Breaking Bad - Ozymandias

Full disclosure: There are spoilers ahead!

So you should click away now if you're not caught up with Breaking Bad.

What? You're not watching it?

Seriously?

No, seriously?

It's probably the best tv show.

Ever.

Yes, I understand that's hard to quantify, but it's the only tv show that centers around a character arc. From that standpoint alone it's worth watching. But the writing and performances - everything - it's razor sharp. The storytelling, the pacing - the thing is flat out brilliant. Brilliantly brilliant. I can assure you that by the series end it will be regarded as one of the best shows ever if not the BEST SHOW ever.

Yes, Sopranos was great, so was Six Feet Under. The Wire. Homeland. Lost. Battlestar Galactica. Walking Dead. I know, I know. There have been a lot of great tv shows. But this thing.

I'm telling you, this thing.

You can Netflix it from the beginning. It'll take a weekend.

How? Because you'll devour it and forgo sleeping and eating.

And then, yes, you might have to On Demand or iTunes the current season, but if you want to catch the wave before it crashes the shore...

It's ok, I'll wait...


Ok, you good?


Are you sure?


Ok, um, let's see. How can I describe last night's episode? Ah, here it is. FUCKINGAWESOMETASTIC!

Every piston in the BB engine was firing max rocketboosters go! It was gut wrenching, heart ripping, and nerve shattering - blah blah blah. You can google the reviews.

Here's how I watched it:

--

Wait, why are we at the very beginning? Where's the hail of bullets from last week? Ah, now I get it. We're opening from where it all started; Walt's innocence, naïveté, the rehearsing of his lies...

Fade out, fade in.

Brilliant.

80 million dollars for Hank's life...

"You're the smartest guy I ever met, and you're too stupid to see he made up his mind 10 minutes ago."

Right, because Walt's whole thing is family.

"My name is ASAC Schrader, and you can go fuck yourself."

Because Hank has always been the hard granite to Walt's wet toast.

Bang.

Oh, shit just got real, yo...

"Found him."

Walt does the slow tiny nod; all crime lord and bitter.

But you loved Jesse, he was like a son.

Of course, I guess Jesse did make this all happen. Wait, no, Hank made this all happen. WAIT, no, Walt made this all happen...

Todd aka Meth Damon; so polite, so gentle, so stone cold and curiously calculating.

"Sorry about your loss."

HA!

“I watched Jane die. I was there. And I watched her die. I watched her overdose and choke to death. I could have saved her. But I didn’t.”

That's the last of the secrets, right? Everyone knows everything. That's that.

Synapse pop, mind blown: Walt dug Hank's grave...so fucking brilliant!

Marie. Oh, Marie. Leave Skyler alone. But damnit, if Walt is really in custody, then she's right.

Damn, every character is played and written to their fullest.

Except for maybe Walt Jr. At least he's not eating breakfast.

The scene with the phone on the counter next to the set of kitchen knives; brilliant. Skyler's totally gonna call 911. She has to. It's over. Nope. She's going for the knives. I guess she needs more immediate assistance...

Rolling on the floor... Someone is going to die here! No one needs to die here! No, no, no!

Phew, no one dies.

"What the hell is wrong with you? We're a family. We're a family."

It's all gone. Poor Walt.

Walt takes Holly because that's all he can control. Skyler chases after Walt in the street. The new dad in me... NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! FUCK NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

But then the call Walt makes near the fire station choking on his inner Heisenberg spewing half-truths and absolving Skyler - the brilliant performance of a brilliant performance. And Skyler knowing, understanding his gift.

This is such a fucking good show! Damn!

DAMN!

It's so fucking good!

Jesse is a meth slave, and Walt is heading to New Hampshire.

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck!

How is this going to end?

Fuck.

Why does Low Winter Sun do this, prolonging the previews to next week? Sigh... Well played, Low Winter Sun, but fuck you!

Ok, ok, will the next episode take place a year later? Or will it be the final episode? Gotta be the next one, right? Yes, has to be. Will Walt redeem himself? Will he exact revenge and save his family from the Nazis? Will he free Jesse? Does he go out all Scarface in a blaze of glory? Does he take the ricin cigarette himself? Does he offer it to Jack? Does Jesse kill Walt? What happens to Skyler, Walt Jr, and Holly? What about Marie? Todd?

So. Fucking. Good.

--

Anyway, that's how I watched it. And except for the season 4 finale of Dexter (for which I pretty much needed a support group), this was one of the best episodes of TV I've ever seen.

Masterful. Fucking masterful.



I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed:
And on the pedestal these words appear:
"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away

Breaking Bad is Freaking Awesome

Breaking Bad is the BOMB, yo!

I knew there was a show that started with the letter B that I was supposed to watch. I had it narrowed down to Breaking Bad or Burn Notice. A few weekends ago I was home visiting my folks and they said, "You want to watch Burn Notice?"

Ok, sure.

So I watched it with them.

I love my parents. I really do. But I don't live at home, and can't supervise them. Whatever they want to do with their DVR is up to them. If they want to fill it up with LA Law, golf, and WWII specials - they are free to do so. So I'm not saying Burn Notice sucked, but it was a lot like the A Team, only more like the C Team.

Weak.

So I Netflixed the dvds of Breaking Bad when I got home and within the first two minutes I was like, Ahhhh, THIS is the show. My wife and I devoured the first season. Now we're closing in on the end of Season 2. It is SO. FUCKING. AWESOME.

It gives me Battlestar Gallactica pause, in which I keep thinking, how did I not know this was on? Why didn't anyone tell me?

Oh, right. It's about a science teacher who finds out he only has a few months to live - lung cancer. So he befriends a former student/current drug dealer and makes some pharmaceutical grade meth and gets caught up in the drug world. It's sort of like Walter Mitty meets Tony Montana. Actually, it is like that. Walt starts to shed his old life, and breaks bad.

Two words, people. Brill yent.

(Geek alert - it's now available to stream on the Netflix.)
(Geek alert - this is the site featured in the story in season 2. What's cool is that it goes to the Nat'l cancer coalition. Nice.)

Breaking Bad AMC