‘Chaos' Is a Morning Show Dramedy With Verve
That is especially true for Lise (Katrine Greis-Rosenthal), who anchors the show with her husband, Martin (Hadi Ka-Koush). They smile through tepid human-interest stories about giant eggplants and unusually old dogs, but off camera, the cheery act is harder to maintain: He's ready for kids, she definitely isn't and thinks she may never be. So when she meets Johannes (Jacob Lohmann), a scruffy, emotionally wounded chef who is trying out van life for a while, she is drawn both to him and to the premise of a less conventional life.
The staff at 'Denmark Awakes' scrambles to grow its ratings, but attracting new, younger viewers is not easy. A brainstorming meeting concludes with three big ideas on the whiteboard: 'MERMAN,' 'DON'T SCARE MEN' and 'DIRECTION.' Hmm. Maybe Johannes could do a segment, Lise suggests. And let's have Lise and Martin take DNA tests onscreen! That is sure to be a trouble-free exercise with no unexpected results.
Even though it is set at a morning show, this is — mercifully — not at all like 'The Morning Show,' which is tediously trapped in its miasma of self-regard. 'Chaos' is brisk and frisky, juiced by a rom-com engine and by the countdown toward the show-within-the-show's cancellation. Is Lise's life collapsing or beginning? Is everything falling apart, or was everything barely held together in the first place? Impending doom sucks, but would Lise be brave enough to make big changes without that pressure? Would anyone?
'Chaos' is light but not dumb, credible but still arch. Its eight episodes are snappy and precise: no split timelines, no pointless subplots.
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New York Times
a day ago
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3 days ago
Foreign couples flock to Denmark to get married. Copenhagen wants to save room for locals
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