A few years ago, a former film student of mine took me out to coffee to discuss a spec script he wrote for a TV pilot. The proposed show was called The Elder and he pitched it to me as a series about “the everyday struggles of a pastor trying to care for the people in his church.” I thought the concept was brilliant and his script very promising. I told him I thought a show like this would make for great television.

Sadly, The Elder has yet to be produced. But another series, launching this weekend on Prime Video, is somewhat similar to what my student had in mind. The drama series is called It’s Not Like That and it stars Scott Foley as Malcolm, a recently widowed, longtime pastor of an Atlanta church called Grace Community. It’s not just a show about pastoral ministry, however. It’s mostly a character-driven drama in the vein of Parenthood or Friday Night Lights, focusing on relational drama and the complexities of family. The lead character just happens to be a pastor.

I don’t love everything about the show, which I unpack in my review. Still, it’s refreshing to see a TV series take Christianity seriously, with churchgoing characters who aren’t total caricatures. Maybe this show will open doors in Hollywood for stories like The Elder which up-and-coming Christian filmmakers dream of making—narratives that go all-in on the drama, beauty, and sometimes comedy of being a pastor in today’s world.