''Now Apocalypse'' is an American

comedy Comedy is a genre of dramatic 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. Origins Comedy originated in ancient Greec ...

television series that aired for one season of ten episodes from March 10 to May 12, 2019, on

Starz Starz (stylized in all caps as STARZ; pronounced "stars") is an American pay television network owned by Starz Entertainment, and is the flagship property of Starz Inc. Launched in 1994 as a multiplex service of what is now Starz Encore, ...

. The series was written by

Gregg Araki Gregg Araki (born December 17, 1959) is an American filmmaker. He is noted for his involvement with the New Queer Cinema movement. His ''Teenage Apocalypse'' film trilogy, consisting of ''Totally F***ed Up ''(1993), ''The Doom Generation ''(1995) ...

and Karley Sciortino. Araki also was director and executive producer alongside

Steven Soderbergh Steven Andrew Soderbergh ( ; born January 14, 1963) is an American film director, producer, screenwriter, cinematographer, and editor. A pioneer of modern Independent film, independent cinema, Soderbergh later drew acclaim for formally inventiv ...

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 after one season 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, singer, author and director. 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 ...

as Ulysses Zane, Carly's best friend *

Kelli Berglund Kelli Michelle Berglund (born February 9, 1996) is an American actress. She is known for portraying Bree Davenport in the Disney XD series '' Lab Rats'' and '' Lab Rats: Elite Force'' and also guest starred in ''Mighty Med''. In 2014, she starre ...

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 Mirchof ...

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 Garcia-Posey (born October 18, 1991) is an American actor and musician. He began his career as a child actor and received recognition for his role as Raul Garcia in ''Doc (2001 TV series), Doc'' (2001–2004) and Ty Ventura in ''Maid in Man ...

as Gabriel * Desmond Chiam 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 in ...

as Barnabas * Grace Victoria Cox as Amber *

Mary Lynn Rajskub Mary Lynn Rajskub () is an American actress and comedian who is best known for portraying Chloe O'Brian in the action thriller series '' 24'' and Gail the Snail in ''It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia''. Rajskub was a regular cast member on HBO' ...

as Frank * Chris Aquilino as Kai * Avra Friedman as Magenta * Devan Chandler Long as Otto West *

Henry Rollins Henry Lawrence Garfield (born February 13, 1961), known professionally as Henry Rollins, is an American singer, writer, spoken word artist, actor, comedian, and presenter. After performing in the short-lived hardcore punk band State of Alert in 1 ...

as Mitchell Kent *

RJ Mitte Roy Frank "RJ" Mitte III (; born August 21, 1992) is an American actor and producer. Born and raised in Jackson, Mississippi, Mitte was diagnosed with cerebral palsy when he was three. He moved to Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, Hollywood i ...

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 List of Glee characters#Jake Puckerman, Jake Puckerman on the Fox Broadcasting Company, Fox musical comedy-drama series ''Glee (TV ser ...

as Isaac *

James Duval James Edward Duval (born September 10, 1972) is an American actor. He is known for his roles in ''Independence Day'' (1996), '' Go'' (1999), ''Donnie Darko'' (2001), ''May'' (2002), and the films of Gregg Araki. Duval has starred in numerous in ...

as Homeless man

Episodes

Production

Development

was inspired to do television by the mystery series ''

Twin Peaks ''Twin Peaks'' is an American Surrealist cinema, surrealist Mystery film, mystery-Horror film, horror Drama (film and television), drama television series created by Mark Frost and David Lynch. It Pilot (Twin Peaks), premiered on American Broad ...

'', 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, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

. Araki presented the idea to writer Karley Sciortino, who started working with him on the script.

, who had worked with Araki on ''

Red Oaks ''Red Oaks'' is an American comedy drama television series created by Joe Gangemi and Gregory Jacobs. The first season was released on Amazon Prime Video on October 9, 2015. On December 18, 2015, Amazon announced that the show would be returnin ...

'', joined the project and brought in

. 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

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 after one season 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 aggregator, 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 ...

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 an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

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

Ratings

References

External links

* {{Starz Shows 2010s American LGBTQ-related sitcoms 2010s American single-camera sitcoms 2019 American television series debuts 2019 American television series endings Apocalyptic television series American English-language television shows Starz original programming Bisexuality-related television series Male bisexuality in fiction LGBTQ speculative fiction television series