Aidonian's blog

What is the tv show about?

The all-powerful yet insecure god Zeus starts to fear his end of reign once he notices a wrinkle on his forehead, possibly indicating the end of the world. He becomes paranoid and vengeful towards his devotees. Meanwhile, three humans start to discover their connections with each other and grand conspiracies involving the Greek gods.

My initial thoughts?

Every time a new show or movie is released that delves into Greek mythology, i’m curious about the end result.

My initial thoughts are that its not bad. Its a dark comedy showcasing the Greek Gods as humanlike as they were portrayed in the myths. What was different is that the Greek Gods were still worshipped in modern times as it is set in modern times, but on Crete. That was a nice touch that you don’t usually see. The show focusses on several Gods and mortals as they do a retelling of ancient Greek myths like the myth of the Minotaur and Ariadne, Orpheus and Eurydike. The main characters are Orpheus, Eurydike, Ariadne, Zeus, Hera, Poseidon, Hades and Dionysos. Persephone also appears. Prometheus is the narrator of the show but also participant. The cast was well chosen and they have the acting skills to pull it off. Except for Zeus. Zeus is played by Jeff Goldblum and Jeff always plays himself. But he makes it fun. Especially if he goes towards a darker turn.

Hera is excellent portrayed here. She is powerful, menacing and caring at the same time.

Poseidon is portrayed here by Cliff Curtis. In this version, Poseidon and Hera are having an affair. They are both annoyed with Zeus’ antics but don’t have the power to do anything about it.

Dionysos is not done any real justice here. The actor was ok in what he does with the material. When on Olympos He sees Ariadne for the first time, He falls in love. Which was nicely done because in the myths, Ariadne becomes his wife when he finds her on a island after being deserted by Theseus on their way back to Athens. They do showcase his bisexuality here but its brief. Which is also attested in the myths. What is not attested is that Prometheus is gay and had a relationship with Kharon before the latter became the ferryman.

Orpheus and Eurydike. I think we all know the story where Eurydike dies, goes into the Underworld where Orpheus goes after her and was able to convince Hades and Persephone to release her and They did but on the condition that he couldn’t look back before they reached Earth again. Right before they did, Orpheus looked back and Eurydike was dragged back into the Underworld. Here the story goes a bit different as Eurydike is involved into a prophecy concerning the Gods. The story here of Orpheus and Eurydike is tragic. She fell out of love with him as he was still madly in love with her but she didn’t have the heart to leave him. That prophecy details: a line appear, the order wanes, family falls, Kaos reigns. It drives Zeus mad with paranoia.

Like i said, its a retelling of these myths that was nicely done here. I’m sure some people won’t like the representation of LGTBQ here but also straight relationships are showcased here. So its in line in how the ancient world was, but im sure many conservatives once they caught this, will flip out.

The pacing was good. No real dull moments here. At least not in my opinion. The actors were great in their respective roles. You do get that there is entire world out there beyond what we see in the show. There are a lot of Gods missing but i assume that they did it so it wouldn’t get to crowded in there.

What I didn’t like is that the Gods were supposdly once mortals who transcended into Gods. It happened after Zeus killed Kronos and absorbed his soul and he wanted more, so he and his family became immortal Gods by transfering souls into Meander. So mortal souls who go into the frame, go into the Nothing where the energy of the souls is transfered into water called Meander that sustains the immortality of the Gods. So they got rid of the Nector and ambrosia. That was something I did not like about it. Its something i can get over it.

overal its an entertaining show.