It’s a tricky thing to use the foundations of something familiar to build something unexpected. Without sounding too grand, the history of human storytelling is based on repeating familiar structures, alluding to well-known myths and fables as a way to make the outlandish make sense. Netflix’s new Greek mythology-tinged drama KAOS bases its wide-ranging story in legends most of its audience likely already knows, but don’t expect a straight retelling. The world of KAOS is one where the gods are real and myths play out in real time, and not in the way you think.
The show is set entirely within a modern-day alternate version of Greece, where the ancient pantheon of gods hold sway over the real world in a way similar to The Boys’ depiction of superheroes: Zeus, Hera, and the rest are pop-culture icons as well as very real beings who feed off of human worship; sacrifice is commonplace; and everyone is born with a vaguely worded prophecy foretelling their fate. It cunningly weaves ancient mythology into the plot, taking the familiar legends of Ariadne and the Minotaur, Orpheus and Eurydice, the Trojan War, and the doomed thief Prometheus and turning them inside out, combining them all into a complex story about fate and free will whose every episode is full of surprises.
Stephen Dillane plays omniscient narrator Prometheus, chained to his rock and tortured by his liver-eating eagle, and nonetheless poised to set in motion a series of events that will shake the foundations of Mount Olympus. Atop that great mountain, Zeus (a terrifyingly charming Jeff Goldblum) struts around in velour tracksuits and wonders if humanity isn’t due for a population-thinning natural disaster or two.
