MIDNIGHT REVIEWS Kaos Episode 5 & 6 Review
Where the audience knows something the show doesn’t.
Kaos Episodes 5 & 6
Series created by: Charlie Covell
Featuring: Jeff Goldblum, Janet McTeer, Stephen Dillane
Synopsis: Orpheus (Killian Scott) must complete an arduous task in order to complete his journey to Riddy (Aurora Perrineau). Dionysus (Nabhaan Rizwan) looks on in fear and wishes the man he once helped fails. And finally, Hades completes a family reunion.
Review: Dramatic irony, like Ancient Greek myth, is something that feels as old as time. Zeus’ watch being stolen and replaced. Hera sneaking around with Poseidon (Cliff Curtis), manipulating along the way. Prometheus’ (Stephen Dillane) voiceover and interjections still being irritating. The simple act of letting an audience in on certain facts can create delicious situations, so delicious indeed that Hera has thousands of tongues in her chambers squirming and curling with the taste of each secret. This is what episode five and six are all about; secrets and desires taking hold, with these human tendencies influencing everyone from the dead to the Gods.
There is an increased focus on Hera, revealing that both she and McTeer are both very good at what they do. As amazing as Hera is at manipulating, cajoling and consoling at just the right times, McTeer allows us to see just enough without it becoming a sneering pantomime performance. We still have Zeus seething, not about his watch but as a direct effect of his paranoia. Goldblum again shines with a quiet but assured power to back up his inherited rage.
There’s also an increased focus on Hades (David Thewlis). The first half of the series was stacked with so many storylines and characters that there wasn’t enough time for an actor that could hold down a show of his own like he’s making a cup of tea.
Thewlis is tasked with playing a character built with so many complexities; the inherent anger of someone who thinks he’s been short changed, the exhaustion of running an Underworld past full capacity and the fear of his big brother. Thewlis walks this fine line perfectly. Apart from an introductory sequence that feels like it was edited by someone with their eyes closed, his vignette up on Mount Olympus is thrilling and terrifying in equal measure. At this point Zeus is still acting like a despot, or a boss with bad man management skills.
There is a Hydra that just won’t die.
The definition of Kaos as a comedy does sometimes get stretched, but the humour doesn’t come from a series of sitcom one-liners, shovelled in consistently like fast food. It’s more from the interactions between each character which only works if each performance is pitched at the right level. It’s here where the performances earn their place on the proverbial Mount Olympus.
As each secret is revealed, each character decision makes more and more sense. Cannibalism, not too out of place in Ancient Greek myth, rears its head in a fashion and once Kaos lets you in on how the Gods got their power you begin to wonder how normal people would act with such allowances.
Certainly, they would see us differently to how we see each other. An amusing 80s-style TV show early on gives us a taste of how the Gods view the humans way down there; a long-running soap opera that isn’t really of much quality, but somehow distracting enough (with the added wrinkle that they can influence the storylines in their boredom).
Despite these immense positives, however, there is a Hydra that just won’t die. His chats with Zeus notwithstanding, Prometheus’ voiceover and interjections suggest a show that doesn’t trust its audience to keep up, or sometimes even pay attention. It’s the only major thing wrong with two episodes that start to ramp up the tension, without that artificial feeling of a series finale being just down the road. But as a negative, it’s huge and the show’s insistence that we need to see everything short of Prometheus winking at the camera seems to also promise that it’ll be around until the end. A dreadful blip on an otherwise terrific show.
Kaos is currently available to stream on Netflix.
Matthew D. Smith likes to overshare his views on movies and TV shows whenever and wherever he can. Indulge him, and follow him on Twitter or listen to the podcast he co-hosts with Leslie Wai.
