Kaos review: comic retelling of Greek mythology starring Jeff Goldblum

From video games to novels to musical theatre, “revisionist retellings of ancient Greek myths have been having something of a moment lately”, said Louis Chilton in The Independent. But few have been as punchy as Netflix’s “Kaos”, from the British writer Charlie Covell, who is best known for Channel 4’s “The End of the F***ing World”. 

Billed as a “Succession”– or “White Lotus”-flavoured take on the gods of Olympus, it stars Jeff Goldblum as Zeus, depicted here as a neurotic, leisurewear-clad billionaire. He’s first seen “mincing discontentedly through his pink mountain-top shag pad”, said Camilla Long in The Sunday Times. The designers turn out to have had “Barbie levels of fun” throughout. Zeus’s spotting of a wrinkle on his forehead triggers a midlife crisis and a complicated plot featuring versions of Cassandra (Billie Piper), Hades (David Thewlis), Prometheus (Stephen Dillane) and others. Structured as a sour comedy of manners rather than a fantasy, it’s “engrossing, imaginative and fun”.