THE LAST TEMPTATION OF NBC.

Byline: David Kronke TV Critic

IT'S A LITTLE bewildering as to why Hollywood hasn't aimed more of its product at religious audiences, as they're clearly an eager fan base.

One simple phrase of praise from a Christian group for last year's execrable ``Christmas With the Kranks'' helped muffle the majority of the nation's movie critics who hated the movie (97 percent of them, according to rottentomatoes.com) and turned it into a hit.

Outside of Mel Gibson, there probably aren't enough true believers in Hollywood with the clout to get such a project off the ground. Until ``The Passion of the Christ,'' that is, which itself followed the first-season success of the more benign CBS series ``Joan of Arcadia.'' (Ratings for ``Joan's'' second season - which began with the heroine a doubter all over again and assumed a more dour tone - suggest that the show may be heading for TV limbo.) ``7th Heaven'' has long been the WB's biggest hit, despite the network's longtime reliance on more racy, youth-focused fare.

A couple of hits is all it takes to make believers out of Hollywood executives, and so NBC - which, frankly, is in need of a miracle this season - is presenting the limited series ``Revelations,'' about the end days as foretold in the final book of the New Testament.

The intrigue in ``Revelations'' - premiering tonight - spans the globe. An improbable shadow of a cross appears on a remote Latin American mountain. An infant survivor is found miraculously amid the wreckage of a sunken ship off the coast of Greece. A teenage girl in Florida stuck by lightning and in a coma begins uttering Latin phrases and, during a seizure, draws a mysterious map. (This last incident unfortunately recalls the recent Terri Schiavo media circus, though the script included the Florida location before the debate reached the national psyche. One doctor who wants to remove the girl from life-support even irritably protests, ``Right-to-lifers would claim consciousness in the brain waves of a night crawler.'')

These phenomena are tracked by Sister Josepha Montafiore (Natascha McElhone), a radical nun convinced the Earth is in the throes of its final days. She approaches Dr. Richard Massey (Bill Pullman), whose daughter was recently murdered by a Satanist, whom she locates via the comatose teen's sketchy map, which also includes the uncanny replication of a drawing by Massey's daughter. Is she trying to communicate with him from the beyond?

Given Massey's recent loss, it's understandable that he wants nothing more to do with what he perceives to be religious extremists, but he's struck by the bizarre coincidences. Sister Josepha, though convinced the Apocalypse has begun, has divined a loophole: As she puts it, ``The Bible has left a blank to be filled in by man.'' Further ambiguity, it seems, to that whole determinism/free-will conundrum, not to mention an opportunity to create some cliffhangers as ``Revelations'' proceeds.

Apocalypse theology would seem a natural for dramatists, given that its stakes are as high as stakes can get (note the eternal popularity of the dozen-plus best-selling ``Left Behind'' novels). Though it's far more a staple of fundamentalist Christian teaching than Catholicism, one understands why writer David Seltzer (who scripted ``The Omen'' and received credit for its sequels, as well as wrote the supernatural-themed films ``Dragonfly'' and ``Prophecy'') opted to include Catholic heroes in this drama: Clerical collars and nun's habits lend more gravitas to the proceedings than, say, shiny suits and pompadours.

So far, ``Revelations'' has taken little from the prophecies found in the book of Revelation in favor of macho showdowns between Massey and his daughter's killer. ``I should've killed you when I had the chance,'' Pullman sneers, a line generally relegated to far less faith-based dramas; in response, the Satanist severs one of his own fingers and grins maniacally.

Still, tonight's episode (the first of six) offers some undeniable intrigue - it's a religious ``X-Files.'' Remember that poster tacked to the wall of Fox Mulder's ramshackle office: ``I Want to Believe''? NBC's variation: ``We Want You to Believe.''

David Kronke,[phone]

david.kronke(at)dailynews.com

REVELATIONS - Three stars

What: Bill Pullman and Natascha McElhone confront the end times, as foreseen in some interpretations of the Bible's book of Revelation.

Where: NBC (Channel 4).

When: 9 p.m. Wednesdays through May 18.

In a nutshell: A religious ``X-Files.''

CAPTION(S):

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Photo:

Bill Pullman and Natascha McElhone team up to figure out whether the events of the New Testament's final book are occurring on present-day Earth in ``Revelations.''