CliqueClackCrackle’s Chosen is a web series worthy of your time
Milo Ventimiglia of ‘Heroes’ fame is back in a new web series from Crackle, entitled ‘Chosen’ — a short series of webisodes that’s extremely well-produced and acted, starting off very strong but ending on a rather cliche note.
I was a quasi-fan of NBC’s Heroes for its first season, but for me it quickly went downhill and into territory I just didn’t care for … but I digress. The reason I’m bringing Heroes up at all is because of Milo Ventimiglia, who you may know or remember starred in Heroes as Peter Petrelli, one of the primary characters of the series. What I found while watching Chosen was that I almsot didn’t recognize the guy. Gone (just about) was Milo’s usual Sly Stallone-like lower-lip curl, and he’s noticeably older looking — though that could just be due to the role he played, that of a young defense attorney. But Milo owned this role, and it fit him perfectly.
The series consists of six 15-minute webisodes, making up what Crackle considers a “season” of the series. Then again, whether we’re meant to see more remains to be seen. As a whole, the series could be chained together to make a very worthy effort as a feature film, as it taked place within a very short time period and consists of pretty much non-stop action throughout. Ventimiglia stars as Ian Mitchell, who one day finds an odd delivery at his door: a wooden box with his name on it, containing a gun, a photo of a man, and some odd clockwork that starts ticking away as soon as the box is opened. The photo, as it turns out, is of a doctor (played by Diedrich Bader, formerly of The Drew Carey Show), who Ian must kill or else find his whole world turned upside down.
The series starts out strong, pulling you into the action quickly. There’s actually some sense made of how the main character is able to figure out more about the box’s contents, and what he does to try to get himself out of the strange contract. I was fortunate enough to have all six episodes ahead of time and found myself unable to simply stop watching them until I’d gone through them all. The weakest point in the series came in its conclusion, which was both predictable and cliche, as well as cliffhanger-y, if you consider this one season of many.
All in all, this one’s worth your time to sit through. For a web series — hell, even for a non-web series — it’s well produced, well acted and very engaging. It’s especially nice that we get a show that has a complete season — one that could equally end or continue from its final episode — and not see a lack of some sort of pick-up or renewal leave us all hanging. I, for one, would love to see more of this caliber of programming come out of the web … or anywhere, for that matter.
Check out Crackle’s Chosen debut some time today.
4 Comments on “Crackle’s Chosen is a web series worthy of your time”
Yes! Great series. I was miffed by the ending expecting more episodes but what a great effort all around. No cheesy “Sci-Fi channel” level effects here. Great acting.
I want to see more!!!!
I have watched the Crackle version of this thriller more than once. I find myself returning all the time to see if and when they will roll out more. Everyone I know is waiting on the next version. Unless of course it’s supposed to end the way it did. That would be disappointing.
Funny you should ask! This just came through today:
CRACKLE GREENLIGHTS SEASON TWO OF HIT ORIGNAL SERIES ‘CHOSEN’
CULVER CITY, Calif. (March 25, 2013) – Crackle, the multi-platform entertainment network, today announced that it has greenlit a second season of its hit original series, the thriller “Chosen.”
Packed with non-stop action and shocking plot twists all six, half-hour episodes of “Chosen” launched on Crackle and across all Crackle applications on January 17, 2013, and will remain available through mid-May 2013.
The first season, executive produced by Milo Ventimiglia and series creators Ben Ketai (30 DAYS OF NIGHT: DARK DAYS) and Ryan Lewis (HIGH SCHOOL, FAT KID RULES THE WORLD), stars Ventimiglia as a husband, father and lawyer who awakens one morning to discover a mysterious box on his doorstep containing a loaded gun and a photo of a stranger he is instructed to kill within the next three days. Ketai also wrote and directed the series.
“‘Chosen’ confirms our belief that there is a strong appetite for compelling, high-quality original series in the digital space,” said Eric Berger, Executive Vice President, Digital Networks for Sony Pictures Television. “Whether it was online, on mobile or through a connected TV device, our audience spent a significant amount of time with the show, following it through to its conclusion. We are excited to announce that we are moving forward with a second season.”
The first season of “Chosen” registered 2.4 million streams in less than 10 weeks, ahead of projections, and was spread across a variety of devices: 48% online, 36% on Connected TV devices and 16% on mobile and tablet devices. Half of the viewers who watched the first episode watched all six, and per user time spent watching the program averaged 45 minutes and went as high as 75 minutes per session on Xbox. For the pre roll video, Crackle saw an astonishing 98.6 percent completion rate of the ads. Crackle is ad supported and totally free to consumers across all platforms and in 23 countries.
The second season of “Chosen” will begin production in summer 2013.