Mirror Netflix Review: Kaleidoscope

**This Review Contains Spoilers**

When it debuted on New Year's Day, Netflix claimed the eight episodes of it's heist show, Kaleidoscope, could be watched in any order, as long as the “White” episode was watched last. Needless to say, many viewers were excited by this new concept of engagement.

Sadly, the big expectations turned into big disappointments.

Each episode of Kaleidoscope is named after a color in the rainbow and takes place during a different period in the show’s timeline--whether it be 25 years before the heist, or six months after. 

As soon as the show was released, viewers began posting what order they felt was the “best” or “correct” order. Personally, I wanted to avoid watching the show in its chronological order in order to fully experience the puzzle pieces coming together, so I chose the most random order I could: Blue, Yellow, Orange, Violet, Red, Green, Pink, and White.

I was incredibly confused when starting the show. The episode I began with included all members of the heist team working on their tasks. The episode was pretty hard to understand, considering I didn't even know the names of the characters. The only way to get an immediate introduction is by watching the “Yellow” episode first. This episode set up the main plot of the show, and I think the fact that it was so highly needed to understand the plot took away from the intended random order. 

The main protagonist, Leo (Giancarlo Esposito), is  a criminal mastermind planning a heist to steal eight billion dollars from a highly secure, state-of-the-art technology vault. Depending on the episode order, the viewer either learns earlier or later in their viewing that Leo’s real motive for robbing the vault is to get back at the vault’s owner, Roger Salas, a CEO of security firm SLS. Who, in reality, is Leo’s old business partner and friend.

To break into the vault, Leo gathers a team of both old friends and allies. The team includes chemist Judy Goodwin (Rosaline Elbay), her husband, safe cracker Bob Goodwin (Jai Courtney), a powerful lawyer and Ava Mercer (Paz Vega), smuggler Stan Loomis (Peter Mark Kendall), and RJ, a mechanic who serves as their getaway driver. The characters are given different levels of importance, and their relationships with one another feel almost unnatural. 

Also involved are FBI agents Abassi Nazan (Niousha Noor) and Agent Samuel Toby (Bubba Weiler), who serve essentially no purpose. The pair delivered a dull performance whenever on screen. Agent Nazan’s backstory intends to be very emotional but instead seems forced. Agent Toby gets no explanation of who he is, and I forgot his name about two seconds after his introduction.

The characters were one of Kaleidoscope's multiple weak points. The writing was weak, especially during flashbacks. The characters had these performances intended to be highly emotional and were meant to add more to their story, but they felt flat. I can honestly say the sole character I liked out of the six was RJ, the driver- and he was ignored for the majority of the show, with nine lines at most. The dialogue throughout the show was weak and diverged from the tone of the show. There were little to no interactions with the team of characters outside the heist itself. In addition, the protagonist was underwhelming. He was supposed to be this brilliant mastermind,  yet he didn’t come off as particularly clever or powerful. He was given a sad backstory, but I felt no sympathy for him because of how dry he seemed.

The storyline, in addition, was an absolute mess. With each episode watched, instead of the plot coming together, the viewer simply becomes more and more confused. Each episode featured a different point in the heist, with different objectives, different character interactions, and different twists. Instead of combining to make a brilliant, intricate plot, it felt disorganized. The show just lacked the polish a good heist plot should have. It felt like watching a show out of order- what Kaleidoscope was trying to avoid. Kaleidoscope unveiled plot twist after plot twist, and still, nothing significant was at stake. The story should have felt a lot more complex, but at its heart, it felt childishly simple.

The majority of people watched the show because of its unique lack of a watch order. However, the storyline was very much linear. No matter the order you watched the episodes, you’d be getting the same information anyways. It would have made for a much more interesting show  to get a different perspective of the heist depending on the order watched. That’s another issue with the series. A reviewer pointed out that the name “Kaleidoscope” is deceiving. It implies that there are different perspectives in each episode. The only point of view used in the show is that of the main character- who was honestly altogether quite boring.

The last episode in terms of chronological order was pink, but the episode last watched is white. Instead of these two episodes leaving viewers somewhat satisfied with the ending, wrapping things up in an interesting way leaves you feeling dissatisfied. The ending felt anticlimactic and altogether unsurprising. There seemed to be no plausible way for season two, so I suppose viewers will just have to sit with the many questions left unanswered. 

Though this was a promising and unique concept, the show did not deliver. Instead of solving a puzzle, it felt like many different interactions sloppily pieced together. The eight hours needed to watch the show can be better spent on something else. 

Mirror rating: 2 / 5 stars