Steven Soderbergh deconstructs back-to-back experiments: Full Circle and Command Z

polygon.com:

Rebel, wunderkind, trendsetter, pioneer, one-man band — all labels applied to Steven Soderbergh more regularly than, say, “winner of the Academy Award for Best Director” or “youngest-ever Palme d’Or recipient.” Whatever the filmmaker’s independent-leaning bona fides (and the list goes deeper than any one person can keep in their head simultaneously), Soderbergh’s current run is a fertile, three-medium collaboration with Men in Black and Bill & Ted screenwriter Ed Solomon. In 2017, the two ever-so-slightly broke apart the possibilities of narrative and distribution with Mosaic, an interactive, app-based, deliriously entertaining murder mystery (no longer online but since re-edited by Soderbergh into a strong HBO series); 2021 brought No Sudden Move, an Elmore Leonard-esque thriller far more surprising and experiment-friendly than its streaming debut might suggest; and now they’re back with the complex, formally audacious miniseries Full Circle on Max.

In Full Circle, a child is kidnapped off the streets of New York — just not the one the kidnappers were trying to kidnap. But for the wealthy targets, the incident spills decades’ worth of skeletons from the closet — and a conspiracy across two continents, two families, and multiple generations reaping what’s been sown. The show feels equal parts Soderbergh and Solomon, the latter again imprinting his interest in secrets as crime’s great motivator — especially as those secrets uphold the public face of generational wealth — while the former’s directing-editing-cinematographer duties make it immediately identifiable after, say, one second. It blends readily identifiable actors (Timothy Olyphant, Claire Danes, Dennis Quaid, CCH Pounder) with a cast of up-and-comers; its