Get all your news in one place.
100's of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Entertainment
Lucy Mangan

The Chosen in the Wild with Bear Grylls review – in a world of toxic masculinity, this feels radical at points

Luke Simyan skydives on The Chosen in the Wild with Bear Grylls
‘I thought I was going to die!’ Luke Simyan goes skydiving. Photograph: Amazon MGM Studios

Judas Iscariot is so nice! That’s a surprise. Just goes to show – you betray ONE messiah, the scroll-media gets to work and people forget everything else.

I’m joshing, of course. I’m having a little religious joke because The Chosen in the Wild with Bear Grylls has put me in such a good mood. The Judas Iscariot in question is actually Luke Dimyan, the actor who plays him in The Chosen: the multi-season series about the life, death and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth. The Chosen is a venture by evangelical Christian film-maker Dallas Jenkins that began as a crowdfunded project in 2017 and is now watched by an estimated 280 million people worldwide. Bear Grylls is a fan and a Christian – what could be more natural than him taking members of the cast for survivalist adventures in the Utah desert, to talk to them about faith in between ziplining across chasms, filtering water through socks and rappelling down cliffs?

Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100's of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
One subscription that gives you access to news from hundreds of sites
Already a member? Sign in here
Our Picks
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.