“Jeff Goldblum as Zeus.” That might have been all Charlie Covell needed to convince Netflix to greenlight Kaos. Who better to play the occasionally hormonal, always horny, and gleefully homicidal king of the Gods? It’s almost as if the Fates ordained it. Goldblum, who once heralded chaos theory, has the time of his life as Zeus. Between smiting cities and impregnating his mortal groupies, Zeus gets busy trying to prevent “kaos” from happening to himself.
Everything begins to slide for Zeus when he discovers a wrinkle and thinks it marks the beginning of a prophecy foretelling his downfall. Only humans can receive prophecies, but the king of Olympus has a dirty little secret: he was once mortal. With great power comes great insecurity, and a god complex of paranoia and delusion. Unfortunately, Zeus also wields thunderbolts, and in his fragile, trigger-happy state, nobody is safe.
As Zeus grows crazed and sees conspiracies everywhere, his increasingly worried family conspires to stop him from blowing the world – and them – up. Meanwhile, down on Earth, and even further down in the Underworld, three humans unknowingly fulfill their destinies in the plot against the Gods. Overseeing and actively engineering all of this is our narrator, Prometheus. For a guy chained to a rock, he really does get around.
Kaos raises interesting questions about fate and faith. Is everything predestined? What room is there for individuals to change or even challenge their futures? Does putting so much weight in destiny, as Zeus does, turn expectation into reality? Or would the world plunge into chaos if everyone just did as they pleased without any regard for the precious order that Zeus is so desperate to maintain?
Kaos is the newest addition to an already crowded pantheon of TV shows and movies inspired by Greek gods and myths. Did we really need another Greek-themed show? For Kaos to stand out, it needs to offer something new, or at least different. It’s a Herculean feat the series strives for but doesn’t always achieve.
One thing the series does right is give its older actors a lot of love. In a world where the beauty myth and youthfulness reign supreme, it was refreshing to see older bodies casually displayed in all their vitality and imperfection. Zeus, Hera, and Poseidon all have frenzies of passion and pleasure. Even the actors who play Hades and Prometheus get to show plenty of skin.
Janet McTeer is the ultimate boss lady as Hera, Queen of the Gods. She’s glamourous, managerial, and delightfully sadistic when punishing her husband’s mortal lovers. I’m all for increasing the world’s bee population, but Hera transforming the mothers of Zeus’ children into bees is terrifying. She’s the epitome of female empowerment, a goddess who fiercely protects her all girl Tacita cult, but she’s also the destroyer of other women. Not an easy dichotomy to reconcile.
Another interesting take Kaos has is in its world-building. While Percy Jackson and the Olympians brought the ancient gods to the modern world, Kaos brings the ancient world into modernity. Most of the action centres around contemporary Heraklion in Krete, and we hear of Sparta, Troy, and Eurasia. Giving the geopolitics and tensions of antiquity a modern update adds something rich and unique to the show.
Kaos doesn’t shy away from the brutality and appetite of the Greek gods. There are human sacrifices, betrayals, sexual conquests, the body horror of transmogrification, and the casual torture of mortal servants. Babies, kittens, and pool boys are not spared. But for all that, much of the cruelty takes place off-screen. I haven’t decided if this is an admirable restraint on the showrunners’ part or a convenient cop-out that sanitises the Gods’ capriciousness.
Only the Fates know if Netflix will renew Kaos. All of season one feels like a build-up to something greater. One naturally expects the epic when the story is about Greek gods. Yet there was little narrative or emotional payoff at the end for what was essentially an incredibly stylish eight-hour prelude. It wouldn’t be a tragedy of Greek proportions if the story ends here, but it’ll still be nice to see what the old gang gets up to. More lightning, please, Zeus.
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