It is inevitable to talk about Bronca and bring up visibility, diversity and representation. However, doing so is somehow perverse, because the series is not about that. That the vast majority of characters in this American fiction are of Asian origin is the least of it. Or not. With that alone, Bronca is already a more complex and adult series than most.
More complications: it is easy to explain the premise of Bronca and it is not easy to tell in a few words what exactly it is about. Its starting point is almost absurd: two drivers have a small traffic altercation that, being the last straw for both of them, will generate a spiral of small revenge between them. But Bronca is not about that. This series created by Lee Sung Jin tells us about the lies we tell ourselves, the fantasies that nourish us and those that destroy us, how complicated everything is and how bad we all are in the head.
Bronca’s two unhinged drivers are Steven Yeun (The Walking Dead, Minari) and comedian Ali Wong. Their insignificant (insignificant?) run-in on the streets (streets?) of Los Angeles sparks spirals of meanness and violence, born as much from pent-up rage as from a strange and perhaps not so unhealthy curiosity about who the person really is. he was driving the other car that day when an apparently banal episode awakened much deeper things.
Amy (Ali Wong) is a businesswoman on the verge of making a multi-million dollar hit by selling the company she founded. Danny (Steven Yeun) is a handyman who lives almost from day to day. Responsibility eats her up and he may be to blame for feeling traditionally obligated to provide for her parents’ old age and being financially incapable of doing so. Absolutely recognizable pressures and that the series poses in a very direct way.
Anger is also one of the periodic messages that Netflix sends so that we remember that the platform does not only produce and buy fast and inconsequential consumer products. Bronca may be the first – there are few episodes and also quite short – but it is by no means the second. As that other wonder that is Fleishman is in trouble, Lee Sung Jin’s series does not skimp on humor … while he knows that the viewer he directly addresses is not laughing.
The demons, as basic as they are powerful, of Amy and Danny are those of millions of citizens. That its story takes place in a city as specific as Los Angeles and almost exclusively with Asian-American characters is the least of it. I assume that part of American society will see layers in Bronca that I only sense. I accept it and I envy it. And despite being aware that there are things in this fable (fable?) that I can’t even glimpse, few series have made me think so much lately. Who has not been on the edge in the most inconsequential situation? Exploring that is not easy. Bronca gets it.
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