Netflix’s Irreverent Spin On A Bible Classic Sparks Outrage And Tops The Charts

Netflix just dropped a modern riff on the Book of Ruth, and it is somehow doing two things at once: climbing the platform's charts and lighting up the outrage machine. Welcome to 'Ruth & Boaz.'

The basics

• Who's behind it: Produced by Tyler Perry and DeVon Franklin, directed by Alanna Brown
• Who stars: Serayah and Tyler Lepley
• The setup: Serayah plays Ruth, a singer who leaves Atlanta and heads to a small Tennessee town with her late boyfriend's mother. Her past catches up with her, there is more loss, and then, by what the film frames as God's timing, she finds love with her young boss, who happens to own a winery. It's a Southern, contemporary spin on the Old Testament story.
• How it's doing: According to FlixPatrol, it's been ruling Netflix rankings around the world.

Why some viewers are mad

People are absolutely into the modern spin… and also calling it offensive or even blasphemous. The pushback boils down to a few things:

First, the adaptation is loose. The biblical story centers Ruth's faith and her relationship with God, with love arriving when she is not chasing it. This movie leans hard into familiar romance tropes: overt romantic gestures, revealing outfits, and provocative performances. If you wanted a solemn religious drama, this is not that.

Second, there's a cultural flashpoint: the film features an all-Black principal cast while the antagonist is a White guy. Some viewers flagged that dynamic as a problem; others see it as a deliberate, modern framing. Either way, it's become part of the discourse.

And then there's the bigger inside-baseball argument: turning sacred texts into entertainment product. For some, that packaging flattens the spiritual weight of the source material in favor of glossy, mainstream appeal.

What the filmmakers were going for

Producers Tyler Perry and DeVon Franklin are not pitching this as a line-by-line reenactment. They keep describing it as a faith-inspired love story designed for now, not a museum piece. Franklin says the idea clicked while he was studying the Book of Ruth for a sermon series: a woman devastated by loss, traveling with Naomi (her mother-in-law), two widows finding their way, destiny intervening, and love showing up when she is not chasing it. He argues the movie is meant to cut through how modern dating can feel antagonistic and show a version of love that is patient and real.

'I just really wanted to do a movie that really talked about and demonstrated this is what love looks like, this is what a modern love looks like.'

- DeVon Franklin, in an interview with HelloBeautiful

The bottom line

'Ruth & Boaz' is unapologetically a contemporary romance with faith in the DNA, not a strict theological retelling. If that blend sounds sacrilegious to you, you will probably bounce off it. If you are fine with scripture reframed as a glossy Southern love story, the Netflix numbers suggest you are not alone.

'Ruth & Boaz' is streaming now on Netflix.