Kaleidoscope (American TV series)

Kaleidoscope is an American heist drama television anthology series created by Eric Garcia. The eight-part series, unique for its shuffled order, centers on master thief Leo Pap (Giancarlo Esposito) and his crew attempting an epic heist worth $7 billion, but betrayal, greed and other threats undermine their plans.

Kaleidoscope was released on January 1, 2023, by Netflix.

Main

 * Giancarlo Esposito as Leo Pap / Ray Vernon, a career criminal and the leader of his heist crew, who aims to rob the SLS vault
 * Rufus Sewell as Roger Salas / Graham Davies, Leo's former partner-in-crime and the CEO of "SLS", a corporate security firm
 * Paz Vega as Ava Mercer, a lawyer, Leo's closest friend and the weapons specialist of Leo's crew
 * Peter Mark Kendall as Stan Loomis, Leo's former cellmate and the smuggler for Leo's crew
 * Rosaline Elbay as Judy Goodwin (née Strauss), Stan's ex-girlfriend and the explosives specialist of Leo's crew
 * Jai Courtney as Bob Goodwin, Judy's husband and the safe cracker of Leo's crew
 * Tati Gabrielle as Hannah Kim (née Vernon), Leo's pregnant daughter who works as the head of digital security at SLS
 * Austin Elle Fisher portrays a young Hannah Vernon

Recurring

 * Jordan Mendoza as RJ Acosta Jr., the driver for Leo's Crew
 * Hemky Madera as Carlos Sujo, Roger's right-hand man and fixer
 * Soojeong Son as Liz Kim, Hannah's adoptive sister
 * John Hans Tester as Stefan Thiele, one of "The Triplets", a trio of billionaires who entrust $7 billion worth of bearer bonds to SLS
 * Niousha Noor as Nazan Abbasi, an FBI agent focused on investigating Leo's Crew
 * Bubba Weiler as Samuel Toby, Abbasi's FBI partner

Guest starring

 * Patch Darragh as Andrew Covington, the former head of digital security at SLS
 * Richard Masur as Dr. Wagner, Leo's doctor during his incarceration
 * Tina Benko as Jennifer Helman, Abbasi and Toby's superior in the FBI
 * Whit Washing as Ted Gough, FBI agent assigned to the jewelry heist
 * Robinne Lee as Lily Vernon, Leo's wife and Hannah's mother
 * Max Casella as Taco, a criminal-for-hire
 * Craig Walker as Samson, Taco's partner and a fellow criminal

Episodes
All eight episodes can be watched in any order. An introduction ("Black") explains the show's concept. The episodes are listed here in the order listed on Netflix's Tudum page.

Development
On September 16, 2021, it was revealed that Netflix had given an eight-episode order for the series, then titled Jigsaw. Eric Garcia serves as creator, writer, and executive producer, along with EPs Ridley Scott, David W. Zucker, Jordan Sheehan, Fred Berger, Brian Kavanaugh-Jones, Justin Levy, and Russell Fine. The series is produced by Scott Free Productions and Automatik Entertainment. It was announced that Everardo Gout and Mairzee Almas would each direct two episodes. It was also announced Robert Townsend would direct multiple episodes of the series. The series is structured in a non-linear order so that viewers can choose the order in which they watch the episodes leading up to the finale.

Casting
Alongside the series announcement, Giancarlo Esposito, Paz Vega, Rufus Sewell, Tati Gabrielle, Peter Mark Kendall, Rosaline Elbay, Jai Courtney, Niousha Noor, and Jordan Mendoza were cast.

Filming
Filming began at Netflix Studios in Bushwick, Brooklyn on September 1, 2021. It is the first production at the Bushwick studio. Filming also took place at 28 Liberty in Manhattan's financial district. The series wrapped on March 16, 2022.

Release
The series was officially titled Kaleidoscope in November 2022 when its release date was set for January 1, 2023.

Each episode bears a title associated with a hue or color, which distinctly relates to the main element of that particular episode. The story spans from twenty-four years before the heist to six months after the heist. Netflix tweeted suggestions of different orders in which viewers could watch the episodes; for example, as a Quentin Tarantino film, referencing nonlinear films of his like Pulp Fiction; or as a classic detective story. Netflix's approach of presenting the first seven episodes in any order followed by the White episode allows for 5,040 (7!) permutations. Watching all episodes (including "White") in any order allows for a total of 40,320 (8!). However, Dais Johnston of Inverse noticed that Netflix's recommended orders always ended with "Red" and "Pink" before "White", hinting at 120 (5!) permutations.

Reception
The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported a 50% approval rating with an average rating of 6.4/10, based on 34 critic reviews. The website's critics consensus reads, "While Kaleidoscope interactive storytelling offers some flashy novelty, its color-coded story strands are unfortunately all in service to a disappointingly pedestrian plot." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned a score of 59 out of 100 based on 14 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".