Kaleidoscope Review

On New Year’s Day, Netflix released the heist drama Kaleidoscope, a series with some solid names in the cast (Giancarlo Esposito, Rufus Sewell, and Jai Courtney the most famous of the lot) but a show that was designed to catch the zeitgeist thanks to a twist: You could watch the eight-episode season in any order that you wanted and the story would still make sense. Now, this isn’t the first time a Netflix series has had a “Choose Your Own Adventure” feel to it – Black Mirror and Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt each presented outings with this option for viewers. But this is the first complete series to offer viewers the choice of how they wanted to experience the story. There is, one would assume, no wrong way to watch the show. So, with this knowledge in hand, I dove into the series, picking episodes at random – although I did opt to keep “White,” the eighth episode, in place as the finale, largely because it was intended to work as a way to wrap up the dangling loose ends by showrunner Eric Garcia.

My Kaleidoscope path was: “Red,” “Blue,” “Green,” “Orange,” “Yellow,” “Violet,” “Pink,” and “White.” And I’m here to tell you that while I certainly understood the story and got to know the characters by the time I finished watching, this was definitely not the best way to watch the series. I spent a solid two and a half episodes trying to piece together who everyone was, how they related to each other, and what was really going on. Meeting several characters after they’ve had their key moment of exposition was a problem – although I did eventually see that moment and understand who they were and why they were important to the plot. Not understanding the relationships between characters made several exchanges particularly confusing – for example, I didn’t understand why Bob (Courtney’s short-tempered safe cracker) had such dislike for Stan (Peter Mark Kendall) until I watched “Green,” even though that anger and vitriol was present in “Blue.” So, my advice, should you dive into the story, would be to watch “Yellow” first, then “Green.” After that, feel free to jump around to your heart’s content, but save “White” for the end of your binge.

With that out of the way, should you even bother watching Kaleidoscope? Honestly, outside of the gimmick of the show’s mix-and-match viewing options, there’s not all that much to recommend here that you haven’t seen a million times before – likely done better. That isn’t to say that there aren’t some laudable elements of the series – there are. Esposito is excellent as the head of the heist, Leo. Paz Vega and Rosaline Elbay are also superb as Ava – a weapons specialist – and Judy – an explosives specialist. And Tati Gabrielle gives a hell of a performance as Hannah, Leo’s daughter. But the problem with the series is that we never get enough time with the characters – outside of Leo – to really get a good understanding of who they are prior to the heist itself. Sure, we get to see the gang come together and learn a bit about how the various team members knew each other prior to the heist. But there’s so little depth to the characters that you never get the sense of connection we need as an audience to care about their ultimate fates. For example, Bob is known mainly for his explosive anger. That’s the one thing each episode featuring him makes clear. But we don’t understand why he’s so damn angry all the time. What put that trait into the character? We never get a chance to find out. I found myself wishing we were granted more time with Ava or Judy to better understand what drew them to this type of life. We’re given some expositional dialogue to fill in their backgrounds, but seeing it would have been so much nicer than just hearing it in a throwaway line.

And the same criticism applies to the writing as a whole. Take away the viewing gimmick and you have an incredibly average heist story. Without memorable, complex characters, why should we care if they succeed? And the heist itself isn’t laid out particularly well. We can understand, fairly quickly, the main motivation for the heist (regardless of which order you watch the episodes in, that key plot point is clear throughout), but outside of that, we don’t know all that much about the people the team is set to steal from – just that they’re a trio of shady folks with a lot of money and a wide reach. Again, if we don’t know about the victims and why robbing them is worth it – even if the real reason for Leo’s planning of the heist isn’t about them – there’s no real reason to care if it succeeds. And that was the recurring theme I kept coming back to as I watched – sure, a given sequence or even an entire episode was enjoyable to watch, but what was the point?

As an experiment in storytelling, Kaleidoscope is certainly an interesting one. The idea that a story can be approached from multiple entry points, watched in any order, and still make sense is something that could really work for a stronger series. But outside of that gimmick, there just isn’t all that much there to recommend of this particular series. And that’s a real shame. If more time was spent building the characters and plot and less time spent on making sure the narrative worked from multiple angles, the series would have been significantly stronger. Oh well. This is one heist that I can’t whole-heartedly recommend.

Kaleidoscope is currently streaming on Netflix.