mrs. gherkin and I are finally watching The Chosen. We like it OK. Sometimes it is pretty heavy on the millennia-sounding navel gazing dialog and silliness. But apart from that it is enjoyable. I can't say I'm a rabid fan like some of our friends seem to be. What about y'all?

I think it is nice for people who are not familiar with the life of Christ, with the Gospels. Like you, the "rapture" seasoning does not sit well. Not going to spend my free time watching any more of it.

Ha ha! I meant millennial, as in the generation after Gen X. I just hear the dialog and the way the characters speak and I hear American 30-year olds. Like, a whole episode of the Apostles sitting around a campfire and sharing their feelings.

Or, just last night, I watched the episode where Our Lord was taken to be thrown off the cliff "and he passed through the midst of them," and on the show he said "this isn't going to happen today," and walked away, while they all sort of froze in place. I don't mind the way the creators envisaged the scene, I thought it worked well...wouldn't want it to become some stupid FX thing, for sure! But the "this isn't going to happen today" just feels so contemporary and goofy. There's a lot of that. I cringe a bit.

But not trying to complain. mrs. gherkin's main complaint is really just that she doesn't want to visualize Our Lord and the Apostles and the Blessed Mother as these actors. That's fair, too, I think, but what are you gonna do?

I'm just not particularly tempted to watch it.

I wasn't, either, which I guess is why it took so long to get around to it. I've got friends at church that exert peer pressure. They had a big group put together to go watch the season 3 premier at the local theater, stuff like that. Whatever.

I wouldn't tell you I recommend watching it, but it's certainly a much better use of your time than watching typical hollywood fare or other foul smelling goo like that. Not that I'd accuse you of watching foul smelling goo. Which is probably not a very apt metaphor since focused on the wrong sense. But you see what I mean. Or smell it. Or something.

I tried watching a couple of episodes. It was just too "different". While I'm sure Jesus smiled and laughed in life, it just isn't the traditional portrayal that I'm used to. May appeal to a younger audience, just not me. Also, I realize that you need to 'fill in' a certain amount of dialogue, but I thought some of it was sappy.

It's okay, I can accept that it is a mostly fictionalized life of Christ, but they make Jesus too human, by, for example, having Jesus spend weeks brainstorming ideas for The Sermon on the Mount including asking the disciples for help...."I don't have a clue what I'm going to talk about, do you have any ideas?" ummm...no.

Another moment I have a problem with is the Wedding at Cana, where Andrew is dancing really badly and Peter asks for Jesus to help him to be a better dancer, and Jesus jokes "there are some things even I can't do", some people online freaked out 'Jesus is God, there is nothing he can't do!" but that is not my problem, I understand that it was just a joke, I don't like the idea of Jesus cracking jokes with his disciples. Yes, he was constantly being invited to dinner, so he was probably an interesting person to have around, but he wasn't a 21st-century backslapper cracking jokes.

It is okay, but not the kind of show I am so excited about that I want to get up early in the morning to stream the second a new episode is posted

I'm agreeing with both gherkin AND Doom. Somebody, send help!!!

Honestly, there has never been and likely never will be, a dramatization of the life of. Christ that isn't cringe. Compare The Greatest Story Ever Told (ironically one of the worst movies ever made), or Roma Downey's "The Bible" series a few years ago, from which the theatrical film "Son of God" was released to theaters, both are pure cringe. Even Franco Zeffirelli's "Jesus of Nazareth" and Mel Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ"( probably the two best dramatizations) have moments that are pure cringe,such as the ludicrous scene in Zeffirelli's film where Jesus has a bar mitzvah, a Jewish tradition that arose in the Late Middle Ages.

What The Chosen has that most dramatizations severely lack is a ln actual understanding of narrative structure and how to frame a scene. And production values that are equal to any major Hollywood studio Oscar bait film.

I always wondered when that became part of their faith tradition. Learn something new everyday!

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In fairness, The Chosen has an army of theological advisors looking through every script with a fine-toothed comb looking for theological bias, these advisors come from dozens of denominations including several Catholics. Whatever problems it has, bias isn't one of them.

I was just remembering my favorite scene so far. It has a demoniac attacking one of the Apostles while Jesus is away, but coming back towards the camp. Evidently alerted to the struggle, Jesus and St. John the Baptist come running towards camp, and Jesus, on the run, casts out the demon. St. John the Baptist, who has never witnessed any miracles or whatnot, yells out "Yeah!" and is obviously super pumped. It's funny and kind of cool. We just watched the first "two by two" episode, and the Apostles heal a bunch of folks, and everyone is all happy and crying and whatnot afterwards, but there's no reactions like St. John's! But it's a very appropriate reaction, even if no 1st century Jew would actually have said that.

Well, as I said earlier, even when I don't like or agree with their creative choices, there is no denying that they know how to frame a scene to give it maximal drama. This is exactly what most "Christian movies" are incapable of doing.

True.

I agree 100% that Christ shouldn't be made too human on film. However, having a sense of humor as always struck me as something very human. And while I don't think Jesus cracked jokes all the time, and probably only rarely if He did, I have no problem with him occasionally showing that side of his humanity.

Agreed on most except for "Passion". I think it was the exception - I didn't find it cringey at all. "Tear-jerking and intense" would be my description.

Since Jesus was/is both fully God and fully human, how could he be portrayed as "too human?"

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