“Kaos,” the Greek mythological comedy series that premiered in late August, has been canceled from Netflix, Variety has learned.
The show premiered on August 29 and stars Jeff Goldblum as the mighty Zeus, albeit in a more grotesque and insecure image. In the modern day setting, Zeus has Prometheus chained up after interfering with his divine rule over humanity. Prometheus then attempts to overthrow Zeus with the help of three humans, Eurydice, Ariadne, and Canius. Charlie Covell (“The End of the Fucking World”) wrote the entire eight-episode series.
The cast also included Janet McTeer as Hera, Aurora Perrineau as Eurydice, Cliff Curtis as Poseidon, David Thewlis as Hades, Raki Ayola as Persephone, Killian Scott as Orpheus, Leila Farzad as Ariadne, Nabhan Ridwan as Dionysus, Debi Mazar as Medusa, Stephen. Dylan as Prometheus, Mesia Butler as Caenius, Matt Fraser as Daedalus, Stanley Townsend as Minos, Billie Piper as Cassandra, Susie Edie Izzard as Lachesis, Cathy Tyson as Alecto and more.
In her mostly negative review, Variety’s television critic Aramide Tinubu wrote, “Ultimately, ‘Kaos’ fails to delight as the narrative collapses under the weight of its own ambition. Many of the storylines stand on their own before crashing into each other near the season’s climatic finale. Rarely so.” The gods don’t use their power in any interesting or exciting way. More than anything else, viewers are left wondering why their petty squabbles should be a concern to us, especially when there’s already so much to contend with on Earth.
The show spent four weeks in Netflix’s top 10 charts upon its release, but failed to attract a significant audience at the time. It peaked at number three on the English-language television chart in its second week of availability, with a peak viewership of just 5.9 million viewers. Netflix defines viewing as total running time divided by total hours watched.
In a since-deleted Instagram post, Perrineau originally broke the news to fans that “Kaos” had been cancelled. Read her post below.
“Well…that hurts. I find it very difficult to explain how I feel, but I’ll try.”
“When I started auditioning for this show, I knew it was special, mainly due to the fact that Charlie Covell’s scripts resonated with me in a way that most things didn’t. I knew all these people, and I loved them all, flawlessly, in every way.”
“For the first time in my life, I found myself really proud. I am, of course, proud of everyone’s work and the care they gave to this project, because, let me tell you, they left everything on the floor. But I also found myself proud of me, and that’s something I’ve been struggling with.”
“When I was chosen, I couldn’t believe that anyone saw me. A girl who is not only a minority, but also an SA survivor — and you’re telling me that someone thought I could be one of the leads of the show, have agency, have my own mission, and be wanted in my own way.” Enough to be the love interest of not just one amazing human being but two people? Was I worth it? Everything that happened from that moment on really changed my perspective.
“As the journey continued, I began to learn about the incredible talent involved – as if Charlie wasn’t enough. Then I learned about our managers, Georgie [Banks-Davies] And Runyararo [Mapfumo]. And it continued with our wonderful staff. There are too many to mention, but I have to pay tribute to the three who became lifelong friends, family and lifelines as we crisscrossed Spain for months: Misia [Butler]Nabhan [Rizwan] And Killian [Scott].
“Our beautiful department at HMU, our wardrobe department, Sister, Netflix, our production team and our entire crew – everyone involved was a heavy hitter. And there I was sitting there wondering how? Why me? And the answer I would often get was: Why not you?”
“Everyone was amazing and out of their element. Every performance surprised and excited me. I can’t believe I got to do this with all of you. We’ve created something strange, dark, funny, distorted, and completely tragic – something completely human. That’s the feeling I plan to take away from it.” with me.
“Thanks for letting me be your Reddy. I had the best time of my life.”
