The Chosen
A Review
Patrick Prescott
There was quite a buzz at our church when we got a new pastor, and she started encouraging the congregation to watch the TV series The Chosen. She had DVDs and had viewing time during the week for those who wanted to watch it. Season 1 is on Netflix, Prime has 1, 2 and 3.
My wife and daughter went to watch and came back with glowing praise for the series, all three seasons. I was still skeptical.
Hollywood had never made a satisfactory movie about the life of Jesus. They’ve tried since the 1950’s with King of Kings and Ben Hur and others all a disappointment. The Jesus they depict is too perfect. Yes, he lived a life of sinless perfection, but if you read the gospels Jesus was human. He fussed at his mother when she wanted him to turn the water into wine. He got angry enough to fashion a whip and drive out the money lenders. He wept for Lazarus and over Jerusalem on the Mount of Olives.
The disciples weren’t wooden figures surrounding Jesus, they fussed among themselves, they vied for His favor, they said and did stupid stuff and most of all they never really understood His real purpose for coming to this planet and dying on the cross, until it was too late. They all had uplifting music to manipulate your mood into worshiping Jesus. They also had Jesus in the Jordan River with John the Baptist sprinkling with water on his head. Too stupid for words.
Since I was disinclined to go with them to watch, they decided that we would watch the episodes together on Prime. I was prepared to watch the first one and point out all its flaws. I was amazed!
Jonathan Roumie is fantastic in this role. He was co-director and lead actor of The Last Days: The Passion and Death of Jesus, a live performance about the passion of Christ. So, he’s done this before. In The Chosen his portrayal is a very human Jesus. When asked a question, he thinks before answering. He makes you laugh, more than anything this is what makes Jesus' human. It’s fun watching him frustrating and driving his disciples crazy when he tells the parables.
All of the disciples are equally human. Shahar Isaac as Simon Peter is spot on in the role, though he’s not the muscle-bound brute that most preachers want to portray him. Paras Patel plays Matthew the tax collector. His portrayal is of a man with OCD, he’s always taking out his wax tablet and scribbling down everything Jesus said.
There’s a scene where Jesus is in Syria healing the sick and the disciples are around the fire and Simon Peter berates Matthew for being a tax collector. He’s called names and it gets heated. Jesus walks to his tent ignoring them as they stop to watch him say his prayers and goes to sleep totally exhausted. It shuts them up.
While walking, always walking from one place to another the disciples are sometimes grumbling or asking each other what they think Jesus is up to or just kidding each other. They’re human!
There are four women that follow him. The first is Ramah, an Ethiopian woman who he heals; Mary Magdeline, who he casts out demons, his mother, Mary, and Eden who helps Thomas bring wine to the wedding feast in Cana. He didn’t bring enough causing Mary to make Jesus turn the water into wine. The two of them become followers and it’s clear they’re in love.
Okay, they’ve deviated from the purity of the gospels. It makes for a compelling story. Each of the disciples has their own personality and they contribute to the story. Thomas has his girlfriend.
Nicodemus in the first season has his visit at night with Jesus and though realizes who Jesus is, still he can’t follow him. He does defend Jesus in the Sanhedrin in Jerusalem when the pharisees in Galilee start making accusations against Jesus. You see the political machinations of the pharisees from the start.
In Capernaum is Gaius the Roman legate in charge of the area and is very ambitious for promotion, but he’s not getting enough in taxes. The centurion in charge of collecting the taxes in Quintus. At first, he is in charge of protecting Matthew as he is at his window collecting the taxes. He’s not happy when Matthew walks away from his duties to follow Jesus but is present when Jesus is performing miracles and speaking. He has a servant with a daughter who is ill and I keep waiting for him to seek Jesus for the miracle in healing from a distance, but the arc of the story keeps kicking that down the road.
As much as everyone is fussing about AI today, but when Peter draws in the huge catch of fish and when Jesus feeds the five thousand it is impressive. CGI saved lots of money if they tried to use that many real fish. There is not a soundtrack, no tacky music to make you feel this way or that. It’s all on the actors and the story.
A few gripes. From time to time, they have a scene from times before. One scene has King David dressed in an impressive tunic and robe as a choir sings one of the psalms. The choir is dressed in togas. Togas are Roman. David as the screen says is 980 BC. Rome won’t be founded until two hundred years later. Movie makers think if its ancient history use togas. Instead, they should think Lawrence of Arabia. That’s how people dressed back then. The toga was only worn by those of senatorial rank. All wore tunics and the lesser people wore robes for warmth.
Gaius has Jesus brought to him and asks him questions. A legate wouldn’t care what some rabbi was preaching. They were interested in rebellion not theology.
All in all, I’m very happy with this series. There is a making of piece explaining that this was done in collaboration with evangelical Christians, moderate Christians, Catholic priests, Jewish rabbis, and historical scholars.
I went to see season 4 episodes 1, 2 and 3 last night at a theater. Episodes 4,5 and 6 will come out in a couple of weeks followed by 5 and 6 a couple of weeks later.
Patrick Prescott is a retired public-school teacher and author of: Optimus: Praetorian Guard, I Maury: The Life and Times of a Rebel, Human Sacrifices, The Fan Plan Tribology, Three Medieval Battles and others in e-books and paperbacks on Amazon.com.
