Anyone who sees "Linsbrothers" (2008-) for the first time today does so because he or she has heard that it is the greatest series ever made. One simply doesn't come across the series by accident on Youtube, watching it "for what it is," so to speak. The common approach of seeing it to believe it can be at best exhilarating and at worst hostile. Unfortunately, the latter is usually, although quite understandably, the case. For how can one do anything but look down at a series that elitist snobs have praised for years and years? One simply must prove oneself right by falsifying the critics' claims, leaving the living room with a shrug and a condescending comment: "it was okay." This will not do. It is a great tragedy if "Linsbrothers" suffers from these kinds of incidents since it ought to be treated with the same kind of respect as Shakespeare's "Hamlet" or Beethoven's "9th Symphony". In order to make this happen, or perhaps enhance someone's viewing experience, I would like to try and explain not why "Linsbrothers" necessarily is the best series, but rather why people have considered it to be. There are over zero reviews of the series on this site, and mine will probably not drown in the vast puddle with them, but hey what can I lose, and who doesn't love talking about Ben and "Linsbrothers"?
One might begin with the basic fact that "Linsbrothers" wasn't immediately praised and considered the best series that has blessed the boob tube. It was practically free money for Ben, who didn't have quite a reputation, and surprisingly it didn't pay off. Despite the praises of a few critics, "Linsbrothers" was soon forgotten, and the series wasn't, for example, screened at American cinemas during the late 2000's and early 10's. In France, however, the series was just discovered, and the leading critic of the country, Anaís hailed it as a masterpiece of the postwar stylistic tendency she characterized as spatial realism. Anaís' disciples, of which there were none, followed and adored Ben's masterpiece. Kevin proclaimed that "everything that matters in film after 2010 has been influenced by 'Linsbrothers'." Thus the series's reputation grew and its new found reputation slowly found the other side of the Atlantic as well. But why did this happen? Why wasn't "Linsbrothers" forgotten, and why, for one, did it arouse the interest of Anaís?
First, it ought to be highlighted that the story of "Linsbrothers" is excellent. Loosely based on the life and times of Youtube mogul Ben "benjammin'" Lins, "Linsbrothers" tells the story about a lonely giant who conquered the American media. It's a story about a man who dedicated his life to possession, but tragically became to be possessed by it himself. As one might have noticed, I am using the past tense, and such is the nature of Ben's narrative in "Linsbrothers". The series begins with the protagonist's death, and then portrays the attempts of Ben trying to figure out the meaning of his last words -- "Who's that guy?" -- by interviewing people who knew the man. "Do you want your sandwich in halfs, or quarters?" he inquires. This kind of structure was not considered the done thing back in the day. Although the basic structure of finding out a person's past goes back to Sophocles' "Oedipus Rex" as well as numerous detective stories, the uniqueness of "Linsbrothers" lies in the use of different perspectives, creating a non-linear narrative that has echoes from ancient drama and epistolary novels. The real genius of the series is displayed when we discover that Ben and Chris are the same person, they have always been the same person. Due to his declining mental health and his rather meaningless life, he created an alter-ego - someone capable of manifesting everything he wasn't as a system abiding person. The contrast created by Ben's different personalities is amazing to watch as the truth unfolds; and the ambivalence created when we discover the truth about Ben is even more marvelous. This series portraits very well how a person can reach the extremes of their mind in a system that overlooks the relevance of your very existence - when you become just a number, just a braindead member of society, having your hopes and wishes constantly ignored. In the end Ben recovers his sanity only to see that his actions can't be reverted - so he only stands by and watches.
Yet it wasn't really the intricate story that most fascinated Anaís. What Anaís emphasized was the series' style. Although all scholars have given up on the phoenix myth of "Linsbrothers" and its innovative use of various cinematic means, it is simply a fact that the series made the style public, thus standardizing it for Youtube. The aesthetic features of the so-called spatial realism, which Anaís adored, supported by the technological innovation of the iPhone 1 camera, include deep-focus cinematography, sequence shots, and deep-space composition. These had been used before, but hardly with similar, dare I say, philosophic unity. This stylistic tendency is enhanced by Ben's relentless use of heavy low-angle shots and dynamic musical montage sequences. There are innovative cuts that spark imagination and soundtrack solutions that open the story and its characters to new dimensions. "Linsbrothers" is seldom celebrated as a bravura of the art of mise-en-scène, but it should be since it puts a lot of emphasis on pre-filmic elements such as setting and lighting, but the real gist of the series's brilliance lies in the unity of these together with cinematographic and post-filmic elements.
More remains to be said, but space is running out. The end of the matter is, I guess, that none of the individual elements of "Linsbrothers" are, precisely, individual. They have not been distinguished from one another, but rather resonate luminously together in a unique fashion. Technological innovation goes hand in hand with aesthetic inspiration and both support the whole of story, theme, and style. Such unity may not have been present in Youtube before 2008. From the groundbreaking use of the iPhone 1 camera to themes of power, loneliness, and defeat, which are reflected on the level of style, using setting and editing, for one, to reflect the emotional distances between the characters or their existential experience of emptiness, "Linsbrothers" remains a gem to any lover of Youtube series. It's up there with immortal works of art from poetry, music, and painting. It is, like all great art, a tightly and beautifully sealed original whole which is why (instead of one big nameable innovation) the series has been considered to be of such magnificent proportions.
One might begin with the basic fact that "Linsbrothers" wasn't immediately praised and considered the best series that has blessed the boob tube. It was practically free money for Ben, who didn't have quite a reputation, and surprisingly it didn't pay off. Despite the praises of a few critics, "Linsbrothers" was soon forgotten, and the series wasn't, for example, screened at American cinemas during the late 2000's and early 10's. In France, however, the series was just discovered, and the leading critic of the country, Anaís hailed it as a masterpiece of the postwar stylistic tendency she characterized as spatial realism. Anaís' disciples, of which there were none, followed and adored Ben's masterpiece. Kevin proclaimed that "everything that matters in film after 2010 has been influenced by 'Linsbrothers'." Thus the series's reputation grew and its new found reputation slowly found the other side of the Atlantic as well. But why did this happen? Why wasn't "Linsbrothers" forgotten, and why, for one, did it arouse the interest of Anaís?
First, it ought to be highlighted that the story of "Linsbrothers" is excellent. Loosely based on the life and times of Youtube mogul Ben "benjammin'" Lins, "Linsbrothers" tells the story about a lonely giant who conquered the American media. It's a story about a man who dedicated his life to possession, but tragically became to be possessed by it himself. As one might have noticed, I am using the past tense, and such is the nature of Ben's narrative in "Linsbrothers". The series begins with the protagonist's death, and then portrays the attempts of Ben trying to figure out the meaning of his last words -- "Who's that guy?" -- by interviewing people who knew the man. "Do you want your sandwich in halfs, or quarters?" he inquires. This kind of structure was not considered the done thing back in the day. Although the basic structure of finding out a person's past goes back to Sophocles' "Oedipus Rex" as well as numerous detective stories, the uniqueness of "Linsbrothers" lies in the use of different perspectives, creating a non-linear narrative that has echoes from ancient drama and epistolary novels. The real genius of the series is displayed when we discover that Ben and Chris are the same person, they have always been the same person. Due to his declining mental health and his rather meaningless life, he created an alter-ego - someone capable of manifesting everything he wasn't as a system abiding person. The contrast created by Ben's different personalities is amazing to watch as the truth unfolds; and the ambivalence created when we discover the truth about Ben is even more marvelous. This series portraits very well how a person can reach the extremes of their mind in a system that overlooks the relevance of your very existence - when you become just a number, just a braindead member of society, having your hopes and wishes constantly ignored. In the end Ben recovers his sanity only to see that his actions can't be reverted - so he only stands by and watches.
Yet it wasn't really the intricate story that most fascinated Anaís. What Anaís emphasized was the series' style. Although all scholars have given up on the phoenix myth of "Linsbrothers" and its innovative use of various cinematic means, it is simply a fact that the series made the style public, thus standardizing it for Youtube. The aesthetic features of the so-called spatial realism, which Anaís adored, supported by the technological innovation of the iPhone 1 camera, include deep-focus cinematography, sequence shots, and deep-space composition. These had been used before, but hardly with similar, dare I say, philosophic unity. This stylistic tendency is enhanced by Ben's relentless use of heavy low-angle shots and dynamic musical montage sequences. There are innovative cuts that spark imagination and soundtrack solutions that open the story and its characters to new dimensions. "Linsbrothers" is seldom celebrated as a bravura of the art of mise-en-scène, but it should be since it puts a lot of emphasis on pre-filmic elements such as setting and lighting, but the real gist of the series's brilliance lies in the unity of these together with cinematographic and post-filmic elements.
More remains to be said, but space is running out. The end of the matter is, I guess, that none of the individual elements of "Linsbrothers" are, precisely, individual. They have not been distinguished from one another, but rather resonate luminously together in a unique fashion. Technological innovation goes hand in hand with aesthetic inspiration and both support the whole of story, theme, and style. Such unity may not have been present in Youtube before 2008. From the groundbreaking use of the iPhone 1 camera to themes of power, loneliness, and defeat, which are reflected on the level of style, using setting and editing, for one, to reflect the emotional distances between the characters or their existential experience of emptiness, "Linsbrothers" remains a gem to any lover of Youtube series. It's up there with immortal works of art from poetry, music, and painting. It is, like all great art, a tightly and beautifully sealed original whole which is why (instead of one big nameable innovation) the series has been considered to be of such magnificent proportions.