Everything made by Netflix has the same pristine sheen: crisp, bright, and a little uncanny valley. Those who spend too much time watching TV (read: me) can spot a series created by the streamer a mile off. Kaos , Charlie Covell ’s latest drama, which brings the myths of the Greek gods to modern-day Crete, is no different – and couldn’t be further from the series that made it famous, The End of the F***ing World .
Whereas that Bafta-winning 2017 offbeat comedy was moody and gritty, Kaos is, well, chaotic. An explosion of colour and detail that at times could be mistaken for a Versace advert, this is a big-budget, no-idea-too-wild romp through ancient Greek mythology – no classics degree necessary. Jeff Goldblum is Zeus, a despotic role he slips into so well you wonder why no one has cast him as king of the gods before now.
In his mansion atop Mount Olympus, Zeus is all gold signet rings and velour tracksuits, a playboy who sees his human worshippers as nothing more than a nuisance. But if Zeus’s disinterest in those on Earth is worrying, then his wife Hera’s active disdain for them is terrifying. Played by the brilliant Janet McTeer, she spends her time listening to their deepest, darkest secrets via a library of dismembered tongues, each kept in its own drawer – when she’s not secretly shagging Poseidon (Cliff Curtis) on his superyacht, that is.
For all of Zeus’s bravado, he’s deeply anxious about his status as a god, panicking about his prophecy that pro.