Kaleidoscope

Stylish, suspenseful and cleverly executed, Kaleidoscope gathers binge-worthy momentum as it barrels towards its climactic showdown. The nifty format enhances its air of mystery and intrigue.

It’s not saying anything new—it’s not even trying to say anything new—but there are worse things than the warm comforts of TV deja vu.

It’s great to see Giancarlo Esposito top-lining his own series, which he does very well. And the ensemble is engaging if a bit tame (except for Jai Courtney’s outsized Bob). If you love heist stories, it’s an experiment worth watching but it won’t rank as a seminal work in the genre regardless of its distinct presentation.

As far as the show goes, it’s some pretty light drama that’s not supposed to bring up any moral dilemmas or force viewers to dig for deeper meaning. Esposito elevates everything he’s in. ... So far, the rest of the team outside of Stan feel like one-dimensional characters, but those may also fill in during the rest of the episodes. But, as heist dramas go, Kaleidoscope tries to concentrate on the heist as much as possible, which is always a plus.

As thin as these pieces can sometimes be, Kaleidoscope is still entertaining. Garcia and the team have enough misdirects up their sleeve that there are some fun surprises along the way, even if some of them are telegraphed. It’s also admirable how much melancholy and foiled plans there are here, particularly in a genre where it’s easy to lean on empty popcorn fun

But for all its architectural mischief, "Kaleidoscope" would be strictly formulaic if you laid its chapters out in chronological order. Series creator Eric Garcia no doubt had his hands full writing episodes that could all serve as intros without giving away the game entirely and also be engaging enough to get a viewer to do a modicum of mental labor in keeping the story straight. That he has done.

In practice, Kaleidoscope feels like a slick but forgettable two-hour movie puffed up into a jumbled six-hour saga. The main advantage of its unorthodox structure is that it helps obscure how generic some of its component pieces really are.

That experimentation with format (a mechanism that Netflix, and other streaming services, have been testing with projects such as Black Mirror: Bandersnatch) is the only route by which Kaleidoscope ventures remotely outside the box. Watched in any order, the story that unfolds is a simple, pleasurable rollick through the business of ultra-tight security and the crooks who seek to undo that.

There’s a clockwork energy to heist stories that’s interrupted here. It lacks the right build-up, but I’m not even sure if watching the episodes in chronological order (a quick internet search will pull up that info) would fix the issue. The pacing’s just off.

“Kaleidoscope” is admittedly fun at times, playfully bursting into action in ways that aren’t always predictable. There’s a strong energy between the heist crew members that made me wish that “Kaleidoscope” had unfolded in the right order. In the end, the gimmick of “Kaleidoscope” can be singled out as the main culprit for most of the show’s flaws.

Does the episode shuffling lead to profound insights or startling revelations? It’s all too contrived for that, but there is extra entertainment value in finding out what this person’s relationship with that one was really about, or how what’s in who’s safe altered the course of somebody’s life...More entertaining than bothering to notice every time the color red appears in “Red,” anyway.

The puzzle-like gimmick at the heart of “Kaleidoscope” – watch the episodes in any order that you want – can’t conceal how otherwise uninspired this “Ocean’s Eleven”-esque heist series actually is. Chalk that up in part to stiffly written characters, familiar situations and drawn-out logistical sequences. It’s moderately watchable, but all told, color me unimpressed.

Any haunting revelations just aren’t baked in enough to pay off in the way that they could and should have. For all the flickers of intrigue felt in its narrative form, Kaleidoscope is an experiment that proves you will always need a good story to ascend above mere gimmick.