Serialized television, feels like a spin cycle, as it rarely challenges status quo. Take any episode of Law and Order and just about any episode you watch, had already been done on the show, but in a different way. Very few challenge the viewer’s perceptions, or make them face their demons. It is even rarer where they see someone they know on television.

That is why when I first heard and finally saw Room 104, I was quite blown away, how they show these different people in the same rooms react to their own situations within this confined space. Each episode peered into each person’s life while showing some very recognizable people in different shapes, ages, and races. It really made me wonder why more auteurs don’t do work that challenges the viewer, make them uncomfortable and make them think. The show was popped in my mind when I read Christophe Chabouté’s Park Bench, a wordless study in human behavior with an inanimate behavior.

Chabouté introduces the reader to   this one park bench situated in the middle of this particular  park, as people from all walks of lives, steal a moment for themselves. As each occupant of the bench, either by themselves or with someone else, leave a little of themselves on this bench. Some sit on this bench once, as one man gets stood up by what seems to be a date, while others sit on the bench multiple times like the elderly couple. By book’s end, each occupant, is at their most vulnerable.

Overall, a beautifully introspective book which will make you question life’s many questions and your role as citizen of the world. The stories by Chabouté are tragic, melodramatic, funny and meditative. The art by by Chabouté is gorgeous. Altogether, an excellent book which proves Chabouté is a master storytelling.

Story: Christophe Chabouté Art: Christophe Chabouté
Story: 10 Art: 10 Overall: 10 Recommendation: Buy