#opacity study whitegrayblack

In this iconic episode of the minimalist, avant-garde procedural Opacity Study: White/GRAY/Black, two static circles are caught in a dance of light and shadow that threatens to overtake them. The show’s creator Oren Lvov described the episode as, “A tempest of opacities that any fan of police procedurals will lose themselves in.”

See also: #101 Opacity Study: White/Gray/Black

PREMISE: Obfuscation. Illumination. Darkness. Light. These are the central truths of every police procedural, the bare essence that is revealed when everything else is stripped away. At least that’s what avant-garde showrunner Oren Lvov hoped to prove in this Minimalist procedural, which focused on the adventures of simple geometric forms as they slowly turn from black to white, white to black.

CHARACTERS: A circle that remains gray. A line segment.

NOTABLE EPISODE: In the grimmest and most harrowing episode of the entire series, the change in brightness is nearly imperceptible, and there are no geometric forms whatsoever on screen. For the entire 42 minutes, all that is visible is a very dark field of gray (S02.E03 – “Opacity Study 25, 1964”).

CATCHPHRASE: Room tone.

TRIVIA/MISCELLANY: Lvov fell out of favor with critics and viewers when he made a sitcom using wacky color gradients.

See also: #101-01 Opacity Study 46, 1965