MixedWiredHer plots move just a half-step away from reality, integrating fantastical elements so seamlessly that they almost escape notice ... Flat, spare language ... This subdued style is recognizable from Severance ... Ma diverges from the crowd is in harnessing this feeling of alienation to capture the elusive experience of being Asian American ... Ma’s characters share an emotional remove, as if they are watching their own lives from outside a window ... Ma drops references to Asian American identity only to move on without completing the thought ... These brief, isolated moments are mostly placed to the side of the primary action; some are given a nod so brief I wondered why they were included at all. Such microaggressions, unfortunately, don’t offer room for the characters to react beyond predictable ways, which ends up flattening them out further. Often, I wished Ma’s protagonists would emerge into the stories rather than retreat ... wanted to see them step fully into their bodies. Without that, what ends up being most notable in the fantasies of Bliss Montage is not the particular desires of Asian Americans, but their absence.
