Kaos (Netflix)
When I saw the cast for this series, which has eight episodes, my immediate thought was ‘oh oh,’ because this features so many actors I love that I was worried it would raise my expectations too high. But I have good news. Kaos is fabulous.
Starting with ‘Jeff Goldblum plays Zeus,’ you get the idea that they have aimed very high with this production, and it paid off as they set the story in Olympus, but in contemporary times, so that Zeus and his fellow gods are struggling with bad internet connections and lost cell phones while at the same time trying to figure out how to deal with those pesky humans that are making their lives difficult.
I was also a little worried that the fact that I never even finished the textbook for our Greek mythology section in ninth grade English would hamper my ability to enjoy this series, but the creators have done a wonderful job of making the storyline easy to follow even if you don’t know your Greek gods and goddesses. Goldblum is fantastic as the egotistical but kind of fun-loving ruler of the universe, but he is actually not the only powerful presence, even in his own house, as the formidable Janet McTeer plays his wife, Hera, and she’s also terrific. McTeer has been a favorite of mine since she was nominated for an Oscar for Tumbleweeds in 2000. She received another nomination for her supporting role in Albert Nobbs in 2012, playing Glenn Closes’s lover.
But back to Kaos. Zeus has reached a crucial moment in his reign as ruler of the free world, and his stubborn insistence on continuing to do things his own way is jeopardizing not only his ability to rule, but the future of the free world, as his closest advisers keep trying to warn him. Among them is his brother Hades, played with pale perfection by another of my favorites, David Thewlis.
There is another twist in the plot when one of the mortals, a rock star named Orpheus, decides to enter the underworld in order to try and save someone, with the help of Zeus’s son Dionysus, who is trying to finally make his father believe that he’s worthy of a promotion.
All of these plotlines weave together brilliantly, and the series ends up being a perfect blend of big bombastic scenes that allow them to play with some god-like special effects, but also some very quiet moments between characters that are struggling with real emotions. The writing is terrific throughout.
And just when you think they’re thrown in every one of your favorites, Eddie Izzard suddenly appears as one of the Furies, and of course he’s incredible as always. This series is wonderful.
Five fortune cookies with an extra fortune in each cookie
War Game (in theaters)
I went to this film in the theater knowing nothin in advance about it, so it was a nice surprise. The premise is that a small group of people who are concerned about a repeat of January 6th decided to create a simulated scenario of what might happen this time around, and gather a group of people who have been high-ranking government officials in a room where they try to decide how to contend with the chaos that’s happening while Congress tries to certify the election results.
The scenario is familiar—the incumbent president wins (this was obviously filmed before the transition to Kamala), and his opponent is claiming the election was rigged, so crowds gather, not only in Washington but also in the capital cities of the swing states, trying to form a rebellion. The government officials that they chose for the war room include several former senators, and other members of various administrations, and they do a terrific job of approaching every situation that arises by presenting all the various approaches that they might take to address the problem.
In the other room are several fake operatives, made up of a few former military men, one of which is a professed former member of the radical far right, who come up with all the various curveballs to try and throw the war room off guard.
Probably the most impressive presence in the room, though, is former Montana governor Steve Bullock, who plays the president, and makes it clear from the beginning that he sees his main job as a leader to listen to every piece of information and analyze it all before he makes a decision. The way the tension grows as the protests and possible attacks start to mount feels very real throughout this film, and it’s unsettling, but it also makes you hope that anyone who might be involved in a possible scenario like this will watch this film.
Four and a half fortune cookies
The Bletchley Circle(Amazon Prime, Peacock)
I loved the premise for this show, which is why I decided to give it a shot. The story revolves around four women who worked together as code breakers during the second world war. They have all moved on with their lives, but when a serial killer starts a rampage in the hometown of one of the women, and nobody in the local police force will take her seriously when she notices a pattern in the killer’s behavior, she enlists the help of her three co-workers to try and solve the case.
One of the best parts about this series is that, because none of these women are allowed to talk about their former job during the war, they are all considered average housewives or office workers, so their work behind the scenes goes mostly undetected.
The chemistry between the four actresses is a big part of what makes this series fun, and Anne Maxwell Martin, who plays the ringleader, Susan, has a wonderfully humble presence while coming up with all kinds of brilliant theories.
The second season is not as satisfying, in large part because they end up writing Susan out of the series and replacing her with another partner. But the first ‘season,’ which is actually only two episodes, is terrific. Four fortune cookies
The Blacklist (Netflix)
James Spader is another favorite of mine, and with his erudite arrogance and mouth-pinching impatience with everyone else in the world, he’s perfect as Raymond ‘Red’ Reddington, a career criminal who has managed to avoid being captured for years, but suddenly surrenders to authorities in order to help them with a specific investigation. His only condition is that he will only communicate with one person, an FBI profiler named Elizabeth Keen, played by Megan Boone.
Reddington is kind of like Hannibel Lecter except with way more personality, and a more sarcastic sense of humor. The basic premise of the series is that Reddington has a list of people he has worked with in the past, people with whom he’s been displeased, and he helps Elizabeth in her efforts to work with the rest of her team to prevent crimes that Red knows are about to happen.
It’s definitely an interesting approach to a crime drama, but I honestly started getting tired of the fact that Red is always one step ahead of everyone else, and that every other character in the series comes across as only slightly competent in comparison. It becomes especially hard to swallow when Red doesn’t have access to any devices whatsoever, so everything he knows seems to come out of thin air. I’m perfectly capable of suspending disbelief in the interest of good entertainment, but when it starts to become annoying, I quickly lose interest, and that’s what happened with this one. I’m probably missing out on a lot of good stuff considering there are five seasons, but there are too many good series out there.
Two fortune cookies
Have you Got it Yet? The Story of Syd Barrett and Pink Floyd (Amazon Prime)
I’m a sucker for music documentaries, especially when they’re about a musician whose story is somewhat mysterious. Like most people from my generation, I know the name Syd Barrett, as one of the founding members of Pink Floyd, but I didn’t realize that he was the driving creative force behind the band in the beginning. Barrett hooked up with Roger Waters, Nick Mason, and Richard Wright in college, and they started making music with very little notion that they had any chance of becoming actual recording artists. Barrett was basically the only one in the band early on who wrote music, and when he discovered psychedelic drugs, his style became decidedly influenced by his drug use. But he was also something of a genius when it came to lyrics, use of sound, and unusual melodies.
The strength of this documentary is the fact that they were able to involve every other member of the band, as well as many of Barrett’s closest friends and family, to explore what happened to Barrett, and one of the most fascinating things about his story is that there doesn’t seem to be an easy answer, and many of these people who knew him best seem to agree that it might not even matter in the long run.
But here are some of the facts. When Pink Floyd (then known as The Pink Floyd) first started to draw some attention, Barrett immediately became uncomfortable with the attention, and it affected him in ways that made his behavior extremely erratic. Most of the band members dismiss the idea that it was just the drugs that caused this shift. It seems pretty clear that Barrett also had some mental health issues, but there are even questions about whether that was the cause of his change of behavior. Things took a drastic turn when Pink Floyd made their first trip to the US, and Barrett’s behavior became more and more bizarre, including an appearance on Dick Clark’s American Bandstand where Barrett either couldn’t or wouldn’t sing, which was a problem considering he was the lead singer for the band.
David Gilmour had been a long-time friend of everyone in the band, and when they invited him to join the band, Barrett’s inability to produce anything meaningful soon made it clear that they needed to let him go. But even after he left the band, Gilmour and Waters spent years trying to help him keep his career alive, working on his first two solo albums with him even though he became increasingly difficult to be around.
It’s a story that most of these people kind of refuse to label as tragic because the longer it went on, the more obvious it became that Barrett wasn’t really interested in continuing to do what made him famous. He lived almost forty years after leaving the band, and according to his sister, he was never able to work again, at anything, but she also doesn’t give any indication that he missed his old life. It’s a very odd story, one that explores the notion that there might be some people in that world that simply aren’t motivated by the things we generally associate with fame.
Four fortune cookies
Proof (not the one you think it is) (Peacock)
This Australian film is unlike any other movie I’ve seen. Hugo Weaving, before he was famous for the Lord of the Rings or The Matrix, plays Martin, a blind man who loves to wander around town and take polaroid photographs. He has a woman, Celia, that works for him, cleaning his house and helping with general shopping.
Genevieve Picot plays Celia, and she’s the glue of this film as she quietly does his bidding while trying to hide the fact that' she’s in love with Martin. But Martin knows it, and for reasons that are not clear at first, he is extremely irritated by the fact that she loves him, to the point where he torments her for it. Celia gets even with him in ways that are sometimes clever, like moving his furniture around, which only creates more tension in their relationship.
The story takes a new direction when Martin encounters a young waiter, Andy (played by a very young, very skinny Russell Crowe), in a restaurant, and Andy offers to tell him what’s in the photos he’s been taking. The two men develop a kind of sweet, very platonic relationship, including a hilarious scene where they decide to go to a drive inn movie, and while Andy is off getting food, Martin starts fishing around in Andy’s car and discovers a string of condoms, which he holds up, trying to figure out what it is, but the couple in the next car over think he’s taunting them, and Andy has to save him from a beating.
The story becomes complicated when Andy and Celia become involved, and neither of them want Martin to know because they rightly realize he will be angry. The dialogue in this movie is first rate, and the way the truth comes to light, and eventually reveals the source of Martin’s bitter attitude toward Celia, is really deftly handled.
Five fortune cookies
Can't wait to try KAOS. I've had lots of referrals from friends. And I LOVE the "Bletchley Circle." There are THREE episodes in Season One. I am obsessed with the subject. Did you see "Bletchley Circle: San Francisco" (2018)? I can't vouch, but might be worth a look.
Thanks for the KAOS tip. I started watching and couldn’t stop. It’s splendid my friend!!