Today I’m eager to return to a production I’ve been greatly enjoying, the gracefully genre-splicing Big O. Last episode saw Roger Smith taking a journey to Electric City, where he met the thieving femme fatale Angel, and ended up doing battle with a genuine electric kaiju. The episode was somewhat light on narrative tissue, but rich in atmosphere, with Roger’s quiet investigations of a rundown power plant offering plenty of that distinct, slow-burning noir appeal. The fact that Smith is generally just a guy in a suit asking questions actually makes The Big O feel remarkably close to its film forebearers at times, at least until a giant robot rises out of the ground and punches an electric eel. I’m looking forward to enjoying as much of that atmosphere as I can this week, but to be honest, I mostly just want to see Roger and Dorothy have more adorable bickering fits. Look, I’m a simple man, I enjoying watching a stuffy detective get owned by his robot assistant. Let’s get to it!

Episode 4

We open with a shot of a broken clock consumed by shadow, which pretty much covers this show in a nutshell

Great black and white films tend to make terrific use of the balance of light and shadow, much like how manga can do incredible things with the binary contrast of black and white. As a genre that most thrived in the black and white film era, noir is intrinsically tied to the stylized contrast of light and darkness, a contrast that naturally echoes the genre’s fascination with those on the boundary lines of civil society. This means that even in modern color works like The Big O, the use of persistent shadows and compositions defined by the contrast between light and dark is a key part of what makes a story feel like a noir drama

“Let’s just say what happened forty years ago didn’t exist. Man would still be a creature that fears the dark. Fear comes from not knowing.” As this narrator says, the genre revels in our communal fear of dark forces on the periphery of our understanding, just outside where the light touches

I like how this apartment’s fire escape is illustrated as a solid block of darkness. The Big O’s art design is full of little flourishes that rise from sober representation into stylized, angular interpretation

The characters themselves echo this style. Roger’s got a bit of art deco angularity to his sharp geometric shapes and exaggerated frame

“Underground Terror.” Given the first shots and opening monologue of the episode, I guess we’re dealing with some monster harassing the subway system. Paradigm was apparently partially modeled on Manhattan, and the subway mole men are one of New York’s most iconic local monsters

“The firm called Paradigm is considered both god and state.” A sickly yellow-green for their facilities

Angel is at Paradigm. She apparently works as the secretary for the publisher of Paradigm Press. Busy lady!

The internal trolly systems in this facility make it feel reminiscent of something like a 1950s “city of the future” illustration. Technology has advanced, but culture remains attuned to the dreams of the ‘40s and ‘50s, maintaining that noir feel

Oh man, love this shot framed through the train car as they leave. Using windows as a way to visually segment the composition creates such a strong effect here

It’s a shame Dorothy’s stuck at home so far, though. I want her to be a key collaborator, not just the house staff

Alex Rosewater, Paradigm’s chief executive

The twisting tunnels of the underground make for a nice contrast with the clean lines of the surface

Roger has been hired to convince a man named Michael Zabock to hand over a manuscript in exchange for a retirement package

More sickly green lines at the police station, as Roger stares through the window blinds. That color may be tied to all the organizations he feels are corrupted

I love the towers rising out of purple mist in this composition. Paradigm is a wonder

Only Zabock’s notes are left, where he claimed to be seeking the truth at the heart of this city. And then, of course, his apartment is set on fire

“Schvartzvold.” Wild “villain” design here, with an oddly vertically extended head all done up in bandages. He looks like a bit of a cubist person himself

Roger Smith is clearly conflicted about acting as a hunting dog for Paradigm. He likely quit the police force to gain independence from precisely this kind of work

Dorothy just standing on their balcony railing, as you do

Roger asks Dorothy if she ever thinks about herself, which she immediately recognizes as one of his petty deflections from actually engaging with his own past

And so it’s time to investigate the subway. As in the previous episode, the narrative connective tissue here is loose; Roger has a plan, but its steps aren’t necessarily clear to us. Instead, the focus is on experiencing moments, like the encroaching unease of descending deeper and deeper into the city’s depths

Roger finds himself overwhelmed by fear at the bottom, where the technology is actually more recent, and ghosts seem to wander the halls

Roger briefly imagines himself in a green forest on his mother’s lap, but then wakes up to Dorothy instead. Glad she’s keeping an eye on him

“Even my father never obtained the knowledge of how I operate, and could never understand how I think.” What an interesting source of pride and identity for Dorothy. To be human is in some way to be unknowable – your feelings cannot be charted and resolved

These hallways are their own kind of retro-futurist; the tall column-like walls and pink lights remind me of something like Flash Gordon, or other space adventure serials. That sensation is amplified by the soundtrack, which is all campy synths and laser sound effects

It appears they’ve found an underground model of the city

Schwartzvold has arrived first, and is standing on the shoulders of a megaduce. It seems he might know what actually happened forty years ago

Dorothy communicates with the megaduce, and causes it to crash to the floor. Terrifying animation of Schwartzvold being consumed by fire

I really like this mech design. Its uncovered face and blinking lights really create the sensation of a sort of “mechanical zombie,” an effect further bolstered by its clumsy, shambling movements

Dorothy seems uniquely appalled by this robot’s existence, though whether it’s the robot’s nature or her fear of being similar to it is unclear

“Dorothy! Remember, you don’t need to feel fear.” What a specifically apt reassurance. Both “don’t worry, I’m here with you,” and yet also “see, you clearly feel emotions like me” in a single gesture

Unlike the lumbering Big O, this other megaduce moves like a berserk Evangelion, crawling and leaping with animalistic savagery

And in the return to their balcony, Dorothy demonstrates a new confidence, actually embracing her distinctive android powers

And Done

Welp, that episode pretty much offered everything I was hoping for! As I said, my main plea was for more excellent Roger-Dorothy content, and this episode certainly featured plenty of that. The two of them made an excellent team this time, complementing each other both physically and psychologically, and I’m hoping this means Dorothy will be coming along on more of our future adventures. Meanwhile, this episode’s mix of cavernous Paradigm facilities and underground tunnels made for a breathtaking visual experience, and we’ve at last received our first clues as to the fundamental nature of Paradigm itself. The Big O offers another satisfying slice of scifi noir adventure!

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