Links and Breaking Bad
Jun. 4th, 2012 01:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
next_to_normalSad news: Kathryn Joosten (aka Mrs. Landingham) has died.
Ambivalent news: Catherine Tate will be a regular on The Office next season. While I love Tate, I have been less than impressed with what she's been given thus far (and, less face it, with the show in general. I honestly couldn't tell you why I'm still watching).
Awesome, but not really news: I have been marathoning Breaking Bad in an effort to get caught up before season 5 premieres in July. I'm midway through season 3 now, and OMG!! This show is SO not what I thought it would be. I knew the basic premise going in - high school chemistry teacher diagnosed with cancer, starts cooking meth - but I kind of assumed it would be more of a "good guy in a bad situation" sort of show? And maybe it started out that way, but at this point, Walt is the least likable person on the entire show, lol. I guess when you're dealing with a network whose most famous protagonist is Don Draper, you ought to expect unlikable characters, but you don't often get a show where the protagonist is such a selfish bastard, lol. I love that they never back down from that, too - if you want to sympathize with Walt, it won't be because the narrative enables it. He's not a good guy stuck in a bad situation anymore, because he's had so many chances to get out, and he keeps doing it (and escalating it) out of greed.
I was also surprised by the pacing of the show. I mean, I was four or five episodes in, and Walt and Jesse had still only cooked one batch of meth. But they have a way of explicitly taking us through their thought processes and the consequences of their actions - how, precisely, do you dispose of a dead body? How do you go about establishing your alibi? Most shows skip over the nitty gritty details of crime, but this one takes you through every excruciating step. But the slow pacing definitely works for them, and dwelling on all those details kind of gives you the same perspective as Walt, stumbling though these situations totally unprepared.
But by far and away my favorite thing about this show is Jesse. He's so fucking adorable, in a Damon Salvatore kind of way, i.e. he'd be dangerous and threatening if he weren't such a complete idiot. I mean, he and Walt are both idiots - WORST DRUG DEALERS EVER - but Jesse is just such an excitable puppy about it that I want to pat him on the head and feed him treats. It's hilarious. That's the other thing I didn't expect, I guess. I didn't realize how laugh-out-loud funny it would be. It's like all the writers have to do is put Walt and Jesse in a room together and let them drive each other crazy. (Every single scene in the RV is golden. I'm sorry it got destroyed, thought there seems to be plenty of opportunity for hijinks in the new lab.)
And of course, it's not often that you have a show where people save the day using chemistry, which is fun for me as a former chem major. Although I do occasionally find myself thinking, "Hmmm, I bet I could cook meth. It doesn't look that hard, and I could sure use the money..." If there are any government agencies monitoring this blog, I WAS JUST KIDDING, OKAY.
So, talk to me, BB fans!
Ambivalent news: Catherine Tate will be a regular on The Office next season. While I love Tate, I have been less than impressed with what she's been given thus far (and, less face it, with the show in general. I honestly couldn't tell you why I'm still watching).
Awesome, but not really news: I have been marathoning Breaking Bad in an effort to get caught up before season 5 premieres in July. I'm midway through season 3 now, and OMG!! This show is SO not what I thought it would be. I knew the basic premise going in - high school chemistry teacher diagnosed with cancer, starts cooking meth - but I kind of assumed it would be more of a "good guy in a bad situation" sort of show? And maybe it started out that way, but at this point, Walt is the least likable person on the entire show, lol. I guess when you're dealing with a network whose most famous protagonist is Don Draper, you ought to expect unlikable characters, but you don't often get a show where the protagonist is such a selfish bastard, lol. I love that they never back down from that, too - if you want to sympathize with Walt, it won't be because the narrative enables it. He's not a good guy stuck in a bad situation anymore, because he's had so many chances to get out, and he keeps doing it (and escalating it) out of greed.
I was also surprised by the pacing of the show. I mean, I was four or five episodes in, and Walt and Jesse had still only cooked one batch of meth. But they have a way of explicitly taking us through their thought processes and the consequences of their actions - how, precisely, do you dispose of a dead body? How do you go about establishing your alibi? Most shows skip over the nitty gritty details of crime, but this one takes you through every excruciating step. But the slow pacing definitely works for them, and dwelling on all those details kind of gives you the same perspective as Walt, stumbling though these situations totally unprepared.
But by far and away my favorite thing about this show is Jesse. He's so fucking adorable, in a Damon Salvatore kind of way, i.e. he'd be dangerous and threatening if he weren't such a complete idiot. I mean, he and Walt are both idiots - WORST DRUG DEALERS EVER - but Jesse is just such an excitable puppy about it that I want to pat him on the head and feed him treats. It's hilarious. That's the other thing I didn't expect, I guess. I didn't realize how laugh-out-loud funny it would be. It's like all the writers have to do is put Walt and Jesse in a room together and let them drive each other crazy. (Every single scene in the RV is golden. I'm sorry it got destroyed, thought there seems to be plenty of opportunity for hijinks in the new lab.)
And of course, it's not often that you have a show where people save the day using chemistry, which is fun for me as a former chem major. Although I do occasionally find myself thinking, "Hmmm, I bet I could cook meth. It doesn't look that hard, and I could sure use the money..." If there are any government agencies monitoring this blog, I WAS JUST KIDDING, OKAY.
So, talk to me, BB fans!
