Netflix's latest smash hit television show, "Kaleidoscope," came out on January 1 of this year, instantly generating buzz online. Aside from the acting and dramatic plot surrounding a heist, the main draw of this new show is the format. Netflix released all eight episodes at once, a standard practice for the streaming platform, but the order in which the episodes are viewed is entirely up to the person streaming. Each episode is titled a different color, with "Black" intended to be the first episode, explaining the concept to the viewers, and "White" is intended to be the finale. Aside from that, the episodes can be watched at random.
As mentioned, the plot revolves around a high-stakes $7 million heist and spans over the 24 years before the crime takes place. While audiences are not able to directly impact the events of the show, they can choose how they watch these events unfold, whether it be in chronological order or in "Tarantino" order, a reference made by Netflix about the famed director's use of nonlinear storytelling in his films. In total, there are 40,000 different ways in which you can watch this show, changing the order in which you learn about the criminals' motives, backstories and what drives them to commit the heist itself. If the person streaming the show does not choose episodes, Netflix will scramble them at random so you never know which order you will get.
This is not Netflix's first venture into interactive streaming or programming, with "Black Mirror: Bandersnatch" from 2018, where audiences watched a film about a computer programmer in a choose-your-own-adventure game, or "You vs. Wild" from 2019, in which viewers followed Bear Grylls and chose options to further him along in his survival missions.
However, the popularity of "Kaleidoscope" is notable and could impact the future of entertainment and television as other streaming platforms realize the success of user-based content. Do we believe that all content on Netflix and other major platforms will switch to entirely interactive in the future? Most likely not (although, it is fun to imagine if reality TV could be interactive, such as "Love is Blind".) Nonetheless, the format is compelling and could become more popular as people switch to primarily streaming platforms that offer personalization as opposed to traditional cable-scheduled programs. In the meantime, watch "Kaleidoscope" on Netflix and be sure not to spoil for friends or family watching in a different order!