"The Chosen" TV series (Jesus & Disciples drama)

[EccentricM]

So I watched season 1 of a tv series called "the Chosen" which is a series which revolves around the Gosepels of Jesus' life and his disciples. I don't know if anyone else has seen it, as it's pretty recent, and season 2 has just been released I believe or will be soon.

 

I have to say, I've seen a few various depictions of Jesus through different movies, and this one I think is my favorite, it's almost how I imagined him in my head, which no movie or series has done before for me. Often movies are either showing him with girly silky hair, blue eyes, thin and weak, cold, dressed in torn rags, distant, or comes off as overly dramatic or fake.

 

This Jesus I found whilst having "presense and wisdom" was also very human. He's authorative when he needs to be, but also laughs, smiles, dances, has humour. And he's also portrayed as actually Jewish looking (I believe many of the actors may be Jewish, or at least are good at the accents). His hair isn't overly long, but neither is it too short or immaculate for the time period in my opinion.

The show takes some imaginative liberties here and there with the backgrounds of certain characters, mainly the disciples and Nicodemus, but they admit this is to give some "flesh" to the show and its cast as the Bible doesn't go into much detail on the lives of these people before they meet Jesus. The idea is to show the disciples as sinful people in need of redemption and how Jesus chose them "because" of that, as opposed to being righteous from the start. And of course there may be some references to hints to the idea that "Jesus is God" here and there, but not too heavily, and Jesus is actually accurately portrayed to be praying to and worshipping God in this show so far.

 

As opposed to typical films and shows about Jesus, it does not show his birth or childhood (with exception to a couple of flashbacks). The presmise (I won't go into spoilers as this is all clear from the start) is from the apostles point of view mainly, what their lives were like before they meet Jesus, how they all meet and then how Jesus comes into their lives. Simon Peter is portrayed as someone who is a bit of a desperate swindler (due to being in a bad place in his life) but good hearted, and I think an even more very "creative" take on the characters is Matthew being portrayed as a materialistic tax collector (as we know he was a tax collector scriptually) and as someone with Autism, so he's very socially awkward and seemingly disabled in his understanding of people during conversations at times, but is good with organisation and numbers, which is why he chooses to be a tax collector. And Nicodemus the Pharasiee is quite interesting, as his background and actions are based on some theories about him which can be gleamed from just one or two scriptures, but I won't get into that.

But I haven't seen any other overly creative liberties so far, regardless of all that, I found it to be very enjoyable, what attracted me to the drama initially were the small preview clips I saw of Jesus of course and as I said, I very much enjoyed how he was portrayed.

 

The drama has a couple of bloody scenes in them (mainly in the first two episodes of series 1 thus far, when a character is shown to be demon possessed and attacks someone, and also has injuries themselves due to implied self harm, which isn't shown). But this scene is not overly played out, nor does it bring undue attention to demonic possession I feel, as the scenes are very short and it's over after the first two episodes. 

 

The entire drama can be seen for free on youtube in a playlist which I can link here for people interested (you just have to skip past the introduction commentary to each episode).  https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLgn4viMGbbmDEw-R3MoYRYuRlmsgxd2A3 (the episodes may take some time to play so skip ahead to where they do, as they were uploaded as livestreams originally, the show is legally uploaded as it's on the offical channel of the show's creators).

 

Trailer:

 

 

 

Edited September 21, 2021 by EccentricM

[dilip kumar]

Pls pm me the link brother. 

[EccentricM]

37 minutes ago, dilip kumar said:

Pls pm me the link brother. 

It's in my post already But I'll do that .

[TRUTH04]

Interesting. I eagerly await the Good News According to Jesus. 

[Dages]

I've been watching the season 1 and now the season 2.

The actors are very interesting. It's very enjoyable. And there are subtitles in the app. Very nice.

 

I'm done with season 2.

It's fine. A little bit slow sometimes... and they takes a lot of liberty with the gospels, but I like some ideas.

Edited September 24, 2021 by Dages

[EccentricM]

For anyone who wants to watch the first two series, I just discovered that it's up now on the offical website for free in HD.

 

https://watch.angelstudios.com/thechosen/watch?vid=S1:E1

Edited September 28, 2021 by EccentricM

[Dages]

Yes there is an app too. It's free

[Thesauron]

I hear someone mention how people talk about Jesus’ miracles, like turning water into wine, and raising the dead, but nobody mentions the miracle of being a man in his 30s with 12 close friends…

[Dages]

9 hours ago, Thesauron said:

I hear someone mention how people talk about Jesus’ miracles, like turning water into wine, and raising the dead, but nobody mentions the miracle of being a man in his 30s with 12 close friends…

Bruh...

[Honeybarrel]

My husband and I really enjoyed this series so far. Fantastically portrayed (mostly) right out of the bible.

Jesus  warmth and love is beautiful to see -and its humbly done. My husband is not a baptised servant of Jehovah, but a more spiritual man I’ve yet to find! He cried at parts of this. (Big irish 6ft3 rugby player!) He loves what our Lord did for us. Pathetic human beings that we are. How does he and the Father love us so much? It’s something I can never take for granted. 

Note- many many many threads constantly refer to GB or FDS, which I suppose is necessary at times. But why quote them or our literature ALL THE TIME.? It would be lovely to see Jesus or Jehovah mentioned or referenced more than them. 
just saying…

I love our faithful slave, and peter was told “feed my sheep” and thus I appreciate the spiritual food they give us.
Does that mean I follow a man? No, for in fact Jesus told us not to. He is The Way. Nobody else. 

I hope that made sense.

 

I only want to be on the side of Love. Always thinking- what would Jesus do? He gave us two commandments only. And they both involved love.

 

[EccentricM]

I'm so glad to hear that @Honeybarrel. And yes, there are some tear jerking moments! Like I said, I think it's one of the best and authentic depictions I've seen of Jesus thus far.

Edited October 12, 2021 by EccentricM

[daydream]

https://www.thebibleartist.com/post/nicodemus-in-the-chosen-adapting-biblical-characters

 

 

Erick Avari  is an Indian-American actor whose roles in science-fiction productions include Stargate (1994), Independence Day (1996), and The Mummy (1999)

He was born on 13 April 1952 in Darjeeling, West Bengal, India, into a Parsi Zoroastrian family. 

Avari is a member of the Avari-Madan family of Darjeeling and Calcutta. His great-great-grandfather was Jamshedji Framji Madan, one of the pioneers of Indian cinema.

 

Edited October 12, 2021 by happiness IS

[TRUTH04]

On 9/28/2021 at 5:37 PM, EccentricM said:

For anyone who wants to watch the first two series, I just discovered that it's up now on the offical website for free in HD.

 

https://watch.angelstudios.com/thechosen/watch?vid=S1:E1

The video is not showing in YouTube. It is only a picture display

[daydream]

On 9/23/2021 at 10:14 PM, Dages said:

And there are subtitles in the app.

I watched on my pc and there were subtitles too. In a few languages too including surprise! the Malay language. What a bonus because many in my congregation don't understand English. 

 

https://impactingculture.com/the-chosen-a-fresh-take-on-the-life-of-christ/

 

There’s a sense of immediacy to the series; the people feel authentic, the dialogue natural. They inhabit a true place with everyday problems. Social cues, second guesses, big and small moments alike… these all play a part in the very human story being told. These characters are relatable, Jesus above all.

 

 

[Dages]

1 hour ago, happiness IS said:

I watched on my pc and there were subtitles too. In a few languages too including surprise! the Malay language. What a bonus because many in my congregation don't understand English. 

 

https://impactingculture.com/the-chosen-a-fresh-take-on-the-life-of-christ/

 

There’s a sense of immediacy to the series; the people feel authentic, the dialogue natural. They inhabit a true place with everyday problems. Social cues, second guesses, big and small moments alike… these all play a part in the very human story being told. These characters are relatable, Jesus above all.

 

 

I like the accent, the way they speak, it's like they don't speak english naturally

[EccentricM]

On 10/12/2021 at 5:01 AM, TRUTH04 said:

The video is not showing in YouTube. It is only a picture display

Is the link to the offical website not working for you. The link you quoted isn't YouTube, but is the website where the show is streamed for free.

 

If you click here https://watch.angelstudios.com/thechosen/watch?vid=S1:E1  and scroll down you should see this

 

[vern]

Might be interesting...  But i.m sure the brothers will produce a nice Jesus.

 

I don.t like holywoods versions myself...

 

And how we see Jesus will be a spiritual personal way of seeing Jehovah aswell....  Although some things about Jehovah will only be Jehovah... But Jehovah is super generous with is spirit... Which probly made Satans sin so grave....and irrecoverable...

 

Atleast we can keep begging for more spirit....  Such a nice forum name neal chose.

[Pjdriver]

On 11/28/2021 at 7:56 PM, vern said:

Might be interesting...  But i.m sure the brothers will produce a nice Jesus.

 

I don.t like holywoods versions myself...

 

If you watch the trailer, the director specifically says he wanted to product this completely outside of Hollywood. So it’d not a Hollywood Version. As was mentioned they take some liberties in portraying the stories. That is normal to an extent.....even the FS does that with dramas. Nothing bad about that as long as it doesn’t conflict with what we know to be true.

[Jay D]

I find it fascinating Satan's system has created a blockbuster of a series whilst Jehovah's organization is creating our own. Interesting, never thought Satan and Christ would be influencing their followers to create rival series 🤣🤣

[Dages]

8 hours ago, Jay D said:

I find it fascinating Satan's system has created a blockbuster of a series whilst Jehovah's organization is creating our own. Interesting, never thought Satan and Christ would be influencing their followers to create rival series 🤣🤣

Satan has always been a copycat who add his own theories to Jehovah's truths. The Chosen is very nice, but it has its problems too.

We won't have any biblical problem  

[Suspended in Time]

I think I'll wait for our own. Jehovah's organization produces a fantastic array of video materials in a large number of languages. So much there to explore and more on the way.

[Jay D]

2 hours ago, Dages said:

Satan has always been a copycat who add his own theories to Jehovah's truths. The Chosen is very nice, but it has its problems too.

We won't have any biblical problem  

Don't you find it amusing though? He's got too much time on his hands 😆

[Shawnster]

2 hours ago, Dages said:

Satan has always been a copycat who add his own theories to Jehovah's truths. The Chosen is very nice, but it has its problems too.

We won't have any biblical problem  

A key difference is The Chosen is created as entertainment. Our Jesus series is being created as educational. 

[James the Less]

The production team for The Good News According to Jesus may draw some cinematic inspiration from certain visual elements of The Chosen. It does have an authentic feel about it. However, it will not take liberties with the narrative as the latter series has done. The script is prepared in complete accord with the sacred text.

[Hope]

I'm watching this series now (on Amazon Prime). It's very nice... made my son cry twice in one episode- healing the leper? 🥲  I love the diversity of the cast, too.

 

I do hope our production doesn't have all American accents... just saying.. 😉

Edited December 28, 2022 by Hope