KAOS Premiere Recap: Jeff Goldblum’s Paranoid Zeus Is Unraveled by a Mysterious Prophecy — Grade It!

In Netflix’s new mythological dramedy KAOS , a war between humanity and the gods is brewing.

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For the uninitiated, Charlie Covell’s ( The End of the F–king World ) latest series follows a cruel and sometimes benevolent iteration of Zeus (played by Jeff Goldblum) who’s riddled with worry after believing that a new wrinkle on his forehead is the harbinger of an ancient prophecy foretelling his destruction. As his paranoia begins to take over, the ruler of Mount Olympus starts to self-destruct.

But we’re getting ahead of ourselves, aren’t we?

In Episode 1 (all eight installments are now available to stream), we’re introduced to our sturdy narrator Prometheus, who tells us from the jump that he’s a prisoner because he “knows too much about a certain person.” A person he calls an “unmitigated bastard.” He’s, of course, talking about Zeus, however, there’s a plan to bring him down…

That plan involves three humans, the first of which lives in Krete. We meet Riddy, a woman who’s been falling out of love with her famous musician boyfriend Orpheus. She wants to leave him, but can’t seem to find the words. While moping around a grocery store, she meets a visibly dirty woman ( I Love Suzie ‘s fabulous Billie Piper), who tells her that “today’s the day” because their love is dead. Uh, nice to meet you, too?

Back on Mount Olympus, Queen of the Gods Hera, Zeus’ wife (and sister!), seems to tolerate Zeus’ neuroses. Zeus’ son Dionysus (The God of Pleasure) had a human mother until Hera turned her into a bee. Hera clearly has contempt for Zeus’ offspring, who her husband/brother went ahead and made a full blown god. After his dad more or less laughs off his request for a promotion, Dionysus swipes his father’s watch, which turns into a huge deal later. After a monument to the gods in Krete is desecrated with feces, Zeus gets in his own head. Hera tries to tell him that a few human blasphemers are beneath him, but we can tell he’s supremely hot and bothered.

Zeus tries to amp himself up in the mirror until he sees the aforementioned vertical wrinkle on his forehead. He plucks Prometheus from the cliffside he has him chained to to ask him about a prophecy he thinks is coming to pass. “The line appears, the order wanes, the family falls, and kaos reigns.” Prometheus lies, assuring him that he can’t be destroyed.

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Riddy goes to see her mom who happens to be a tacita. As she enters the confessional, she tells her mother about how unhappy she is, only her mom’s tongue has been cut out after she gave herself over to the gods. (Hera has a bunch of mini drawers filled with tongues and can hear everything being told to the tacita.) Riddy’s mom hands her a prophecy. It’s the same one as Zeus’. Riddy leaves the church and sees the woman from the grocery store, only as she’s trying to speak to her, she’s struck by a bus and killed. “Told you you’d leave him today. You leave everyone today,” the woman says to no one in particular.

Riddy is buried with a gold charm that’s supposed to serve as a token to the god Hades. The coin is said to grant her safe passage through “the frame.” One day at the beach, Orpheus tries to shoot himself, but winds up taking out Dionysus instead (who obviously can’t be killed). The god tells him there’s a way he can see his wife again without dying, and also says that “gods don’t bleed.”

Prometheus tells us that only humans receive prophecies, but Zeus wasn’t always a god. He didn’t create us. He used to be human, which is why he can be destroyed by them. Prometheus has been waiting ages for the right people to be in the right place at the right time. “This is our only chance,” he says.

In the last shot of the episode, Riddy is on a boat with loads of others. They’re all wearing life vests and the scene is entirely in black and white.

So what did you think? Grade the premiere of KAOS , then sound off in the comments!

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