O Escolhido

B4 I start a review let me say there are so many reviews that are I guess U.S.centric and I'm American. They need to come here abd learn how to make a thriller blah blah. From the same voices of U.S. shows that lament adnauseum about pc this pc that woke etc,hmm ok.But then this show gets bad reviews not going in hardly any of these directions plus it has a rather unique premise. A Chosen man, a healer in a land where Doctors are trying to at first bring vaccines for a mutated more fatal zika virus. But oh boy that's just the beginning. The acting is very good, the story is original and the setting is great. Season one is good and season two is even more interesting Binge when you can and enjoy this unique series. Netflix out did themselves.

It's easy to simply point some of the series mistakes but I think it's important to analyse the production context. Brazil is famous for its soap operas which has been producing in the country for decades. For most actors and producers, being part of these novelas (specially the ones from Rede Globo) represented a turning point for their career. The thing is although the country is famous for making good soap operas, it's a format with certain artistic limitations. Nowadays premium cable companies like HBO and streaming services like Netflix are investing in new series formats in the country and bringing the opportunity to Brazilian creatives to explore some new genres that are not common in the country's filmography. The Chosen One as a mystery fantasy thriller series is an addition to this new phase. Some of the acting still bring a novela feeling but it's nice to see a fiction production set outside the Rio-São Paulo axis. There's certainly other points to improve in the series overall which would be interesting to see in a second season.

This was an amateurish attempt from beginning to end. Actors didn't know how to play their pats, dialog was questionable and the story made little, if any, sense. The worst of the bunch was the female doctor. She smiled when she should have been looking serious and so on. Only reason I watched it to the bitter end was that it was less that 6 hours long. Next time though I turn it off immediately. NFLX needs to send a crew to Brazil and teach these guys how to make movies. In more expert hands this probably could have been a decent effort.

The lead character is incredibly annoying. The entire first episode is her telling everyone else how stupid everyone else is and that everyone regardless of knowing the situation must defer to her. Now on its own that's fine but time and time again she and her views on the people and village are continually shown to be wrong. She is the only thing that will stop me from watching. I get she's a doctor and the savior complex is inbred in most television doctors but the level of her superiority to everyone else continues even after everything she thinks is disproved she continues. But the worst of it is she is held in a building with a potential mob death she still gives the people holding her orders insisting she is still in charge. I know this is a tv show and she's a character in the show but I can't stand this show with her in it.

Premise: strong female lead character (a doctor) thinks she knows better than anyone else. Doesn't listen to her colleagues and inevitably brings chaos to a small commune.

But

It's actually quite entertaining. The acting is good. The setting, camera work, dialogue is good. They throw in a few characters that you instantly dislike. There's a few subplots going on that hold your interest and finally it shows up the fragility of the human condition even in remote spots that don't get visitors and how everything falls apart when strangers turn up. Binge watch season 2 next.