3 Things You Need to Know About “The Chosen” and How to Watch It for Free

A few months ago, I put together a list of faith-based movies and tv shows you and your family could watch for free on different streaming platforms.

In the comments, there were many people who were disappointed “The Chosen” didn’t make the cut.

To be honest, I had never heard of “The Chosen,” and at first glance, I wrote it off as another cheesy tv show that was trying too hard to bring the Bible to life. I sighed. I didn’t want a new faith-based show that lacked quality.

After reading comment after comment of praise for the show, I decided to look into it. According to the director, Dallas Jenkins, this “is the first-ever multi-season TV show about the life of Jesus.” It is also the largest crowd-funded TV show of all time, which means this series is supported by people who believe in its mission. How cool is that?

I was intrigued, but to be honest, I was still skeptical. I only starting watching “The Chosen” to see how bad it was, but in the end, I was very impressed.

Here are 3 reasons why you should watch “The Chosen.”

1.) The story

I think storytelling is the most important aspect of a movie or a tv show.

I hate when a movie sets aside its story and only focuses on the message. While the message is important, if the plot is weak then the movie feels more like propaganda and less of a story.

Movies don’t have to be heavy-handed to get their point across. I don’t watch a movie because I want to be preached at. Instead, I watch a movie because I want to be inspired or entertained. Because movies are mostly a visual medium, I enjoy them the most when they are able to show a powerful and honest story where I have to peel back the layers to find the meaning behind it.

Luckily, “The Chosen” does just this.

Not only is the story powerful and emotional, but it takes its time and lets us get to know the characters in a way that’s real, honest, and relatable.

In the first episode, we meet Mary Magdalene who suffers from demonic possession. Unlike other retellings where Mary shows up just in time to get healed and then disappears for the rest of the story, “The Chosen” takes us through her journey of being a forgotten outcast.

We feel her pain, rejection, and sorrow, and at the end of the episode when she is healed you can’t help but feel overjoyed.

“The Chosen” does an incredible job of telling the stories of those who Christ surrounded himself with, and I can’t wait to see what characters are introduced next.

2.) The acting

Bad acting can make even the best stories feel cheap, but the actors in “The Chosen” do an incredible and believable job.

All too often, in many Christian series, white actors are cast to play Jesus and his band of followers, but not here. In “The Chosen” the actors actually look like they could be from ancient Israel which is a refreshing change of course.

3.) The passion behind the series.

You can tell that this show is a passion project for the creators.

Dallas Jenkins, the director, isn’t new to filmmaking. He landed a big movie contract with a production company that created “Get Out,” “Insidious,” and “Sinister.” They contracted Dallas to make 10 faith-based films over the next several years.

So he created and directed the Christian film “the Ressurection of Gavin stone” but it flopped. Dallas Jenkins was quickly let go of his contract, but over the next several months he started developing his idea for “The Chosen.”

After assembling a team, his partners decided to fund the move through crowdfunding. Dallas was apprehensive. Crowdfunding works with reboots of established projects because people are already invested in those stories. Who in the world was going to fund a brand new tv show that didn’t even have a pilot?

To everyone’s surprise, they brought it 5.7 million dollars which wasn’t only enough to fund the entire first season, but it broke the record for the largest crowd-funded tv show of all time.