FX premieres Chozen on Monday Jan. 13, 10:30 p.m. ET. The following are reviews from TV critics around the web, compiled by B&C.
“Chozen is certainly for somebody, but on the face of it, it’s hard to figure out whom. An animated FX comedy about a gay white ex-con rapper trying to jump-start his career after being framed, the show works overtime in its determination to offend, but tries too hard on most every level.”
—Brian Lowry, Variety
“And yet, as with both Eastbound and Archer, if you find yourself inclined to go with the flow, there are things to enjoy and even to admire. Chozen is not a role model, but he is a kind of hero, and a more fully embodied character than the foregoing might imply; the show endorses his positivity but does not deny his absurdity.”
—Robert Lloyd, Los Angeles Times
“Despite a handful of cutting moments, Chozen isn’t very funny in its first five episodes—though as the man says, it gets better. Part of that is the inundation. If everything is outrageous, it doesn’t take long to adjust until nothing is.”
—Brandon Nowalk, A.V. Club
“None of this will come as a surprise to fans of Archer, the profane secret-agent spoof (beginning its fifth season Monday night) that crosses just about any line you care to draw concerning sex, drugs and violent imagery. But where Archer sort of stylishly crosses it, Chozen clumsily trips and falls.”
—Hank Stuever, Washington Post
“But this show pushes him past caricature into something richer: sexually blunt, studiously oblivious, impossibly prideful. Mr. Moynihan, whose Chozen voice comes off as a blend of some of his rowdier Saturday Night Live characters, plays this antihero not as a dolt but as a man driven, one who’s been distilled down to frankness by years of prison.”
—Jon Caramanica, New York Times
