Kaleidoscope, Netflix — heist series makes the viewer choose

Linear storytelling is so 2022. Ambitious new Netflix heist thriller Kaleidoscope comprises eight episodes which have been devised so that they can be watched in (almost) any order. With the exception of the fixed finale, viewers are given free rein to proceed how they wish through a timeline that extends from 24 years before the robbery of a Wall Street vault to six months after the job. What some will see as a scene-setting introductory chapter therefore doubles as a long-anticipated explanation for others.

Where to begin when first things aren’t necessarily first? The overarching narrative revolves around professional thief Leo Pap (Giancarlo Esposito), who celebrates his newfound freedom after a 17-year stint in jail by orchestrating a plan to steal $7bn in bonds from an ostensibly impenetrable safe overseen by security company owner Roger Salas (Rufus Sewell). While his team have, well, seven billion reasons to risk an “impossible” score, Leo has just the one motivation: to get revenge against the man who once “took everything” from him.

Although showrunner Eric Garcia maintains there’s no right sequence, there are episodes which clearly serve as more intuitive, accessible entry points. The “Violet” episode, for instance, establishes Leo’s back-story, while “Yellow” sees him assemble his cadre of rogues (played by Paz Vega, Rosaline Elbay, Peter Mark Kendall and Jai Courtney). More adventurous viewers may choose to start amid the chaos of “Red”, which takes place in the immediate aftermath of the botched heist.

Following a strictly chronological path would likely expose the narrative slightness of the series. With so much effort having gone into executing the show’s innovative format, Garcia has taken a few shortcuts with the actual substance of plot and characters. For all the slick direction in the various high-stakes set pieces, the writing can feel both overly contrived and under-developed.

Still, people won’t keep watching because they’re waiting for an emotional pay-off or a probing exploration of greed and vengeance — the pull is that the series offers a unique experience. Not content with just feeding a story to ravenous bingers, it invites us to piece things together in our own way and own time, and to undertake repeat viewings to see how rescrambling the episodes changes our perspectives.

Kaleidoscope serves as a kind of green television: an almost endlessly renewable show amid all the disposable content churned out and dropped by streaming services. But what about the traditional view of TV as a shared, communal experience? There’s something a little isolating about how each individual subscriber will watch the show in an order that won’t correspond to that seen by friends and families. It’s a slightly sombre realisation about a series that otherwise represents a bright start to the year’s offerings.

★★★☆☆

On Netflix now