The Evangelical Dark Web is finally embarking on a review of The Chosen, a product of Angel Vision and the Mormon Church that has captivated so many, becoming the most successful crowdfunded show of all time. In this article/video will be a review of episode 1, “I Have Called You By Name.”
With so much hype, The Chosen’s pilot episode is hot trash. It’s got boring characters and a largely uninteresting plot. Focusing mostly on Nicodemus, Simon (Peter), and Mary Magdalene, The Chosen slugs along. Simon is a young degenerate making one think that he was Simon the Zealot and not Simon Peter. I was certainly confused as Peter is widely believed to have been the oldest of the twelve, yet is portrayed as down on his luck youth with money troubles taking inordinate amounts of risk to get out. This has only been done a thousand times, and to apply this trope to Peter is very ill-placed.Â
Nicodemus is a celerity teacher who after a traffic stop by the Romans is compelled to get the Jews to pay their taxes. The Romans later compel him to heal Mary in which he fails, eventually citing that only God can do it. Afterwards he has ramblings about “What if the law is more beautiful and more strange than we’ve ever imagined?”
Mary is a demon riddled (implied) prostitute in this show. At the end of the episode, she is healed by Jesus, being the first of the chosen.
The Mary Magdalene Question
I can’t help but wonder whether Mary was chosen first to send a feminist message. Mary Magdalene doesn’t appear chronologically until Luke 8, after the twelve disciples have been chosen, making this a major deviance from Scripture from the onset of the show. Having not seen the rest of the show yet, this question is difficult to answer.
Non-Canonical
None of the first episode takes place in Scripture in the order that it happens in The Chosen. It’s primarily about ordinary affairs apart from the demonic possession. The one event that is in Scripture is done poorly and unfaithful to the source material.
Overall
Despite being well made and competently acted the first episode of The Chosen is boring and unbiblical.
3 Responses
It gets better. Give it a few episodes. Remember, it is not a systematic theology.
I recently signed up to read your posts because I’m interested in reading more about postmodernism in the church. When i saw this one in my inbox i had to read because my husband and i are loving The Chosen. I was disappointed that you jumped to accusing them of including Mormons in the production and ownership of the series when it’s just not true. I did my own research and they are using land owned by LDS to film season 2 because they already had the setting of the city of Jerusalem. That was an answer to prayer. They are able to befriend and show the real Jesus to these Mormons. I’ve been a Christian for 40 years have studied the Bible and taught it for decades and I’m definitely a stickler for biblical accuracy. I would say this television show does an excellent job of pulling people in who might not normally watch and touches hearts with the Real Jesus. The one who touches hearts and motivates to chose righteousness.
They are distributed by a Mormon owned company VidAngel which now operated under the name Angel Studios. Neil and Jeff Harmon both LDS and have influence ver the series as they raise the money and control distribution. On paper it’s an interfaith project, but in reality the LDS ties are reason enough to keep your eyes peeled.