Netflix’s «Kaleidoscope» might seem like the average thriller series, but it has one thing that sets it apart from other heist movies and shows: the series, released Jan. 1, is eight episodes long, but it’s designed to be watched in any order. Every episode is titled with a different color — a nod to the titular kaleidoscope — and starts with a title card about how far away the episode is from the heist. Some episodes take place just days before, while others go many years into the past to fill in on the backstory. Played by Giancarlo Esposito, the series star is a master thief who puts together a team to rob a vault, but in the end they all get more than they bargained for.
Creator and showrunner Eric Garcia explained why he designed the series to be watched in any order in a Dec. 25 interview with the New York Post. «I said, ‘I think with all this batch delivery [of episodes on streaming] there’s no reason you have to watch a show in order. Why can’t we watch it out of order?'» He added, «And heist stories, which have always been my favorite genre, are always about loyalty and who is really on whose side, and shifting identities. For a show that’s meant to come into different characters at different times, and see them at different facets, it felt like a smart way to merge the two things: heist and nonlinear [storytelling].»
