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!
no subject
Date: Jun. 4th, 2012 06:01 pm (UTC)Well, I'm officially done, then. I hate Nellie.
GoldenUsagi
no subject
Date: Jun. 5th, 2012 03:47 am (UTC)The whole narrative scheme where you get inside a character that's really mean and bad and understand him is fascinating. That's what Crime And Punishment is all about, of course, but you don't see it so well done on teevee usually.
And really, Walt doesn't do all that much that's truly awful (until the end of ****SPOILERS****). He steps up to match and beat the game of the nasty people he runs into but he isn't going after innocents. I think that's part of what makes it work; there's a remotely believable case for everything he does. I think most evil works that way.
no subject
Date: Jun. 5th, 2012 11:01 am (UTC)no subject
Date: Jun. 5th, 2012 07:30 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Jun. 5th, 2012 07:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Jun. 5th, 2012 08:09 pm (UTC)And when Walt's "stepping up" to match the nasty people he runs into, we kind of have to keep in mind that he continually chooses to be in a situation where he'll run into nasty people. He could've gotten out at any time. But the fact is, Walt enjoys it. He'd rather be Heisenberg, the bad-ass drug kingpin, than Walter White, schlubby high school chemistry teacher. That's not to say that he likes killing people, but... he's weighed the options and decided that killing people is a price he's willing to pay in order to get the money (which his family doesn't really need anymore) and the thrill of drug dealing.
Which, actually, it's Walt's continual self-denial and justifications that bother me more than the actual doing of bad things. Because he never really admits to himself that what he's doing is bad and that he likes doing it BECAUSE it's bad. If you're going to be a criminal, at least have the decency to own it, you know?
(That said, I just finished season 3, and I do get the sense that the last couple episodes have made Walt realize that he IS the bad guy whether he likes it or not. We shall see how it plays out next season.)
no subject
Date: Jun. 5th, 2012 08:13 pm (UTC)To its credit, though, it's not one of those shows (like, say, AtS) where it's clear you're supposed to admire the main character not just in spite of all the awful things he does, but actually because of them, because he's doing it for ~noble reasons or whatever justification he comes up with. I really get the sense that we are supposed to sympathize with everyone BUT Walt, because all he seems to do is destroy people.
no subject
Date: Jun. 6th, 2012 03:14 am (UTC)no subject
Date: Jun. 6th, 2012 04:10 pm (UTC)Skyler's arc in S3 is awesome. She's rightfully horrified by what Walt's done, but she also realizes that she's already an accomplice by not reporting him. It's such a great line that she's walking, accepting the consequences of it (and making use of the money, lol) to the point that she's really breaking bad, too, without ever condoning Walt's actions.
The Walt/Hank dynamic reminds me a lot of Dexter/Deb - though, even more than with Dexter, I really just want Hank to find out because Walt deserves the comeuppance. :-P