Giancarlo Esposito and Tati Gabrielle in Kaleidoscope. | Image: Netflix

On the surface, Kaleidoscope is a straightforward, albeit generic, heist story. It hits all of the beats you’d expect: the revenge-filled backstory, the complex process of finding a team and forming a plan, and the satisfaction of watching that plan unfold. And since Kaleidoscope’s story spans around 25 years, you get plenty of all of those things over the course of its eight episodes. But that’s not what makes the show interesting. Kaleidoscope is also a fascinating experiment, an attempt to tell the kind of drama most viewers are familiar with — but designed so that you can watch episodes in any order. As a nonlinear story, it’s a success — but as a fun crime caper, Kaleidoscope leaves a lot to be desired.

The series is centered on Leo…

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