Netflix just dropped a preview for a new series called Kaleidoscope which plans to use the nature of streaming to turn narrative on its head. Each episode can be viewed in any order, making the story completely non-linear and changing the viewing experience for any individual watching.
But what is that story? Loosely based on a real-life event where $70 billion dollars worth of unregistered bearer bonds went missing during Hurricane Sandy, Kaleidoscope is a heist show created by Eric Garcia (best known for the sci-fi Repo Men). A crew, lead by Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul's Giancarlo Esposito as master thief Leo Pap, is going to break into the very secure vault of Roger Salas, played by Rufus Sewell.
Although the heist will be enormous in terms of money, the real motivation is apparently revenge. Pap is backed in this quest by Paz Vegas as Ava Mercer, and in the mix from The 100 is Tati Gabrielle as Hannah Kim. The visuals are slick and with Ridley Scott as an executive producer, it promises to be a ride when it premieres on January 1, 2023.
What is not revealed in the trailer is how Kaleidoscope will be delivering on this promise. If, as claimed, it plans to offer a very personalized and different viewing experience to each individual viewer, will every Netflix account be given the series in a randomized order? It's a very different matter if each episode is meant to tell a larger story. Although it may be true, as showrunner Garcia (borrowing from Walt Whitman) states, "People are non-linear; we contain multitudes," it is not true that stories aren't affected by the order in which they are told.
Based on the current number of 8 episodes, there might be a lot of different versions. Even at that relatively low number for television, the number of possible variations is 40,320. While viewership may easily run into the millions, there might be variations that just aren't seen often or if they are, don't work that well. Or if, like Love, Death, and Robots, only a few variations of the story order will be released, which ones, and why? If Kaleidoscope is truly modular, if anyone can watch it in literally any order, how long would it take someone to view them all? Going off 8 episodes, assuming an hour each, that's 1677 and a half days of straight viewing. How does one discuss a story if it isn't the same story or if you hold a key that the other person may be missing? It's an interesting problem and as a gimmick will definitely get people talking. No doubt pundits will soon be looking for the best way to watch Kaleidoscope...assuming they have the time, and most importantly, that the story is interesting enough to merit it.