Week 25.32 - Socials Roundup
Posts from 04 August - 10 August 2025
Week 25.32 posts include shots from Abbott Elementary (2021-current); Lars and the Real Girl (2007); and all shots of clocks and time from episodes 5 and 6 of The Bear (2022-current).
Lars and the Real Girl
A tiny, beautiful moment shows human empathy and gently chides any of the audience who would feel voyeuristic or mocking of Lars.
Specifically, it gives us a voyeuristic shot through a partially open door, then a wide showing us two nurses craning their necks to look.
The scene then cuts back to the ‘peeping medium’ and we realise it’s the approximate POV of the nurses who are snooping from the corridor . . .
before a third nurse steps in to close the door, giving Lars and Bianca their privacy from the snooping nurses, but also from us.
Abbott Elementary
This visual transition from 1.09 "Step Class" works with a "setup, payoff, punchline" structure.
1 SETUP The scene opens by establishing Janine Frame Right in the gym; in every shot of her conversation with Ava and interaction with the kids, she remains Frame Right . . . in fact when she dances into the center, Ava draaaags her back to where she started. After a quick pan Left to show the kids stepping, the shot holds a few beats before quickly panning back Right where . . .
2 PAYOFF We expect Janine to be approximately the same place in frame she was before . . . which she is, only now she’s in a new location, dancing into the lunch room.
3 PUNCHLINE The 'door close noise' punctuates Janine’s routine, then caps it off with a hard cut to Barbara's perfect reaction.
The Bear 4.05
“Replicants” shows no clocks or time signifiers for the first six and a half minutes.
It opens on Carmy in an AA meeting, then visiting Frank Lloyd Wright’s Oak Park house as Paul Simon croons “I'm just a traveler / Eatin' up travelin' time . . .” before hitting with ALL THE CLOCKS as Tina, Richie, and Syd, wake up and start their days.
The use of clocks throughout this episode is — along with the story — more of The Bear standard use: highlighting the everyday annoyances and tragedies of everyone in the restaurant, whether they’re at home looking for a lost cleaver, prepping their station, or getting a call from an unknown number.
(Note the clock on the wall when Marcus gets a phone call is the same time as his phone — production continuity on their game!)
That call, with news of Sydney’s dad having a heart attack, leads directly into the use of clocks in the next episode.
The Bear 4.06
Time is always important, but “Sophie”’s main stories are about the hazy feeling of being lost, deadlines fade into the background, so clocks out of focus and/or obscured in whole or in part; even frames with two clocks in them, you don’t see either or both clearly.
Except Tina’s timer, which clear shows she’s finally cracked her pasta problem.
Other Half-Obscurities
It’s not only time; many scenes play with obscuring some or all of someone having a conversation. And the conversation between Tina and Marcus ends with:
“God forbid something happen . . .”
”The timer starts.”
”Always a clock.”
Final Frame
Then in its final moments, “Sophie” — in a clear and unobscured shot — reminds us even when we’re not paying attention to the time, it continues passing . . .
EXIT
EXIT signs make an appearance in the hospital with Syd, sometimes in the background, sometimes clearly, reminding us of their constant reappearance in Season 2.
