If you haven’t heard about the new series on Netflix called Kaleidoscope you really need to check it out! Not because it’s a ground breaking crime drama, or not even because the main story is all that revolutionary. But because the experience for every person that watches it is different. “How can that be, Decker? Please for the love of all that is holy tell me how in the wide, wide world of entertainment is that possible?” I hear you screaming at your screen. I’ll tell you why! Because the order that the episodes play in is different for nearly anyone who watches, thusly giving you information at different times and changing the perceived motivations of the characters! Here’s the order The Wife and I saw it in. The first and last episodes are the same for everyone so ignore that those aren’t in the pic.
You can check out a list of all the episodes and their descriptions here if you wanna spoil the surprise, or you could just watch it! I’ll give a small review here, with no spoilers.
It is a relatively basic robbers vs cops story. Some of the moments are a skosh cheesy. All of the characters are flawed in an obvious way, which makes it very difficult to find a favorite character or really anyone to cheer for. That last part though I believe is the most important part. Everyone in this show is flawed in some way which causes some form of hiccup in the over arching plan. But I feel that those flaws are what make this show more human. We see so many crime movies with thieves that are seemingly invincible and so brilliant that nothing but their own arrogance can stop them.
Kaleidoscope has criminals that get in WAY over their heads for all sorts of motivations which leads to an open ending that is full of despair. No one truly wins, there aren’t any happy endings and honestly it’s pretty refreshing. At least that was my experience! Maybe yours will be different, well frankly it will be. According to this article there are 40,000 different ways you can experience this show. How will yours end up?
[YouTube: Netflix] [IMDb] [CNET]
