Mosaic (murder mystery)

Did You Know?

• The footage for Mosaic was largely filmed in Park City, Utah.
• Soderbergh did not use many takes, preferring a less rehearsed and more naturalistic feel.
• As of 2017, Soderbergh had two more unnamed interactive storytelling projects under development based on the same platform, but as of 2024 there has been no further information on their status.

Plot and themes

Mosaic begins with a flashback to four years before the main events, where Eric Neill attempts to seduce and defraud children's author Olivia Lake at the behest of associates. In the present, Eric is in prison for Olivia's murder; his sister Petra and others reopen the investigation. Writer Ed Solomon built the themes into the narrative, noting that every villain is the hero of their own story. Olivia's most famous book can be read as a story of a hunter protecting his family from a bear or a bear protecting its cubs from a hunter. The multiple viewpoints allow the user to understand all sides.

App

All playthroughs in the Mosaic app start with the same introduction. After the prologue, users can continue as either Joel or Eric, and the story branches further to allow viewing from multiple character perspectives. Notifications sometimes pop up, offering flashbacks, flash forwards, or related documents. The creators compared the Discoveries feature to a glossary, map, or appendix in fantasy novels. Combined content totals approximately seven and a half hours. The app straddles the line between television and video game; users choose perspectives but do not control characters, and the truth behind the murder is always the same. The app was released for free on iOS on November 8, 2017, and on Android on November 21, 2017. A web app version for desktops and laptops was released in January 2018. Both the app and website were decommissioned and removed from app stores in January 2019.

Reception

The Mosaic app received praise from TechCrunch for being intuitive and responsive. Sam Eichner of UrbanDaddy liked its sleek design and how it avoided repetition while staying understandable even when clips are viewed out of order, but thought the different character perspectives lacked enough variety. Inkoo Kang of Slate preferred the television version, arguing that a tighter directorial vision was better than the risk of missing key plot points. Randall Colburn of The Guardian compared the app to sprawling games like The Elder Scrolls, noting that while it offers lots of side content, a more focused narrative would have been an improvement.

The television miniseries earned positive reviews. On Metacritic, it scored 73 out of 100 from 19 reviews, meaning generally favorable reception. On Rotten Tomatoes, it holds a 79% approval rating with an average score of 8.1 out of 10 from 42 reviews. The site’s consensus says the show has enough moving parts and strong performances to deliver a satisfying murder mystery, though its jumbled structure and heavy-handed narrative may leave viewers slightly unsatisfied. Sharon Stone’s performance was widely acclaimed. Rob Sheffield of Rolling Stone called it her best role in years and praised the show for making viewers feel like detectives piecing together the truth. Variety highlighted Peter Weller’s performance as Eric and called the series a solid mystery-thriller. The A.V. Club ranked it among the best of 2018, comparing it to a Robert Altman film for its equal attention to side characters and the central investigation. New York magazine was more cautious, finding the show intriguing but noting it only really worked from the third episode onward, requiring patience. At the 23rd Satellite Awards, Stone won Best Supporting Actress in a Series, Miniseries, or Television Film.