Netflix’s Kaleidoscope is based on a true story where a company lost billions of dollars during Hurricane Sandy in 2012.
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Created by Eric Garcia, Kaleidoscope is a much-anticipated heist drama series starting Giancarlo Esposito as Leo Pap. He’s joined by Rufus Sewell as Roger Salas, Paz Vega as Ava Mercer, Rosaline Elbay as Judy Goodwin, Jai Courtney as Bob Goodwin, Tati Gabrielle as Hannah Kim, and Peter Mark Kendall as Stan Loomis.
Kaleidoscope is the first of its kind as any episode can be watched in any order except the finale episode titled White: The Heist. The show consists of eight episodes that have all been released together on Netflix.
Let’s take a look at the events that inspired Kaleidoscope.
Kaleidoscope is loosely inspired by the real-life disappearance of $70 billion in bonds
In 2012, Hurricane Sandy hit the east coast of the United States, Canada, and the Caribbean. CNN reported that 147 people were directly killed due to calamity, with losses and damages of over billions of dollars registered.
The underground vault of the Depository Trust & Clearing Corp in New York was gravely affected when it was flooded.
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The Wall Street-owned organization has over 1.7 million paper certificates for shares, bonds, and other financial instruments for important parts of the US trading infrastructure. The company was only able to open its vaults two weeks after the hurricane.
Once opened, the company discovered massive damage and flooding. Initially, the company refused to disclose the losses, but spokeswoman Judy Inosanto said it was a much lower amount compared to their $39.5 trillion of stocks and bonds. Most of them were handled electronically. In 2013, the DTCC revealed that 99% of the damaged items were restored.
But Kaleidoscope is a fun take on the incident. In the show, Leo Pap is a veteran robber who has hired a team of small-time crooks to breach the walls of the USA’s most secure prison. Each hired hand comes with a set of unique skill sets that help the team maintain equilibrium.
Leo Pap also has a hidden agenda against Roger Salas, one of Manhattan’s richest citizens. The show has complex storytelling and narrates tales of corruption, greed, vengeance, scheming, loyalties, and betrayals.
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Speaking on Kaleidoscope, the show’s creator Eric Garcia said:
“It’s loosely based on something that might have happened,” he explained. “After Hurricane Sandy, $70 billion worth of bonds got flooded in the basement of the DTCC, which is a large clearing effort that’s owned by a bunch of the big banks.”
He continued:
To my mind, I was like, ‘Well, that’s a perfect coverup for a heist!'”
What is Netflix’s Kaleidoscope about?
This new heist drama will be right up your alley if you are a fan of shows like Lupin, Money Heist, Army of Thieves, Point Break, and Breaking Bad. Kaleidoscope’s synopsis, according to its trailer on YouTube, reads:
“A master thief and his crew attempt an epic and elaborate heist worth $7 billion dollars — but betrayal, greed, and other threats undermine their plans.”
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The show is produced by Kalen Egan, Brad Carpenter, and Christie Colliopoulos. Eric Garcia, Russell Fine, Fred Berger, Brian Kavanaugh-Jones, Justin Levy, Ridley Scott, David W. Zucker, Jordan Sheehan, Clayton Krueger, and Garrett Lerner serve as executive producers with the cinematography being done by Niels Alpert.
