Don’t Watch Steven Soderbergh’s ‘Mosaic’ On HBO — Watch It On Its Revolutionary App

Tonight marks the premiere of one of HBO’s biggest shows of the winter, Steven Soderbergh‘s Mosaic. Starring Sharon Stone, the crime drama centers around the murder of prolific children’s author Olivia Lake (Stone). As the series jumps from different timelines and different characters’ perspectives, Mosaic acts as a slow-burn whodunit. However, if you want to embrace the full extent of Mosaic‘s potential, you don’t need to turn on HBO tonight: You just need to unlock your smartphone.

This is a compliment to the series, by the way. Mosaic was first made available in November on the platform it was originally designed to be watched on  — an iOS and Android app. Soderbergh’s original version of the series lays somewhere between a choose-your-own-adventure series and a visual novel. All viewers start with the same opening episode, the 24-minute “Meet Olivia Lake.” From there, viewers can choose which characters and plot points they want to follow, discovering key information along the way. In the end, all episodes lead to the same murderous outcome, but depending on which paths viewers chooses to take, Lake’s murder can be viewed from a variety of different persepctives. As a result, Mosaic is one of the most narratively innovative television experiences to ever exist.

Conversely, the version of the series HBO will be airing in the coming weeks is a linear miniseries cut by Soderbergh himself. Viewed in this format, Mosaic is still good. Stone is both haunting and purposefully infuriating as the egotistical Olivia Lake, a combination of every pseudo-intellectual rich person who has ever existed. Likewise, the whodunit mystery at the show’s core is a solid one. Both Joel (Garrett Hedlund) and Eric (Frederick Weller) stand as intimidating figures in Olivia’s life, two men who seemingly have no real power over the accomplished author but who both have motivation to end her life. Likewise, the story of the determined and no-nonsense investigator Petra (Jennifer Ferrin) is a great one. Petra watches like a dozen other serious police tropes created before her, but she’s a solid character who is always easy to root for. However, viewing Mosaic as simply another hour-long drama is a huge disservice to the show’s potential.

There’s a reason why Soderbergh, a notoriously busy director, devoted years to this project and mapped out over 500 pages of script for this relatively small murder mystery. There’s also a reason why HBO CEO Richard Plepler reportedly said “You’re not walking out of this office until we have a deal” to the director when he first proposed the project, and a reason why the network spent $20 million on the project. When viewed through the app, Mosaic transforms from a by-the-numbers murder mystery into a near-perfect visual interpretation of dissecting a crime novel. By allowing viewers to choose which characters and stories they want to follow, Mosaic allows you to dive into the conflicting psyches of its many characters in a way that television typically doesn’t permit, save for standalone episodes. The Mosaic app may present the same conversation, but viewed through the eyes of Joel or Petra, it has a completely different meaning. Those same moments exist in the linear version of the series, but much like a choice-driven video game, there’s something about the audience deciding who to believe and what to follow that makes the overall story feel so much more intimate and gripping. 

There’s certainly merit to the version of Mosaic HBO will be airing in the coming weeks. The series stands as a perfectly enjoyable cable murder mystery, and as mentioned before, Stone’s scenes in the show are excellent. However, what warrants the show’s $20 million price tag and place on HBO’s network is its app. Only time will tell whether Soderbergh’s team, the app’s parent company PodOp, and HBO have invented the future of television or just a flashy gimmick. But at present, the Mosaic app stands as one of the most interesting narrative innovations television has seen in years.

Steven Soderbergh’s cut of Mosaic premieres on HBO Monday, January 22 at 8 p.m. ET. You can stream it now on desktop or through the iOS app or Android app. 

Stream Mosaic on HBO