Kaleidoscope Series Review

by: Steven McGee

So by now, I’m sure we have all at least heard of the Netflix original series "Kaleidoscope" starring Giancarlo Esposito. The whole theme of this show is that you can watch it in any order that you would like and the story should still be able to make sense. I'm going to discuss whether or not this was a good thing or a bad thing. Careful4Spoilers "literally" as I will be doing a light spoiler review over the series.

So firstly this series is a heist series. Depending on how you watched you knew that right away or if you watched it in the order I did you didn't realize it until later on. Netflix shuffled the viewing order in everyone’s account differently. So this should have made everyone’s viewing experience vastly different. The episodes are named by color. Green red blue etc. I just so happen to watch Pink first and then Green. I was a bit confused but was thoroughly entertained. If the option is available in some series I try to go in completely blind and that is something that I did with this series. One thing that has been stated by the creators is that white should be viewed last upon first watch. So first-time viewers keep that in mind. I will label the episodes in chronological order for those that want to watch it in order.

In the series, we follow Giancarlo Esposito's character Leo. Leo is putting together a heist to take from an old partner who betrayed him. We don't know exactly how he was betrayed but we do know that it is a grudge that Leo has held onto for many years. His ex-partner is a big part of a really huge company and Leo wants a cut of the pie. Episode violet explains why he wants revenge and I understand why.

Putting together the little pieces and following the breadcrumb trails is ultimately what the show is all about. The heist itself was decent enough but if you have seen a heist movie then there isn't anything that really wows you in this series. Outside of the unique storytelling provided, I think it's an average heist show once viewed in sequential order. The thing it really has going for it is the overall mystery of things considering it is out of order. I believe this made its replay value skyrocket in my personal opinion. Writing a show in which the episode ties up ends within its own episode but also leaves or fills unanswered questions in the same series had to be really challenging. I think it works, but I also think now that it has been done there is a lot of improvement that will be built based off of this series.

Overall I believe that this series deserves 🔥🔥🔥 flames out of 5. I highly advise giving this series a shot and watching it for yourself. But if you are someone who doesn't like things out of order here is the proper viewing order in sequential order. Until next time spoiler fans.

Violet

Green

Yellow

Orange

Blue

White 

Red

Pink