Page 76 - Bloomberg_Businessweek

CRITIC Bloomberg Pursuits January 29, 2018

As You Like It

Prestige television meets the Sleep No More format

in HBO’s Mosaic. By Steve Rousseau

If you know how this one ends, turn
the page. In 1969, on his commute
home, Edward Packard, a lawyer for
RCA Records, penned a story with
an inventive twist: The reader would
decide the plot turns. A decade later,
Bantam Books picked up the concept
in earnest, and the choose-your-own-
adventure craze began.
Since then the concept of an inter-
active narrative has had as many
branching paths and dead ends as its
namesake (and copyrighted) format.
Video games have evolved to feel
like participatory movies, and 2016
brought us Late Shift, the “world’s
74 first interactive cinematic movie.”
Since 2011 the theater production this character, or switch to a new one either come to love or loathe. That
SleepNoMore has lured audiences for and gain another perspective. As you basic-ness is likely a product of the
repeat viewings by offering viewers go, you’ll unlock supplemental “dis- setup—to achieve the complexity of
the chance to see new aspects of the covery” information in the form of the app’s nonlinear storytelling, the
story each time. documents, web pages, and voice story itself had to remain straightfor-
Mosaic, a miniseries from director mails, as well as other storylines you ward. (Similarly, Netflix Inc.’s attempt
Steven Soderbergh, is the latest, a rare may want to go back and explore. On at interactive plotting started with a
attempt in Hollywood to relinquish the surface, it feels as if you should simple kid’s cartoon, Puss in Book.) In
control to the audience. It began as a be able to hop around endlessly from style, Mosaic falls somewhere between
free app in November and premiered person to person, but given that each Soderbergh’s gleaming Ocean’s Eleven
on HBO on Jan. 22. node can be 15, 25, or even 60 min- and the more auteur-ish Full Frontal
The app explores the small-town utes long, unraveling the mystery or The Girlfriend Experience. It’s only
murder of children’s book author of Olivia Lake can feel plodding—a in the app that Mosaic becomes unlike
Olivia Lake (the slinkily excellent deconstructed season of television. anything you’ve come to expect from
Sharon Stone), a woman surrounded Scenes can repeat two or three times; prestige TV.
by questionable love interests and completionists, beware. In the story, Olivia Lake’s magnum
friends. The narrative is built around Yet something magical happens opus is a book which, read one way,
15 “nodes” split among the points about two-thirds of the way in: Mosaic features a ferocious bear out to get a
of view of key characters—a con art- offers the potential that you’ll come to hunter. Read another way, it’s about a
ist (Frederick Weller), a handsome the end in a way that is unique to you. fearsome hunter out to get a defense-
lover (Garrett Hedlund), a slimy best The emotional ups and downs feel like less bear. Lake was so infatuated by
friend (a gleeful Paul Reubens in his your own creation. It’s easy to forget the concept that she constructed a
element), and a local detective (Devin Soderbergh is stringing you along. “story trail” on her property. When
Ratray) seemingly in over his head. When viewed on HBO in its six, two characters, Joel (Hedlund) and
The Rashomon-like tale tugs on themes Soderbergh-edited episodes, it’s Petra (Jennifer Ferrin), visit the trail
familiar to the whodunnit setup: There clear that Mosaic’s innovations don’t for clues, Petra asks which way they ILLUSTRATION BY SARAH MAZZETTI
are no truths, only perspectives. quite subvert the suspense genre. should take. “Well, it’s a circle,” admits
Watch one node, and you’re given a Without choices, it’s another passive, Joel, who lives on the property. “They
choice: Continue down the path with of-the-moment crime drama you’ll both end up at the same place.”