A little late to the party here, but I watched the first episode of God Friended Me after seeing numerous commercials of it during the early part of the NFL season. My first ill-formed impression was... oh boy, this is going to be a spoof series that makes fun and takes pot shots at Christians.
I wasn't going to give it a chance, but for some reason, I decided to watch the pilot. Much to my surprise, it wasn't making fun of Christians. It was more a case of putting ordinary people, including: an athiest, an agnostic seeker, a Hindu into situations where they were compelled to follow a courses of action that they couldn't understand. They are placed in situations and are given leads that to me, as a Christian, are so beyond any possible set of coincidences, or any master computer programmer artificial intelligence implementation through Facebook (as the central characters in the story tend to believe), show that the things happening are divine intervention.
As the episodes wear on, the characters embrace their roles in carrying out the plans of "The God Account", referring to the Facebook account that "God" has which is putting the central characters in contact with people who need outside help with day to day problems. You can also see the atheist begin to relax his militant opposition to Christianity. I think it's brilliantly written, produced, filmed, and scored, although the logistics of how these characters are able to do all that "The God Account" wants them to do, yet still hold down full time jobs. A little dramatic license taken there, but I give them a pass on it.
I must confess, I've shed a tear or two in at least half a dozen episodes. It's got an uplifting quality about it that is hard to describe. It's not purely biblically or theologically based, but it also doesn't disrespect Christianity. There are occasional prayers offered, but as I would expect from secular, network programming, the prayers are not offered in Jesus' name.
My wife and I now make this appointment TV to watch. It's not an evangelistic show, but I would be willing to believe that it has raised some people's curiosity about God, and led them to Christ. I think it would at least turn an intellectually honest person who was indifferent about God, into a seeker. My mother is 85 years old, and she's been a Christian since she was 13. I put her onto this show and she binge watched all 15 episodes in three days. I watched 6 of them with her. She's shed a tear in all of them and I think it's a beautiful thing to see because they are tears of joy... what more can you ask out of a secular TV show that deals with, among other things, Faith in God?