What a view | Sisyphus: The Myth has everything a sci-fi fan wants – time travel, martial arts, a misfit hero and, of course, flying luggage

Greek mythology has it that Sisyphus, having proved himself a bad element by slaughtering innocents, beating death and even de­­ceiving the gods once or twice, was condemned by Zeus to roll a mighty boulder to the top of a hill … whereupon it would plunge back down again. Where­upon he would roll it to the top, whereupon … and so on. To the end of time.

But that original Sisyphus had it easy compared to Han Tae-sul (played by Cho Seung-woo) in Sisyphus: The Myth (Netflix, series one, all episodes now streaming). If Tae-sul does turn out to be Seoul’s own Sisyphus, then his Sisyphean task seems to be to make sense of a sometimes sprawling, but always visually arresting, adventure caper involving time travel, a sinister government agency and a formidable female street fighter sent to save him from his lamentable fate … sent through a portal from the future, that is.

That mistress of martial arts, the taciturn Gang Seo-hae (Park Shin-hye) is an early target of the merciless Control Bureau and its cunning chief, Hwang Hyun-seung (Choi Jung-woo). Which gives her plenty of opportunity to show off her slickest self-defence moves as she habitually slips the bureau’s noose.

By then we’ve learned that Tae-sul is an engineering hotshot as well as a wealthy, troubled loner, an inventor and possibly a Tony Stark fanboy without (so far) the shiny suit. He’s also CEO of his own company, whose boardroom dealings he neglects with the disdain of Bruce Wayne when obliged to show up at Wayne Enterprises.

Should Tae-sul evolve into some sort of superhero, saving himself and the world while also fighting off visions of his departed brother with a stash of pills and figuring out the frightening potential of a piece of flying luggage – a Pandora’s suitcase of gizmos old and new – he’ll deserve an adoring public.

Because any futuristic, retro-flavoured, time-warping mystery-thriller with possible romantic characteristics (such as this) regularly runs the risk of losing the plot. But that’s the beauty of sci-fi: it all makes sense in the end. Usually.

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