Chosen is an atmospheric and mysterious sci-fi series from Denmark. It deals with a group of teens who try to figure out what happened in their town 17 years ago. The series is on Netflix.
Chosen is not the best series to come out of Denmark in recent years. It’s interesting and watchable, but tries so hard to be mysterious that much of it is left unexplained. There are careless holes in the plot as well.
The lead character, Emma (Malaika Mosendane), is a 17 year old person of color in a town full of white Danes. Her mother (Line Kruse) is white as well. She works at a tourist place where they tell visitors about the meteor that made the huge hole near their town. When a visitor breaks the meteor and Emma realizes it was merely glass, she tries to expose the lie. It gets her fired.
Her big mouth talking about the fake meteor bring her to the attention of some spooky people.
She comes to the attention of a group of teens who are working on the idea that it wasn’t a meteor but a spaceship that landed there. They have all sorts of questions for her and it leads her into the majority of the story. She tries to help them find proof to support their theory.
The brains (or at least he thinks he’s the brains) in this group of teens is Mads (Albert Rudbeck Lindhardt). He thinks he knows what’s happening, but he’s only partly right.
Marie (Andrea Heick Gadeberg) and Frederik (Andreas Dittmer) both quickly develop crushes on Emma. That’s how we learn Emma is bisexual, because she has sex with both Marie and Frederik. She ranges throughout the area with these two at various times, looking for answers. There are many empty industrial buildings and a sawmill to explore that add danger and mystery to their quest.
Part of the mystery in this series is the implication that 17 year old Emma is somehow connected to the landing of a spaceship 17 years ago. Her interactions with her teacher, her doctor, and her mother suggest there’s something different about her.
A strange man, Lukas (Anders Heinrichsen), claims to be an alien. He befriends Emma and convinces her that the world is in danger from some unearthly threat and he is there to stop it. But other people are after Emma, creating some of the dangerous feel in the series.
I thought Malaika Mosendane did a fine job as the lead character. There isn’t a lot of information about her, but she’s active on Instagram.
The creators of the series must hope for a second season, because this one ends feeling unfinished. We do learn some truths about Emma, but what that means is unexplored.