Study of the era and a willingness to critically examine its mistakes has led to the development of a strong democracy in today's Germany, but with lingering undercurrents of antisemitism and neo-Nazi thought.
But, if "Transparent" begins as a coming-out story, it dives quickly, as "Afternoon Delight" did, into murkier undercurrents, lingering on uncomfortable moments, and showing far more interest in behavior than in resolution.
If the subplot of the Democratic convention in Denver was the lingering resentment between Mr. Obama and Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, the undercurrent here is the longstanding tension between Mr. Bush and Mr. McCain, and Mr. McCain's efforts to distance himself politically from the man he hopes to succeed.
As a concept, it's pretty basic, though the nightmare's enlivened by a constant, thrumming undercurrent of high school homoeroticism, which manifests itself in lingering crotch-shots and constant close-ups of half-naked teens.
In this episodic piece, Ms. Gubaidulina looks at Bach's theme through many filters, some dissonant, some with an almost medieval purity, and most of them with an intense emotional undercurrent that lingered into the intermission.
That's the undercurrent on "Take the Weather With You," which has him thinking, fleetingly, about "roadside bombers and tsunamis" and lingering over the sorrows of New Orleans.
I had the lingering sense throughout that I had read this story before, or at least a version of it, so familiar were the characters, their ways of conversing and the abiding undercurrent of passivity that underpins their lives.
But Franken was lingering.
