Creator/series writer Eric Garcia doesn’t care if viewers start seeing him Netflix from a random episode in the middle of the heist show “Kaleidoscope” – that’s actually how he made it.
“I said, ‘I’ll think about delivering this party.’ [of episodes on streaming] there’s no reason to watch the show in order. Why can’t we watch it without order? Garcia told The Post. “Heist stories, which have always been my favorite genre, are always about loyalty, who’s on whose side, and changing personalities.
“For a show that’s meant to have different characters at different times and see them from different angles, it felt like a smart way to combine two things: a heist and a non-linearity. [storytelling]”.
Premiering on January 1st and executive produced by Ridley Scott, Kaleidoscope is about a group of characters coming together to take on a big bet. There is founder Leo Papp (Giancarlo Esposito); gun expert/lawyer Ava Mercer (Paz Vega); explosives expert Judy Goodwin (Rosalyn Elbay); safe cracker Bob Goodwin (Jai Courtney); smuggler Stan Loomis (Peter Mark Kendall; and driver RJ Acosta JR (Jordan Mendoza). They are all trying to kidnap former thief-turned-security titan Roger Salas (Rufus Sewell) and his protégé Hannah Kim (Tati Gabriel .
Each episode has a color instead of a number (eg Yellow, Green, etc. instead of “Episode 1” or “Episode 2”). Each Netflix viewer receives the episodes in a different order (except for the finale, which is completed for everyone).
Garcia, who also wrote the novel on which Ridley Scott’s 2003 film Matchstick Men is based, says: “The only canonical location is ‘White’ in the end, which basically serves as a skeleton key.”
“I hope that everyone will have a different perspective on the characters and the plot … The show really lives in the conversations between people and the second viewing when you watch it in a different order.”
Each episode takes place at a different time; For example, one is set six weeks before the robbery, one is set the morning after, and another is set seven years into the past. The grand finale is the heist itself.
According to Garcia, he had several influences, including classic heist films such as the 1955 French film Rififi, as well as other non-linear stories such as Pulp Fiction and Memento. . To eliminate this unusual structure, he established rules in his writers’ room and filled it with “Whiteboards on Whiteboards”. We probably broke the board budget for the show. “A Beautiful Mind” appeared there, he said.
“In a simple chronological series, we as writers have tricks to create drama and suspense. We don’t have that. We are handing over the structure to the audience,” he said. “But at the same time, you have to be able to introduce the characters in a way that will keep people interested no matter when they’re watching.
“We treated each episode as a pilot. One of the questions was, “If you saw this episode first, what do you think the show is about?” We’ve made sure that no matter what you watch first, it feels like a…different show. There’s an episode that starts 24 years in the past and you’re seeing this origin story. There’s an episode that starts with our FBI agent, and if you’re watching it, you’re going to think it’s about him.
Garcia says he’s not worried about confusing viewers.
“I think we can trust the audience today. “There’s so much on TV and I think people want something different,” he said. “Some people have thought, ‘I’ll learn the order and follow it chronologically.’ That’s fine, I don’t have a problem with it. I don’t think there’s a perfect order.
“There’s a percentage of people who just watch it as a heist show, and that’s great,” he said, “And there’s a percentage of people who want to watch it and enjoy it in a chaotic way. discussion with St. And there are people – and I usually count myself among them – who go deep into the woods and start looking for Easter eggs and clues and on the Internet and on Reddit.
“I hope they are too.”
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