The gods must be crazy—crazy about the oversaturated TV market, that is! Netflix’s Kaos promises a new, modern spin on Greek mythology, which casts buzzy actors like Jeff Goldblum, Billie Piper, and Cliff Curtis as figures from the ancient pantheon of gods and myths. Prophecies, gender politics, and inter-god infighting will rule the eight-episode series set in contemporary times. Expect deities in tracksuits, neon-lit bacchanalia, and a budget large enough to honor the spectacular and gruesome exploits that proliferate Greek mythology.
But even though it’s pointedly contemporary, Kaos’ pitch doesn’t resonate as particularly ground-breaking—maybe because the streaming era is littered with smarmy, winking looks at the all-too-relatable ennui and insecurities of gods. Keen to make a postmodern stamp on whatever types of storytelling audiences think they’ve seen before, there are legions of miniseries and multi-season attempts to see the mythos of ancient societies and major religions in an irreverent, satirical light. Many of them share the same DNA: gods mirror the apathetic superrich; the afterlife is a fussy bureaucracy; angels and demons treat Earth-shattering events with a flippant dismissiveness.
Is there a way to unpack our modern relationship to gods and myth in a way that doesn’t feel reductive and glib? On the other end, what does it look like when a series grabs our attention with a too-sincere, sensationalist take on God? To warm you up for Kaos’ revelry, here are 10 shows about one of the oldest fictional topics, all from the streaming era.
1. Lucifer (2016-2021)
Lucifer is God’s son in this DC Vertigo adaptation that was scooped up by Netflix after a third season FOX cancellation (remember when Netflix was in the “saving TV shows” business?). Miranda heartthrob Tom Ellis was well-suited for the sardonic, acerbic felled angel role where he… works for the cops? Trust an above-average TV procedural to find the most boring job for one of fiction’s most interesting characters. The show wrapped up on Netflix after a respectable five seasons and a cameo in The CW’s “Crisis on Infinite Earths,” but to be honest, if you were a B-list or below actor who had ever played a DC character and didn’t appear in Arrowverse crossovers, you need to fire your agent.
2. American Gods (2017-2021)
It’s not the best time to be writing a list featuring multiple Neil Gaiman adaptations, but the prolific writer has been interested in humanizing myths and deities for a long time. This series was technically broadcast on Starz, but was also available on the Starz app before it aired on the network, so we’re counting it here. The epic but undeniably ropey saga charts a fight between the New Gods (who include Media and Technology) and the Old Gods (featuring Odin, Anubis, Czernobog, Anansi); if you love interfaith fantasy and bickering deities, this fits the bill.
3. The Chosen (2017-)
This Christian historical production has a lot of accolades: it’s the first multi-season series about the life and teachings of Jesus Christ; it was the most successful crowdfunded TV or film project in history; its first theatrical release, a Christmas special in December 2021, broke all previous Fathom Events box office records (The Chosen franchise accounts for six of Fathom Events’ top 10 money-earners). It’s got a bizarre broadcast history—The Chosen first aired on VidAngel’s subscription service before becoming free to watch on The Chosen app during COVID lockdowns, before BYUtv (yes, Brigham Young University’s television channel) picked up broadcast rights, and then the show was licensed to Netflix, Prime, Peacock, and more services. By the time The CW got on board with the fourth season, it was clear as day to big networks that money could still be made in conservative faith programming.
4. Good Omens (2019-2023)
Initially a miniseries adapting Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman’s uneven faith fantasy, this Amazon Original manifested an unnecessary but fun second season from the sheer joy of seeing David Tennant and Michael Sheen as an angel and demon odd couple. It’s the archetypal treatment of heaven and hell in streaming fiction: irreverent, bureaucratic, satirical, but ultimately still a softball critique of religious dogma. Pratchett’s mockery of Christianity garnered more controversy before the Internet Age, but Christian satire that focuses on “the end times” still feels a bit insipid. Sure, a Revelation-style apocalypse gives you proper stakes, but no one apart from the most conservative believers actually thinks Rapture fire will actually cleanse the Earth, and they’re definitely not watching queer-coded Amazon Originals.
5. Evil (2019-2024)
Now, here’s a mystery procedural about God we can get behind! Satan and his minions have infiltrated New York, and God, in his predictably passive wisdom, has left it up to the Catholic Church to clean it up. A seminarian, a forensic psychologist, and a tech contractor have to suss out just how demonically infected their city has become, and showrunner power couple Michelle and Robert King know that the case-of-the-week procedural is America’s greatest weapon in the fight against the Devil. For the superfans, trust that everybody involved in the show is attempting a last-minute exorcism to bring the Paramount+ show back from the Prematurely Canceled TV Show circle of hell it’s currently stuck in.
6. Messiah (2020)
Over four years later, we can acknowledge just how nuts Netflix’s Messiah was. Working from a premise that Dan Brown would be proud of, Michelle Monaghan is a CIA agent tasked with figuring out if a messianic new preacher really is actually the second coming of Christ, which of course would mean the end of the world. Blending perspectives from every Abrahamic religion and drawing on real, charged moments from recent Middle Eastern history, Messiah was the kind of baffling international event TV that it’s not clear if Netflix should attempt more often or less.
7. Ragnarok (2020-2023)
Norwegian critics were not kind to this modern-day retelling of Norse mythology with a bunch of teenagers, but it went on for three seasons on Netflix (well, three European seasons, which means there’s a grand total of 18 episodes). In a fictional small town, a local industrial family turns out to be god-like jötnars, and are confronted by a teenager who learns he’s the reincarnation of Thor. Reimagined versions of Loki, Freyja, Odin, Heimdall, and many more turn up alongside Thor, and despite the teen-heavy melodrama, the ropey climate-change-is-Ragnarok metaphor gets points for effort.
8. Blood of Zeus (2020-)
Did we hear anyone ask for a Zeus zaddy? Blood of Zeus is an anime-styled series about Heron, the invented demigod son of Zeus (well, they’re all invented, but this one was invented by an Austin-based animation studio). Heron is trying to save Olympus and Earth from demons, giants, and feuding gods, all while figuring out his conflicted, unhealthy relationship with his father, who happens to be the king of the gods. Don’t worry, Heron, there’s like a hundred other people like you trying to figure out the same thing.
9. God’s Favorite Idiot (2022)
Hollywood power couple Ben Falcone and Melissa McCarthy have struggled to spin gold for nearly the entirety of their creative partnership, and this single half-season Netflix sitcom is somehow even more forgettable than Thunder Force, Superintelligence, or Life of the Party. Falcone co-leads with his wife McCarthy as a tech support worker picked as the new messenger of God. Clearly, the ostensibly audacious sitcom struggled to stand out in a streaming landscape of exclusively high-concept new projects and did not spread the word enough, as the second batch of eight episodes has yet to be produced.
10. Percy Jackson & the Olympians (2023-)
One of those ambitious blockbuster streaming shows that wants to be seen as “doing right by a popular IP,” Percy Jackson went down a little smoother than Netflix’s The Last Airbender a few months after. In the Logan Lerman films—seen as perfunctory by general audiences but sacrilegious to fans of Rick Riordan’s books—the pantheon of Greek mythology was portrayed by A-listers like Sean Bean, Pierce Brosnan, and also some actors who didn’t star in GoldenEye. The TV series casts a lot of modern TV heroes like Jason Mantzoukas, Megan Mullaly, and the late Lance Reddick, and tries its best to match the infectiously nerdy attention to detail that author and series co-creator Riordan brought to his novels.
Rory Doherty is a screenwriter, playwright and culture writer based in Edinburgh, Scotland. You can follow his thoughts about all things stories @roryhasopinions.
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