Non-Quickie Review: The Chosen

[Kevin M.]

This series is trending now, even though the first season was released a couple years ago. The last time I found a piece of family friendly television that wasn’t overly patronizing was “7th Heaven”, but due to information leaked from a supposedly confidential therapy session which axed Stephen Collins’ career, that show is buried almost as deep as “The Cosby Show”. So when my wife suggested we give “The Chosen” a try, I agreed. 

The series tells the story of the lives of those who followed Jesus. It was bankrolled (they say crowdfunded, but there’s not much evidence of that) by the son of the author of the horrible “Left Behind” series of books, which became a horrible Kirk Cameron movie followed by a horrible Nic Cage movie. The whole series is basically shot in the guy’s backyard in Texas, where one building is constantly and embarrassingly redressed to look like a bunch of different buildings. Actors who don’t already have natural accents attempt accents which are a cross between Apu on The Simpsons and Count Von Count from Sesame Street. 

The best and perhaps most well known actor on the show is Erick Avari, who has been in basically every movie and TV show ever made. He plays Nicodemus, a rabbi mentioned in the Bible.

Just as “Deadwood” took great liberties with the characters populated in the small gold mining camp, so too has “The Chosen” added/made up much about the followers of Jesus. The Bible was far from a history textbook anyway, but even given that, there are a lot of embellishments in the show. Matthew is autistic in the TV series; a Google search revealed an interview with one of the writers who justified that by stating Matthew’s gospel contained an almost Rain Man degree of specificity compared to the other gospels. The roles of women are advanced (frankly are modernized) in ways which one would be hard pressed to find any Biblical basis for. 

The free app needed to view it (you can buy episodes on iTunes and YouTube) is riddled with bugs and glitches, despite having been around for a couple years. The production company is the same one that tried to release media they didn’t own which they had re-edited to make safe for children, and they went bankrupt dealing with the inevitable lawsuits, so don’t expect the app to get any better.

The series isn’t bad, and it isn’t good. It isn’t going to convert anybody, but I don’t think that was the point of it. They sometimes succeed in making people from the Bible less intangible and more relatable... and they sometimes fail. Again, as in Deadwood, they strived for historic accuracy, but occasionally sacrificed that ambition to further the story. It’s nothing I alone would choose to watch, but I didn’t consider it wasted time the way I have with other shows I’ve watched with my wife (looking at you, Bridgerton... and Cobra Kai). It’s ok family friendly fare, but it’s nothing to write home about. But I’ll write about it here.

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Kevin M. (RPCV)

[Jim Ellwanger]

“7th Heaven” appears to be available on both Hulu and Paramount Plus, so it’s not as buried as it could be.

For that matter, “The Cosby Show” is still on Amazon Prime.

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[Kevin M.]

On Tue, Apr 27, 2021 at 8:37 PM Jim Ellwanger <trai...@ellwanger.tv> wrote:

“7th Heaven” appears to be available on both Hulu and Paramount Plus, so it’s not as buried as it could be.

For that matter, “The Cosby Show” is still on Amazon Prime.

Fair enough. 

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tvornottv/DD507180-D3A6-401F-9118-9AF3A2AB1F6E%40ellwanger.tv.

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Kevin M. (RPCV)

[PGage]

I was surprised by all of the Deadwood analogies in Kevin’s review, but then noticed in episode 2 the reference to those goddamn “Cocksuckers from Samaria”...

One sector of my FB friends feed has been flooded by pious references to how fabulous this series is, many from the relatively more self aware explicitly noting how much better it is than “Left Behind”. It is almost impossible for the second claim not to be true, and also almost impossible for the first claim to be true.

I’m surprised at the characterization of Matthew as Autistic; the Gospel that bears his name is usually seen as aimed at potential followers of Jesus who still highly valued Jewish tradition. Mark is the more sparse, cryptic account, focusing on action - though of course there is really no basis for thinking of any of these apocryphal authors as Autistic.

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[Kevin M.]

On Tue, Apr 27, 2021 at 9:19 PM PGage <pga...@gmail.com> wrote:

I was surprised by all of the Deadwood analogies in Kevin’s review, but then noticed in episode 2 the reference to those goddamn “Cocksuckers from Samaria”...

If I produced SNL, this is the sort of sketch I would want to see on air

I know there are other TV shows based on characters from history, but Deadwood will always resonate with me. In terms of budget and production value, I say The Chosen is closer to F Troop. It would not surprise me to see Larry Storch as Pilate.

One sector of my FB friends feed has been flooded by pious references to how fabulous this series is, many from the relatively more self aware explicitly noting how much better it is than “Left Behind”. It is almost impossible for the second claim not to be true, and also almost impossible for the first claim to be true.

I’d love to see MST3k riff either version of Left Behind

I’m surprised at the characterization of Matthew as Autistic; the Gospel that bears his name is usually seen as aimed at potential followers of Jesus who still highly valued Jewish tradition. Mark is the more sparse, cryptic account, focusing on action - though of course there is really no basis for thinking of any of these apocryphal authors as Autistic.

Ultimately, it’s a claim that can’t be disproven, which allows them to get away with it, and while people’s reaction to Matthew is played for laughs, his autism itself is not handled disrespectfully.

On Tue, 27 Apr 2021 at 8:31 PM Kevin M. <drunkba...@gmail.com> wrote:

This series is trending now, even though the first season was released a couple years ago. The last time I found a piece of family friendly television that wasn’t overly patronizing was “7th Heaven”, but due to information leaked from a supposedly confidential therapy session which axed Stephen Collins’ career, that show is buried almost as deep as “The Cosby Show”. So when my wife suggested we give “The Chosen” a try, I agreed. 

The series tells the story of the lives of those who followed Jesus. It was bankrolled (they say crowdfunded, but there’s not much evidence of that) by the son of the author of the horrible “Left Behind” series of books, which became a horrible Kirk Cameron movie followed by a horrible Nic Cage movie. The whole series is basically shot in the guy’s backyard in Texas, where one building is constantly and embarrassingly redressed to look like a bunch of different buildings. Actors who don’t already have natural accents attempt accents which are a cross between Apu on The Simpsons and Count Von Count from Sesame Street. 

The best and perhaps most well known actor on the show is Erick Avari, who has been in basically every movie and TV show ever made. He plays Nicodemus, a rabbi mentioned in the Bible.

Just as “Deadwood” took great liberties with the characters populated in the small gold mining camp, so too has “The Chosen” added/made up much about the followers of Jesus. The Bible was far from a history textbook anyway, but even given that, there are a lot of embellishments in the show. Matthew is autistic in the TV series; a Google search revealed an interview with one of the writers who justified that by stating Matthew’s gospel contained an almost Rain Man degree of specificity compared to the other gospels. The roles of women are advanced (frankly are modernized) in ways which one would be hard pressed to find any Biblical basis for. 

The free app needed to view it (you can buy episodes on iTunes and YouTube) is riddled with bugs and glitches, despite having been around for a couple years. The production company is the same one that tried to release media they didn’t own which they had re-edited to make safe for children, and they went bankrupt dealing with the inevitable lawsuits, so don’t expect the app to get any better.

The series isn’t bad, and it isn’t good. It isn’t going to convert anybody, but I don’t think that was the point of it. They sometimes succeed in making people from the Bible less intangible and more relatable... and they sometimes fail. Again, as in Deadwood, they strived for historic accuracy, but occasionally sacrificed that ambition to further the story. It’s nothing I alone would choose to watch, but I didn’t consider it wasted time the way I have with other shows I’ve watched with my wife (looking at you, Bridgerton... and Cobra Kai). It’s ok family friendly fare, but it’s nothing to write home about. But I’ll write about it here.

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Kevin M. (RPCV)

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Kevin M. (RPCV)