We can file Kaos in the "gone too soon category," or even under "What were they thinking?!" Not because the show is bad. (It's amazing.) But because I can't understand why Netflix would cancel a buzzy, interesting, diverse, and fun original show. The Netflix gods must, indeed, be crazy.
Showrunner Charlie Covell creates a semi-familiar world in this eight-episode season: The show is set in the present day, mostly in Crete. The Greek gods are real. And they're mostly jerks, except for Prometheus, who wants to topple Zeus's tyrannical reign.
All of that sounds serious, and I suppose it is, but Covell allows plenty of space for humor (mostly of the bleak variety) and compassion (in all flavors). Even when sad things happen in this show, it's never nihilistic—which is good, since the fate of the world is at stake.
The basic plot is: Prometheus (the god who hooked us up with fire) has been plotting an Olympian overthrow in all the years he's been chained to a cliffside with his liver being eaten by an eagle. Some of the Fates are in on the plan, and since they generate prophecies for all humans (and some gods), they have a say in how it all plays out.
Meanwhile, Hera and Poseidon are having an affair. Dionysus wants to impress his daddy Zeus by helping a mortal (Orpheus) rescue his dead wife (Eurydice) from the Underworld, which—unknown to almost everyone—is going through a bit of a systems-failure that Persephone and Hades are trying to keep secret. In the middle of all of this is the shade of Caeneus, who has no idea how important he is.
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| Big Daddy Zeus |
The cast and character lists give a sense of how remarkable this show is. On the divine side of things: Jeff Goldblum is Zeus. Janet McTeer is Hera. Cliff Curtis is Poseidon. David Thewlis is Hades. Rakie Ayola is Persephone. Debi Mazar is Medusa. Nabhaan Rizwan is Dionysus. Stephen Dillane (yes, Stannis Baratheon!) is Prometheus. Suzy Eddie Izzard is one of the Fates, and she is amazing.
On the human side: Aurora Perrineau (daughter of Harold) plays Eurydice, married to Killian Scott's Orpheus. Leila Farzad plays Ariadne, Mat Fraser is Daedalus, Billie Piper is Cassandra, Michele Greenidge (from Doctor Who) is a Tacita, or silent priestess of Hera. Daniel Monks is Astyanax. Misia Butler, one of the standouts on the cast, plays Caeneus, who is key to the whole plan.
Even if only a few of those names look familiar to you, hopefully you're seeing a lovely level of actual diversity. I particularly want to mention that there are numerous queer, trans, and non-binary characters: enough that we can finally say someone, at least, has thrown tokenism out the window. There are also at least two disabled characters (played by actually disabled actors Mat Fraser and Daniel Monks), which is very rare in anything that isn't a “special episode” (or Daredevil doing a cameo in Echo).
Excellent casting isn't the only thing that makes this show great, though. When it first aired, most of the reviews waxed rhapsodic about Jeff Goldblum as Zeus swanning around his gold-plated mansion in leisure suits. And, sure, that's great. But I also loved the way that Dionysus morphed from an obnoxious club-kid stereotype to a sympathetic character who just loves his cat Dennis. Or the Squid Games-esque fact that that a pub game is how one tries to win entry to the Underworld to save a loved one.
Three of my favorite myths are the Minotaur in the Labyrinth, Orpheus and Eurydice, and Persephone and Hades. Covell draws on all three, altering each one just enough to be fascinating. Ariadne, the Minotaur's sister, is one of the key characters. I won't say more at risk of spoiling things, but she's amazing. Orpheus, on the other hand, has a real "that guy?" quality: he's not the poet-rock-star mythic figure he's been made out to be, but just a clingy husband. His wife "Riddy" is more important, and more interesting.
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| Persephone and Hades |
In the Underworld, Persephone and Hades are a loving, consensual, age-appropriate couple, and I couldn't be happier about that. At one point, during an awkward Olympians Family Brunch, Persephone asks Hera why she'd put all those lies in the old stories: why did Hera want people to think Persephone was abducted, even assaulted, by her husband? Hera just smirks—she did it because she wanted to, and could.
Ariadne and Riddy are two of the main human characters; Caeneus is the third. I hadn't heard of Caeneus before, although he does pop up in a few places in the source texts: he's a trans character in the ancient versions of the story, played here by a trans actor. Caeneus is dead when we meet him, stuck in a dead-end job similar to a TSA agent: he has a beloved three-headed dog who sniffs out if people are smuggling anything into the Underworld. But Caeneus's backstory (which I also won't spoil here) and his inherent goodness and care for others make him the obvious choice for the unexpected hero.
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| Caeneus |
Prometheus, that chained rebel, that fire-giving god, is the all-seeing narrator, watching a plan he's nudged into place gradually fall into place, and then fall apart. Stephen Dillane is astonishing: I'd only ever seen him as Stannis in Game of Thrones, and the difference is a full 180. He's snarky and droll and speaks directly to the camera, breaking the fourth wall to provide us with a clear sense of how all these disparate plot lines are heading towards a very interconnected conclusion.
Which, it turns out, we won't get, because Netflix canceled the show. I'll say again why I said above: I cannot imagine why they did this. Kaos got great buzz when it aired, and it was well-earned praise. They canceled it so shortly after it aired that I assume many people decided not to bother giving it a try, since they knew they'd be left hanging. (Much like Prometheus himself.)
But one of the plots of the show is that the Underworld process of "Renewal" (I'm not kidding) is broken: people aren't being reincarnated. That's part of what Prometheus wants to change, and within the world of the show I think he might pull it off.
So I'm not titling this a "Series Review." I'm titling it a "Season One Review" in the hope that someone, somewhere, will look down from the Mount Olympus of streaming-services billionaires, see us mortals suffering, and decide to give us what everyone wants: another chance to try to have a little fun, ideally with a cat.
Four out of four complex mother/child relationships.
Josie Kafka is a full-time cat servant and part-time rogue demon hunter. (What's a rogue demon?)
Josie, I'll echo your wish for divine intervention. By the time I got to the end of Kaos I was really enjoying it -- and then it stopped and there is no more and it's very frustrating.
ReplyDeleteTo be honest, I also thought they took too long to explain what was really going on. Although I'm not sure it would have made a difference if they'd gotten there sooner, since Netflix clearly can't see what they had.
One more thing. As you said, the cast they put together for this show was astounding. And I particularly loved the Fates.