In his role as Zeus, Jeff Goldblum ponders one of the great questions of humanity: Are tracksuits ever a good idea?
Fun fact about the past: I am old enough to remember hearing about this new company, which would send you rental DVDs in the mail, and you could keep them as long as you wanted without late fees; then, when you sent the DVD back, they sent you the next movie on your “queue.” Fast forward about two centuries, and we have arrived at a point where Netflix is generating so much of its own streaming content that it seems more like a Greek god of content, than like the little company who sent DVDs in the snail mail. And that, more or less, is how I came to watch Kaos, a (relatively) new show starring Jeff Goldblum as Zeus.
As is now tradition, below I try to anticipate and answer questions that you might have after watching Kaos. Or I just ask questions that I had after watching the show.
Q: Let’s get this out of the way: is Jeff Goldblum awesome as Zeus? That part from the trailer where he leaves his divine children voice messages is hilarious.
Mortal, please. Of course he’s awesome, he’s Jeff Goldblum playing Zeus. I would guess that one phrase alone was enough to sell executives on putting the series into production, and they were right to do so.
Unfortunately, you don’t get to see Zeus interact with his divine children much more than what you see in the trailer, where the children don’t even pick up. The only child that Zeus hangs out with is Dionysus, which is not nearly as fun as it sounds, since Dionysus does not really get a personality (although he does eventually get a cat), and Zeus just ignores or talks at Dionysus while he stands there and blinks. Nevertheless, it would be entertaining to watch Jeff Goldblum play Zeus opposite nothing but a Corinthian column, and he’s worth the price of admission alone.
Q: Cut to the chase. Is Kaos essentially Percy Jackson for adults or not?
Maybe? Kaos does have the same conceit as Percy Jackson, where mythological characters like Medusa have jobs and identities in the modern world. One difference is that in Percy Jackson these mythological references make sense, whereas in Kaos the references seem somewhat random. In Percy Jackson, Medusa sells lawn statues. In Kaos, Medusa lives in the Underworld and works as middle management. Another difference is that Kaos clearly is not meant to be a fun watch. For instance, as far as I can recall, Percy Jackson does not have a plot point where (spoiler!) Prometheus stabs his naked lover Charon in the neck, so that Charon will be able to drive a boat in the underworld (how does that work?), pick up Orpheus and a father searching for his dead child, and throw the latter overboard to Scylla so Orpheus can fulfill a very complicated prophecy. If that does happen in Percy Jackson, for the love of the gods, don’t remind me.
Q: Wait, if this isn’t a family comedy, or Percy Jackson for adults, or a modern retelling of Greek mythology…What is this show?
Oh I have no idea, and I watched all 8 episodes. The story takes place in a fictional world where the gods are real, and they have names and personalities that vaguely match up with their Greek counterparts. The mortals live in a city named Heraklion, which seems to be based on a fever dream of Rio de Janeiro. Some mortals, but not all, have names and social positions that vaguely match up with their Greek counterparts, and others have the names of Greek characters but totally different identities. All mortals worships the gods in an elaborate state-enforced religious structure, which does not resemble Ancient Greek religious practice at all. The point of this fictional religion is to get to a physical afterlife, which does resemble Greek beliefs about existence after death. In short, it’s all over the place, and by the time (spoiler!) Theseus the palace bodyguard is revealed to be having an affair with Astyanax the Trojan political revolutionary, anyone trying to follow the mythological references will be very confused.
Q: But…the trailer made me think the premise of the show was “what if the Classical Mythological gods were real and in the modern world?” Is that not the point of the show?
Absolutely not. I don’t know what the show’s point is, but that ain’t it. If I were given the show as a research project, I would argue that it is a very angry treatise on the dangerous lies of established religion, specifically the Catholic Church, and then someone took that treatise and dressed it up as Greek mythology for Halloween. That would explain elements in the show like a practice where mortals tell their shameful secrets to priests, who have voluntarily had their tongues removed (this ritual somehow magically lets Hera have a secret affair on a boat with Poseidon, I kid you not). You show that to someone from Ancient Greece, they would be baffled, although admittedly here for it. This fictional system, however, is clearly based on the Catholic Church’s Sacrament of Penance or confession, which the show seems to argue serves only to further the exploitation of the masses by powerful hypocrites running the system.
You can argue something similar about the Kaos Underworld, where mortals are (falsely) promised salvation through rebirth, and those who have not followed the proper burial rituals have to wait in a sort of bland limbo. Ancient Greeks would certainly recognize the latter part, but very few of them would recognize the former, since the set up resembles Catholic Heaven vs Purgatory much more closely than it does Ancient Greek belief. As their typical cheery selves, most ancient people seem to have envisioned the afterlife as a bleak reflection of the living world, without hope for redemption or reincarnation (see CLAS-B 312 Plague, Disasters and Death in the Ancient World to learn more!). So although the structure is strange, the way Kaos films this part of the world in black and white is brilliant, and the idea of just pointlessly going through the motions of life in a shadow world is spot on Ancient Greek.
Q: Are you saying the show runners got Classical Mythology wrong?
Absolutely not. I would never! Kaos is doing the same thing that people have always done with Classical Myths, namely taking recognizable characters and world building elements and using them to say something about modern human society. The show also captures important aspect of Classical Mythology like lots of graphic sex and violence to keep the audience engaged (and occasionally serve thematic points). Could you switch out the Greek mythology elements for Norse mythology and it wouldn’t change anything about the show? Or just remove any mythological references and just do original world building? Pretty much.
Q: Are there prophecies? There better be prophecies.
Oh lord, so many prophecies. Maybe everyone gets their own prophecy, like a social security number? That seems to be mentioned at one point. Suzy Eddie Izzard has a lot of fun playing a Fate who writes prophecies, or maybe changes them, which involves hanging out in a dive bar with Polyphemus for some reason. This is probably the closest Kaos comes to Ancient Greek thought, and to Percy Jackson: all are just obsessed with prophecies. Is your entire life pre-ordained or can you change your destiny? Are you responsible for your actions or just a pawn in the system? What’s up with the cat? Is it a literal “save-the-cat” idea for Dionysus? If ChatGPT ate Oedipus Rex and Euphoria and then wrote a screenplay, is this what would result?
