Viewers can merge with the mystery ‘Mosaic’
Director Steven Soderbergh’s Mosaic opens with two men in a hotel hallway on your TV. But if you’d like, it can begin with Sharon Stone on a ski lift on your phone.
Mosaic is a new HBO miniseries from the Sex, Lies, and Videotape director (Monday through Friday, 8 p.m. ET/PT,
) about the murder of wealthy children’s book author Olivia Lake (Stone) in a small Utah community. The story also can be experienced via the Mosaic app, which allows users to view the narrative from different points of view, in different pieces and with added content.
As technology hurtles forward and Hollywood tries to keep up, some directors have sought to change up the traditional film and TV formula, including
The Revenant director Alejandro González Iñárritu, who brought a virtual-reality installation to the 2017 Cannes Film Festival. Mosaic takes a “branching story,” as Soderbergh calls it, and provides branches in the app, connecting short videos users can tap to play and form the story in whatever way they please.
The app doesn’t exactly revolutionize the TV-watching experience, but it isn’t a gimmick, either. It’s more like a fun supplement that enhances the standard whodunit with new scenes and new perspectives. Viewers who choose to watch only on HBO or their phones probably will be satisfied with either experience.
Mosaic is a decent murder mystery. The twisting tale occasionally shifts its point of view but doesn’t offer as many as the app does. It begins with Olivia Lake as she meets the two men who will become the primary suspects in her murder: Joel (Garrett Hedlund), an aspiring artist looking for mentorship from Olivia, who’s more interested in an intimate relationship; and Eric (Freder- ick Weller), a con man whose romantic overtures are suspicious.
When Olivia disappears on New Year’s Eve and is presumed murdered, Eric is imprisoned for the crime. Four years later, his sister Petra (Jennifer Ferrin) devotes herself to exonerating him. The cast is rounded out by Paul Reubens as Olivia’s best friend and James Ransone as her neighbor and surrogate son.
The series starts a bit too slowly. Stone is always a treat, but the pace and plotting are more gripping after Olivia’s murder. Petra’s appearance gives the series a healthy jolt of energy a few episodes in, and Ferrin ( Hell on Wheels) is quite appealing in the role. Her onewoman crusade is the most fascinating and engaging part of the series.
When Mosaic jumps around between character perspectives, it’s a little disjointed. Some scenes are assembled haphazardly, and the transitions can be jarring. On the app, where the user makes a decision among many scenes, this makes more sense. The downside of the app is missing out on Soderbergh’s moody direction.
Whether or not interactive apps are the future of TV, Mosaic is a diverting experiment that mostly succeeds, however you put its pieces together.