As new series multiply and are released regularly across platforms, the use of originality and novelty must undoubtedly become the norm for new productions to stand out from the crowd. This is the case with the series kaleidoscope which attracts the curious with its unique format: a non-linear narrative approach that encourages each viewer to watch the eight episodes in a different order.
Every episode is a surprise
That’s the whole idea behind Kaleidoscope: each of the eight episodes in the series has a different color name, forming a…kaleidoscope! The originality lies in the fact that Netflix chooses the next episode that each viewer will see; You will follow the story of a group of thieves attempting a $7 billion robbery in a different order than your neighbor. The only rule: Episode White is the finale, showing what happened during the robbery, and must be watched last.
Each color its epoch
Without revealing the content of the individual episodes, we can say that the purple episode takes place 24 years before the robbery, the green episode seven years before the robbery, the yellow episode six weeks before the theft, the orange episode three weeks before the big one Event, Blue, five days before the robbery, White, during the theft, Red, the next day, and Pink, six months after the burglary.
The magic of the past
Netflix advises viewers to watch this series as they would for “a Tarantino-style movie” (journey through time between past, present and future), “like the series Orange is the New Black (the one with flashbacks good times in history explains the lies of the characters in the future) or as if they were watching a classic crime and mystery film. The series spans 24 years before the heist to six months after, allowing audiences to fill in the mysterious gaps as they watch.
theories and advice
Of course, viewers quickly began sharing theories about the optimal order for watching episodes and even mistakes to avoid when watching on social media. On Twitter, Netflix even shared four suggested orders in which to watch the episodes, with the first being in chronological order of events.
The series is loosely based on a true story
Created by Eric Garcia, this Ocean Eleven heist series is loosely based on a real-life event that took place in New York City during Hurricane Sandy. Although the heist and characters are fictional, this real-life story, in which $7 billion worth of bonds disappeared (damaged by flooding) in downtown Manhattan during Hurricane Sandy in 2012, inspired the series’ central plot. The author saw in this story “a perfect cover for a burglary”.
- series kaleidoscopewith Giancarlo Esposito (the villain Gus from the series breaking Bad), Paz Vega, Rufus Sewell, Tati Gabrielle and Peter Mark Kendall, is available on Netflix