re: Breaking Bad: A Shot Review

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They don't make movies 4 hours long because nobody really wants to watch something that long.

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They don't make movies 4 hours long because that's tougher to turn around enough times a day for the studios to make money. Nevertheless, it's quite different at home with a television series being that you can stop it any time or after any episode and come back to it later.

A good show will keep you hooked at the end of each episode where you can't wait to see what happens in the next episode.

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It's ok. That's all I got. I still don't see the "brilliance."

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What similar-style shows (dramas) do you consider brilliant?

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but Walt is so annoying to watch.

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Walt is unlikable, Skylar is annoying. Why would you watch 4 seasons of a show if you found the main character annoying???

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A movie on the otherhand is one big story over a longer period. Noone wants to pause a movie midway so a 4 hour movie is much less enjoyable because you feel trapped watching the movie in a way

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While TV shows are typically episodic, BB and several other shows are far less episodic than most TV shows. For instance, each episode of a sitcom or a show like Burn Notice is almost entirely stand alone. BB is not. A particular problem may be faced in an episode, but typically you have an episode that builds upon the last, which built upon the one before it, and so forth. There are not nearly as many "mini-arcs" in BB as there are in other shows, which makes it more akin to a film than to most TV shows.

I just finished Alan Sepinwall's book (which you should totally read, Freaux), and he makes the point that TV has kind of reached its endpoint with white male antiheroes. The Golden Generation shows have a disproportionate number of shows founded upon a white male antiheroes starting with tony Soprano himself.

He tends to argue, not overtly, that we need women or minorities, but I don't think that's the problem. I think I'm burnt out on antiheroes. Seriously, how many critically acclaimed shows have been from an antihero's point of view? Sopranos, Oz, Mad Men, Homeland, Damages, Justified, Sons of Anarchy, Deadwood, The Shield, Boardwalk Empire, Breaking Bad... I could be missing a few, but you get my point. It's a lot. I'm kind of tired of studying the psyche of broken men.

Sure, the heroes of Battlestar Galactica were flawed, but they were at least heroic. You can at least make a case that The Wire is about people trying to do right, even if they fail.

anyway, I'm not as down as you on Breaking Bad, but I do view it more as pulpy show. It's good fun, and I do like the concept of making the audience root for the villain. But the unfortunate side effect is that people have taken to bashing Skyler (usually in the most sexist terms possible) who has perfectly reasonable complaints of her drug kingpin husband.

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I just finished Alan Sepinwall's book (which you should totally read, Freaux),

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To the reading list it goes! Thank for the suggestion I need a break from learning organizations and Daniel Pink.

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and he makes the point that TV has kind of reached its endpoint with white male antiheroes. The Golden Generation shows have a disproportionate number of shows founded upon a white male antiheroes starting with tony Soprano himself.

He tends to argue, not overtly, that we need women or minorities, but I don't think that's the problem.

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It's not a problem,but I suspect with changing demographics this really isn't and shouldn't be a problem.

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I think I'm burnt out on antiheroes. Seriously, how many critically acclaimed shows have been from an antihero's point of view? Sopranos, Oz, Mad Men, Homeland, Damages, Justified, Sons of Anarchy, Deadwood, The Shield, Boardwalk Empire, Breaking Bad... I could be missing a few, but you get my point. It's a lot. I'm kind of tired of studying the psyche of broken men.

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Agree completely. And I was never crazy on antiheroes as it is. I think there's Snake Plissken and his ilk on one side (for me the real antiheroes) and Michael Corleone and his followers (all of the aforementioned characters from shows you bring up).

I think the villain as "hero" concept is just, well, boring. Call me romantic (really do, I'm an Edgar Allan Poe, Washington Irving, Nathaniel Hawthorne acolyte) but I need heroism. I think the "villain-hero" antihero is a bad moral experimentation for art. Those artists are substituting the lure of "moral evil," for what should be the lure of heroic action (even in Snake Plissken's world). It's not a good place to be even if it IS interesting (it's my number one complaint about the Godfather).

Call me old fashioned, cheesy, corny, but heroes are a good thing. Finding so much fascination with evil is not.

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Sure, the heroes of Battlestar Galactica were flawed, but they were at least heroic. You can at least make a case that The Wire is about people trying to do right, even if they fail.

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Exactly. Much like The Walking Dead, BSG was about hope and despair, two places where heroes should exist. (To a lesser extent the Wire was concerned with these core ideas as well).

Where BSG played with the expectations upon heroic deeds (under-appreciated Helo), and misunderstood heroic action even in self-interest (Baltar), Breaking Bad's despair is the lack of heroic action. Hope is in the crowds' wish that at some point Walt turns it all around. If he doesn't... do we revel in that? And if we don't wish that, what does that say about us?


And as you can see, my hope for Jessie springs from that very belief. The only reason I continue to watch the show, in artistic terms, if my hope for Jessie. Honestly. I've lost it for Walt.

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the other best character is easily Mike

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Saul says hello

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bashing Skyler (usually in the most sexist terms possible) who has perfectly reasonable complaints of her drug kingpin husband.

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skyler is a fricking count and there is no way around it

there were points where i was annoyed to death by jesse too

but not anymore

Badger and Combo never get any love.

Breaking Bad is phenomenal, but I was underwhelmed by the first half of season 5.