HBO’s Mosaic- July 10, 2018

[BluProofie]

[James Luckard]

Somehow I just found this, even though I've been searching "mosaic" at Amazon for weeks, the BD never showed up. Thanks so much for the pre-order link!!!! I suspect we'll only get the aired version, since it's 2 discs, which would be space for the 6 hours that ran on HBO.

I'm really disappointed, I was hoping for a 4 disc version that would include both the HBO version and the 7hr+ app version, because the app version is radically different. There are little differences throughout, but the ending is COMPLETELY different.

Obviously we go into the show knowing Sharon Stone gets murdered, she is dead almost as soon as the show starts and the show is about the investigation, with her seen in flashback, that's the hook, so this isn't really a SPOILER, but still... The entire 22min final episode of the web version, "Destiny", showing Sharon Stone's actual murder in flashback, definitively revealing the murderer's identity and motivation, is ONLY in the app version. The TV version decides to leave things openended, and includes NONE of this material.

I was absolutely shocked by this choice, because I thought the murder scene had some of Sharon Stone's best acting in the entire series, she was totally heartbreaking in that scene, and we learned things about her character we never knew otherwise. She'd be up for an Emmy if anyone had seen this brilliant series.

[James Luckard]

If you enjoyed this series, I cannot recommend strongly enough that you register for free at https://www.watchmosaic.com/ and watch that final episode after you watch the HBO version.

You can watch the entire streaming series at that official site, but the app version is structured in such a way that many episodes occur simultaneously, from the POV of different characters, and you have to weave back and forth to watch them all, as I did. I prefer the chronological structure of the HBO version. But the finale is unmissable.

[BluProofie]

Originally Posted by James Luckard

If you enjoyed this series, I cannot recommend strongly enough that you register for free at https://www.watchmosaic.com/ and watch that final episode after you watch the HBO version.

You can watch the entire streaming series at that official site, but the app version is structured in such a way that many episodes occur simultaneously, from the POV of different characters, and you have to weave back and forth to watch them all, as I did. I prefer the chronological structure of the HBO version. But the finale is unmissable.

I couldn’t get into the app version at all. Maybe I’ll check out the miniseries some day.

[James Luckard]

Originally Posted by BluProofie

I couldn’t get into the app version at all. Maybe I’ll check out the miniseries some day.

You really should watch it, Sharon Stone is AMAZING, and Garrett Hedlund reminds us how infuriatingly underrated he is, he's got movie star charisma and can dance on the knife's edge between sympathetic and scary, and Paul Reubens is almost unrecognizable as Stone's flamboyant gay best friend.

I respect what they were trying to do with the app, showing a complicated story from multiple perspectives, but the problem was they're still locked into the conventional format, they talked about this in interviews. They tried having each episode only a couple of minutes long, but it was just too confusing having scores of short episodes, requiring viewers to choose all the time which way to go, so they created basically a dozen half-hour episodes, many of which happen at the same time as each other. In theory it's cool, but the problem was, I watched it all the way through once, and couldn't really follow what was happening, then I watched it again, and watched different episodes that were happening concurrently with ones I watched, and went "oh, that's what that meant!"

And they couldn't solve the problem that some material had to appear in multiple episodes, or "pods," as I think they called them, for them to make sense. For example, the scene cutting to Garrett Hedlund running a crocodile hunting farm in Louisiana was included in three different pods, as I remember, because it was vital in each of them. There was lots of material I kept seeing over and over as I watched every single pod to be sure I missed nothing.

90% of the time, I think the HBO version is infinitely superior. Still, it was a gutsy step to take, Soderbergh himself said he felt this is merely the "cave painting" stage of this new format, and I admire his bravery.

I just cannot fathom why they filmed a very clear conclusion for the app version, but then chose to cut it completely from the HBO version. They literally chopped off the final 20 minutes, explaining everything that had come before - the land deals, the tattoos, the paintings, the backstory of the billionaire up the hill, etc, etc.

The series makes very little sense without that final episode, but once you watch it, everything is perfectly clear.

I still adore the show, because Soderbergh is one of the most gifted directors alive, but it's flawed in both formats.

That said, one of the most audacious directing choices I've seen in years happens in the final "pod" of the app version. As we watch

[Show spoiler]the flashback of Michael murdering Olivia, Soderbergh recognizes that it's entirely about how what she's saying is driving him over the edge, so he chooses to photograph it by shooting over Michael's shoulder the entire time, but with Sharon Stone completely out of focus, and his shoulder and the back of his head in focus. We almost never see his face, or hers, but we're totally inside his head as her words tear into him and drive him to kill her.

It's a bold choice that only a genius like Soderbergh could think up.

[James Luckard]

My BD arrived today, only extra appears to be a featurette, "Heart of Homicide: Big Murder in a Small Town"

Such a shame the original app version wasn't included, though that would have required 4 discs instead of 2.

At least they should have included the deleted material, especially the deleted final episode.

[Trace17]

Originally Posted by James Luckard

My BD arrived today, only extra appears to be a featurette, "Heart of Homicide: Big Murder in a Small Town"

Such a shame the original app version wasn't included, though that would have required 4 discs instead of 2.

At least they should have included the deleted material, especially the deleted final episode.

Is there any special packaging (slipcover, slipbox, etc.)? Looks like nobody is carrying this in store, so if I order online I have to choose who might be able to damage it the least.

[James Luckard]

Originally Posted by Trace17

Is there any special packaging (slipcover, slipbox, etc.)? Looks like nobody is carrying this in store, so if I order online I have to choose who might be able to damage it the least.

My copy was just a plastic standard case, no slipcover or anything.

[Trace17]

Originally Posted by James Luckard

My copy was just a plastic standard case, no slipcover or anything.

Okay, thanks for the info.

[Doctor Jack]

Just watched all of the hbo version today on blu. I loved it. Read on here how the ending was missing. Started to watch it, but made it about 2 minutes and turned it off. I thought the way the miniseries ended was perfect. Loved the open endedness of it. Maybe I’m missing out, but oh well.

[James Luckard]

Originally Posted by Doctor Jack

Just watched all of the hbo version today on blu. I loved it. Read on here how the ending was missing. Started to watch it, but made it about 2 minutes and turned it off. I thought the way the miniseries ended was perfect. Loved the open endedness of it. Maybe I’m missing out, but oh well.

Without the final app episode, you'll miss the explanation of what the religious cult means, the one that has the triangle symbol that keeps reappearing all over town and on the tattoos of the henchmen who pop up occasionally. It's really cleverly explained, in a very unexpected way.

I also think the actual murder scene, which is only shown in the final app episode, is one of the best in the whole series, and one of Stone's best performance moments. You learn all the backstory between Stone's character and the killer in that scene, and it's actually quite moving, deepening her character a lot.

I highly recommend giving that last app episode another shot.

[Doctor Jack]

Maybe. I really like the ambiguousness of it all. Having all that explained I feel might cheapen it. I thought the ending was perfect. Don’t want to risk it even if it might be better, even if that sounds silly.

[James Luckard]

Originally Posted by Doctor Jack

Maybe. I really like the ambiguousness of it all. Having all that explained I feel might cheapen it. I thought the ending was perfect. Don’t want to risk it even if it might be better, even if that sounds silly.

I can see being on the fence about the details of the religious cult, they're cool, but not vital to understanding the story, but I really would recommend watching it just for the murder scene. Soderbergh shoots it in a REALLY daring way, and Stone goes from maniacal anger to heartbreaking raw terror once she realizes she has chosen the wrong person to treat like garbage. She literally talks herself into her own grave, because she is only realizing in that very room, at that very moment, that he's batshit crazy. It's an exceptional scene, easily the best in the whole series, and honestly one of my favorites that Soderbergh has ever directed.

That said, yes, all the ambiguity will be gone, but since the writer and director created all this material, they may have intended that ambiguity in the aired version, but these are also definitively the answers they had in mind.