To describe the plot of Kaos in simple terms is quite a challenge; its complex and multilayered with dozens of characters all intersecting in fascinating and complicated ways. A big part of the enjoyment of watching is seeing the way the series reveals these connections throughout the season, but at a high level its a modern reinterpretation of Greek myth.Zeus (Jeff Goldblum) has had a pretty good run as the top god of Olympus, but one day he wakes up to find a new wrinkle on his face which sends him into a spiral of existential dread and fear of mortality (relatable). As his paranoia increases that the prophecy of his end is approaching, he becomes increasingly erratic. It doesnt help that theres dissension among the divine ranks of his family, and on Earth. There is a shift coming, a shift toward, well, chaos and there are many many moving parts, and many players both knowingly and unknowingly involved. Like I said, its complicated. But its also genius. And so very, very unapologetically queer. The writing is brilliant, witty, surprising, and clever. The cast is, well, worthy of a tale of the gods, and visually it is visionary. My gods, if you arent watching it, youre missing out on some truly stellar storytelling and one of the most compelling and steamy trans love stories this year.One of the players in this complex web is Caeneus (Misia Butler), a trans man adrift in purgatory, with the weight of a painful betrayal on his back. His job in the afterlife is to guide the dead through a frame to their final reward, regenerating and coming back to life again, reincarnated. Its a profoundly lonely existence; that is until he meets Riddy (Aurora Perrineau), a recently deceased woman who also has an important role to play in the prophecy. She's found herself trapped in purgatory after her husband steals the coin from her lips meant to pay Charon (Ramon Tikaram) to help her cross the River Styx. Riddy and Caeneus share an instant connection and one that blossoms into romance. However, because this is a Greek tragedy, things are complicated by the fact that her husband, Orpheus (Killian Scott), is tearing apart the fabric of existence to make his way to her in the underworld.If elements of that story and the characters name are ringing bells, its because the shows creator, Charlie Covell (The End of the F***ing World), lifted and reinterpreted them from classic Greek myth. Take the story of Caneaus who in the classical literature, was born female but was later transformed by Poseidon into a male. Making him our earliest trans hero. The effect of his inclusion in Kaos is subtle and poignantly radical because it underscores that trans people have not only existed since the dawn of time and storytelling, but that they are heroic, essential beings who are woven into the very fabric of humanity and fate. They are not a fad, not a modern anomaly, Kaos says, transness is core, it is essential, it is humanity.None of this is lost on Butler, who admits this is why hes always seen himself in and been drawn to the Greek classics and their innate queerness. Its always been something that I have been obsessed with for as long as I can remember, he tells PRIDE. Even in the very simple translations and iterations that you get as a child, you get a sense of this very queer perspective of the world that they have created through the myths. I think Charlie called the show Kaos because of reading in Ovids Metamorphoses a line about the world being begat out of chaos. The metamorphoses in themselves are all about change and the different ways in which we change and flow between different states. That at its core is a very queer concept.That comes through all throughout the series, where not only do queer characters and actors abound in this world, but Kaos infuses implicitly queer culture into its world-building, whether its making the Valkyries a gang of dykes on bikes, or populating the world with gay and pansexual romances were here and were queer.Its not just Caeneus story thats so woven into the fabric, but also all of The Fates (Suzy Eddie Izzard, Ch, and Sam Buttery). They are even more arcane and more woven into the very fabric of reality and being. Theyre all trans as well, Butler points out.Not only does this make for a more rich, compelling world, but it also means the show is able to do something all too rare: It doesnt hang all its trans representation on one character, dooming them to fail at giving audiences a broader view of the community. It also lifts some of the oppressive weight of that responsibility off the back of one actor. I was only part of a wider whole, and I didnt have that impetus or pressure to represent anything too holistically, because I could only ever represent a part of it, says Butler.Instead, Butler was free to play a far more rich and complex character for whom transness is only one part of his being. Its a role that the actor says is reflective of his own story. Im not someone who tends to go stealth a lot, I cant really anymore. Im pretty much open to the world, says Butler. Im very proud of being trans, and I think that theres a lot of power that I have found in it. Its been really tough at times, but its also been incredibly empowering, and I think that thats what we see with Caeneus is that his transness isnt ignored. Its not just dangled and tokenized. Its really integrated into who he is as a person. But it also doesnt take center stage. Its his love story with Riddy, his navigation of his mum and her betrayal and his death and just being in Purgatory and his dog, we have all these threads that we get to explore. As an actor, it was such a privilege to see it done with a trans role.Hes so very right: Its thrilling and moving to see a character like Caeneus being brought to life by an actor like Butler, because along with the simple pleasures of watching a good yarn unwind you can see the future of trans storytelling being written with every scene, every plot point, every trope-and-trap-defying moment. Falling in love with the character of Caeneus is not just possible, its inevitable, because Butler succeeds in infusing him with an aching pathos and a dreamy sad boy allure. Hes sweet, pure, and his attractiveness is gravitational. All of which is to say its not a stretch to believe that Riddy would not only be drawn to him but feel an instant cosmic connection, even in purgatory. Butler credits that crackling chemistry to a surprising demand from the director that he and Perrineau avoid one another until it was time to film their scene. When we shot that first scene on my first day on the bench where were kind of properly getting to know each other. That is very early days, [for] Misia and Aurora getting to know each other, too, Butler reveals. I hope that that translates as kind of that bubbly first chemistry because it really felt so exciting and special to be acting alongside someone as talented and beautiful and lovely as her.The ploy worked, and what comes across on screen are exactly those early moments of attraction, insecurity, magnetism, and eventually connection. Its sweet and its sexy and it feels excitingly like a paradigm shift in the way we see trans masc men presented on screen. Its really very revolutionary to see a transmasculine person be seen in this way and to have a sexual relationship with someone as well, agrees Butler.Sometimes trans masculine characters can be kind of desexualized, and I have felt really empowered by it. I really would love to do a rom-com. Im so obsessed with rom-coms and with romance movies, Ive always been a hopeless romantic. So to have the opportunity to play someone who is, yeah, deeply in love with someone in a way that I really resonated with, with Caeneus and the way that he falls in love, it felt really familiar. That probably also helps with the verisimilitude. After all, a major element of the series requires that you believe that two men would be willing to destroy the fabric of the universe for the love of one woman which makes Perrineau so perfect for the role. For Aurora Perrineau, we would! laughs Butler.That said, the question were left with is: Where do we go from here? The first season ends with a question of what happens next. While Butler cant reveal where Caeneus story will go next, one thing we both agree on is that were hopeful and praying to all the gods we get to find out.If you havent started streaming Kaos, theres no better time than right now. This show is doing the thing we crave: offering complex, exciting, boundary-breaking queer and trans characters, being heroic, villainous, knowing, and clueless. Its utterly, thrillingly, human even when they just so happen to be gods.