HBO have announced what might just be their most ambitious project to date, an interactive series helmed by Steven Soderbergh. Mosaic is set to be the closet TV has ever gotten to a fully realised choose-your-own-adventure, with viewers selecting which character’s perspective they follow the action from.
From the looks of it, you’ll need to download an app to watch the series, which will allow you to move between different perspective within the Mosaic world. As IndieWire have it, there’s 14 different “nodes” in the app, which equate to episodes — and within each, there’s a whole lot of information. Viewers can choose which character’s perspective they’ll experience that node from, with little bonuses like newspaper clippings and voicemails to peek at too
“It’s a fixed universe,” Soderbergh told W, so you won’t have much say in the goings-on, but “you do at certain points decide who you want to follow and how you want to navigate this narrative.”
As for the plot, it seems like we’re in set to trace the murder of children’s writer Olivia Lake — Soderbergh probably wants us to have a go at solving it as the series progresses. As a headline in the trailer reports, Olivia’s been murder murdered and her served hands found (gruesome).
Mosaic stars Sharon Stone as Olivia Lake with Paul Reubens, Garrett Hedlund and Beau Bridges in unspecified roles. Ed Solomon, of Men in Black and the modern Charlie’s Angels, is screenwriting —apparently, he initially wrote a 700 page script for the series!
A few days ago, Soderbergh previewed the seven-hour project at a Future of Storytelling event in New York. He teased that Mosaic is the first of many interactive storytelling projects he’s looking to make, suggesting the form also lends itself to other genres, like comedies.
The Mosaic app will be available to download this November, and will be followed by a six part miniseries that will air in January 2018. Once the show airs, you’ll be able to see how the version of the narrative you followed on the app compares to Soderbergh’s six-part linear story. The future might seem a little complicated right now, but we’re sure it’ll come together soon.