# Mosaic (2018)

> A popular children's book author in a small mountain resort town becomes entangled in love and murder that unsettle her tight-knit community.

Canonical page: https://ember.film/tv/65823

## Facts

- Seasons: 1
- Episodes: 6
- Episode runtime: 50 min
- Status: Ended
- Genres: drama, mystery, crime
- Network: HBO
- Cast: Jennifer Ferrin, Frederick Weller, Paul Reubens, Sharon Stone, Garrett Hedlund, Jeremy Bobb, Maya Kazan, Beau Bridges
- TMDB rating: 6.4/10
- IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5056958/

## Ember's analysis

- Pacing: measured
- Intensity: strong
- Complexity: dense
- Violence: moderate
- Tone: brooding, intimate, unsettling, melancholic, tense

## What critics say

Audience reception is mixed, with the single season praised for its unusual interactive-style structure and its mystery of love and murder in a small resort town, though some viewers found the framing gimmicky.

## Synopsis

Mosaic (2018) is an American HBO prestige limited series created as a one-season miniseries spanning six fifty-minute episodes. It follows popular children's book author and illustrator Olivia Lake, played by Sharon Stone, whose literary success has made her a local celebrity in a tight-knit small mountain resort town. Around her circle a web of relationships that tangle into romance and violence, including Petra Neill (Jennifer Ferrin) and her husband Eric Neill (Frederick Weller), along with Joel Hurley (Garrett Hedlund) and Frank Scott (Jeremy Bobb). The engine of the story is the slow unraveling of what people hide behind polite community faces, as each episode peels back another layer of the psychology behind love and murder. The atmosphere is brooding and intimate, with a cool, uneasy tension that builds through interpersonal confrontations rather than action set pieces. Its structure is a single continuous mystery told from several characters' vantage points, so the pieces assemble gradually. Fans of Big Little Lies, Sharp Objects and The Affair will find resonance in its polished small town unease and its probing of guilt, desire and the secrets people keep.

## Shows like Mosaic

- [Before (2024)](https://ember.film/tv/157342)
- [Gracepoint (2014)](https://ember.film/tv/54749)
- [Happy Town (2010)](https://ember.film/tv/17294)
- [Deadwater Fell (2020)](https://ember.film/tv/80579)
- [Top of the Lake (2013)](https://ember.film/tv/42254)
- [The Better Sister (2025)](https://ember.film/tv/168308)
- [UNTAMED (2025)](https://ember.film/tv/164279)
- [Mare of Easttown (2021)](https://ember.film/tv/95824)
- [Home Before Dark (2020)](https://ember.film/tv/82550)
- [The Beast in Me (2025)](https://ember.film/tv/165787)

---

Site overview: https://ember.film/llms.txt