faithful to the Bible?
According to Echevarria, the show has a mandate to not contradict Scripture, but it does take artistic license in filling in the character gaps.
In Episode One, “The Woman Who Bowed to No One,” young Sarah starts out by refusing to marry the man her family has chosen for her, and instead winds up marrying Abraham.
If you know the Bible, you know the rest of the story (I won’t spoil it for Bible newcomers, but make sure to check out the source material).
But many of Sarah’s actions and attitudes (and what she gets away with, like refusing an arranged marriage), resonate more with modern women than women of antiquity.
That’s a common theme in today’s female-centric drama — and the goal of the show is to put the female characters out front — but it’s likely not true to history.
Echevarria says, “I agree. I think especially there’s a temptation in some modern versions of historical storytelling to just wipe away whatever obstacles.
“I think the drama is the obstacles that women at that time faced, and how they had to use other means to overcome these obstacles, not necessarily acting like men, but rather acting like women and with those constraints of the times and to dramatize their strength and their cleverness by the way they get things done.
“Don’t just pretend that the world was like our world. I agree.”
Take a look:
A Journey Back to the Church
Like many Catholics, Echevarria was raised in the Faith but took a bit of a detour when life intervened.
He recalls, “I sort of struck out on my own and moved to New York City, and then I moved to Los Angeles, and I was working in this business. And I didn’t have time. Sundays are for brunching in Hollywood, right?
“But I lost my mom in the year 2000, young. And I found that going to church was really, really comforting. I felt like she was sitting there with me.
“And then when I got married, and my wife is also Catholic, and so we started reconnecting at Blessed Sacrament Church in Hollywood.
“So my son was baptized there. And we have three children now who went to Catholic school. So it was a reconnection.”
Eventually, the return of active faith to Echevarria’s life made its way into his career, as he explains, “A few years ago, I decided that I really wanted to make this kind of programming my focus.
“As you say, it’s not what I’ve been doing in my career for the most part at all. And I told my agent, I said, ‘I want to do what Hollywood calls faith-based programming.'”
And Then Came The Faithful: Women of the Bible
Echevarria’s agent did his job and introduced him to Mendelsohn, a former lawyer best known as the showrunner and executive producer of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, mothership of the prolific CSI franchise.
Says Echevarria, “He reached out to me and said, ‘You know, Carol wants to do a project about the women of the Bible. And I told her that you were a believer, and that you knew your Bible, and she wants to talk to you.’ So we partnered up.”
So began Echevarria’s first foray into faith-based entertainment, but it might not be the last.
He says, “I hope it will lead to more. I’m lucky that this kind of program is even possible now, thanks to the success of The Chosen.
“And I think also to the success of that House of David showed that The Chosen isn’t a one-off phenomenon, but perhaps there is an audience out there for more.”
An Evolution for Fox Broadcasting
When it made its primetime launch in 1987, Fox positioned itself as an edgier alternative to the then-Big Three networks: ABC, NBC and CBS. Of those three, CBS has always been the network that cared more about the broad audience than specific demographics.
I wouldn’t have been surprised to see The Faithful on CBS, but I was surprised to see it on Fox. But what was edgy in 1986 might not be seen that way in today’s entertainment environment.
Echevarria, who has a long history with Fox, says, “They are now an established broadcaster.
“I think they’ve realized, because of some of the restrictions on [broadcast] programming, they’re not going to compete with Netflix or Amazon for edgy transgressive programming, right?
“And they’ve seen that there’s a broader market, a more heartland market out there that is a little underserved sometimes by some of the edgier venues. And I think they’ve been wise to speak to them.
“Michael Thorne, who is head of Fox programming over there, who I worked with years ago on Terra Nova, this was his brainchild.
“When Carol made her deal over at Fox, she didn’t think this was going to be a project that they were going to want to take on. She told him about it and his eyes lit up, he said, [‘Yeah, let’s do it. Let’s make that happen.’
“And if it works, if it gets an audience, I think I’d love to see other broadcasters, maybe CBS will wade into these waters.”
If we’re lucky, and the show does well, maybe it will make it all the way to Our Lady. Think of it, Mary on the network that brought you The X-Files, Married … With Children, and Hell’s Kitchen … hmmm.
Image: THE FAITHFUL: L-R: Minnie Driver and Jeffrey Donovan in “The Woman Who Bowed to No One/The Woman Who Spoke to God” two episode presentation of THE FAITHFUL airing Sunday, March 22 (8:00-10:00 PM ET/PT) on FOX. CR: FOX. © 2026 FOX Media LLC.
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