has reviewed The Unchosen, the new Netflix drama, and landed its verdict bluntly: "It’s got amazing names attached, from Christopher Eccleston to Siobhan Finneran – but the new Netflix drama starts off workmanlike then goes downhill."
Christopher Eccleston appears in the cast as Mr Phillips, the leader of a Christian splinter sect called the Fellowship of the Divine. The reviewer highlights the prominence of names attached to the project even as the episode-by-episode momentum falters.
The series centres on a sect that keeps itself separate from what the reviewer describes as "every modern world full of “the unchosen”." The Fellowship of the Divine permits only limited technology — landline phones and electric kettles are allowed — while other modern devices are forbidden. That separation frames a series of incidents the review recounts in detail.
A thunderstorm breaks over the group during a picnic and sets the plot in motion. Grace, a deaf child in the community, mistakes the thunder for the Rapture and runs off to hide in the woods. Rosie finds Grace drowning in a pond or small lake and a handsome stranger saves her; when he later comes to Rosie’s door he says his name is Sam.
The review traces the social ruptures that follow. Isaac, Rosie’s brother-in-law and a character played by Aston McAuley, uses a smartphone to call an ambulance for Grace. Adam, Rosie’s husband and a character played by Asa Butterfield, publicly denounces his brother for owning what the reviewer characterises as a "pipeline" — specifically denouncing Isaac for owning "a pipeline to pornography." As a result, Isaac is shunned and locked in a bedroom.
The sect’s strictures have immediate consequences. While Isaac is shunned, Hannah goes into labour and the series records her giving birth to child number 72. The review notes that the social order rewards Adam’s severity: "Bad Adam is rewarded by being made an Elder," the reviewer says, underlining how the community’s enforcement mechanisms reshuffle power.
Siobhan Finneran is also in the cast, the reviewer notes, adding another high-profile name to a show that the reviewer nevertheless finds uneven. ’s piece leans on imagery and charged phrases — at one point the reviewer even writes, "I jest!" and elsewhere accuses the series of framing modern life as transmitting "pipelines of pornography and sewage to our souls."
Context in the review is straightforward: The Unchosen is set in a cult, the Fellowship of the Divine, and it uses a familiar cult-thriller setup rather than attempting to break new ground. The reviewer treats the show as notable for its cast and for the moral claustrophobia of its world, but ultimately as derivative in tone and execution.
The tension the review foregrounds is the gap between talent and outcome. Eccleston’s Mr Phillips anchors the show’s centre, and the presence of actors such as Siobhan Finneran, Asa Butterfield and Aston McAuley raises expectations, yet the reviewer argues the drama slides from workmanlike to disappointing as it proceeds.
In short: despite marquee casting and a plot that leans into memorable incidents — a thunderstorm, a near-drowning, a smartphone call that shatters community order, and the birth of child number 72 — The Unchosen does not, according to review, transcend familiar genre mechanics. The reviewer’s judgement is clear and final: the series starts with promise but "goes downhill."
