Episode 4: BONGO BOARD

Up to this point the healthy relationship between the detective and his wife seemed to be a given, shown mostly as a foil to the stresses of the workday. For me this episode did a good job of examining an experience I've had: when something is going good (like a relationship) how can you share that with a friend in need, without sounding like a jerk?

The two halves of this episode inform one another in a more overtly thematic way. In the course of their respective work days, they've each had to deal with people who are disabled in some way, and they are powerless to help. All they can do, literally, is laugh. Which on the surface seems cruel, but I don't think it plays that way on screen.

What do you guys think? Does the episode draw paralells between the child with the broken leg and the forlorn partner?

Re:Episode 4: BONGO BOARD

So I've seen all four episodes, with number 1 being my favorite because of the word exchange between the detective and the man outside the apartment complex. I found that pretty amusing. Anyway, about relationships, it seems like the detective changes slightly when he gets home to be with his wife. The same might be true for her, but we don't see her work day. Theirs some give and take and thats always good. I'm not an expert on relationships so I can't comment further, but they seem happy. I know from past experience that if things are going well at home, and/or you have someone you care about that cares about you, everything else in your day can be tolerated, usually no matter how bad it gets. The detective has got that.

 But I can't analyze anymore than that. I mean these shorts are very, very 'short." They should go a little longer perhaps? Of course if making it longer won't contribute to the material then don't do it, but it would be nice.

Re:Episode 4: BONGO BOARD

Re:Episode 4: BONGO BOARD

I really love this notion of the focus on the lower extremities, particularly because I've always noted a fascination with the physical, with objects, these presentational themes to Swanberg's work as a whole. In Kissing on the Mouth and LOL, for instance, the primacy of the computer, instruments, cameras as storytelling modes. In Hannah Takes the Stairs, it's taken to a curious-interesting extreme whereby each of the boyfriends gets summed up and or expounded on by an object--goggles, slinky, trumpet. Same idea goes for sequences of Young American Bodies--I'm thinking particularly here of the toy sound response game in 'Girls Night In.' And, so for me, the bongo board is just another nod to that aesthetic trend, (which may very well, as you've suggested, intimate some instability in the relationship in coming episodes.) While I'm not one to see that narrative undercurrent so much myself, there is almost always a consequence to each of the objects Swanberg looks at, almost as if the objects were the joke and the punchline is whatever message he conveys via those objects. 

As for that bongo board shot you refer to, it did somewhat remind me as an utterly inverted The Graduate reference. Inverted because of A) the gender flop and B) the fact that there's nothing sexy about the scene at all. To harp a bit more on other elements in the cinematography, the shaky cam in the second act scene was highly distracting, particularly because the sequence plays out almost as a monologue. It does lend back into that voyeurism mentioned last week, and yet...yet there's not much challenge or innovation here with the camerawork, and that's really, really, really disappointing--for me at least. I'm a minority, I'm sure, but I really like to live in certain frames--literally, the frames of a film or show I'm watching. I haven't had one of those, "I HAVE TO REMEMBER THIS FRAME" moments yet with this show. Not once. That sort of makes me sad because it means the show's not eeking its way into my memory--which makes me even sadder. 

Add Note: It's also important for me to clarify in my above statement about the presentational approach of Swanberg's work that it's meant in regards only to his relationship with his interior cinematic landscape. He sees and then produces much the way an actor would physically manifest the reality of a character and then perform.

The term, however, does not extend to include his relationship with the audience--which by and large is of the converse nature and lives by its representational approach. This lends directly into the aforementioned voyeurism and the idea that these interior worlds are untouchable in the broader sense. Despite scenes intimacy, there is always a fourth wall to this type of mixed approach work. In part, people respond to that as well. 

Re:Episode 4: BONGO BOARD

shortendmagazine:

I really love this notion of the focus on the lower extremities, particularly because I've always noted a fascination with the physical, with objects, these presentational themes to Swanberg's work as a whole. 

 I want to chime in, but it's so much more fun to stay quiet and hear what everyone else has to say.  At the very least I will say that it's exciting to read that people are looking deeper into the show and into my work as a whole.  There is some very perceptive writing on this board.