The Chosen
By John Brown
Nellie and I stumbled onto a new TV series that we are really enjoying. It’s made us laugh, think, and feel. It’s called The Chosen and is based on the life of Jesus Christ, but it’s not like any Jesus series I’ve seen before.
Now I have to admit that when I first saw ads for this, I
wasn’t interested. It’s not that I don’t like videos about scriptures. There
are some I love. It’s just that the purpose of so many of them is to illustrate
a scripture instead of tell a story. And there’s nothing wrong with that. It’s
just that when I’m looking for a drama, I want to watch a drama.
But this series is different. They have taken a historical
fiction approach, which means that while they adhere as closely to the facts as
we know them, they don’t limit the story to those facts. And so they imagine
people, events, and motives that are plausible, and then tell a story. A great
example of this type of storytelling is Gerald N. Lund’s bestselling The
Work and The Glory series about a family in the early 1800s who become
Mormons. Or Michael Shaara’s bestselling The Killer Angels about the
Civil War.
The Chosen focuses on stories about characters
surrounding Jesus and those who plausibly could have met him. It also imagines
Jesus as more than a sober Lord. He laughs, jokes, engages with children. It is
a reimagining of the familiar that makes the story fresh again and leaves you
wondering and pondering.
It’s created by Dallas Jenkins, an evangelical Christian, and produced and distributed by VidAngel Studios, run by Latter-day Saints. And their love and delight in the subject show. I can’t wait to see the next episode. You can watch it right now on VidAngel for free. Go through the VidAngel site or to https://studios.vidangel.com/the-chosen/
If you like religious fiction, if you like a good drama, if
you’re interested in knowing more about the life and times of Jesus Christ,
then I think you’ll love this.
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