It's all in the staging of the scene. I mean, if you go to live theater, there's always bits of business going on to keep you interested, you don't
need to be close-up to the actors to appreciate what's happening in a scene. The same is arguably true in television and movies. I think what you describe is basically exactly this. There may not be a lot going on with the
camera in those scenes during
BOBW, but that doesn't really matter because the actors and writers have created a compelling situation that doesn't really need flashy photography to help sell it.