5 reasons why you should watch Mosaic
Sharon Stone, a murder mystery and an app that allows you to piece together director Steven Soderbergh’s latest on-screen experiment exactly as you please – say hello to this year’s techiest TV show. By KASIA HASTINGS
An all-new storytelling experience
Sure, you can watch Mosaic in more familiar viewing fashion (the six episodes aired on HBO in January and are now available on catch-up), but the beauty of this crime story is encrypted in its app. Offering so much more than a conventional series to simply be consumed from the comfort of your armchair, this show invites you to navigate the narrative on your own terms by exploring multiple character perspectives and delving deeper into the unfolding drama.
The cast
Last year, shows like Big Little Lies, Westworld and The Deuce cemented the small screen as a stage fit for large acting talent, and Sharon Stone and Garrett Hedlund deliver the Hollywood star power to Mosaic. Stone returns to TV in epic style as children’s author Olivia Lake, while Hedlund stars as aspiring artist Joel Hurley. Frederick Weller plays con man Eric Neill and Jennifer Ferrin is his art restorer-cum-investigator sister, Petra. Expect glamour, drama and character depth.
It will fill the crime-thriller hole in your life
If you’ve spent hours devouring cult crime thrillers like True Detective, The Killing and Mindhunter, this technologically advanced murder-mystery is the perfect show to feed your appetite. While it delivers on crime, murder and good old-fashioned detective work, don’t expect to be presented with a neatly solved case. Mosaic’s app offers the opportunity to explore narrative branches in your chosen order, even affording the viewer the chance to rewatch key moments in the plot from another character’s viewpoint.
The director
Whether Steven Soderbergh had you gripped with Oscar-winning crime drama Traffic and the biographical Erin Brockovich, or you’re yet to watch his thrilling oeuvre, Mosaic makes for essential viewing as his most experimental work to date. Having famously retired from filmmaking only a few years ago, Soderbergh spent three years developing this app-enabled mini-series to realize his vision of a truly game-changing viewing experience.
This could be the future of entertainment
Yes, it’s a TV show, but Mosaic is also an intelligent response to the modern technology that has changed the way we consume content. It enables its audience to engage with a series like never before, creating an opportunity to steer the perceived narrative almost like a video game. Soderbergh’s plot is fixed, but by allowing it to be mapped out in multiple ways, the auteur gives a glimpse into the future of teched-up storytelling.
The people featured in this story are not associated with NET-A-PORTER and do not endorse it or the products shown.