#desaturation

The desaturation of “Pylon“ is one of my favorite things about the cinematography of S6. Visually, it may be my favorite episode of all nine seasons.

It’s an entirely new cinematic vocabulary. It’s deeply emotive, with the absence of vibrancy, the cool tones, the greys, the flinty skies- it’s striking.

Without getting into a deep analysis, we have this very bucolic environment, with the color reduced, and we have Morse sticking out to a degree that is unusual, even for him. He’s not only isolated in terms of location and community, but even more so by being relegated to a dark, graphic uniform; masking his emotions even further with a colossal mustache. Physically, visually, he could not be less integrated into his environment. 

We’ve already discussed the shot of him in the wheat field with the Connemara in the background today, which is in fact, my all-time favorite shot. However, the third runner-up (2nd is the last shot of “Confection”, which really deserves its own post and will get one) is this, below.

There aren’t enough superlatives to talk about what’s happening here. The dinky police vehicle in that odd shade of turquoise, the massive dead tree, the distant car traversing the screen from right to left, his head down, his hands-usually so animated - limply at rest…if you went out of your way to find an illustration of despairing loneliness, absence and isolation, I don’t know that you could do any better than this. 

12 Monkeys: lots of gray and brown here.

The Exorcist, 2 hot priests stare at each other in de-saturation land.

Let's compare to gorgeous show Foundation, which has color saturation and good lighting.