In January of this year I posted a short review of the first season of Chosen (or CH:OS:EN, if you want to get all technical about it), where I gave it high marks. The web series has definite high production value, with the acting chops to accompany it. The series is back for a second season, premiering tomorrow on Crackle.com, and so far it has more of the same level of quality or more.

Back this season are the main characters from the last. Milo Ventimiglia is back as Ian Mitchell, as well as Nicki Whelan as his wife, Laura, and Caitlin Carmichael as their daughter, Ellie. While the season doesn’t exactly pick up where it left off in season one — and the Mitchells not being the front-and-center main characters this season — we do get a sense of what they’ve been up to early on.

The main point of focus this season seems to be newcomer to the Chosen game, Jacob Orr (Chad Michael Murray), who comes upon a familiar looking box and all of the craziness that follows along with it. While Jacob’s life is quite a different one than led by Ian, he’s still keen on figuring out what the hell this all means, who’s behind it and how to get out of it. There’s a definite sense that Jacob’s not one to take any of this lying down, and he’s going to eventually get to a point where he gets very close to those who’re putting him — and others — through this mess. But will he have what it takes to stop it once and for all?

This is the kind of series I just love to see these days. They’re all completely compelling webisodes, which you can swallow down in one big bite or nibble at in chunks as your time allows. Overall, though, there are no “throwaway” episodes — it’s all connected, and you want to see every single one of them play out. The seasons are short and sweet, and they deliver. I caught the first two episodes of this new season, and they do not disappoint.

Check out the first season now and catch up (quickly — they’re not long) before the second season on December 12th!

UPDATE: Also, some other good news … a third season of Chosen has already been greenlit!

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.

After years — yes, years — of waiting, Battlestar Galactica: Blood & Chrome is finally here. It may not be making a traditional debut on television, but that’s certainly not saying the quality of the videos are lacking in any way.

The gist of the story of Blood & Chrome is that this is essentially a prequel for Battlestar Galactica … and I guess you could call it a sequel to Caprica. It follows the first days of a young Bill “Husker” Adama out of the academy, embarking on his first official mission. Luke Pasqualino as Bill Adama works quite well, displaying a great mix of cockiness and humbleness when it matters. I especially like Ben Cotton‘s Coker Fasjovik, the second-tour co-pilot for Adama, though right now I can’t help but feel like he’s got a touch of red-shirt-itis coming his way before the series is through.

I was a big critic of the Battlestar Galactica series finale. In short, I pretty much thought the ending stunk. As I was reeling from that disappointment, along came Caprica, and I had a hard time caring enough about it when I knew it all just ended up with that crappy BSG finale. So, Caprica lost my interest before it was through. When I heard of Blood & Chrome a couple years ago, I was very “meh” about it — I wasn’t sure I was ready for more punishment. Being away from the BSG universe for years seems to have allowed me to let my disappointment go and simply enjoy Blood & Chrome on its own, not letting the knowledge of what was or what’s to come get in the way.

I loved the opening. I loved the dog fight scenes. I loved that familiar Bear McCreary sountrack. I really only have one gripe to make about the series so far, and that’s the profanity masking. Rather than bleep or silence profanities like “asshole,” they use the trick of inserting what sounds like a natural, louder background noise to cover it up. So you’ll get something like, “He’s an assh*WRENCH CLANG*.” This was clever at first, then noticeable the second time, then distracting the third time. Again, a very minor gripe, though silence or a loud bleep would be a lot worse.

After watching the first two webisodes, I have hope that the writers can continue to concentrate on the “now” and not dwell on what was and what’s to come. We all — or, at least, most of us — know what the future holds for Adama and what came before him; no need to make a big deal about that anymore. So let’s stick with the great visuals and the amazing dogfights and we’ll have a good time while we forget about the past … and the future.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdisGiivP9c

The ten webisodes will continue to debut on the Machinima Prime YouTube channel through next February. The entire two hours will air on Syfy at a later date — likely some time in January. The DVD and Blu-ray copies (linked below) will go on sale on February 19th.

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