I have been meaning to post on here for a while (aka 10 months), but it seems my dedication to blogging isn't what it used to be. To be fair, when I started blogging in 2009, I wasn't really on social media that much, and this was my outlet to post "random" things. Now I do that mainly on Twitter and Instagram. That being said, I'm still keeping my blog around (so it's not going anywhere, nobody panic), and I hope that one day I'll get back to updating it on a more regular basis (I think I've been saying that for five years, hopefully one year it will stick).
ANYWAY, now that the yearly pie crust promise of "I promise to blog more" is out of the way, let's move on.
So, if you follow me on social media, you might have noticed over the last 10 months that I'm a big fan of the TV show The Chosen. Quick shameless plug: Twitter- follow me here, Instagram- follow me here. I have a TikTok but am too old to figure out how to do cute videos, so I'm just on it to watch videos my friends send me. Lol. But if you want to follow me in case I ever figure it out, my user name is averyfan33 (because someone else had taken the handle of averyfan. RUDE).
To some people, my posting about The Chosen kind of came out of nowhere, so I want to give a little backstory on how I discovered it, why I waited so long to watch it, my reasons for watching the show, and then I'll eventually recap the episodes. Don't worry, it won't all be in THIS post. I figured if I started some kind of "post series" I would be more inclined to update the blog more. We shall see. So, let's get started!
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| Courtesy of The Chosen |
A quick summary for those of you who are like "What is The Chosen?" The Chosen is the first multi-season series about the life and ministry of Jesus Christ, told through the eyes of those who knew him. I know, some of you are going to stop reading here as soon as I mention it's a show about Jesus. You are saying "That's so Rachel" to talk about Jesus. I know, but stick with this post a little longer. Please. Don't make me beg. I spent a lot of time writing it.
Okay, THAT BEING SAID, the creator of the show, Dallas Jenkins, has stated MANY TIMES- this is NOT the Gospel word for word. This is NOT a replacement for Scripture. AND, they are NOT trying to ADD to Scripture. There are characters and accounts in this show that are NOT found in the Bible. At the end of the day, THIS IS A TV SHOW. Let me say it louder for those in the back.
THIS. IS. A. TV. SHOW.
They have made this abundantly clear from the beginning. They are just trying to bring these historical figures "to life" so they can be relatable to people today and encourage people to read the Gospels for themselves. Before the first episode, they even put up this disclaimer. **Side note: If anyone associated with The Chosen randomly finds this post, I hope it's okay that I use these images. I'll be sure to credit y'all.**
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| Courtesy of The Chosen |
Rachel, how did you discover The Chosen?
I'm so glad you asked. I'm going to be honest. I first started seeing ads for it pop up on social media in early 2020. Y'all remember 2020, right? The world was on fire and we were stuck inside, unable to appreciate getting out of our homes and living our lives? Just in case you forgot, I wanted to remind you. The ads starting popping up, and I kept scrolling (like I do with most ads on social media) so I wasn't even sure what it was originally. I eventually realized it was a show about Jesus. So hear me out. At first I was like, "no thank you." NOT THAT I DON'T LOVE JESUS, BECAUSE I DO. BUT, in my experience with watching faith-based movies/shows, they are usually, well, cheesy (sorry God). I've seen my fair share of Jesus movies (this comes with being a preacher's kid), and don't get me wrong, they have a good message and all, but they just ooze with, well...corniness. Jesus and the disciples are usually a group of white British guys speaking in old King James talk and just seem so one-dimensional. You can't relate to them at all. My other thought was if Hollywood was creating it, they would probably do something in the show that made me mad (because Jesus is rarely a priority in Hollywood), and I just didn't have time for that in 2020. Okay, I had a lot of time in 2020 because we weren't doing anything else, BUT I never have time for nonsense.
Y'all have great questions. To be fair, I had several friends mention The Chosen to me for over a year. Probably closer to a year and a half. And I gave my typical "Oh I'll add it to my list" answer that I give anytime a show/movie is recommended to me. Sometimes I plan to watch it, sometimes I just say that to move the conversation along. DON'T ACT LIKE YOU ARE BETTER THAN ME AND DON'T DO THE SAME THING. I was in a wedding in June of 2020 and received a DVD for season 1 of The Chosen in my groomsmaid* gift bag. I went home and put it on a shelf, with every intension of eventually watching it (no seriously, I was going to watch it at some point). And it sat there. For a year and a half.
Fast-forward to November of 2021. I was visiting my folks for the Thanksgiving holiday and my sister Martha came over one evening (she lives next door to them). She said that she and her husband had watched a show called The Chosen and we should check it out. I said I had heard of it but had never watched it. So that night I decided to spare my dad of having to watch another Hallmark movie (which is usually what my mom wants to watch), and I suggested we watch this "Jesus" show. At that time, we watched it on an app that I subscribe to called PureFlix (more about that app on another day). Quick side note: I found out weeks later that The Chosen has it's own FREE app where you can watch the show. Stay tuned to this post, I'll talk about that at the end.
I will shamefully admit that the first time I watched episode one, I wasn't paying super close attention. My A.D.D. took over and I was on my phone and looking up every so often at the TV (because I still wasn't convinced that it wasn't going to be cheesy). I'll get into episode one later on in another post, but I will say, the ending of episode one made me go, "oh, maybe this is going to be better than I thought." We ended up watching the first four episodes that night, and finished season one the next day (there are eight episodes in each season).
Rachel, you are borderline obsessed with this show, why do you keep watching it?
Whoa, hey now, "obsessed" is a strong word. The main reason I keep watching this show is simple- it's GOOD. It's not cheesy. There is even humor in it (because I would like to think that Jesus loved to laugh). The writing is superb and the production value is Hollywood quality (if not better). The acting is masterful (to quote my dad). Yes, 95% of the show is made up by the amazing writers BUT I don't take the episodes as Gospel truth and I don't watch the show in place of reading my Bible. It has made these historical figures I've been reading about my whole life even more real to me. Growing up, I have always thought of the disciples as being "old men". Mainly because that's usually how they are depicted in illustrations (I'm looking at you, Leonardo da Vinci). But in reality, the disciples were very young. Like in their twenties (maybe even teenagers). This series shows them as young men. And they aren't portrayed by a bunch of blonde-hair, blue-eyed actors either.
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| Courtesy of The Chosen. This is Simon (Peter) and his brother Andrew. |
Also, I've always thought of the disciples as just followers of Jesus (which they were), but I never thought about the lives they had BEFORE they met Jesus. The show gives these characters a back story. While the ones in the show might not be completely accurate, they make the storylines something that could be plausible. There are some disciples that all we get is a name in the Bible, nothing else about them. Now we get to think about who they might have been. We see what their relationships might have been like as well. They weren't perfect. I'm sure they argued and got on each other's nerves. And they probably didn't like each other at first. I will also sheepishly admit that before the show, I couldn't remember all 12 disciples. I knew the big ones- Matthew, Simon Peter, Andrew, James, John, and of course Judas Iscariot. But the others I was "iffy" on. Now I know all their names.
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| Courtesy of The Chosen |
I mentioned that The Chosen has a FREE app where you can watch all of season one and season two. Also right now it has the first five episodes of season three. This Sunday they will add episode six, and then later on episodes seven and eight will be added. They hope to start filming season four later this year. They plan to do seven seasons. Fun fact- they film most of the show outside of Dallas in a town called Midlothian. If you are interested in checking it out for yourself, go here. It will tell you how to download to your phone/Roku/Firestick/smart TV. Like I said, it's totally free. You don't even have to give them an email address if you don't want to. If you decide to watch it and want to discuss specific episodes with me, you know where to find me on social.
There are so many other things that I like about the show, but I'll have to divide those up over the other posts. This post has already gotten super long, and I don't even know if anyone is still reading. If you are, God bless you for sticking around. Much love.
*I know some of you probably saw "groomsmaid" and were like, what the heck? Well, when one of your guy friends gets married and wants you in his wedding, you get to be a groomsmaid. Basically, I was the only member of the groom's party wearing a dress. And I have to say, being in the groom's party is so much less stressful than being on the bride's side. I've been in 427 weddings (give or take) and being a bridesmaid/maid of honor can be SUPER stressful, especially the day of the wedding. On the groom's side, we were chilling in the groom's changing room, laughing and throwing back Dr Peppers for two before the wedding. I think I only want to be a groomsmaid moving forward. Lol.
Rachel
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