Netflix is trying some new things with their original series. Kaleidoscope, released on January 1, 2023, can supposedly be watched in any order. Instead of the episodes being numbered, they are designated by color. It’s an interesting concept but does it work?
Leo (Giancarlo Esposito) is gathering his crew to pull off the biggest heist in the world. Together, the group of six plan on breaking into a vault owned by security expert Roger Salas (Rufus Sewell) in order to steal seven billion dollars worth of bonds. Meanwhile, FBI agent Nazan Abassi (Niousha Noor) is hot on their trail. Will the heist be a success or will they all end up in prison for life?
My husband and I had been looking forward to watching Kaleidoscope. We thought that the concept of a show that can be watched in any order was really cool. But it was only recently that we got the chance to sit down and actually watch it. Before I go further, let me tell you the order we were given by Netflix’s randomizer: Black, Yellow, Green, Orange, Violet, Blue, Red, Pink, and White. No matter who watches the show, Black will always be first and White will always be last. (Black isn’t really an episode. It just explains how the series works.)
While the randomization was really cool, it didn’t always work very well. For example, the last three episodes we had - Red, Pink, and White - took place The Day After The Heist, Six Months After The Heist, and The Heist, in that order. It made the ending a little confusing. We spent way too much time saying “But what about this guy?” or “Who is this person?” or “What is going on?”
The concept worked a little bit better when we saw Leo putting the team together then the next episode would be a flashback of how Leo met that person or you would see how Leo met that person then he would be putting together the team. It made a little more sense compared to seeing the aftermath of the heist before actually seeing the heist.
Despite the weirdness with the randomness of the episodes, we enjoyed a lot of it. Paz Vega, as lawyer Ava Mercer, was amazing; Jai Courtney made me hate Bob the safecracker (which I’m pretty sure was the goal. If you like Bob, you have issues.); and I am ecstatic to see Tati Gabrielle in more roles. I’m honestly not sure I enjoyed the story as much as I enjoyed the characters. I wish we got to see more of Hannah’s (Tati Gabrielle) story but she wasn’t meant to be a main character. Some of the episodes wanted Hannah to be relevant to the story but she was nothing more than a reason for Leo to do the things he did.
With all of that in mind, I do think the show is worth a try. I’m debating trying to watch the show in a different order to see if it changes my opinion any. My husband and I tried to envision what the show would have been like if we saw it in a different order but I’m not sure our imaginations were successful.