Heist stories have such a satisfying structure. It’s not just getting one over on the man, but the lead up to it as well: Putting a team together, planning the heist (the target always has it coming!), doing the heist and improvising through unexpected problems. And then that pleasurable sensation at the end: They got away with it. So what happens if you take that structure and jumble it up so that the typical order of things doesn’t matter? That’s the experimental premise behind “Kaleidoscope,” starring Giancarlo Esposito as a master thief who rounds up a crew to abscond with $7 billion in bearer bonds.
They’re targeting the world’s three richest people who keep their assets in what is supposedly the most secure underground vault ever. Since bearer bonds are not assigned to any one individual, they are untraceable and therefore vulnerable to theft. Hence, the ultrahigh security measures.
If the Titanic was marketed as unsinkable, the vault in “Kaleidoscope” has been similarly marketed as impenetrable — the hubris of such confidence means both are under water in the end, literally. The show’s central heist is very loosely inspired by the real-life theft of bearer bonds from a subterranean vault in Manhattan, which became flooded and vulnerable to a break-in during Hurricane Sandy. Apparently, this sort of crime can actually be pulled off in the right circumstances — the fictional how and why of it (as well as the aftermath) forms the basis of the story.
