The Chosen (2026) s6e01

Like pretty much every other Bible-related writer / content creator on the planet tonight, I'm writing about the opening episode of the new series of The Chosen. Unlike many of them I haven't had the chance to view the episode before tonight, and I've only watched it once. Nevertheless, I thought I would try and get something down for it and hope, against all probability, that I can find something to say that no-one else is saying. And I'm not going to go into too much detail or else this thing will never get written!

Disciples and Followers

Since the last series ended I've read many people anxiously wondering if this season was going to be a prolonged agony-fest, which took a similar approach to The Passion of the Christ. My feeling has been that this was unlikely. As much as this is a show about Jesus, really it's a show about his first followers. Not infrequently has Jesus' screen-time been relatively minimal in an episode. Dallas Jenkins has said before how he takes a similar approach to The West Wing such that Jesus is not the main character. So I imagined this would also be true of this season.

Judging by this episode I was right about that. Jesus appears, but his screen-time is probably less than 10 minutes. Instead this episode focuses mainly on the disciples' reaction to Jesus' arrest.

The Chosen is taking us into relatively uncharted territory here. In almost every one of the two hundred plus adaptations of this story that I have watched, once Jesus is arrested, the focus is either on him, or on one of the authorities who will "deal" with him. There are a handful of Mary films, such as Mary, the Mother of Jesus (1999) which follow her rather than her son throughout, and which keep this up. And some Jesus productions, give a small amount of focus to the disciples. The scene of Peter crying after denying Jesus in Jesus of Nazareth has stayed with me since I watched it in childhood.

So this is The Chosen taking advantage of its long running time to bring us something new. I have to say I think it does it rather well. Peter and John head off to keep tabs on the arresting party (including Judas). Meanwhile, the other nine stand around and argue about what they should do. There are some very human reactions here and we get almost as many ideas about what they should do as there are disciples themselves. Some want revenge. Some want to follow. Others want to hide.

In the end Matthew, so often marginalised by the group in the past, quietly, persistently and (eventually) forcefully wins the others over. Jesus told them to reflect on his teachings and so that is what they should do. The moment that came closest to bringing a tear to my eye was when he said he was repeating Jesus' words in spite of how he felt, not because of it. The remaining group go back to Mary, Martha and Lazarus' house where the women followers and a few others are staying. 

Sanhedrin

Despite the disciples being the main focus in this episode, it actually opens with Nicodemus storming into the Sanhedrin meeting. I've been nervous as to how these scenes would play out in this series, and remain so, given how the depiction of these scenes (about which we know so little) can contribute to antisemitism.

The pre-credits scene here is really just a continuation of the Sanhedrin scenes from the previous series. I don't want to go over the same ground I've touched on before about some of the issues I have with the portrayal of the Sanhedrin (while it also does some good things such as showing the different varieties of Judaism that were practised at the time), so I'll just focus on what's new in this episode. The most striking thing, I think, is the basis of Nicodemus's objection, that in gathering for this trial, they are not complying with their own rules for doing so, and that this is in contrast to almost every time they have ever handled a case like this.

How this is interpreted could go both ways, I guess. One could ask why the Sanhedrin hates Jesus so much they are prepared to break their procedure and why none of them (aside from the almost-followers Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea) object to these violations. But on the other hand I think extolling the long tradition of doing these things correctly portrays the Sanhedrin as a rational body that is generally pretty scrupulous (in a good way) about its own rules. Motives aren't particularly impugned here (aside, perhaps, from Caiaphas).

Also, thanks to Nicodemus' objections the body does disperse. This is interesting, because it may be going to suggest that everything that is put down as being his "Jewish trial" is really just a Caiaphas-convened kangaroo court. I'm also curious to see if having the Sanhedrin disperse like this is really a sly way to harmonise the different accounts in the four Gospels.

So I'm still braced for potentially more problems down the line, but The Chosen's greatly increased screen-time does move us into new territory with its portrayal of Jesus' Jewish opponents, so we will see.

Angels

One of the elements of this show that grabbed a fair bit of the pre-publicity was the decision to include angels in this series, starting with this episode. Indeed in the after-show discussion of this first episode questions about the angels was the first thing he dealt with. He was at pains to stress that the biblical descriptions of angels are not consistent, which gave them a good deal of artistic licence.

Personally, I do find it a little odd to just introduce them now, especially as they look as they are going to hang back and have little to actually do, but (again) we will see how this pans out.

In terms of the actual portrayal (see above image), the most striking thing about them is that they are silvery-grey humanoids, carrying weapons, wearing what might be described as battle gear and not conforming to the series' general casting of people who look like the majority of people living in that region today. They're not dressed in white; they don't glow, although they have a sort of silvery sheen; and they don't have wings, though they can sort of glide in the air and run up vertical walls.

For me they are most reminiscent of the angels from another 21st century evangelically driven TV-series, The Bible (2013) where the angels were used to ramp up the show's violence, often in quite extreme ways.

Roumie's Weight Loss

During the last few seasons, I noticed how Jesus, in contrast to the ripped figure of Peter, was carrying a little more weight that screen Jesuses tend to. Aside from the BBC's excellent filmed play Son of Man (1969) Jesus appears on the cross as very slim, often with fantastic abs. So I was interested to read in this Yahoo article, that actor Jonathan Roumie lost 25 pounds to prepare for this season. Another washboard-stomached saviour awaits us.

While this kind of thing really doesn't matter across seasons, I'm curious to know how the continuity department feels about it. I suppose they could try the explanation that as well as sweating blood, Jesus' experience in Gethsemane may also have triggered some kind of extreme weight-loss?