Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		0.0
Overall		3.5

The Chosen: Season Three Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Martin Liebman July 23, 2023

Early in season three of the hit TV show The Chosen, Jesus says that to be His disciple means to have a heart to "seek to be like Me." That is The Chosen, in a nutshell. Creator Dallas Jenkins' smash hit show continues to build the story of Jesus and His twelve disciples, exploring His biblical teachings and healings while adding faithfully extrapolated color to the proceedings. As with seasons one and two, season three furthers the story beyond the pages of the Bible, but it fills in the story by reading between the lines and never outside the lines. Season three hits several of the highlights from the gospels, including a culminating season finale that reproduces one of the great moments in the Bible in visually and emotionally riveting realization and detail.

Season three begins where season two ended, with Jesus delivering the Sermon on the Mount. The season moves from there through much of His ministry of teaching, healing the deaf, mute, blind, and otherwise infirmed, and dressing down the hypocritical and spiritually wayward Pharisees who become more brazen in their attacks against Jesus. One of the primary propellants for that attack comes when Jesus reads from the scroll of Isaiah and claims Himself to be the fulfillment of Messianic prophecy. He announces His true mission of salvation and a word of warning to His fellow Jews, much to the disbelief and displeasure of both the Pharisee who was his instructor in school and many of the other religious leaders of the day hearing his words. The story continues with Jesus healing many and raising Jairus' daughter from the dead (in a wonderful two-part episode that also follows the woman with a bleeding disorder whom He also heals), sending the disciples out two-by-two, Jesus' ministry in the Decapolis, and culminating with Jesus calming the stormy sea and Peter walking on the water.

The Sermon on the Mount drives much of the season as the disciples begin to truly piece together Jesus' divinity, put His teachings into practice, and go themselves to preach the good news. Much of the season follows Simon (Peter) and the sacrifices he is making on the homefront, culminating in one of the most remarkable stories in the Bible when he demonstrates enough faith in Jesus to walk on the water in a stormy sea. Though much of the drama leading to the moment is manufactured -- i.e. not sourced directly from scripture -- the show continues to breathe life "between the lines" by providing its own take on framework for, primarily, the sake of television dramatization but also for making the purpose behind the stories a little clearer. That has always been the rub with the show. Is it “right” not to reinterpret scripture -- that the show does not do -- but rather to fill in some of the blanks? Not that there are “blanks,” per se, but obviously the real history behind the gospels played out with more than what is found in the written Word. Is it blasphemy? Theologians disagree, but audiences are certainly flocking to the show in droves with no end in sight.

The season is technically very well made. The show veers away from digital inserts, for example recruiting thousands of real extras for a key sequence and building a fully believable world of two millennia past. The cast camaraderie is special and, beyond the on-screen excellence is the story's wonderful realization of various biblical stories. While there are several interspersed throughout the season, the Sermon on the Mount, the story of Jairus and the woman with the bleeding disorder, and the combination of the Decapolis and the stormy sea dominate the eight episode run. The season moves at a wonderful pace and interconnects a number of story threads with grace and purpose.

The Chosen: Season Three Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Like its season one and two predecessors, there are a couple of troubling issues with the 1080p Blu-ray presentation of The Chosen, but reduced here. The flagrant banding and macroblocking which were seen on previous seasons is still here, but not in quite the density and regularity as seen in previous issues. While there are moments of extreme compression artifacts visible across backgrounds, especially in lower light, such seem reduced in frequency here. The image seems to handle compression better (and it should with eight episodes, no extras, and lossy audio spread across three discs) and the result is a much more consistently pleasing image in the aggregate. The picture is very film-like, boasting excellent stability in the foreground and a tangibly sharp and accurate presentation that brings tremendous life to dense facial hair, complex skin detail, the roughhewn period attire, and the stone and wood structures that are one of two dominant settings and backgrounds throughout the show. The other dominant setting is exterior locales where tall weeds, grasses, sand, and rocks present with impressive clarity and structural stability. Color output is excellent. Interiors are necessarily low light -- candles and natural sunlight, not electric lights or bright and vivid paints, are the primary feature -- but still handle select colors very well, while low light and nighttime interior shadow details likewise satisfy in most places. Black crush is rarely an issue, and pale blacks are likewise rarely an issue. Outside, there is much more opportunity for vivid color splash on clothes and natural greens. The black robes the Pharisees wear are also deep and pure. Skin tones looks healthy and realistic. This is a very good overall image.

The Chosen: Season Three Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The included Dolby Digital 5.1 lossy soundtrack suitably, and oftentimes admirably, handles the show's sonic needs. Much of those needs are defined by various levels of crowd din and local flavor sound elements. Packed throngs of crowds surrounding Jesus, such as when he goes to heal Jairus' daughter and along the way encounters the woman with the bleeding disorder, offer excellent spatial awareness and immersion with excellent clarity and a lifelike sense of audio transparency, admirable for a lossy presentation. Lighter din in support of quieter dialogue scenes is also nicely immersive and realistically detailed. Certainly, a lossless option, not to mention more channels at its disposal, would have only amplified the impact of such elements, but the net impact is just fine. The season finale offers some robust audio cues that push the soundtrack to its limits for engagement, immersion, and detail in chaotic, stormy weather. Musical engagement satisfies with fine volume and good yield, especially along the front but also considering some modest surround implementation. The opening title music is nicely defined and well spaced. Dialogue is the main sonic driver here, though, and it presents with excellent front-centered position, fine prioritization even amidst those large crowd shots and scenes, and plays with excellent, lifelike clarity with every syllable.

The Chosen: Season Three Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

This Blu-ray release of The Chosen: Season Three contains no supplements on any of the three Blu-ray discs. The packaging does advertise supplements available on The Chosen app. No DVD or digital copies are included with purchase. This release does not ship with a slipcover.

The Chosen: Season Three Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The Chosen continues to push forward through the story of Jesus and His disciples with a sense of realism that holds to biblical truths while also coloring in some of the details that are not present in the Bible. That is the chief dispute behind the show -- adding additional, extra-biblical content -- and one of the driving factors that propel the detractors. However, it's also one of the qualities that are drawing people to the show. It would be nice to see a cut of the show that is strictly the scenes presenting the biblical accounts rather than the biblical accounts mixed with the constructed content: something for The Chosen to consider at the show's end of run. Still, it's an engaging foray into the world of 2,000 years ago, holding to a faithful biblical core while also exploring contextual possibilities for the days of Jesus' life not recorded in the Word of God. Season three's Blu-ray is sadly featureless, but the video and audio qualities are very good. Very highly recommended!