Drawing on modern TV classics and and establishing a suite of psychologically compelling characters is The Chosen: Last Supper – streaming on Prime Video. Digging into the details, it creates an intimate, personal, and human portrait of Jesus, says Amelia Berry.
They call it “the greatest story ever told” for a reason. There, between the prophecies and the epistles, the tale of the life and death of Jesus can be a truly ripping yarn.
Of course, it’s already been adapted in basically every form you could possibly imagine—as well as some I bet you can’t. In film alone, there’s The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965) with the legendary Max von Sydow, Andrew Lloyd Webber’s campy psych-lite musical Jesus Christ Superstar (1973), Mel Gibson’s grim-dark Passion of the Christ (2004), Scorsese’s leftfield and philosophical Last Temptation of Christ (1988), and etc. etc. etc.
Every Jesus movie says something about the time and place it was made in—the kind of saviour people are interested in elevating, or humanising, or complicating, or glorifying. Now, in the age of big budget, long form streaming TV, we’ve been delivered an appropriately opulent new vision of the carpenter from Nazareth in The Chosen.
Beginning life as a crowdfunding project from writer/director Dallas Jenkins, The Chosen has quickly become a phenomenon. As its fifth season recently premiered in cinemas, it brought the total box office gross for the series up to $140 million. An absolutely astonishing feat, particularly for a series.
“I think it’s pretty extraordinary for a TV show,” Jenkins told People Magazine. “It is just really cool to see a television show, especially a first century historical drama, get recognised in popular culture as something that is worth seeing on its own merits, not just as a niche Jesus project that churchgoers can appreciate on a weekend.”
And The Chosen does work hard to appeal to as broad an audience as possible—not just believers and non-believers—but going so far as to employ consultants from a number of different faith backgrounds. The result is an explicitly binge-able vision of Jesus’ story.
The key to this wide appeal is in putting story first, and strict biblical literalism second. Drawing from modern classics of television like The Wire and Game of Thrones, The Chosen’s writers heavily embellish the lives of Jesus’ apostles and other followers, building up a suite of psychologically compelling characters who can reinforce the core themes of Jesus’ story.
Where a lot of historical epics can come across as sweeping and impersonal, The Chosen digs down into the details, creating an intimate, personal, and human portrait of Jesus—but without the angsty, existential pondering that so often comes with more down-to-earth versions of Jesus.
The production also goes to great lengths to transform modern day Texas into first century Judea. As Jesus enters Jerusalem in the show’s fifth season, the sets are impressively massive and lived-in, populated with hundreds of extras. The creators also make a point of accuracy in their casting. “We’re not trying to get big stars, and we’re not trying to get white people” Jenkins told the Chicago Sun Times, “this is a show that’s set in the Middle East, and we want to accurately reflect that.”
For season five, the action is really heating up. Centred around Christ’s ominous foretellings at the last supper, we cut between the tense atmosphere of Jesus’ final Passover meal and several weeks earlier as he arrives in Jerusalem. One minute, it’s all palm fronds, hosana, and joyous celebration. The next, the high priest Caiaphas is chatting with Pontias Pilate about how best to deal with this trouble-making preacher who seems to have raised a man from the dead.
It’s a chapter with some of the most memorable stories in all the Gospels, including Jesus taking his whip into the temple to drive out the merchants and money-changers and Judas betraying Jesus with a kiss in the garden of Gethsemane.
It makes for some deep drama, and actor Jonathan Roumie’s charismatic and mysterious Jesus Christ handles it with aplomb—moving convincingly from the wry, friendly teacher, to the commanding and apocalyptic preacher, to the tortured and wild-eyed mystic.
Of course, there’s plenty happening on the sidelines. Shahar Isaac as Peter looks (and is sometimes dressed!) like a young John Stamos—and this season he’s decided to try his hand at preaching himself. He’s terrible. This isn’t helped by Matthew (of Gospel writing fame) pointing out that actually, he’s already written down all the stuff people need to know anyway.
Meanwhile, a very arch Pontius Pilate (Andrew James Allen) is eating shellfish with an evil glee and trying to get away with calling Caiaphas ‘Joe’. And for those of us less familiar with the ins and outs of the ancient Mediterranean, the creators have added a tag along gang of clueless gentiles to ask questions like “what’s passover?”, “why are they changing money in the temple?”, and “what does hosana mean?”.
So, while we may be approaching the grim climax of Jesus’ story, Jenkins says that they haven’t changed their approach for season five.
“We’re still focusing on the intimate, the personal, the organic, the authentic relationships,” he told People, “It’s just on a much bigger scale now because we’re in Jerusalem and a million people are all gathered, all [Jesus’] enemies, all his friends are all gathered along with the religious leaders and the Roman occupiers in one place in the course of one week.”
So, whether you’re a true believer looking for some inspirational material about the Son of Man, or you’re just a fan of rollicking adventure, shocking intrigue, and historical drama—then let me introduce you to a friend of mine. He’s a humble man. A carpenter who loves his mother and his twelve best friends. He brings a message of hope. And he’s starring in The Chosen, out now on Prime Video.
