Author Eric Garcia created the series about a group of criminals, planning a heist, a major robbery of someone with billions. It's composed of eight episodes that represent eight different colors. The gimmick is that the episodes can be watched in any order, even though the episodes have a definite chronological order. Reportedly, Garcia and his team crafted them that any arrangement of the episodes would still yield a satisfying overall narrative.
So many films have been made where the story or narrative has been told in nonlinear fashion where the chronology has been all over the place. Garcia wants to make this series a more interactive or individualized experience where each person who watches can come away with their own unique view of it. After watching it, I disagree that watching it in any order is equally effective.
Giancarlo Esposito (Better Call Saul and Breaking Bad) stars as Ray Vernon aka Leo Pap, a career criminal. He gathers a group of five to help him rob a security firm that is housing billions. The episodes reveal how he implements the robbery, what leads up to it and even what follows after it, as well as why he's doing it at all. Esposito gives a great performance, as the Emmy nominee usually does. The writing here is clever enough and even thrilling enough to keep people engaged.
It's almost to the level of Breaking Bad (2008) or even something like Steven Soderbergh's Ocean's Eleven (2001). However, I disagree that the order essentially doesn't matter. Each episode begins with a time stamp in relation to the heist. The "Violet" episode, for example, occurs 24 years before the heist. Yet, the "Pink" episode occurs 6 months after the heist. The Violet episode is the earliest chronologically. The Pink episode is the last chronologically speaking.
In theory, the Pink episode could be the first one viewed. If so, to me, it would make no sense emotionally. The Pink episode reveals the ultimate fate of Ray and his team. To see their fates without any context or knowledge of what transpired would probably feel hollow or fall flat. The argument for it would likely be that knowing the characters' fates will come to matter as one watches the remaining episodes, but the impact would diminish if you already knew their fates. It might create a dynamic that yielded other thrills, but none as significant.
The order I watched was Green (7 years before heist), Yellow (6 weeks before heist), Blue (5 days before heist), Violet (24 years before heist), Orange (3 weeks before heist), Red (Morning after the heist), Pink (6 months after heist) and White (the heist). It wasn't in total chronological order, but it was good enough. Reportedly, the White episode is meant to be the last episode viewed, despite it being the second penultimate episode chronologically. The White episode is designed to be a bookend or cap to the whole thing. I would agree with that.
There are a lot of twists and turns that keep you on the edge of your seat or at least wanting to keep your eyes glued. The cast is quite good. Paz Vega who plays Ava Mercer, the lawyer and love interest for Ray, is one of the stand outs. Jai Courtney (Suicide Squad and Terminator: Genisys) who plays Bob Goodwin is probably the most outstanding. His role as written is meant to be the flashier. He's a safe-cracker from Philadelphia who is certainly a bruiser type. He's the wild card of the bunch and the series plays that up in moments.
Rated TV-MA.
Running Time: 1 hr. / 8 eps.
Available on Netflix.
