Mosaic

Mosaic is a practically flawless TV series; it resists the gonzo machismo of a True Detective or the star-vehicle force of a Luther through its stubborn resistance to any norms of identification. It has a story to tell, it doesn’t have a singular hero through which to tell it, and there’s no neat ending to wrap it all up. We should all be so lucky to get more shows like this.

While the app version offers an entirely different storytelling experience, it’s a testament to the richness of the story that Solomon and Soderbergh crafted that it works so well as a limited series even though it was conceived as this branched narrative piece. Murder mystery fans will find this one fulfilling and satisfying; Prestige TV fans will find plenty to love about these complex characters; and Soderbergh acolytes will be overjoyed to experience the filmmaker’s signature touches in longform storytelling once again. Mosaic really does have something for everyone.

Mosaic is so entertaining (it is) and engrossing (that, too) that it flies by. These six hours pleasurably melt away, and before you know it, you’re at the closing credits.

This one gains momentum as it moves along, and ultimately is an absorbing exploration of the complexity and incertitude of human relations.

At worst, this is a familiar, “Broadchurch”-esque experience, complete with great performances and writing as precise as a whip. At its best, however, it’s a new way to experience a familiar story, and so when the answers you expect arrive, they’re somehow new, too.

Familiar faces like Beau Bridges, Fringe’s Michael Cerveris, and Loudon Wainwright III pop up, intriguingly. All of them give themselves over to Soderbergh, who stages the action with an efficiency that is itself frequently beautiful to behold--he makes a murky murder mystery ring with dramatic clarity.

It’s an attempt to push forward the medium of television, but one that demands more than what most viewers might be willing to give. The HBO series–with one cut-together version of the story–is creepily effective, though. Building in intensity, Mosaic thrives on perversity, with its suspects outdoing one another in nastiness.

The good news is that, after a somewhat bumpy start, the drama gains momentum over time, especially when Petra Neill (Jennifer Ferrin) turns up to ask residents and local cops the kinds of awkward questions they’d rather not answer. As the mystery gets juicier and the implications for the town’s elite become more serious, Garrett Hedlund’s hapless handyman character becomes believably frayed, and the proceedings are further enlivened by excellent supporting performances from Beau Bridges, Allison Tolman, Jeremy Bobb and Maya Kazan. Mosaic, like many of the best mystery tales, provides some unsentimental social commentary along with the solution of a crime.

This HBO drama from director Steven Soderbergh essentially takes a pretty conventional murder mystery, dresses it up with a gimmick and comes away with a pretty compelling if somewhat conventional story.

At any given time, it’s both a dazzlingly experimental work and a totally conventional murder mystery. It’s frank and secretive, flooding viewers with information without giving them the tools to make sense of it. The story has multiple different paths to follow, but they all end up in the same place. Less a show than a television experience, it’s brilliant and exasperating.

The series needed someone with the glamor of Stone to be the centerpiece of the mystery, even if she isn’t the largest piece of Mosaic. The series is not the smoothest of fits, but it has enough shiny parts to keep it interesting.

Mosaic doesn’t really start to hum until episode three, at which point a parade of supporting actors--Ferrin, Allison Tolman as Eric’s attorney, Beau Bridges as the ex-police chief--start to enter the picture more prominently. ... Some viewers may be annoyed when the picture in the puzzle isn’t quite crystal-clear by the end of episode six.

When streamlined into a conventional neat-and-tidy package, Soderbergh’s show loses a considerable amount of its moment-to-moment mystery, since things are merely what they appear to be. On its own, it’s fine, but it pales in comparison to its cerebral interactive counterpart.

HBO’s six-part Mosaic, also available as an “interactive movie” on mobile apps, begins as an immersive spellbinder before eventually plodding to the finish line under its own diminishing power. Accomplished director Steven Soderbergh (Ocean’s Eleven and its two sequels, Traffic, Erin Brockovich) does succeed, though, in resuscitating the acting career of Sharon Stone, who gives a bravura performance until her character suddenly goes missing.

Whether interactive storytelling apps are the future of TV, Mosaic is a diverting experiment that mostly succeeds, however you put its pieces together.

Mosaic is an interesting mystery that, as a series, unfolds a little more awkwardly than expected, giving viewers the feeling that it was something else previously and was repurposed.

Suffering from Netflix-style bloat, Mosaic is less binge than indulgent slog. [22 Jan - 4 Feb 2018, p.13]