You don't have to be well versed in Greek mythology to watch Netflix's KAOS, but it will help. The British fantasy dramedy is packed with ancient characters whose powers and histories it expects you to know (and you probably do), as well as Easter eggs for the mythology nerds. But it also changes the characters and puts them together in ways never previously conceived. KAOS is a work of impressive imagination and verve. It uses the source material of Greek mythology to build something that feels of-the-moment, which is an impressive feat. However, like the gods themselves, it has a fatal flaw that leads to its downfall.
KAOS is set in a Neil Gaiman-esque low-fantasy world where Greek gods and other figures of myth exist in a prosaic, contemporary context. Orpheus, for example, the mythological lyre player who goes into the underworld to rescue his beloved Eurydice from death, is reimagined as a pop star (Killian Scott) who adores his wife Riddy (Aurora Perrineau) but isn't attentive to her needs. In this world, mortals worship all-powerful gods who do not treat them fairly. Overseeing it all is Zeus (Jeff Goldblum), the king of the gods, who has grown cruel and corrupt in his isolated palace atop Mount Olympus.
One day, Zeus notices a new wrinkle on his forehead and becomes concerned that the prophecy that foretells his and the other gods' destruction — "A line appears, the order wanes, the family falls and kaos reigns" — is coming true. And he is correct. His former friend Prometheus (Game of Thrones' Stephen Dillane, unrecognizable under white hair and a beard), whom he has chained to a rock with an eagle eating his liver for eternity, has formulated a plan to bring him down that involves the humans Riddy, Caeneus (Misia Butler), and Ariadne (Leila Farzad) and will bring about a new era.
Like
- Imaginative setting
- Appealing aesthetics
- Strong supporting cast
Dislike
- Miscast lead performer
- Excessive violence
- Overly dark tone
KAOS has a few problems, but its biggest is that Jeff Goldblum is disastrously miscast. The show's conception of Zeus requires a performer with a wider range of emotions than Goldblum is capable of portraying. Goldblum's whole thing is that he's like an alien sent to Earth to observe human behavior. Every choice he makes as an actor is arch and self-consciously weird. He's Jeff Goldblum playing "Jeff Goldblum" playing a character. And that doesn't work for Zeus, the Logan Roy of the gods. For this character to succeed, the audience needs to be able to identify with his humanity, and it's hard to access that through Goldblum's layers of irony.
Making matters worse is the knowledge of how close we were to a better Zeus, and thus a better KAOS. Hugh Grant was originally cast in the role, but he dropped out shortly before filming began (reportedly due to scheduling conflicts). It's beyond the show's control, but it's a shame that Grant didn't work out, because he would have been the perfect actor to make Zeus feel real. Present-day Hugh Grant's persona is that of an aging heartthrob who has accepted his romantic leading man days are behind him. He has a weariness and pathos to him now, as opposed to Goldblum, who appears to have stopped aging (except for his hair) sometime around 2010. Grant has always been able to do witty and charming with an undercurrent of darkness and misanthropy, but not too much. That's his whole thing. It feels like Zeus was written for him, and it's hard to watch Goldblum's Zeus without imagining what could have been.
The "darkness and misanthropy, but not too much" Grant could have brought to the show perhaps could have offset the show's other big problem, which is its mean streak. Perhaps I can't fully appreciate creator Charlie Covell's morbid sense of humor because I'm not British, but I did enjoy their previous series The End of the F***ing World, which had a similarly bleak, pitch-black comedic tone and propensity toward violence. That series, however, deployed those elements in service of a much more tightly focused story about messed-up teenagers on a road trip. Here, the brutality threatens to overwhelm the playful comedy, the romance, the social commentary, and everything else Covell is trying to do. You are probably not expecting a fantasy dramedy to have a lingering, hard-R shot of the bloody aftermath of a suicide, and you might be unpleasantly surprised to see it. And the darkness is presented with a cool, detached tone that feels unnecessarily provocative.
Though KAOS has significant flaws, there's a lot that works very well. Other than Goldblum, the cast is terrific. Ozark's Janet McTeer is fearsome as Zeus' wife Hera, who has her own plans and ways of wielding power. McTeer brings an intensity to the role that's almost out of sync with the rest of the performers, but she's magnetic when she goes big. David Thewlis is perfectly cast as Hades, the put-upon lord of the underworld. And Cliff Curtis is sneakily charming as Poseidon, Zeus' douchey but heartsick brother.
The show also looks great, much better than this type of thing usually does. It does not rely on cheap-looking CGI and is not color-corrected to the point where it looks inorganic, which are often problems on Netflix fantasy shows. The world feels built and lived in and well thought out, from the underworld being shot in black-and-white to the designer tracksuits that Zeus wears.
KAOS feels well thought out in general, perhaps owing to its long development process. Netflix announced the project in 2018, but Covell said they'd been working on the idea for years even before that. As a result, the dynamics of the world, like how the gods interact with humans and each other, feel authentic, and the plot threads fit together in surprising but inevitable ways. It feels like KAOS is telling the right story for its setting, which is a timely populist tale about citizens fighting back against corrupt elites.
Overall, KAOS is an intriguing idea imperfectly executed. It makes confident choices, but not always the right ones.
Premieres: Thursday, Aug. 29 on Netflix with all episodes
Who's in it: Jeff Goldblum, Janet McTeer, Stephen Dillane, David Thewlis, Cliff Curtis, Aurora Perrineau, Killian Scott, Leila Farzad, Misia Butler, Nabhaan Rizwan, Suzy Eddie Izzard
Who's behind it: Creator Charlie Covell, directors Georgi Banks-Davies and Runyararo Mapfumo
For fans of: Greek mythology, dark comedy, Jeff Goldblum
How many episodes we watched: 8 of 8
