# Now Apocalypse
**Now Apocalypse** is an American comedy television series created by filmmaker [Gregg Araki](https://www.edgepedia.org/gregg-araki) for the Starz network, running for ten half-hour episodes in 2019. It follows four friends in Los Angeles pursuing love, sex, and fame while the protagonist, Ulysses, is troubled by premonitory dreams that make him wonder whether a dark, monstrous conspiracy is underway, or whether he is simply smoking too much marijuana before bed.[1](https://www.bellmedia.ca/the-lede/tv/starz/now-apocalypse/) Araki co-wrote the series with Karley Sciortino, a sex writer and creator of Viceland's *Slutever*, and directed all ten episodes; [Steven Soderbergh](https://www.edgepedia.org/steven-soderbergh) and Gregory Jacobs served as executive producers.[2](https://www.thewrap.com/now-apocalypse-canceled-starz-1-season/)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Network and format | Starz original series, 10 half-hour episodes, directed by Gregg Araki[2](https://www.thewrap.com/now-apocalypse-canceled-starz-1-season/) |
| Premiere | Sundance Film Festival on January 29, 2019; Starz debut March 10, 2019[3](https://www.metacritic.com/tv/now-apocalypse/critic-reviews/) |
| Main cast | Avan Jogia as Ulysses, Kelli Berglund as Carly, Beau Mirchoff as Ford, Roxane Mesquida as Severine[1](https://www.bellmedia.ca/the-lede/tv/starz/now-apocalypse/) |
| Critical scores | 79% on the Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer (33 reviews); Metascore 64 on Metacritic[4](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/now_apocalypse/s01) • [3](https://www.metacritic.com/tv/now-apocalypse/critic-reviews/) |
| Viewership | The fifth episode aired to 85,000 viewers, described by *The New Yorker* as lousy by cable standards[5](https://www.newyorker.com/culture/on-television/the-ennobling-smut-of-gregg-arakis-now-apocalypse) |
| Cancellation | Starz COO Jeffrey Hirsch announced on July 26, 2019 that the series would not return for a second season[2](https://www.thewrap.com/now-apocalypse-canceled-starz-1-season/) |
## Premise and characters
The series centers on Ulysses ([Avan Jogia](https://www.edgepedia.org/avan-jogia)), a gay stoner in his twenties who works a security job, vlogs, and navigates dating-app hookups while searching for a real relationship.[6](https://www.them.us/story/now-apocalypse-gregg-araki-interview) His visions of a human-size, Godzilla-like alien creature, appearing in sexually violent scenes, could be nightmares, premonitions, reality, or a side effect of marijuana; as the encounters grow more vivid, he discovers a lizard-people conspiracy theorist on YouTube, played by punk icon [Henry Rollins](https://www.edgepedia.org/henry-rollins), and begins to fear a cataclysm.[7](https://time.com/5546785/now-apocalypse-tv-review/)
His three friends run parallel storylines. Carly ([Kelli Berglund](https://www.edgepedia.org/kelli-berglund)) is an aspiring actress who pays for acting classes by working as a cam girl.[7](https://time.com/5546785/now-apocalypse-tv-review/) Ford ([Beau Mirchoff](https://www.edgepedia.org/beau-mirchoff)), Ulysses's straight roommate, is an aspiring screenwriter from a wealthy family whose relationship with Severine (Roxane Mesquida), a French scientist, opens toward non-monogamy.[6](https://www.them.us/story/now-apocalypse-gregg-araki-interview) Araki summarized the mixture as "queer Sex and the City meets Twin Peaks. With an alien."
## Creation and production
Araki said he had wanted to make a television show for twenty years and had long aimed at a "surreal, Twin Peaks-y show." After directing episodes of other series including *Riverdale*, *13 Reasons Why*, and *American Crime*, he wrote the pilot with Sciortino and showed it to producer Greg Jacobs, whose partner Steven Soderbergh had a deal with Starz; the project moved to a greenlight quickly, and Araki described receiving creative carte blanche.[6](https://www.them.us/story/now-apocalypse-gregg-araki-interview) He assembled a crew drawn largely from his independent films, including cinematographer Sandra Valde-Hansen, and shot the whole season in about two months.[8](https://hero-magazine.com/article/145465/gregg-araki-now-apocalypse) • [9](https://d2p1nnn035jt22.cloudfront.net/pdf_uploads/shoot_may-june_2019_edition.pdf) Starz made the entire first season available on its digital and on-demand platforms at launch.[2](https://www.thewrap.com/now-apocalypse-canceled-starz-1-season/)
## Style and themes
The show carries Araki's signature visual approach: rich, highly saturated neon colors and a blend of the soapy, the psychological, and the supernatural.[6](https://www.them.us/story/now-apocalypse-gregg-araki-interview) Its characters are millennials rather than the Gen-Xers of Araki's 1990s films, and the dialogue engages with dating apps, vlogging, and the film industry's decline in the face of blockbusters.[10](https://nowtoronto.com/movies/tv-review-now-apocalypse-is-maximal-gregg-araki/) Sciortino said she and Araki were deliberate in letting characters explore attraction without tying themselves to fixed labels.[11](https://www.tvguide.com/news/features/now-apocalypse-sex-liberation-labels/) The series also includes an assault plotline that Araki connected to contemporary discussions of consent and abuse of power, drawing on things he had observed in Hollywood.[6](https://www.them.us/story/now-apocalypse-gregg-araki-interview)
## Relation to Araki's earlier work
Araki became a cult figure in the 1990s as part of the New Queer Cinema movement, with films such as *The Living End* (1992), *The Doom Generation* (1995), and *[Nowhere](https://www.edgepedia.org/nowhere-1997-film)* (1997), which mixed cartoonish violence, sexual fluidity, and ironic pop culture references.[10](https://nowtoronto.com/movies/tv-review-now-apocalypse-is-maximal-gregg-araki/) Critics identified *Now Apocalypse* as a quasi-sequel to *Nowhere* and a fleshed-out, episodic counterpart to his 2010 film *Kaboom*, both of which feature young protagonists beset by apocalyptic premonitions.[12](https://www.frieze.com/article/gregg-arakis-now-apocalypse-amplifies-disaffections-and-distractions-internet-age) • [13](https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2019/mar/09/now-apocalypse-gregg-araki-review-starz) Reviewers generally found the television format softer than his early films: *The Guardian* wrote that with Starz's backing Araki's vision felt "somewhat mainstream, even a little sanitized," and *NOW Magazine* placed it among the sweeter entries in his filmography, closer to *Smiley Face* than to *The Doom Generation*.[13](https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2019/mar/09/now-apocalypse-gregg-araki-review-starz) • [10](https://nowtoronto.com/movies/tv-review-now-apocalypse-is-maximal-gregg-araki/)
## Reception
The season holds a 79% Tomatometer score on Rotten Tomatoes from 33 critics, with a 70% audience Popcornmeter score, and a Metascore of 64 on Metacritic, classified as generally favorable with seven positive and five mixed reviews and none negative.[4](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/now_apocalypse/s01) • [3](https://www.metacritic.com/tv/now-apocalypse/critic-reviews/) *The Hollywood Reporter* called it "weird and funny and kinky and outlandish and utterly ridiculous," while *Variety* found the story a "warmed-over rehash of sharper material" that pushed its oddity to the limits of many viewers' patience.[3](https://www.metacritic.com/tv/now-apocalypse/critic-reviews/) *The New Yorker*'s Troy Patterson described it as "simultaneously an off-kilter erotic comedy, a camp romance, and a coming-of-age thriller" that "redeems the grosser excesses of Araki's movies."[5](https://www.newyorker.com/culture/on-television/the-ennobling-smut-of-gregg-arakis-now-apocalypse) *Time* placed it among the best television shows of 2019 to date, calling it "premium cable's weirdest show."[14](https://time.com/5588923/best-tv-shows-2019-so-far/)
## Cancellation
Starz COO Jeffrey Hirsch announced at the Television Critics Association press tour on July 26, 2019 that the series would not return, calling it a "great show" and a "great experiment" while confirming the decision not to continue.[2](https://www.thewrap.com/now-apocalypse-canceled-starz-1-season/) • [15](https://www.tvguide.com/news/now-apocalypse-canceled-no-season-2/) The first season had ended on a cliffhanger, and *Time* later listed the cancellation among the year's notable losses, noting that the show's sci-fi side story, involving the alien creature and the conspiracy theorist, had made only slow progress toward its endgame.[16](https://time.com/5752550/tv-shows-you-missed-2019/)
## References
1. [Now Apocalypse, Bell Media program page](https://www.bellmedia.ca/the-lede/tv/starz/now-apocalypse/)
2. ['Now Apocalypse' Canceled by Starz After 1 Season, TheWrap](https://www.thewrap.com/now-apocalypse-canceled-starz-1-season/)
3. [Now Apocalypse critic reviews, Metacritic](https://www.metacritic.com/tv/now-apocalypse/critic-reviews/)
4. [Now Apocalypse: Season 1, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/now_apocalypse/s01)
5. [The Ennobling Smut of Gregg Araki's "Now Apocalypse", The New Yorker](https://www.newyorker.com/culture/on-television/the-ennobling-smut-of-gregg-arakis-now-apocalypse)
6. [How Gregg Araki Made Now Apocalypse, the Queer, Millennial, Stoner Sex Comedy Show of His Dreams, Them](https://www.them.us/story/now-apocalypse-gregg-araki-interview)
7. ['Now Apocalypse' Is a Queer 'Sex and the City' for the End of the World, Time](https://time.com/5546785/now-apocalypse-tv-review/)
8. [Space reptiles, BDSM and LA dreams: Gregg Araki takes his hedonistic youth to the end of the world, HERO](https://hero-magazine.com/article/145465/gregg-araki-now-apocalypse)
9. [SHOOT May-June 2019 Issue](https://d2p1nnn035jt22.cloudfront.net/pdf_uploads/shoot_may-june_2019_edition.pdf)
10. [TV review: Now Apocalypse is maximal Gregg Araki, NOW Magazine](https://nowtoronto.com/movies/tv-review-now-apocalypse-is-maximal-gregg-araki/)
11. [The Sex in Now Apocalypse Is Concerned with Liberation, not Labels, TV Guide](https://www.tvguide.com/news/features/now-apocalypse-sex-liberation-labels/)
12. [Gregg Araki's 'Now Apocalypse' Amplifies the Disaffections and Distractions of the Internet Age, Frieze](https://www.frieze.com/article/gregg-arakis-now-apocalypse-amplifies-disaffections-and-distractions-internet-age)
13. [Now Apocalypse: Gregg Araki lands on TV with a queer, sex-positive comedy, The Guardian](https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2019/mar/09/now-apocalypse-gregg-araki-review-starz)
14. [The Best TV Shows of the Year So Far, Time](https://time.com/5588923/best-tv-shows-2019-so-far/)
15. [Now Apocalypse Canceled by Starz After One Season, TV Guide](https://www.tvguide.com/news/now-apocalypse-canceled-no-season-2/)
16. [The Best TV Shows You Probably Didn't Watch in 2019, Time](https://time.com/5752550/tv-shows-you-missed-2019/)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Series and fictional screen worlds › Scripted television and comedy series › Genre and subject-scripted series › LGBT-themed series*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*
License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license