Best of all, it is available to watch right now.
Set against the backdrop of a snowy, snobby ski-resort town filled with the rich and the wannabe-rich, we meet Olivia Lake (Sharon Stone).
Independently wealthy and apparently incredibly wealthy, Lake is a world-famous children’s book author, best known for one particular book in which, when read front to back, tells the story of a hunter who saves the town from a scary bear, but when read back to front, tells the story of a bear being hunted by a scary man.
It is that extra level of intelligence that also helps Mosaic stand out from the crowd, putting a twist on the kind of story we’ve seen time and time again, because as the show initially seems to be spending a lot of time in helping us get to know Olivia – presenting her as the protagonist who may go on to solve a mystery – instead it flips it on its head, and kills her off.
That isn’t a spoiler, by the way, but the crux of the whole show, as you’ll need to go back through the scenes you’ve watched already and try to piece together who is the most likely candidate to have killed off such a beloved person, one who brought joy into the lives of so many children’s lives.
Again, that extra level comes into play, and the more we learn about Lake after her death, the more we learn that she was not the perfect pillar of society that she was perceived to be.
The same goes for the hunky handyman (Garrett Hedlund – Tron: Legacy, Friday Night Lights, Troy) that she had a crush on, the local police chief (Devin Ratray – Buzz from Home Alone!) who doesn’t have as good a grip on the town as he would like, the former police chief turned private security specialist (Beau Bridges – Masters Of Sex, Bloodlines) who looks like he could have his head turned for the right price, her flamboyant best friend (Paul Reubens – yes, Pee Wee Herman himself) who disappeared right around the time she did…
So initially, the finger of accusation could literally be pointed at anyone, but as each episode reveals more and more of the backstory, it also peels away some of the mystery, and you’ll become convinced you’ve figured it out… until the next episode turns everything you knew on its head again.
The six-part mini-series, which was initially conceived and released as an interactive movie, was directed by Oscar-winner Steven Soderbergh (Ocean’s 11, Magic Mike, Side Effects), who obviously knows his way around a good mystery, while also giving some well-deserved career boosts in the process, sending stars off in directions we never imagined them in; think of Jennifer Lopez in Out Of Sight, Julia Roberts in Erin Brokovitch, Robin Williams in Insomnia, Michael Douglas in Behind The Candelabra.
We obviously can’t say too much by way of details, but he does the same here for the majority of the cast of Mosaic, but a special shout-out must go to Sharon Stone, who absolutely commands every scene she’s a part of, and gets us invested enough to see the show through to the end to find out who killed her off.
And if you manage to figure out who did it before the final episode, then you need to get up off the couch and join the FBI immediately, because you’re clearly a master detective.
Mosaic is available to watch in its entirety right now on Now TV, which you can subscribe to for your 14-day free trial right here.
Clip via HBO
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