This brand-new Netflix original has already shot to the number 1 spot in the site’s top 10 chart — and for good reason.
Unchosen stars Sex Education‘s Asa Butterfield in a gripping psychological thriller story about women seeking freedom from an oppressive cult. Handmaid’s Tale vibes anyone?
Watch With Us loves a good cult show, and we couldn’t be more thrilled to sink our teeth into Unchosen.
Read on for our top three reasons why the show is unmissable.
If you’re looking for something to fill the void left by The Handmaid’s Tale and don’t find that the spinoff The Testaments is quite quenching your thirst, then Unchosen is the series for you. The show follows a fictional cult called Fellowship of the Divine, led by a charismatic man called Mr. Phillips (Christopher Eccleston). In this community, technology is banned, and women are confined to their homes and subservient to their husbands. The series focuses on one couple in particular, Adam (Butterfield) and Rosie (Molly Windsor), the latter of whom begins having second thoughts about her highly constrained life after an incident in the forbidden woods.
While there is no infertility epidemic in the world of Unchosen like in The Handmaid’s Tale, female characters are made to wear similarly modest garments and head coverings, and are at the sexual whims of all the men in the community, while the process of giving birth is also a communal experience, as with the handmaids in Gilead. Of course, the realities of living in such a highly oppressed society are bound to give way to thoughts of rebellion, and after Rosie comes across a tall, dark stranger in the woods, these feelings are thrust into sharp, life-changing relief.
The Netflix Drama Is Based on Real-Life U.K. CultsThere are currently at least 2,000 cults operating in the United Kingdom, and Unchosen creator Julie Gearey used some of them as inspiration while writing her show — she even reached out to real-life former members of such cults via the internet while doing research for Unchosen. Jim Loach, the series’ director, noted that Gearey grew up in an area of England where children she attended school with had parents who were active members of cults. One of the most famous cults in that particular area is the Christian community of Bruderhof, where members live similarly modest lives to those of the disciples of the Fellowship of the Divine.
Additionally, Butterfield watched the BBC documentary on Bruderhof in preparation for his role, along with documentaries on the Plymouth Brethren Christian Church, a group perceived by many as a cult that dates back 200 years and boasts over 55,000 members. While the Fellowship of the Divine is a wholly fictionalized cult, Gearey’s research, testimonials from former members who escaped cults and Gearey’s own personal experiences of associating with the children of cult members, all deeply informed the creation of the cult for Unchosen.
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In addition to Butterfield, the cast of Unchosen is exceedingly impressive, even if you might not know some of them on a first-name basis. Eccleston has been praised for his role as Mr. Phillips in particular, so impressive at playing a manipulative cult leader that it feels like he might have been one in a former life. Meanwhile, Windsor (who viewers may recognize from the film She Said) gives an incredibly earnest performance as the conflicted Rosie. But all three of the lead young actors, Windsor, Butterfield and Fra Free (as handsome newcomer Sam) are perfectly cast, and feel natural in their roles as each of their characters progresses throughout the season.
Butterfield in particular does a stellar job playing against type as the domineering and cruel Adam, since many viewers are likely most familiar with the young actor from his performance in Netflix’s Sex Education, in which he plays a demure and well-meaning high school student. The rest of the major supporting cast is rounded out by Siobhan Finneran (The Damned) and Alexa Davies (Harlots and Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again).
Stream Unchosen now on Netflix.
