How 'The Chosen' Gets It Right in Bringing Religious History to TV
How a non-religious viewer came to embrace a show about Jesus Christ
Let us pray.
I’m kidding, not that there’s anything wrong with that.
For me, praying and religion isn’t a big part of my daily life. That wasn’t always the case since as a kid, my Northern Indiana family went to Catholic Church on Sundays, observed all the holy days, even prayed before every meal. But as I grew older and times changed, my family slowed our roll in going to church regularly and other than the occasional wedding or funeral, those habits (and for us, that’s truly what they were) just fell to the wayside.
And, years later when I came out as gay in my mid-20s and was looking for support and guidance, let’s just say the Catholic church wasn’t anywhere near the top of my list of places to go.
Last year, however, I found myself suddenly considering religion again when I was assigned a cover story to write for TV Guide Magazine on the drama series The Chosen. I had heard a little about the show, which is a scripted series about Jesus Christ (played by Jonathan Roumie) and his followers as he’s beginning to preach to people and spreading his gospel. A loyal fanbase had developed around the show and given it was a crowdsourced show and didn’t have a big network backing it at the start, it also did unique things like provide episodes for free during the pandemic. It also screened episodes in theaters to create a community feeling. The results? A phenomenon that has grown to the point that the upcoming season four is, as they say, much anticipated.
Thankfully, given I hadn’t seen the show, the cover story from last summer was more of an overview of the show so a thorough deep dive wasn’t necessary. And once I did check out the show in preparation of talking with show creator, Dallas Jenkins (who directs all the episodes and writes them with co-writers Tyler Thompson and Ryan Swanson) I found a passionate man with a great sense of humor who was taking big swings in the show like showing miracle moments like Jesus turning water to wine and walking on water, to name a few. And he was doing them very well.
Somewhere between watching episodes, doing my research and then talking to Jenkins, something strange happened. I won’t go so far as call it a miracle but I was surprised to find that I really drawn in from The Chosen’s first episode and every episode I watched after. To its credit, the show was not merely a straight retelling of events from the Bible that we’ve seen done many times before in television and film. And if you have been turned off in the past by religious productions that came off as force feeding religion, you have nothing to worry about here since that is not the mission of The Chosen.
What is its mission? One major one is the fact that it brings us well rounded and compelling characters who feel like people we know, not untouchable names we’ve read about in the Bible. For example, Jesus is a fully rounded character who is determined to share his sermons but we also see him laugh, dance and occasionally get impatient with the world and people around him as his sharing his message is met with pushback (primarily from the Romans). And it doesn’t stop with him as you’ll find as you get to know the engaging apostles from fiery Simon (Shahar Isaac) and quirky Matthew (Paras Patel), Romans who show more depth than villainy like Gaius (Kirk B.R. Woller) and even Jesus’s endearing mother Mary (Vanessa Benavente).
As Jenkins told me in that first interview, he knew “merely telling Scripture wouldn’t give it the ‘uniquely timely’ perspective he was hoping to achieve so that it ‘doesn’t feel like a stiff melodrama. It feels like actual humanity.’” Also, he was a fan of television dramas like This Is Us, Friday Night Lights and Succession, which were all shows where you fell in love with and felt connected to characters more than anything else. He’s done the same thing with The Chosen.
From the first episode where a lost Mary Magdalene (played beautifully by Elizabeth Tabish) has already thought about ending her life and is fighting demons (literal and internal) when she meets Jesus. That powerful scene (shockingly, we don’t meet Jesus until the end of the first episode!) is also incredibly simple. There’s no grand blustering of wind or the heavens opening up in grandiose fashion. Instead, Jesus calls Mary by her name (she’d been calling herself ‘Lillith’) and, in talking to her, saves her and banishes her demons. “I was one way and now I am completely different,” Mary says in the show’s second episode. “And the thing that happened in between was Him.”
And for every miracle we see Jesus perform in the first three seasons be it curing people of physical maladies, bringing the dead back to life and turning a few loaves of bread and fish into a bounty large enough to feed thousands of hungry people who have come to hear him speak - the show effortlessly pulls the viewer in as a part of the action, not mere observers.
Now, having watched and dissected all three seasons since TV Guide Magazine did a followup special issue on The Chosen that I wrote the bulk of (one of my last duties before departing the magazine), I will say my relationship with God and religion hasn’t really changed radically. But I have learned things from The Chosen and understand more about those stories I heard when I was a kid.
But at the end of the day I am forever a fan of good TV and The Chosen delivers. The upcoming fourth season is intense to say the least with more big, dramatic milestones to come that I won’t spoil here. And while Jenkins has teased more heartbreak is coming in the new episodes, at least we know Jesus’s impending crucifixion on the cross is still a few seasons away.
And as the show has already broken some TV rules, the new season will debut initially on February 1st in theaters and then will land on a streaming or online outlet after. (More info on where and how to watch The Chosen’s fourth season here.)
Have you watched The Chosen? Do you think you’ll check it out? Or if you have, what is your opinion of it and how it tells its stories? Let me know in the comments below.
Next week, I’ll be sharing my recent fascination with grief. (‘Oh, how fun!’ you may be thinking!) It started with Anderson Cooper’s short segment on CBS Sunday Mornings but then grew with his captivating All There Is podcast, which is digging deep into the topic as he talks with different people (Stephen Colbert, Ashley Judd and more) about how they’ve confronted grief in their own lives. Come back next week and I promise not to make it a downer!
Will certainly check it out & share with the family. Thanks for sharing
Well said brother and just love your story and our story growing up in the Catholic Faith. Although I don't go to the Catholic Church any longer, I do pray daily and make that a big part of my life, always praying for my family, friends, co-workers, etc.
Can't wait to see "The Chosen'!