Genre Comedy-drama, Dark comedy, Fantasy
Created by Charlie Covell
Based on Greek and Roman mythology
Directed by Georgi Banks-Davies, Runyararo Mapfumo
Cast
Jeff Goldblum as Zeus
Janet McTeer as Hera
Cliff Curtis as Poseidon
David Thewlis as Hades
Killian Scott as Orpheus
Debi Mazar as Medusa
Stephen Dillane as Prometheus
Aurora Perrineau as Eurydice “Riddy”
Misia Butler as Caeneus (né Caenis) / Kaos
Leila Farzad as Ariadne “Ari”
Nabhaan Rizwan as Dionysus
Mat Fraser as Daedalus
Rakie Ayola as Persephone
Stanley Townsend as Minos
Billie Piper as Cassandra
Fates
Suzy Eddie Izzard as Lachy (Lachesis)
Ché as Clotho
Sam Buttery as Atropos
Furies
Cathy Tyson as Alecto
Donna Banya as Tisi (Tisiphone)
Natalie Klaymar as Meg (Megaera)
Fady Elsayed as Glaucus/Minotaur
Tomi Egbowon-Ogunjobi as Dea Tacita
Gilian Cally as Hecuba
Shila Ommi as Pas (Pasiphae)
Amanda Douge as Andromache
Daniel Lawrence Taylor as Theseus
Ramon Tikaram as Charon
Joe McGann as Polyphemus
Music by Isabella Summers
Country of origin United Kingdom, Original language English
No. of seasons 1 No. of episodes 8
Production
Executive producers Charlie Covell, Chris Fry, Georgi Banks-Davies, Jane Featherstone, John Woodward, Nina Lederman, Tanya Seghatchian
Producers Harry Munday, Katie Carpenter, Michael Eagle-Hodgson
Production locations United Kingdom, Spain
Running time 46–56 minutes
Production companies Anthem Productions Limited, Sister
Original release Netflix August 29, 2024
Going in to the Netflix show KAOS, a knowledge of ancient Greek mythology is massively useful, but not essential.
This spectacular adaptation of the vast panoply of legends has a lot of nuances and subtleties incorporated in the story telling. However, you can get by if you understand this:
All gods are assholes, Without exception. They are weak, egotistical, fragile, thin-skinned, capricious, vindictive, and completely amoral. Yet they hold the power to utterly control (and destroy) our lives. And in the case of the Grecian pantheon, they combine all those traits with the duplicity and hypocrisy of the worst medieval royal court you can imagine.
So if you are one of those starry-eyed types who believes God is Love and died for us and so on, this show probably isn’t for you. Now, if you can tell yourself with a straight face, “Well, it just shows that all the other gods are evil,” you’re only a step away from intellectual redemption. Gods are assholes. No exceptions.
When you think of Zeus, you tend to think in terms of a great hairy thunderer, along the lines of Thor or Jehovah in a real snit. Over muscled, loud, huge beard, about as bright as a soggy match. Thus the casting of the elegant and somewhat nerdish Jeff Goldblum might seem an odd choice. He’s slim, nattily attired, with an intellectual air, soft spoken and often pleasant.
Oh, and he’s utterly mad. And, as head of a pantheon of mostly mad gods, this makes him something of a social hazard. Like all gods and most mortals, he was born under a prophecy from the Fates. “A line appears, the order wanes, the family falls, and Kaos reigns”. Like all such prophecies, it’s utterly useless until after its due date, and Cassandra, as always, isn’t believed when she explains it.
The supposedly immortal Zeus notices a new wrinkle on his forehead and proceeds to lose his shit. A 1930s Hollywood diva couldn’t be more upset over such a thing. Like most gods, he has daddy issues, and isn’t very tightly wrapped. The wrinkle, combined with the theft of a watch he likes, leads to a scene that really shows what he’s about.
He’s sitting in a pool-side chair, dressed in whites, with a mixed drink beside him. He’s looking up at a line of thirty or so young men, also dressed in white, standing on a roof top. He’s holding a bow and arrow. He points to one. “Did you steal my watch?” he asks in a pleasant, almost friendly tone. The young man nervously shakes his head. “Could you say that?” “No, Zeus, I didn’t.” “Well, do you know who stole my watch?” “No, Zeus.” Whereupon Zeus notches his bow and lets fly, shooting the man through the chest and watching somewhat resignedly as he falls to his death. “Well, darn. OK, who’s next…you. Did you steal my watch?”
This irritates his sister-wife Hera, who complains to Poseidon, “Could you talk to him? He’s shooting all the help again.”
The series is narrated by Prometheus, who generally spends his time just hanging around and feeding the birds.
The precipitating events occur when Orpheus’ wife, Eurydice, dies. Orpheus, unable to accept her death, removes the coin from her lips that are used to pay the ferryman to cross the Styx in hopes of bringing her back. As a result, she ends up facing the prospect of 200 years in the underworld, a colorless bureaucratic purgatory almost like the capital city of one of those rectangular states. In time, she learns of a sinister plot by Zeus that makes a lie of the religious beliefs of most mortals.
Another thread has the Greek President, Minos, laboring under a prophecy that the first child of his to draw breath will kill him. When his wife bears twins, he plans to kill the first born, but being a soft hearted chump, he imprisons the boy in a dungeon where he eventually becomes a monster, the Minotaur. He is useful for slaughtering and eating people Minos finds politically inconvenient. (Obviously, the general assholery isn’t limited to Olympus.)
There are several other sub-plots that all weave together in a manner that would please the Moirai Clotho (the spinner), Lachesis (the allotter), and Atropos (the inevitable). Also known as The Fates, they serve Zeus, unless he tries to defy his own prophecy. Then they become unstoppable agents of vengeance. The Furies, portrayed here as dykes on bykes.
The high tragedy, combined with universal themes and a willingness to delve into the Big Questions has given the Grecian mythology a lasting power that transcends most such collections of fables.
Not since Neil Gaiman’s “Sandman” series has anyone brought the legends to well to life, maintaining the ancient drama and belief while appealing to modern understandings of divinity and good and evil.
Writer Charlie Covell has teamed up with directors Georgi Banks-Davies, Runyararo Mapfumo to bring about a glowing and outstanding presentation. It’s probably a series you’ll want to watch more than once, and it will be worth the time invested.
Now on Netflix.