Series / The Pentaverate

Secrets will be revealed…

"In 1347, five learned men realized that the black plague was caused by fleas on rats. However, the Church believed the plague to be God's punishment, labeling these five men heretics. So they formed a benevolent secret society to influence world events, known as The Pentaverate. Throughout the centuries, there have been many secret organizations. What makes the Pentaverate different? They're nice. "

— The Narrator

In 1993, actor/comedian Mike Myers appeared in the comedy film So I Married an Axe Murderer. In it, he played a dual role as Charlie McKenzie and his father Stuart. And it was Stuart who first warned us…

Stuart McKenzie: Well, it's a well known fact, Sonny Jim, that there's a secret society of the five wealthiest people in the world, known as The Pentaverate, who run everything in the world, including the newspapers, and meet tri-annually at a secret country mansion in Colorado, known as The Meadows.

Tony Giardino: So who's in this Pentaverate?

Stuart McKenzie: The Queen, The Vatican, The Gettys, The Rothschilds, AND Colonel Sanders before he went tits up!

We thought it was just a gag. The ramblings of an old man. Now, in 2022, the truth will be made all too clear…

The Pentaverate is a 2022 limited series created by Myers and directed by Tim Kirkby concerning this most ancient and mysterious organization. Myers plays (among others) a Canadian journalist determined to expose the organization. Joining Myers in the cast are Ken Jeong, Keegan-Michael Key, Jennifer Saunders, Debi Mazar, Richard McCabe, and Lydia West.

The series premiered on Netflix on May 5, 2022.

Previews: Trailer 1, Trailer 2

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The tropes must never be exposed:

• Actor Allusion: One of the current members of the Pentaverate is Shep Gordon, former manager of Alice Cooper. Myers, who previously directed the documentary Supermensch about Gordon, plays the man himself.
  • Mishu has an accent which results in him pronouncing "count" as a certain four-letter word for a woman's privates, a joke lifted from The Love Guru.
    • Another one occurs when Dr. Clark (played by Keegan Michael-Key) posits whether he will take the key or the pill during his initiation ceremony; Mishu asks him which one he'll pick, though his accent has him pronounce it as "key or peel" which prompts a smirk and a chuckle from the doctor.
  • When Ken has to strip completely naked to get through the orgy room, it's revealed he has a very hairy chest exactly like the one Austin Powers has.
• Accent Relapse: When it seems as if all is lost for the heroes, Reilly shifts to an English accent and reveals that she's actually a member of the Pentaverate support staff and that she was tasked to guiding Ken on his journey.
• An Aesop: "The people need to trust the experts, but the experts must serve the people."
• Ancient Conspiracy: The Pentaverate dates back to the Black Plague in 1347 and has been operating ever since.
• Arc Number: Five. The organization is called the PENTAverate (Penta meaning five). To hammer it home, Mike Myers created an Instagram account and in the FIVE days leading up to the first trailer’s release, posted FIVE pictures relating to the number FIVE (Five Guys Burgers and Fries, five dollars, etc.) The trailer dropped on March 16 at 5:55 A.M. and the series premiered on May 5.
• Ascended Extra: What began as a random joke in a 1993 comedy film will now receive its own series.
• Ascended to a Higher Plane of Existence: Ken eventually gives up his physical existence to become MENTOR's immortal personality.
• As Himself: Rob Lowe and Maria Menounos appear as themselves, providing those within the Pentaverate's headquarters accouncements and news updates. Jeremy Irons is also credited as himself while providing each episode's Opening Narration.
• Benevolent Conspiracy: The Pentaverate itself, which was founded in the middle ages to help human advancement from the shadows and it continues to do so. Ultimately zigzagged, as there is a malevolent conspiracy within the Pentavirate to overthrow their good goals.
• Big Damn Heroes: Shrek himself saves the day by knocking Bigfoot cold.
• Biting-the-Hand Humor: Two episodes have the CEO of Netflix interrupting the show to demonstrate ways to attempt to make the show more family friendly which either backfire or make it seem dirtier.
  • The first instance which removes all the graphic language from a fight scene results in the missing context and jumpcuts making the scene look bizarrely sexual.
  • The second is an experimental censorship algorithm that fails to pixelate genitalia in real time, and is more concerned with targeting hotdogs and the word "Dick".
• Bittersweet Ending: The series ends with The Pentaverate shutting down after over 600 years due to its good intentions being corrupted by the internet, it's remaining members committing suicide, and Anthony falls to his death. On the sweet side, a newer more benevolent organization takes its place and Ken is granted immortality when his consciousness takes the place of Mentor.
• Breaking the Fourth Wall: At two points in the series, a Netflix executive interrupts and says that the show has become too explicit and that the preceding scene will be replayed with all the naughty stuff cut out.
• The Cameo: While being pursued by Bigfoot, Ken ends up getting saved by Shrek.
• Censored for Comedy: Episodes 2 and 10 feature sections Netflix deems too obscene. The preceding scenes are then replayed with the explicit bits cut out, only for the results to be lewder than before.
• Couch Gag: Each episode has a different Opening Narration provided by Jeremy Irons while the membership of the Pentaverate changes as the story develops.
• Curbstomp Battle: Shrek takes Bigfoot down with a single shove to the ground.
• Currency Conspiracy: Parodied in the third episode. When Anthony tries to justify his conspiracy-addiction to Reilly, he demonstrates his reasoning by showing her a five-dollar bill. He intricately folds it, only to point to the five on the bill, stating that it represents The Pentaverate. When Reilly points out the real reason for the number five — that it shows that the bill is worth five dollars — the reasoning flies right over his head.
  Anthony: Look what the Pentaverate did to our currency. Right? Normal five-dollar bill. Right?
  Reilly: Right?
  Anthony: Wrongo! You fold it this way, you fold it that way, you fold it this way, and lookee here what he have. The five. Like the five members of the Pentaverate. It's right there! Think about it. Why would they put a five right there?
  Reilly: To indicate the bill has a monetary value of five American dollars?
  [Beat]
  Anthony: It's like they're taunting us!
• Death Faked for You: Prospective members of the Pentaverate have their deaths faked in the news even before they're offered the position to make the job offer a life-or-death situation.
• Decoy Protagonist: Dr. Clarke, who starts the series getting a lot of focus as the Pentaverate's newest member. He soon falls Out of Focus, though, because he is murdered by the end of the second episode. Canadian reporter Ken Scarborough is the real protagonist.
• Evil Gloating: How Bruce Baldwin dies. Don't outright tell the guy who spent his life chasing windmills that you are his imagined threats come true.
• Evolving Credits: The opening narration provided by Jeremy Irons is different in every episode, and he even points this out to chastise people who skip the intros on Netflix shows.
• Eye of Providence:
  • The titular organization has an Eye of Providence with a capital "V" (the Roman Numeral for 5) on the front for its insignia, The Pentaverate being a benevolent shadow government that tries to use their influence for the good of mankind with... mixed results.
  • The Pentaverate's Master Computer Mentor is pictured as a human eye being displayed on a triangular screen. It's changed to half of a pair of glasses when Ken replaces Mentor's soul.
• Fake Shemp: Whenever two characters Myers plays are on-screen at the same time and facing the camera, one of them would be played by Mike's brother, Paul Myers, who bears a very strong resemblance to his younger sibling.
• Fan Disservice: Yeah, no one wanted or needed to see Mike Myer's shaggy middle-aged bush along with his wrinkly frank and beans. Netflix did attempt to hide it but the software kept glitching and uncensoring the nudity whenever it had to load more censors.
• Foregone Conclusion: The opening of the fourth episode references a future secret organization called The Septaverate that presumably replaces the Pentaverate, which comes to pass in the finale.
• Good Is Not Nice: The stated goal of The Pentaverate is to influence the world for the better, although they do some very underhanded and clandestine things to fulfill their goals. This is called out by Jeremy Irons, whose opening narration mandates that he state that they are nice - but questions how nice they can be after having executed a supporting character.
• Heroic Sacrifice:
  • In the finale, the three surviving members of the Pentaverate commit suicide upon realizing that the group has stagnated. Before taking his own poison pill, Lord Lordington entrusts Patty with the task of leading humanity forward with a fresher perspective.
  • Ken willingly gives up his physical body to meld with MENTOR and help guide the world from a nicer perspective than MENTOR's previous acerbic take on humanity.
• Hypercompetent Sidekick: Patty, the assistant to the Pentaverate who, as a result of needing to stay on top of whatever her employers might need, ends up being the one person who knows the most about the actual inner workings of the organization. This knowledge and experience help her to set up the Septaverate after the good members of the Pentaverate decide to end the organization.
• Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy: The Red Robes open fire on the Pentaverate guards from across a small room, with automatic weapons. They only manage to drop 2 or 3 of them despite all the guards standing in a straight line with zero cover or concealment.
• Informed Attribute: As mentioned above, The Red Robes are supposed to be the Pentaverate's most elite soldiers, and manage to kill a handful of the Lichenstein Guard, who were considered not only incompetent by the leaders of the organization, but the Lichenstein Guard themselves who had already given up hope prior to their skirmish.
• Intrepid Reporter: Ken Scarborough, an aging journalist, finds out about the Pentaverate and sets out to infiltrate the mysterious organization.
• Jumping Off the Slippery Slope: The Pentaveterate was created to sincerely do good, but over the years, changes in progress - primarily growing social media and information networks - forced it to change its focus to eliminating people and other extreme methods. This leads to Bruce Baldwin changing its mission to information control for profit.
• Moose and Maple Syrup: The various Canadian characters speak in exaggerated Canadian accents, have a love of hockey, over-pronounce Canada-isms ("aboot") and apologize ("soorry") a lot.
• Mythology Gag: The organization’s secret headquarters, the Meadows. We know it is the Meadows, because there is a bright pink neon sign on the building that reads “The Meadows”. That said, they are based in New York and only host a summit at the Meadows.
• New Media Are Evil: Bruce Baldwin foresaw the kind of damage the internet would have wreaked onto the world and had Mentor created to properly regulate it. Unfortunately, mankind became too addicted to cell-phones and social media and this broke his faith in the Pentaverate's authority. Also humanity.
  Ken: I'll never help you destroy the world!
  Bruce: The world's already destroyed. The internet destroyed it.
• The Omniscient Council of Vagueness: There are Pentaverate meetings with the leading members in red robes and plague doctor-like masks.
• Pop-Star Composer: The series' soundtrack was composed by Orbital.
• Real After All: In the original film, the Pentaverate was dismissed as a conspiracy theory from one of Stuart’s tabloids. This show shows that this is not the case.
• Revealing Cover Up: Ken becomes interested in the Pentaverate when a mysterious mustachioed man ominously warns him not to look into them while he's covering a convention for conspiracy theorists. This turns out to have been deliberately invoked in-universe as both the mustachioed man and Ken's camerawoman are trying to lead him to the Pentaverate.
• Rock Beats Laser: The Lichtenstein Guard were founded in the Middle Ages, and their equipment hasn't been updated since then. Then the Red Robes are introduced as a more modern security detail, wielding automatic firearms and rocket launchers. When the two groups end up fighting, the Guard start out overwhelmed by the superior firepower of the Red Robes, but manage to win thanks to their shields and attacking while the Red Robes are reloading.
• Take That!:
  • One character's shirt reads "CANADA: Living the American Dream without the violence since 1867".
  • Bruce Baldwin's Face–Heel Turn was the result of mankind's willingness to sacrifice their own privacy and freedom through social media, the proliferation of conspiracy theories being a symptom of this.
  • Bruce Baldwin mocks Anthony to his face, remarking that it's the "conspiracy nuts" that are the easiest people to control. He then goes on to Break Them by Talking by pointing out that he has been living his entire life chasing windmills and blaming his own poor life-choices on an imaginary "other".
  • Anthony's dying words is "but what about her emails," a catchphrase among critics of Donald Trump jabbing at his supporters' perceived fixation on Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server during her time as Secretary of State.

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