SODERBERGH’S NEW SERIES
In the past decade, director Steven Soderbergh has jumped from mainstream Hollywood movies to ambitious indies and critically-acclaimed television shows. Last year, he announced his virtual arrival when he launched an app called Mosaic. The app was a murder mystery in which the viewer decides in what order they will see episodes and through which character’s episodes they’ll do so. Mosaic was a heady, gripping experience. It was meticulously plotted and beautifully realised. But it’s not available in India, which means we must settle for the conventional sixpart HBO series, streaming on Hotstar.
Set in snow-bright Utah, Mosaic begins with the murder of author Olivia Lake (Sharon Stone). Even though they haven’t found the body, the police seem to know who killed her. Her fiancé Eric (Frederick Weller) is charged with the crime and found guilty.
Four years later, Lake’s body surfaces and Eric’s sister Petra (Jennifer Ferrin) embarks on a mission to reopen the investigation and clear her brother’s name.
Soderbergh begins Mosaic with a bang and builds the tension with calculated smoothness in the first five episodes. The show is sharply written and beautifully shot. Soderbergh also draws wonderful performances from his talented cast.
The male characters are mostly scavengers, circling Lake and her property greedily. Among them, the local detective (played by Devin Ratray) stands out for his warmth and intelligence. He’s also one of the most tragic characters (especially when you realise that he has unwittingly made the same mistake twice in a row). Stone plays Lake with an edge of manic desperation that stops just short of being over the top. Her polar opposite is Ferrin’s Petra—methodical and self-contained.
Despite those strengths, Mosaic proves to be bloodless and disappointing—the app makes clear who the killer is, no matter which order you watch the episodes in. But the series leaves the solution dissatisfyingly open-ended. After five episodes that crackle with tension, a taut climax deflates like a whoopi cushion that’s been sat upon.
A stylish, open-ended conclusion might have worked. As it stands, Mosaic begins on a high only to live up to the old maxim that states what goes up, must come down.