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| Scene from Childish Gambino's "This is America" |
It is likely that most people spent this past Sunday trying to understand one thing: just what is going on in the new Childish Gambino video? "This is America" premiered during Saturday Night Live, but is arguably not a comic short and came out as a rattling surprise. Instead, it was a provocative piece that showed a complex view of... something. As the title suggests, it's probably a damning commentary on America as a nation in which gun violence and riots play in the background of a fun new song and a shirtless Donald Glover. What does it all mean? In some ways, it would be easy to see this as the moment that most people also discovered the work of director Hiro Murai, who is also responsible for the trippy, ambitious look of the video. However, he's someone that should become a household name sooner than later if his recent track record holds up. Between this and the TV series Barry and Atlanta, he has been doing stellar work. It's about time he gets taken more seriously.
Outside of maybe Steven Spielberg and Michael Bay, there's a good chance that the majority of people don't know the name of movie directors. That tends to play well for those who could do worse naming who directed the best hours of TV, such as on Breaking Bad and Game of Thrones. Those two series have a distinctive quality to them that is ambitious but would be nothing without a watchful eye behind the camera. Maybe it's just because we see the actors and thus have more facial recognition to go off of, but I do believe that there's value in knowing who Michelle MacLaren is. Their work is incredible and arguably on par with the films. It's possibly even more impressive if you view TV as having to maintain a consistent tone and look while adapting to different directing styles. There are a few, such as The Russo Brothers and The Avengers: Infinity War, who start off in TV before going to film.
It would be difficult then to call this an auteur theory, but Hiro Murai is definitely someone who is above the generic TV director. In some ways, he has proven in just 2018 why he deserves to be talked about the way that MacLaren has. To look at "This is America" is a good distillation of what he brings: a surrealistic view of the world that is cryptic yet engaging in its mystery. His work has generally been a compelling mix realism and an underlying sense of discomforting absences of logic. His work questions the sanity of the medium and in some ways pushes it without going into David Lynch-areas of absurdity.
Take for instance Atlanta, which is a show that he's worked closely with Glover on for two seasons now. He hasn't directed all of the episodes, but he has done some of the biggest, most memorable ones. While "This is America" is more visually weird, there's a good chance that the "Teddy Perkins" episode could've been his calling card prior to this moment. It was a story that relied on concrete story telling and a lingering camera that never cut away. It was equally full of symbolism of the pressure that celebrities are placed under and how it could turn them alien. It's also ambitious as a TV episode in that it doesn't have any commercial breaks (in spite of being on FX, a network that uses them regularly) and is all the better for it. To view "Teddy Perkins" any other way would be of a disservice. It's one whole piece of entertainment telling a story whose tone is necessary to keep tight. The laughs are there, but they're not belly ones. They're also not similar to other Atlanta-style jokes either, which has since gone on to include a very odd frat party scene involving naked people dancing to "Laffy Taffy."
What's great about Murai is that he's able to make entertainment that is weird without bringing attention to itself. What is there requires a focus that hides layers and rewards additional viewings. Even if the idea of what "Teddy Perkins" and "This is America" means may be present immediately, there's a need to dig deeper to get a true sense. Even then, there's a good chance that the mystery is best left in its strange aura. The work that Glover and Murai have been doing in 2018 is impeccably complex and continues to prove that black entertainment can be thought provoking and deep and not make sense without it being labeled falsely. It's part of the new wave of TV that is more about atmosphere than plot. Even then, Atlanta thrives where most shows would probably settle for ambiguity.
He has also done great work on other major series of the moment, including the equally audacious Barry, as well as an episode of Legion. Beyond the past few years, he has been working on music videos, including a bunch with Childish Gambino from his art-project days of "Because the Internet." He's always been complex in a good way and he's bettering TV. It's not only dramas that benefit from having a great director. In an era where comedy and drama are blurring together and creating new dreamlike categories, Murai are proving to be a collaboration worth remembering. Much like seeing MacLaren's name on a Game of Thrones episode will guarantee a better episode, Murai's name should represent a weirder, more exciting form of TV. Hopefully "This is America" will get people out to watch more of his work. If not, they're really missing out on the next great TV director.
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