''Now Apocalypse'' is an American

comedy Comedy is a genre of fiction that consists of discourses or works intended to be humorous or amusing by inducing laughter, especially in theatre, film, stand-up comedy, television, radio, books, or any other entertainment medium. The term o ...

television series that aired for one season of ten episodes from March 10 to May 12, 2019, on Starz. The series was written by

Gregg Araki Gregg Araki (born December 17, 1959) is an American filmmaker. He is noted for his heavy involvement with the New Queer Cinema movement. His film '' Kaboom'' (2010) was the first winner of the Cannes Film Festival Queer Palm. Early life and e ...

and

Karley Sciortino Karley Sciortino is an American writer, television host, and producer. She is the founder of ''Slutever'', a website that focuses on sex and sexuality, and executive producer and host of the ''Viceland'' documentary series Slutever (TV series), o ...

. Araki also was director and executive producer alongside Steven Soderbergh and

Gregory Jacobs Gregory Jacobs (born August 14, 1968) is an American film director, assistant director, producer, and screenwriter. He has frequently collaborated with several film directors, most notably Steven Soderbergh, as well as directing himself, having ...

. Starz canceled the series on July 26, 2019.

Premise

Ulysses, his friends Carly and Ford, and Ford's girlfriend Severine navigate love, sex, and fame in Los Angeles. Troubled by sinister, premonitory dreams, Ulysses wonders if the end of the world as we know it is coming, or if he is simply suffering some kind of marijuana-fueled delusions.

Cast and characters

Main

Avan Jogia Avan Tudor Jogia (; born February 9, 1992) is a Canadian actor. He first received recognition for portraying Danny Araujo in the television film '' A Girl Like Me: The Gwen Araujo Story'' (2006). After moving to the United States in his late te ...

as Ulysses Zane, Carly's best friend. *

Kelli Berglund Kelli Berglund (born February 9, 1996) is an American actress. She is known for portraying Bree Davenport in the Disney XD series '' Lab Rats'', and its spinoff '' Lab Rats: Elite Force''. In 2014 she starred in the Disney Channel Original Movie ...

as Carly Carlson, the best friend of Ulysses, who also happens to be a struggling actress and cam girl. According to Uly, Carly also suffers from anxiety. *

Beau Mirchoff William Beau Mirchoff (; born January 13, 1989) is a Canadian-American actor best known for his role in the MTV series ''Awkward'', his role as Jamie Hunter in '' Good Trouble'', and his role in ''Now Apocalypse'' on Starz. Early life Mirchoff ...

as Ford Halstead, Ulysses' straight roommate. * Roxane Mesquida as Severine Bordeaux, Ford's girlfriend.

Recurring

* Evan Hart as Lars * Taylor Hart as Klaus *

Tyler Posey Tyler may refer to: People and fictional characters * Tyler (name), an English name; with lists of people with the surname or given name * Tyler, the Creator (born 1991), American rap artist and producer * John Tyler, 10th president of the United ...

as Gabriel *

Desmond Chiam Desmond Chiam is an Australian actor best known for his role as Wyatt Cole on '' Reef Break,'' General Riga on '' The Shannara Chronicles'' and Dovich on ''The Falcon and the Winter Soldier.'' Early life and education Chiam was born to parents ...

as Jethro *

Kevin Daniels Kevin Dwight Daniels Jr. (born December 9, 1976 in San Diego, California), is an American actor who started his career with a supporting role in the 1998 film ''Twelfth Night, or What You Will'' by director Nicholas Hytner. He has appeared i ...

as Barnabas * Grace Victoria Cox as Amber * Mary Lynn Rajskub as Frank * Chris Aquilino as Kai * Avra Friedman as Magenta *

Henry Rollins Henry Lawrence Garfield (born February 13, 1961), known professionally as Henry Rollins, is an American singer, writer, spoken word artist, actor, and presenter. After performing in the short-lived hardcore punk band State of Alert in 1980, Roll ...

as Mitchell Kent *

RJ Mitte Roy Frank "RJ" Mitte III (; born August 21, 1992) is an American actor, best known for playing Walter "Flynn" White Jr. on the AMC series '' Breaking Bad'' (2008–2013). Like his character on the show, he has cerebral palsy. After moving to ...

as Leif *

Jacob Artist Jacob Artist (born October 17, 1992) is an American actor, singer, and dancer. He is best known for his roles as Jake Puckerman on the Fox musical comedy-drama series '' Glee'' and as Brandon Fletcher on the ABC drama-thriller series '' Quanti ...

as Isaac *

James Duval James Edward Duval is an American actor. He is known for his roles in the Gregg Araki ''Teenage Apocalypse'' film trilogy—''Totally F***ed Up'', ''The Doom Generation'', and '' Nowhere''. His other notable roles include Miguel in ''Independence ...

as Homeless man

Episodes

Production

Development

was inspired to do television by the mystery series ''

Twin Peaks ''Twin Peaks'' is an American mystery serial drama television series created by Mark Frost and David Lynch. It premiered on ABC on April 8, 1990, and originally ran for two seasons until its cancellation in 1991. The show returned in 2017 for ...

'', which he called "so ground-breaking and artistic and unusual and just its totally own thing". He directed episodes of several television series, but was hesitant to run his own show until he thought about the story potential of life in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...

. Araki presented the idea to writer

, who started working with him on the script.

, who had worked with Araki on ''

Red Oaks The genus ''Quercus'' contains about 500 species, some of which are listed here. The genus, as is the case with many large genera, is divided into subgenera and sections. Traditionally, the genus ''Quercus'' was divided into the two subgenera ' ...

'', joined the project and brought in Steven Soderbergh. The production designer, costume designer, and director of photography have previously worked on other projects with Araki. On March 26, 2018, it was announced that Starz had given ''Now Apocalypse'' a series order for a first season of ten episodes. The series is written by Araki and Sciortino, and directed by Araki. The series is executive produced by Soderbergh, Jacobs, and Araki. On December 10, 2018, it was announced that the series would premiere on March 10, 2019. On March 22, 2019, the eight remaining episodes of season one were released online and on demand. They also continued to air weekly. Starz canceled the series on July 26, 2019. Araki later stated that he was shopping the series to other networks.

Casting

In June 2018, it was announced that

, and Roxane Mesquida had joined the main cast and that Evan Hart, Taylor Hart,

, Chris Aquilino, Desmond Chiam,

, and Grace Victoria Cox had been cast in recurring roles. On July 2, 2018, it was reported that

and Avra Friedman had joined the cast in a recurring capacity.

Filming

The ten episodes of the series were shot in 40 days.

Reception

Critical response

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

the series holds an approval rating of 78% based on 32 reviews, with an average score of 6.42 out of 10. The website's critical consensus reads: "Marrying filmmaker Gregg Araki's frisky style with heady conspiracies and literary allusions, ''Now Apocalypse''s bodacious aesthetics and philosophical pondering may prove too deliberately offbeat and garish for some."

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

assigned the series a weighted average score of 64 out of 100 based on 12 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

Ratings

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Now Apocalypse 2010s American LGBT-related comedy television series 2010s American sitcoms 2019 American television series debuts 2019 American television series endings Apocalyptic television series English-language television shows Starz original programming Bisexuality-related television series Male bisexuality in fiction