The Chosen

I said last week that I would talk about this series, The Chosen, this week. What can I say? I Highly recommend this. I won’t say that it’s perfect, but I still think it’s very good. There are some things added that are not found in the Bible, but it never contradicts the Bible. It's maybe a little over-dramatized (Peter and the Romans), but it still fit and felt ok. I’m someone who is sensitive to that sort of thing, and I did not mind what they did. I think they did it in the right way without overdoing it. Also because the creators chose to give backstories and make the story fuller, it feels different from most Bible story movies and telling. The Bible only tells us snide bits. Bits from here and there. And so that’s how most stories go. They follow only what the Bible tells. Which is ok. But because these creators went a different rough it feels new, different, and fresh. The characters are more fleshed out. And I think that’s what I liked the most.

From the Bible, we can only get hints and snide bits of what the disciples and different people in the Bible were like. Many portals are stereotypes. They are one or maybe two dimensional. Peter is reckless and a hothead. Thomas is doubting Thomas. But here the characters are more. (I keep saying characters, but they were real people, more than characters in a book.) Peter is still reckless, but he feels more well rounded. I have only met Thomas one so far in the series, but he is calculating. He’s a planner and a thinker. I relate because that’s me. Maybe not to the extent he is portrayed, but he’s not just unbelieving. Rather with this personality, when Jesus performs a miracle which is outside of his way of thinking he can’t wrap his mind around it. He says he doesn’t know what to think. To which someone tells him “then don’t think.” That resonated with me. I tend to overthink things. I love Mathew’s portal as well. He’s a super-smart person, but he has all the eccentricities that tend to go with people like that.

The people we have all seen portrayed somewhere before become new and real. It’s new and different but still Biblically accurate. There have been multiple times I felt like crying. (I didn’t, I rarely cry doing movies, but I felt like it.)

As I watch I keep thinking how much I want to share this series with others. I’m really thinking I want to set up a time with other ladies in the church and watch an episode at a time and then talk about it and pray. Some kind of small group.

Now run time for each episode really varies for each episode. Some are around a half-hour, where others are closer to an hour.

The acting is also really good. I hate to say it but often in small production, Christian movies, the acting is not always very good. Not ones have I notice that in this show. Now I’m not particularly sensitive to that. I have become more so as I’ve gotten older, but others might find fault. I recognized maybe one or two actors, but most I have never seen before, and they do an amazing job.

The look of the sets and people is also very good. The sets look right, and it struck me how dirty people are, literally. Faces are dirty, especially the common people which would fit the time and setting. Too often in movies, people are far to clean for the setting so its interesting when people stand out because they are dirty which would be right rather, than clean which would not be right.

One last thing is the people look right for the part too. There are not a bunch of pasty, white people playing middle easterners. There are a number of black people, but that may well have been right for the time and place. I don’t know about that fact myself. And Jesus is not some model! I have heard someone ones stay that Jesus is often played by someone that looks like they could be an Abercrombie and Fitch model. Not this time, which I am very happy about. After all the Bible says there was nothing in his aperients that would draw people to him.

So all I can say is, ones again, I highly recommend this show. I was not asked to do this, but if you buy the show you help them continue the next season. Season 2 is being worked on right now. You can get it electronically or as DVDs. It’s all through VidAngel I think.

That will be all for today. God Bless