''Chaos'' (stylized as ''CHAOS'') is an American comedic drama television series that aired on

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...

from April 1, to July 16, 2011, as a

mid-season replacement In American network television scheduling, a mid-season replacement is a television show that premieres in the second half of the traditional television season, usually between December and May. Mid-season replacements usually take place after a sh ...

for '' The Defenders''.

Premise

Threats to national security are investigated by a group of rogue

CIA The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian intelligence agency, foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gat ...

spies in the division of Clandestine Homeland Administration and Oversight Services (CHAOS), also trying to keep their jobs from being eliminated due to budget cuts. New agent Rick Martinez ( Freddy Rodriguez) joins the team as an in-house

mole Mole (or Molé) may refer to: Animals * Mole (animal) or "true mole", mammals in the family Talpidae, found in Eurasia and North America * Golden moles, southern African mammals in the family Chrysochloridae, similar to but unrelated to Talpida ...

for CIA National Clandestine Service Director H.J. Higgins (

Kurtwood Smith Kurtwood Larson Smith (born July 3, 1943) is an American television and film actor. He is known for playing Clarence Boddicker in ''RoboCop'' (1987), Robert Griggs in ''Rambo III'' (1988), and Red Forman in ''That '70s Show'' (1998–2006), as ...

). However, Martinez is quickly found out by the ODS (Office of Disruptive Services) team, who "turn" him for their own use.

Cast

* Freddy Rodriguez as CIA Field Agent/Operative Rick Martinez *

Christina Cole Christina Cole (born 8 May 1982) is an English actress known for portraying Cassie Hughes in the Sky One supernatural television series '' Hex''. Early life Born in London, Cole is the eldest of three siblings. She has a younger sister, Cassand ...

as NCS Deputy Director Adele Ferrer *

Carmen Ejogo Carmen Elizabeth Ejogo (; born 22 October 1973)

Intelligence Officer An intelligence officer is a person employed by an organization to collect, compile or analyze information (known as intelligence) which is of use to that organization. The word of ''officer'' is a working title, not a rank, used in the same way a ...

Fay Carson * James Murray as Field Agent/Operative Billy Collins *

Tim Blake Nelson Timothy Blake Nelson (born May 11, 1964) is an American actor and playwright. Described as a "modern character actor", his roles include Delmar O'Donnell in ''O Brother, Where Art Thou?'' (2000), Gideon in ''Minority Report'' (2002), Dr. Pendan ...

as Field Agent/Operative Casey Malick *

Eric Close Eric Randolph Close (born May 24, 1967) is an American actor, best known for his roles in television series, particularly as FBI agent Martin Fitzgerald in the CBS mystery drama ''Without a Trace'' (2002–2009) and Teddy Conrad in the ABC m ...

as Field Agent/Operative Michael Dorset *

as NCS Director H. J. Higgins

Development and production

In January 2010, CBS ordered production of a

pilot An aircraft pilot or aviator is a person who controls the flight of an aircraft by operating its directional flight controls. Some other aircrew members, such as navigators or flight engineers, are also considered aviators, because they a ...

written by

Tom Spezialy Tom Spezialy is an American television producer, director and screen writer. In 2007, began serving as executive producer of ''Reaper''. Career Spezialy began his career in 1989 writing for the CBS television series '' Doctor Doctor''. He has als ...

. Casting announcements began in mid-February, with Freddy Rodriguez being the first actor cast. Next to come on board were James Murray and Tim Blake Nelson. Eric Close joined the cast in early March, followed by Carmen Ejogo. Finally,

Stephen Rea Stephen Rea ( ; born 31 October 1946) is an Irish film and stage actor. Rea has appeared in films such as ''V for Vendetta'', ''Michael Collins'', ''Interview with the Vampire'' and ''Breakfast on Pluto''. Rea was nominated for the Academy Award ...

completed the main cast in mid-March. The pilot was filmed in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

. In late July, CBS announced that it had officially ordered 13 episodes of the series for a mid-season start. Kurtwood Smith joined the cast in November 2010, replacing Rea in the role of Director H.J. Higgins. Starting in mid-December 2010, ''CHAOS'' film crews were spotted and the actors photographed at various set locations around

Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...

– at the

Vancouver Rowing Club Vancouver Rowing Club (VRC) is a rowing club in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Originally formed in 1886 as the Vancouver Boating Club, the first clubhouse was built a year later. In 1890 one of the city's early athletic rivalries began whe ...

, in

Gastown Gastown is the original settlement that became the core of the city of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, and a national historic site and a neighbourhood in the northwest section of the Downtown Eastside, adjacent to Downtown Vancouver. Its hi ...

, on the rooftop of The Bay, at the Terminal City Iron Works, and at mansions in the Shaughnessy and

Point Grey Point Grey ( Squamish: Elḵsn) is a headland marking the southern entrance to English Bay and Burrard Inlet. The headland is the site of Wreck Beach, Tower Beach, Point Grey Beach and most notably, since 1925, on its top is the Point Grey Campu ...

neighborhoods – with these locations standing in for exotic locales around the world. On April 15, 2011, the CBS series went on hiatus after 3 episodes due to low ratings. After ''CHAOS'' was removed from CBS's schedule on April 19, filming on the remaining episodes continued in and around

until the originally scheduled completion date of May 2.

Episodes

For unknown reasons CBS aired the episodes out of chronological order. The production codes in the episode table reveal the originally intended order.

International distribution

In Canada, the show was simsubbed on the

Global Television Network The Global Television Network (more commonly called Global, or occasionally Global TV) is a Canadian English-language terrestrial television network. It is currently Canada's second most-watched private terrestrial television network after ...

. In New Zealand, the show had a late-night slot from October 4, 2013 through to the end of December on TV3.

Reception

Critical reception

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, 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 arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

assigned ''CHAOS'' a score of 50, signifying mixed or average reviews.

Ratings

The series premiered with 6.53 million viewers and a 1.1 rating in the adults 18–49 demo. The rating equaled the lowest ratings achieved by ''Medium'' and ''The Defenders'' in the same slot, also the lowest rating for any CBS drama this season.

Hiatus

CBS removed the series from the schedule on April 18, 2011, after airing three episodes of the 13-episode order, and placed it on hiatus. The series resumed with episode 4 and episode 5 on May 28. The final episodes aired on Saturdays at 8 pm Eastern.

Awards

Series star Freddy Rodriguez won an Imagen Award in the category "Best Actor/Television" from The

Imagen Foundation The Imagen Awards are administered by the Imagen Foundation, an organization dedicated to "encouraging and recognizing the positive portrayals of Latinos in the entertainment industry." To be considered for an Imagen Award, a media piece or person ...

for his role as Rick Martinez in ''CHAOS'' on August 12, 2011.

References

External links

*{{IMDb title, 1591468, CHAOS
Press Releases for each episode at TheFutonCritic
2010s American comedy-drama television series 2011 American television series debuts 2011 American television series endings American action adventure television series CBS original programming English-language television shows Espionage television series Television series by 20th Century Fox Television Television series by CBS Studios Television shows filmed in Vancouver Television shows set in Virginia