(REVIEW) The premiere of “The Chosen” Season Three showcases both the good and bad of the smash-hit series with few signs that either will change as the show continues.

The groundbreaking multi-season show about the life of Jesus, produced by Angel Studios and its now-famous showrunner Dallas Jenkins, is making headlines after its unorthodox premiere. The first two episodes premiered in theaters and made just over $8 million over the weekend. It ranked third in the domestic box office, behind “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” (itself a very religious movie) and the hyped, star-studded dark comedy “The Menu.” And in an equally huge coup for the show, the Season Three premiere secured a ringing endorsement by Paul Schrader, who die-hard film fans know is the celebrated screenwriter behind “Taxi Driver” and “Raging Bull” and the director of “First Reformed.” Well-known Christian cinephiles on Twitter understandably freaked out with joy at this news.

This continues the meteoric rise of “The Chosen” from a tiny crowd-funded Christian TV show to a global phenomenon and seemingly consistent mainstream box office and critical success. 

I’ve been reviewing and supporting the show since its first season, through its second, its box office smash theatrical Christmas special and its documentary on Generation Z. Every time I think “The Chosen” can’t get any bigger, it does. 

This season premiere played in approximately 2,000 theaters across the U.S. I attended the premiere at AMC Empire 25 theater in Times Square on Friday, Nov. 18, alongside other die-hard Chosen fans. They were as giddy as you could expect. They laughed and cried with abandon during the whole movie.

I would argue there is a simple reason for the series’ popularity: It portrays a Jesus who feels like Jesus to people and surrounds this Jesus with people the audience can relate to. This means that, when Jesus tells the characters in the story that he loves them, forgives them of their sins and will always protect them and guide them, they feel like the real Jesus is talking to them. 

These are the moments in the show where fellow moviegoers wept openly in the audience the loudest. The fact that something so simple and obvious is so revolutionary is both an indictment of previous creatives who have tried to make content about Jesus and a credit to the makers of “The Chosen.”

Season Three picks up with Jesus giving his famous Sermon on the Mount. The first two episodes deal directly with the response to those sermons: Jesus’ disciples try to apply what they’ve learned to their lives, growing numbers of people begin following Jesus, and Jesus’ enemies grow more concerned they’ll have to do something about him.

The cast, as usual, largely carries the show. Jonathan Roumie as Jesus is just delightful to watch no matter what he’s doing. Paras Patel definitively portrays Matthew as a lovable and complex autistic man. It’s so memorable that it will undoubtedly define how a generation of Christians imagine him, no matter what their pastors say. 

The first two episodes also contain some excellent emotional moments. Matthew is convicted to reconcile with his parents thanks to teaching from Jesus — and when Matthew’s father finally called him “Son,” there wasn’t a dry eye in the theater. 

The show offers a beautiful reminder of Peter and his wife Eden’s relationship so it can break our hearts over it at the end of the second episode. Little James’ confrontation of Jesus about his unhealed illness comes out of nowhere and is mostly the catalyst for a minisermon, but it largely works nonetheless. 

Heartwarming, tearjerker moments like this are the lifeblood of “The Chosen.” People watch “The Chosen” to cry over Jesus telling the characters — and by extension, themselves — how much they are loved. They want to restore their relationship with God and through that restore their relationship with others. 

The humor is even stronger in this season than it was in the last two, with a lot more jokes that land. The dialogue can often feel like a setup for a minisermon or a pithy theological point, but good humor breaks up that monotony.

Unfortunately, there’s a lot of monotony to break up. 

When “The Chosen” isn’t concerned with making its audience cry, it has a remarkably frustrating ability to make scenes as dull as humanly possible. When Jesus sends out the disciplines to cast out demons and heal the sick, it feels more like a weekly board meeting than one of the coolest moments in all of human history. The romance between Thomas and Ramah completely lacks chemistry, and worse, it’s clear that the women’s scenes were written by men. They expect us to believe that the girls never talked about her feelings for Thomas before their sudden relevance? People talk at length about making olive oil and getting to know new employees’ family lives long before the story explains to us why we should care.

These are particularly frustrating at the beginning of each season. Each season of “The Chosen” ends with a “hype” moment: the disciples stride down the hill to the song “Trouble” at the end of Season One, and Jesus prepares to preach his big sermon at the end of Season Two. Each intentionally riles up the audience to encourage excitement for the next season — Jesus and His disciples are going to take on the world! 

But each time, the momentum comes to a screeching halt. This potential excitement is squashed by the disciples complaining about their boredom or about their dad’s new olive oil press.

These moments feel dull, particularly because they often take place outside of a clear narrative arc. The first season was so compelling because the overarching story of Jesus slowly revealing himself to more people provided direction and focus. The show has since abandoned that overarching focus and is weaker because of it. 

For example, Jesus could have commissioned the disciples directly after the opening sermon. Instead, instead, Jesus sends them on their way until he meets them again at a time he doesn’t tell them for a purpose he doesn’t tell them. As a result, the following scenes are mostly slow and meandering as opposed to direct and meaningful. 

It’s also become clear this season that “The Chosen” has failed Peter more than any other character. His arc has been built up as one of the main characters, teaching Jesus’ transformation of an unlikely leader to the rock upon which he builds his church. 

After two seasons of Jesus doing nothing to mentor Peter beyond telling him to wait and be patient whenever Peter asks what he can do, Jesus suddenly thrusts Peter into a position of leadership. This makes Peter’s position feel unearned, and it wastes an opportunity to portray what giving and receiving godly male mentorship looks like. 

This failure to portray Jesus’ mentorship of Peter vividly is particularly a missed opportunity in an era when men are leaving the church in droves for non-Christian online male mentors like Jordan Peterson, Andrew Tate and Joe Rogan, who offer a reliable and fulfilling roadmap for life better than what churches have to offer. 

As much as I enjoy the way “The Chosen” portrays Jesus, I haven’t found in him a model of a man who inspires me to be like him or answers the questions I’m struggling with. Frankly, my heart was stirred more deeply by Jordan Peterson’s “Message to the Christian Churches” than I have the messages of Jesus in “The Chosen.”

This doesn’t apply to all men — but the wider the influence of “The Chosen” is, the more profound that loss will be.

That said, despite its flaws, the show’s downloads and box office figures don’t lie. There is a deep need for the Jesus that is being presented in “The Chosen,” and that need being met makes the world a better place. So while I might grumble, I continue to cheer it on.

The two-episode season premiere of “The Chosen” is playing in theaters now. Seasons One and Two are available to stream on The Chosen App. Season One is available to watch on Netflix.

Joseph Holmes is an award-nominated filmmaker and culture critic living in New York City. He is co-host of the podcast “The Overthinkers” and its companion website theoverthinkersjournal.com, where he discusses art, culture and faith with his fellow overthinkers.