There are 40,000 ways to watch ‘Kaleidoscope’ on Netflix. A complete guide

Much is known about Netflix’s new limited series Kaleidoscope. It’s a heist story, and as such, it comes with many of the beats you’d expect: old grudges, team meetings, small missions that set up the big one. But there’s one key way Kaleidoscope differs from similar shows you’ve seen. You can watch the episodes in any order.

The series dropped on January 1 and is now the No. 1 TV show on Netflix. Without giving too much away, Giancarlo Esposito plays Ray Vernon (aka Leo Papp), the ringleader of a group that plans a multibillion-dollar job settling an old score. Each episode tells a part of the story, focusing on Vernon’s motivations, or planning the heist, or what happens next. Episodes arrive in whatever random order Netflix decides to deliver them to you (with the exception of The Real Heist, which serves as the final episode).

This isn’t the first time Netflix has used nonlinear storytelling. In 2018, Black Mirror: Bandersnacht A choose-your-own-adventure take on a movie about a computer programmer. The next year, the audience had to decide for the brave Bear Grylls In You vs. Wild.

Episodes of Kaleidoscope are named for different colors, no doubt for the series name, but also as a way to easily track which series you’re watching and compare to friends. You don’t have to watch the way Netflix suggests. Here’s what you need to know about how to view a kaleidoscope.

And if you’ve gotten the power and need help sorting out what happened, Here is the ending explained.

Do I need to pick up the order?

Not necessarily. If you hit play on a show, you’ll see a quick primer on how it works, and then launch straight into the episodes. They can come in any order, with the exception of White, which is itself a steal, and is structured as a series finale. That said, if you want to pick up an order for yourself, you can.

How do I view it chronologically?

In the spirit of the show, I’m going to skimp on the episode details to avoid spoiling anything. If you decide to watch Kaleidoscope chronologically, the sequence of episodes goes like this, starting with a young Vernon 24 years before the theft:

• Purple (robbery 24 years ago).
• Green (7 years ago).
• Yellow (before 6 weeks).
• Orange (3 weeks ago).
• Blue (5 days ago).
• white (robbery).
• Red (morning after).
• Pink (after 6 months).

If you decide to go this route, however, know that any big finale twists will hit the white episode.

Are there other ways of looking?

If everyone’s doing the math correctly, seven episodes, none repeated, which can be watched in any order, should yield more than 5,000 choices (there are even more choices if you don’t watch White at the end). How many of those hours you want to try are between you and your calendar.

Netflix tweeted some order suggestions, if you’re interested in watching Kaleidoscope as a Quentin Tarantino film — apparently a reference to nonlinear Tarantino films like Pulp Fiction — (blue, green, yellow, orange, purple, pink, white, red). Or like a classic detective story (orange, green, purple, red, yellow, blue, white, pink).

You can go rogue and follow the colors of the rainbow (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, pink). Or, if you’re feeling particularly rebellious, you can start with a grand theft right off the bat.

What are the suggestions of the audience on social media?

Not surprisingly, many people are talking about the episode order they chose and which order is best.

how did it happen you Look at this, the person who wrote this article?

How thoughtful of you to ask. My order, directed by Netflix, was:

• green
• yellow
• purple
• the orange
• the blue
• red
• pink
• white

Oddly enough, my best friend’s Netflix account gave her this exact command. For me, this approach started out strong, but having Orange and Blue, and then Red and Pink is two sets of episodes in chronological order, with relatively small time jumps in between. In that section, I felt my concentration lapse somewhat. Viewing this program chronologically seems to miss the point. If I could go back and watch it in a different order, I’d bump Red (but leave Pink where it is) and flip Yellow and Green, because I think Yellow would be the strongest episode to begin with.

So, like this:

• yellow
• green
• purple
• the orange
• red
• the blue
• pink
• white