Chozen

Hilarious. I don't think they advertise this show enough, but the plot and episodes so far have been too funny! I hope it doesn't get canceled and it gets more exposure!

It's basically a story about an up and coming rapper (if you want to call him that)who gets out of jail after his friend sets him up with drugs. While in jail, the friend blows up to be this big time rapper and leaves Chozen in jail to take the wrap. When Chozen gets out his plan is to take Phantasm (his ex-friend) and become the next new hot rapper on the scene. Oh and while in jail Chozen becomes a homosexual, so he is a 'Hardcore Gay Rapper'! Like I said....Hilarious!

So many people hated this show. I wish people gave it a chance. There are many reasons why the show flopped. I'll give my review and maybe it will answer a few things. First- I love gay subculture, specially the bear culture. So having an animated show about a gay bear was awesome! Then, I don't mind Rap- but not immersed too much into the lingo at all or even recent people. Hey I listened to Eminem and Insane Clown Posse- what do I know about Rap and Hip-hop? Nothing. So maybe I'm coming from the demographic this show is meant to be for- Gay people who sort of like rap. I have no clue. I loved this show the first time it aired. However I knew a few of the jokes they where trying way too hard. The animation was hot- damn they made Chozen sexy as hell. I can see that it was meant to be a satire on rap/ hip-hop culture by using a WHITE, GAY, maybe even Jewish/Italian guy doing rap. The show was trying too hard to be offensive in some parts- but it really did have a heart. Somewhere, it had a nice message but it never got time to really truly develop it's characters and when it just got good. Bam, cancelled. I personally give this show 8 out of 10 because of it's effort. Sometimes it hits the mark... other times it doesn't. But I loved it!

Every episode is great - it's funny as hell,quite brave in its premise, characters are very wisely mixed, unlikely collaborations abound, and it's full of very useful psychological insights and lessons to learn and apply to life. It's the best metaphor I have ever seen on TV: how to understand complexities of life in the US today, how to not take it too seriously,and to have balls to face anything and to resolve problems through courage, being honest to yourself, and with help from very unlikely collaborators.Everyone I ever showed this to (gay or straight) loved it and they laughed more than I have ever seen them laugh - it's brilliant!

Chozen was a pretty excellent show! Don't get me wrong, there was room for some improvements, but in general it was on point. Being a gay rapper myself, who did 5yrs out of a 7yr period in prison in Texas, as well as growing up in a hyper masculine Hispanic culture from San Antonio, I can speak from experience that this show was almost perfect. My partner, who's a white gentleman in his 50s, used to joke with me and say that Chozen was just basically me in a cartoon. Dat Boy Beast on SoundCloud if you want to see for yourself. 😝

Anywho, it's very unfortunate the show got cancelled. Kudos to the writers.

I had very high expectations for this show given that it comes from the creators of Archer (which I love) and Eastbound & Down. Unfortunately the flow of the show is very uneven. The production value of the songs is actually very good (Method Man is quite talented), but the storyline presentation and characters fall flat and becomes somewhat boring in places. But what turns me off most of all is the voice work. ChoZen's voice literally began to give me a headache to the point where I almost flipped channels. And someone please explain to me why a great actor like Michael Pena has such an excessive "accent" to his voice. It also becomes very annoying. I realize his character is Hispanic, but he should use his normal speaking voice. It has enough of the Latino accent to make the character work well. They should have ChoZen speak normally in general and play up the rapper voice only when talking to fans, or something along that line. In an animated series the voice work is EVERYTHING. That is one of the reasons Archer works so well because Jon Benjamin is a genius with excellent comedic inflection and timing. I gave it a 5 because of the songs quality (particularly the one at the Student center) and for the shining star that is Danny McBride. His character has the potential to become a Principal Lewis or Krieger. Much potential here to be sure; this could become a hip-hop version of Metalocalypse, but quite a few things need to change.