Kaleidoscope (American TV series)

Did You Know?

• The review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported a 50% approval rating based on 35 critic reviews.
• Metacritic assigned a score of 59 out of 100 based on 14 critics.

Production

Netflix ordered eight episodes of the series, originally called Jigsaw, on September 16, 2021. Eric Garcia created the show, wrote it, and served as an executive producer. Other executive producers include Ridley Scott, David W. Zucker, Jordan Sheehan, Fred Berger, Brian Kavanaugh-Jones, Justin Levy, and Russell Fine. Everardo Gout and Mairzee Almas each directed two episodes, while Robert Townsend directed several. The episodes are arranged in a non-linear fashion, letting viewers pick their own viewing order before the finale. The cast features Giancarlo Esposito, Paz Vega, Rufus Sewell, Tati Gabrielle, Peter Mark Kendall, Rosaline Elbay, Jai Courtney, Niousha Noor, and Jordan Mendoza. Filming started on September 1, 2021, at Netflix Studios in Bushwick, Brooklyn—the first production at that location—and also took place at 28 Liberty in Manhattan’s financial district. Production finished on March 16, 2022.

Release

The show was given its official title, Kaleidoscope, in November 2022, with a premiere date of January 1, 2023. Each episode is named after a color, which connects to that episode’s central theme. The timeline covers events from twenty-four years before a heist up to six months after it. Netflix offered suggested viewing orders on Twitter, comparing them to a Quentin Tarantino film or a classic detective story. If viewers watch the first seven episodes in any sequence and then the White episode, there are 5,040 possible orders. Watching all eight episodes in any order gives 40,320 permutations. However, Dais Johnston from Inverse observed that Netflix’s recommended sequences always placed Red and Pink before White, which reduces the possibilities to 120.