Finished off Sons of Anarchy, and now moving on to Breaking Bad. I’ve had the Blu-rays for the first three seasons for a year now, but I can never make it past a particular scene in season one where Aaron Paul’s character is all tweaked out and the whole thing just creeps me out.
I am going to power through it, though. It’s my density.
*** Update ***
What the hell happened to John Kerry’s face?
NotMax
Thank you, Mr. Malaprop.
Just Some Fuckhead
You can do this John. 13 episodes, one day at a time. We are all with you!
donnah
You are adorable.
jl
@Just Some Fuckhead: Kid’s gonna put his eyes out.
catclub
Just remember, Ikiru, gone bad.
schrodinger's cat
Is that the same as your specific gravity?
schrodinger's cat
@Just Some Fuckhead:I see that you are no longer the thought leader.
lamh36
Ok, so Luther is trending on twitter. It’s just that good.
and it 4 straight days no waiting a week
Central Planning
New Daily Show with Jon Stewart tonight. Here’s to hoping he can be as funny as John Oliver.
Ted & Hellen
Cole…BACK AWAY FROM THE BARCALOUNGER.
Yatsuno
@Central Planning:
You have more faith in him than I do. Jon hasn’t been funny in that for years it seems.
Ted & Hellen
Is this an open thread?
Yes?
Oh good, please then allow me to share my brand new portrait of PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA.
blueintheface
I started watching it this summer too and just finished Season 4. How did you get Season 5?
MomSense
@lamh36:
I am going to have to watch kitten videos for a few hours while listening to Disney soundtracks. No sleep for me.
ETA: They follow with The Shining?!?! The all time creepiest, scary movie. I saw that movie as a kid and had nightmares for months.
YellowJournalism
@Ted & Hellen: I got out of the boat, and now I’m going to have nightmares. Take that as a compliment if that’s what you’re going for there.
Central Planning
@Yatsuno:
I’m an optimist.
I wonder how the writing works…. The dynamic certainly changed, but if the writing staff is the same why was John Oliver clearly funnier?
lamh36
@MomSense:
The premiere of Luther was awesome. Shoot I actually knew that some scary scenes were coming up and I still jumped. I tell ya what, I’ll never NOT look under my bed again! Let’s just say that my bed sits up high enough that SOMEONE could hide under it and then I’m shit out of luck!
And who can resist that Idris Elba/Luther strut!!!
I love that they are treating it as a mini-series and you don’t have to wait a week for a new episode.
I guess I know how I”m gonna be spending my nights for the next 3 days…lol
catclub
@Central Planning: “but if the writing staff is the same”
I suspect that when Jon Stewart is off, the writing staff is not quite the same.
TheMightyTrowel
@Central Planning: talent?
Ted & Hellen
@YellowJournalism:
Thanks for taking a look.
Nightmares? No, not really, though that’s a great response. I wanted him to look fun AND evil.
You know, like everyone else is. He’s just in a position to do a lot more damage than most of us.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I am the master of my fat, and the captain of my density.
But dammit, I do love my carbs.
Taylor
Breaking Bad may be the Best TV Show Ever.
Many theories about how it will end (spoiler alert). I personally go with the Hamlet Theory.
MCA1
Seriously, people didn’t catch the Back to The Future reference with the “density” thing?
Cole, I mean this sincerely: you might want to get to whatever point you’re trying to get to in your relationship with alcohol before diving into too much more time with Walter White and Jesse Pinkman and friends. ‘Cause they go to some dark, twisted places and that show will test your faith in humanity. I binged my way through the first two and a half seasons in about three weeks, and found I was sleeping for shit, having terrible dreams, and was just generally off. Small doses since then, no matter how compelling it is.
Ted & Hellen
OK.
Brand new portrait of SHRUB/GWB
doug r
I love Jesse’s solution to get tweakers out of a house. That POV camera was great.
Xecky Gilchrist
Density. Back to the Future represent!
Ruckus
JC
Kerry forgot who he is and swallowed some of the mcain/graham magic potion.
It turns anyone who drinks it into a warmongering lout.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@Just Some Fuckhead: I wish you were still a thought leader. ::pouts::
@Yatsuno: Speaking of nyms, should I post a link/bleg later this week so you can make me change mine?
Roger Moore
@schrodinger’s cat:
At least he isn’t calling himself one anymore. I believe he’s just as much a thought leader today as he was a week or a month ago.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
also, SOA had some great moments, especially IMHO with Katey Sagal and Ron Perleman, BB blows it’s doors off, especially after the first season, which takes some time to set up characters and mood.
@catclub: I thought Oliver copied a lot Stewart’s schtick (Boom! there it is! and in the case of Rand Paul the forced hysterical guffaw at teh utterly predictable and lame joke from a pol) with the exception of the Jerry Lewis voice. And no one can match St Stewart in world weary Disappointment
Just Some Fuckhead, Thought Leader
@a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q): Wish no more.
srv
Someone on the plane told me Ryan Gosling is going to be Darth Vader’s grandchild.
The Dangerman
Heavy, man.
/marty mcfly
ETA: hmmm, way late there on my part
MomSense
@lamh36:
Fools!
There is something about him–crazy good looking and charismatic. I am going to be exhausted at the end of the week.
jurassicpork
Kerry’s face? I think it’s assumed critical mass and should be in Beijing by year’s end.
John McCain was caught playing Poker on his iPhone during a hearing about Syria. But what were the ten other things he was doing with his phone? Pottersville has the scoop.
Gravenstone
@MomSense:
The final 20 minutes, perhaps. The first two hours of that movie were mind numbing tedium.
Mnemosyne
@MomSense:
Nope. This is the all-time creepiest, scariest movie, IMO.
Just make sure you have the volume turned up high enough to actually hear the dialogue and sound effects.
Suffern ACE
I was wondering if there were some kind if dangerous animal that victimizes Seattle residents. Something on par with scorpions and rattle snakes.
Mnemosyne
Also, too, I discovered tonight that the downside of the Fitbit Flex is that if you’re vigorously sauteeing something (like, say, browning ground beef for a taco salad), it will give you erroneous “steps.” D’oh! I’m pretty sure stirring didn’t actually count as exercise, so I still have to go for a walk around the block before bedtime.
Suzanne
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
I don’t eat meat, and people often ask me how I manage to stand it. I tell them that how they feel about eat is how I feel about carbs.
Give me pasta or give me death.
Spaghetti tastes as good as being thin feels.
lamh36
@Mnemosyne: I still have a soft spot for The Sixth Sense, not so much scary as just suspensful and creepy moments that did make me jump from my seat a little
lamh36
@MomSense: seriously, I could die a happy woman today, for just a chance to meet Idris Elba…lol.
I’d die right after…lol.
ETA: Good night BJ peeps gonna check under my bed before going to sleep (thanks to Luther) and then off to sleepy-land
scarshapedstar
Looks like a Bell’s Palsy on the left side of his face. Dropped lip, cheek, eyebrow.
JR
No idea.
Roger Moore
@Suffern ACE:
Wingnuts. Other than that, the scariest animal around are Orcas.
Omnes Omnibus
@Roger Moore: Sasquatch?
Miz Conception
@lamh36:
No spoilers! : )
I saw the preview commercials for Luther while watching Broadchurch on the DVR this past weekend (still not caught up there, either…) and added Luther to the DVR schedule for this week.
I’m so glad I saw your comments here tonite because for some reason I thought Luther was a new show. Now I know to watch season 1 On Demand before digging in to season 2.
Can’t wait.
KithKanan
@JR: Botox or some other cosmetic procedure?
At least, I seem to recall some lines on his face in 2004 that don’t seem to be there now.
? Martin
@Ted & Hellen:
I think you got it.
YellowJournalism
@Ted & Hellen: I like this one. Captures that “blank page” feel of the man. Almost like he’s about to turn to you and say, “What?” Then he’d check his shirt for spilled coffee.
The Obama just reminded me of one of those old Max Fleischer cartoons that used to freak me out as a kid.
Mnemosyne
@lamh36:
If you like that one, you might like Stir of Echoes, which came out the same year and kinda got overlooked even though it was just as good. It’s a murder mystery with ghosts, so it’s more spooky/suspenseful than gross/gruesome. Plus it’s a great cast — not just Kevin Bacon, but Kathryn Erbe, Illeana Douglas, and a bunch of Chicago actors.
It’s a little weird to see actors who went on to major TV careers in it (it’s like, “Is that that girl from ‘House’?”) but it still works.
Jennifer
What the hell happened to John Kerry’s face?
I wondered the same thing. Probably he’s succumbed to the siren song of plastic surgery. It seems to go horribly wrong more often than it improves. And yeah, I know all the happy-crappy about how if it makes people “feel better about themselves” and whatnot, but, you know, screw that. That’s the same band-aid approach to fixing what’s really wrong as buying a ridiculous mansion, expensive car, or designer handbag. It doesn’t fix the problem, which is one of people not accepting who they are and being ok with it. Now we’ve got women in their late 20s/early 30s who lack all natural expression because they’re already getting botox injections. WTF? Who needs botox at age 30? Kim Kardashian is looking like she’ll be the next Michael Jackson or Joan Rivers – 6 or 7 years ago, when she was in her mid-20s, she was gorgeous. Now, her face has a weird mask-like appearance, no doubt because the botox makes it impossible for her to show expression. And the lips are looking really stupid too.
Why do people do this to themselves? I just turned 50 and as my gift to myself, I’m letting the color that’s been on my hair for the past 25 years grow out to reveal the natural white color it was turning even then, which is now pretty much solid. I’m sure I will look older as a result, but so what? I’m 50; I’m not supposed to look like I’m 25 anymore. Who do the plastic surgery junkies think they’re fooling?
Jennifer
@lamh36: So Luther has a storyline about something/someone hiding under the bed? Huh. The kids in my neighborhood covered that one 45 years ago. We had a story about “Pegleg Pete” (not the Disney character, but rather a grisly zombie-like monster) who hid under beds and would grab your foot and pull you under if you didn’t watch out. Thanks to Pegleg Pete, for several years my standard way of exiting the bed was to jump clear of it.
Churchlady
@NotMax: I have not met anyone in recent time who even knew what a malaprop is, so I am OVER THE MOON at both the funny and your insight as to what KIND of funny. You made my day.
Suffern ACE
One million Muslims vs two million bikers? Who schedules these things?
doug r
@Suffern ACE: Coyotes and raccoons and skunks.
And sometimes bears.
lamh36
@Jennifer: lol. it was really done well though, cause I already knew the scary bits were coming up & I still was creeped out.
RobertDSC-Power Mac G5 Dual
This is for WasabiGasp and any other Mac folk who have read about my Mac hobby.
This is my server Mac, a G4 466 with 768MB of RAM:
ServerMac
My boss gave me this Mac instead of throwing it out. It has sentimental value, lol.
The drives with female names are a holdover from a different setup I’d made. I haven’t had time to fix them to reflect a desire to name them after Lunar Modules and/or Space Shuttles. I’d made a previous version of this server Mac with all six Shuttles on it, but I ended up using four of those drives in my now-surplus Dual 1.25. The Orion drive is a SATA drive that has been fitted with an IDE adapter and connected to a Sonnet Tempo IDE PCI card. The Cheryl drive has taken the place of the stock Zip drive in native IDE connection.
The applications are as follows, from left to right:
Finder
Camino (web browsing without Javascript)
TenFourFox (an up to date Firefox clone)
iTunes 9.2.1 (all of my music is here)
Mail (with IMAP support for iCloud and GMail)
System Preferences
Snapz Pro (screen capturing in different formats; old but I love it anyway)
Image Capture (for downloading photos from my iPhone)
Preview (default image viewer)
GraphicConverter (image manipulation/viewing/conversion)
Photoshop CS1 (image manipulation)
QuickTime 7 Pro (video recording/editing/playback)
VLC (multiple video format player)
Renicer (GUI tool that automatically sets priority values for applications)
TypeShuffler (editing file types; a holdover from MacOS 9. I like to open my stuff in specific programs)
iView Multimedia (image cataloging)
Transmit (FTP)
BBEdit Lite for OS X (text editing; it’s way out of date but I love it anyway)
DiskCatalogMaker (disc cataloging for all of my old data)
TextEdit (Mac default text editor)
Calculator (Mac default)
Toast Titanium 6xx (CD/DVD burning; out of date but I love it anyway)
System Profiler (Mac default for technical data during installation)
DiskUtiliity (Mac default volume checking and basic maintenance)
CarbonCopyCloner (volume duplication/backup utility)
The data in the menu bar is courtesy of MenuMeters. I’ve had it for years and every OS X Mac I’ve owned has used it.
This Mac was my main machine from October through January 2012 after my PowerBook was killed in a power surge during my vacation. It works very well and I’m very happy with it.
Churchlady
@MomSense: It’s only creepy scary IF you’re a kid. I liked the book. Hated the film. Dull, boring, predictable. NOT scary. I’m glad you were young enough to be terrified by it.
Mnemosyne
@Jennifer:
If you get freaked out by movies where monsters are hiding under the bed, never see David Cronenberg’s The Brood. Just don’t.
lamh36
@Miz Conception: I hope I haven’t given any real spoilers, there is still plenty.
you don’t have to watch the first 2 seasons (there is only 10 eps total) but I def recommend watching em. I enjoyed all prev eps
lamh36
welp! breaking news Cleveland kidnapper dude found dead in jail cell!
some guy
John Kerry’s repeated plastic surgeries creep me out, too.
RobertDSC-Power Mac G5 Dual
Last bit, this Mac has a 64MB ATI Radeon 9000 Pro video card with 64 MB of VRAM. Before my car died and shot my plans to hell, I swapped this card with the default ATI Rage Pro video card that had 16 MB of VRAM. I had made the swap with the Dual 1.25 with the intent of purchasing an acrylic Apple Cinema Display in 20 inch size. Instead, it drives an acrylic Apple Studio Display in 17 inch size. The death of my car has put all future plans on hold.
The G5 and the Dual 1.0 both drive acrylic 23 inch Apple Cinema Displays, the G5 with a 1920×1200 version and the Dual 1.0 with 1600×1200 version.
The prophet Nostradumbass
@RobertDSC-Power Mac G5 Dual: I just looked at my Dock and I have too many things on it, I think. Two different versions of iMovie for some reason, and three different Web browsers (Firefox, Safari and Chrome), for a start.
Mnemosyne
@Churchlady:
When I saw The Shining in a film class, I was deeply bored throughout, but those damn little girls showed up in a nightmare that night. There’s certain imagery that gets into your head from that movie, but it’s still not particularly scary (to me, anyway).
RobertDSC-Power Mac G5 Dual
I use three as well: Safari, TenFourFox, and Camino. All have their strengths and weaknesses, but I spend most of my time in TenFourFox.
Jennifer
@Mnemosyne: What about the lady in the bathtub? Huh? HUH?!? I had THAT dream more than once.
The Kubrick film gets a bad rap I think. Certainly the casting was off (Olive Oyl as Wendy?) but the music, the camera angles, etc. all build a really oppressive atmosphere that I thought was very effective.
Irony Abounds
The only movie that made me check the rear view mirror in my car after I left the theater was The Exorcist. Top notch horror film. All those other slasher and spirit movies don’t scare me a lick. Well, maybe the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre, but I was pretty young back then.
Edit: As for The Shining. Since I read the book before the movie, and the book was so much better than the movie, I was very disappointed in the movie. In fact, the only bigger disappointment in a movie I was anxious to see was The Blair Witch Project. Talk about a movie that failed to live up to the hype.
opiejeanne
@Suffern ACE: Bobcats and coyotes.
Other than that it’s bunnies and quail and pileated woodpeckers and some oddball native squirrel.
Maybe a raccoon.
Comrade Luke
You have to power through the first half of the first season, in particular the bathtub scene. That’s all I have to say about that :)
Changing the subject, I bought a FoodSaver like two years ago, but never used it. Just stuck it in the cupboard and forgot about it. Took it out tonight so I can freeze some of the veggies from my garden and…wow, is this as great a product as it seems? It couldn’t be easier to use. I feel like such a dork for not using it up to now.
handy
@Irony Abounds:
RE: The Exorcist I still can’t sleep in a four post bed.
handy
@Irony Abounds:
RE: The Exorcist I still can’t sleep in a four post bed.
Keith P
You mean Rocky Dennis?
On the subject of Breaking Bad, if you couldn’t take watching Aaron Paul for a little bit, the entire series will be a challenge. I don’t like his character nor do I like Walt Jr.. But Jesse Pinkman’s tendency to follow half his sentences with “Yo” drives me nuts. Way more so than Walt Jr’s tendency to complain about whatever WW is talking about.
EDIT: HOLY CRAP, Ariel Castro is dead (guessing suicide)
EDIT #2: Yep, hung himself.
MorningtonCrescent
I guess unmentioned in all of this is that the Pittsburgh Pirates today have clinched their first season at or above .500 since 1992.
Mnemosyne
@Jennifer:
Honestly, that didn’t really freak me out. It was those damn little girls. “Danny, come play with us … forever.”
@Irony Abounds:
The movie that made me check the back seat before we left the theater was Aliens. Totally irrational since it was science fiction, but my boyfriend at the time and I both felt compelled to check.
Keith P
@Mnemosyne: What was the deal with the person in the bear costume blowing the guy in the tux?
Suzanne
@Keith P: Wow. WOW.
Mnemosyne
@Keith P:
I would have preferred him to have to live his life out in a tiny room under someone else’s control just like he forced those girls to do, but I guess he was too much of a coward to face what he’d done.
Mnemosyne
@Keith P:
I dunno, but it was in the book. That was more of a “WTF was that?” moment than a scary moment.
daverave
@RobertDSC-Power Mac G5 Dual:
Umm, what?
The prophet Nostradumbass
@Mnemosyne: Agreed.
Suzanne
@Mnemosyne: As much as I oppose capital punishment and as much as I believe that prisons should provide mental health care for inmates…..I can’t help but note the world is a bit better without him in it.
pseudonymous in nc
@Mnemosyne: Same here.
If the prison officers had wanted that, they’d have made sure of it. It may have been segregation at a transfer facility with 30-minute rounds, but places like that have (or should have) SIB units with camera feeds.
lamh36
@Mnemosyne: ok I swear this was an episode of Law & Order:UK. Convicted Felon, goes to jail, dies in cell..suicide except he was “assisted” with the help of a guard.
not saying same happened her, but wouldn’t surprise me
Radio One
Breaking Bad spoilers/speculation if you haven’t watched the last aired episode. I think that Skylar and Walt Jr. are the ones in federal witness protection now. I think Hank’s plot to get Walt is going to totally spiral out of control, and that Hank, Jesse, and Marie are either already dead or fundamentally compromised in some way.
doug r
@Suffern ACE: And watch out for birds. http://seattletimes.com/html/localnews/2021747675_airportbiologistxml.html
Anne Laurie
I just hope it’s not medical — that weird puffiness looks like either cortisone or lymph-node problems (like McCain), but I’m not a medical professional. Kerry was treated for prostate cancer a couple years ago.
Honus
@MorningtonCrescent: And moved two games up on the Cardinals. But hey, Cole is probably watching a VPI football game rerun or something.
Mnemosyne
@pseudonymous in nc:
He probably wasn’t showing any overt signs of planning to kill himself, so I can’t entirely blame the prison officials for not stopping him. IMO, there’s a difference between a suicidal prisoner being neglected by prison personnel and a fucking sociopath deciding to take the easy way out because he doesn’t want to face his just punishment. IMO.
lamh36
Keith P
@lamh36:
I’m guessing that involved a one-way mirror where a bunch of guards sat in chairs, eating popcorn.
YellowJournalism
@Mnemosyne: Agreed.
Ruckus
@Jennifer:
We don’t want to age gracefully. We don’t want to age at all. Old age sucks.
And if you are under 65-70ish you have been told this all your life. Miracle lotions, little blue miracle pills, botox, implants, comb overs, hair dye, and I’m sure many other things to try to fool others that we are not getting closer to death. Even though many of these things don’t fool anyone and many times make us look pathetically older and ridiculous.
Suzanne
@lamh36: Can’t imagine being the one to attempt CPR on that guy.
Omnes Omnibus
@Anne Laurie: Yeah, the puffiness looks to me more like a drug reaction than the result of plastic surgery.
pseudonymous in nc
@Mnemosyne:
That’s an opinion I respect, but you really don’t want prison staff to start deciding which inmates deserve to be protected from self-harm and which ones ought to be helped to an early release courtesy of the undertaker, even if some of them are fuckers who deserve to rot in a small room.
Miz Conception
@lamh36:
I was mostly teasing, I do partake of spoilers, depending on the show.
It was actually perfect timing since I have vacation next week, this will be a great way to decompress.
Mnemosyne
@pseudonymous in nc:
It sounds like they took reasonable precautions based on what lamh36 found online. Most of those precautions are based on how a mentally disorganized person would act, not based on how someone making a (let’s face it) rational decision based on his circumstances would act. So, honestly, I’m not really sure what additional precautions they were supposed to take above and beyond the standard suicide watch that he was on.
ETA: Since he was on standard suicide watch, they were attempting to protect him from self-harm, but sometimes those precautions fail if a prisoner is determined enough.
Ruckus
@pseudonymous in nc:
Who is suggesting that prisons should make the decision that early checkout is OK?
Mnemosyne
@Ruckus:
I may have been slightly unclear. What I meant is that there’s a difference between prison personnel neglecting a suicidal prisoner and prison personnel being unable to prevent a determined prisoner from committing suicide despite taking precautions. People who are determined to kill themselves can sometimes manage to do it no matter what precautions are taken to try and prevent it.
My comment was more that I’m not surprised that Castro was too much of a fucking coward to live the way he forced those girls to live, so he figured out a way to kill himself and escape that fate even though the prison tried to prevent him from doing it.
Jon H
@Anne Laurie:
Kerry’s tiny eyes suggest it’s plastic surgery. Facelifts and fillers.
pseudonymous in nc
@Mnemosyne: Let’s just say that I have a certain amount of insight into SOP at prisons for that kind of thing. Might just have been a shitty facility with no video monitoring for SIB units, or he might have been on the first rung of the risk profile. If not, then regular 30-minute checkins are basically telling the inmate how much time’s available to rig up a noose. (FWIW, the policy/ops manual for Ohio has two levels of risk profile, specifying irregular checks no longer than 15 minutes apart.)
Perhaps the local reporters will ask, but probably not, since Castro was a fucker.
@Ruckus: I’m just saying that if it were up to certain members of the correctional profession, inmates on suicide watch would be handed ropes when put in segregation.
Ruckus
@Mnemosyne: @pseudonymous in nc:
Mnems, I did understand your comment then. Will say that they didn’t try very hard, half hour checks gives a suicidal person plenty of time. As is shown in this case.
Pseudo, I sort of gathered that’s what you meant, that some prisons would hand out rope and a guard schedule and possibly instructions/assistance on knot tying but it was a little unclear and I wanted to check that you weren’t accusing anyone.
So now anyone who is awake is up to date.
KS in MA
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: FTW!
Gian
@Churchlady:
if you read the book first the movie should be predictable. the movie deviates from the book in ways that S King didn’t necessarily like. (if you watch closely there’s a bit of a native American motif in it – think of the calamut baking powder) The movie has a very slow burn to it, like watching a car wreck in real life but feeling the events are happening in slow-motion. Nicholson with the ghosts before going off the deep end is great…
But to each his or her own. For your trivia for the night, I have it on good authority (a film studies professor) that the green hills/mountains at the end of blade runner are out-takes from the shining…
cckids
@Suffern ACE:
Slugs?
Or, possibly, this.
Uriel
@Ted & Hellen: Cripes. If I came across that on a boardwalk going for $5, I would still say it was over priced. You really have no concept of composition or technique, do you?
Yeah, yeah, I know, you’ve already sold the peice for a bajillion dollars. Even if that’s true, (which I doubt) I’m sorry- passing off your lack of talent behind a thin veneer of kitsch might fool a few aging hipsters with more money than brains, but trust me: your ride to the dust-bin of irrelevance is pretty much a bullet train of hopeless mediocrity, with blown out break lines, unless you buckle down and maybe take a few basic art courses.
You might start with your local park district, with an eye towards a couple of non-credits at a nearby community college. With luck, that might put you on the path towards being a workman-like caricature artist- the kind that sells big headed portraits at the local carnival, for instance.
Uriel
@Ted & Hellen: Cripes. If I came across that on a boardwalk going for $5, I would still say it was over priced. You really have no concept of composition or technique, do you?
Yeah, yeah, I know, you’ve already sold the peice for a bajillion dollars. Even if that’s true, (which I doubt) I’m sorry- passing off your lack of talent behind a thin veneer of kitsch might fool a few aging hipsters with more money than brains, but trust me: your ride to the dust-bin of irrelevance is pretty much a bullet train of hopeless mediocrity, with blown out break lines, unless you buckle down and maybe take a few basic art courses.
You might start with your local park district, with an eye towards a couple of non-credits at a nearby community college. With luck, that might put you on the path towards being a workman-like caricature artist- the kind that sells big headed portraits at the local carnival, for instance.
Botsplainer
@Gravenstone:
I always root for him to kill Duvall. Worst casting mistake ever.
Betty Cracker
RE: “Breaking Bad” — I’m withholding final judgment until the series finale, but so far, I’d put it high on the list, in the company of “The Sopranos” as far as series quality goes. I’m watching “Sons of Anarchy” now (I’m on season 2, I think?), and while I’m finding it entertaining, it’s basically a biker soap opera. “Breaking Bad” is WAY better.
ETA: Re: Kerry’s face, maybe steroids? I’ve never been a big fan, but I hope he’s okay. I thought he bore an amusing resemblance to Treebeard before whatever brought on the current puffiness.
Boss
@Ted & Hellen: Wow, you suck!
Manyakitty
@Taylor: My favorite is the Malcolm in the Middle one. Bahahahaha!
Manyakitty
@Betty Cracker: Yes, but “The Sopranos” ending blew it for me.
Betty Cracker
@Manyakitty: I know many people feel that way, but I thought the ending was arguably brilliant. Maybe my positive response to it was due to the fact that I didn’t get to see the series until this year, and by then the show and the ending was such an essential part of pop culture that I already knew about the fade to black thing and was thus unsurprised by it. But the ending didn’t ruin it at all for me. Tony got whacked. The End.
Roger
Interested in what John thought of Sons of Anarchy which to me is a classic example of a show whose whole adds up to so much less than its parts.
Episode-by-episode its gripping and occasionally even great TV – but when you hit each season finale all you are generally left with was ‘WTF was that?’ as its ambitions so far outstrip the limitations it has to operate under.
For a start it needed a grand multi-season arc plotted out from the beginning to its corpse-strewn Hamletian end.
But being a meal ticket for everyone involved (not that there is anything wrong with that….) it just carries on and on with a new and ever more implausible Big Bad each season and the central conflict(s) never actually being resolved.
Compare and contrast with say Justified which actually has many common themes with SoA but gets its scaling perfectly right.
Birthmarker
Warning-some of this may be close to spoilers…
When I commented on a previous thread I was only in season 3 of Breaking Bad.
Now that I am fully caught up, I feel there are some real flaws in the show, starting with season 4. Some of the product placement gets ridiculous. There are also lots of looonnnggg scenes that go nowhere. (I started fast forwarding.)
The plot twist of Jesse developing a father/son relationship with each of the older main characters was based on nothing in Jesse’s character development IMO. Really, would you feel that way toward him? Is he really that redeemed or redeemable of a character?
The actor Aaron Paul never misses a chance to chew on the scenery.
But Hank develops as a hell of a character as the show goes on.
Having said all that, the show is still better than most shows on television. I just don’t know if it still gets my 3rd favorite placement behind The Wire and The Sopranos… For now I think the third place is blank…
Betty Cracker
@Birthmarker:
YES! Jesse makes me feel all maternal, and I know I’m not alone in that. He is good in every way that WW, Mike, et al, are evil — a non-sociopath who is capable of genuine love and friendship, cares about children, etc. One of my fears about the upcoming episodes is that he’ll be transformed into a sociopath. Or get killed off.
MCA1
@Betty Cracker: Let us not forget that ending it that way also meant I could stop listening to that fucking awful Journey song RIGHT NOW. There’s a website out there that spends approximately 25,000 words describing exactly why there’s no question Tony got shot in the head, and the author’s breakdown of the scene construction, and references to clues about Tony’s fate throughout the series and how they all interplayed, made me a believer that it’s an excellent scene. I was never that put off by it when it first aired, though. It somehow seemed appropriate to me, and there was no way to tidy up storylines and character arcs on that show, so trying to do so would have yielded poor results.
Ms. D. Ranged in AZ
I know exactly what JC means….I’m on Season 1 of Sons of Anarchy and Season 2 of Breaking Bad. I almost got stuck on episode 1 of Sons because the whole “meth-addict woman using while pregnant” upsets me so much. But I powered through it and I’m glad I did because some of the actors are just knocking it out of the park–Katey Sagal is blowing my mind. And the way Jacks is constantly being torn between what he feels is right versus what the gang is always forcing him to do….Just darn good drama.
Similar experience with Breaking Bad….just watched Ep. 11 Season 2 last night and the scene where Jesse uses Heroin for the first time totally creeped me out. I even said something to the BF about it. I don’t know if it was the way he looked when he blissed out or because it seemed like the show was glorifying the high….even though, clearly, the show demonstrates all the horrible shite that could and happens when one uses/deals drugs.
What’s really strange is that it shouldn’t bother me. I used to be a probation officer and I’ve seen some crazya$$ stuff. It shouldn’t bother me, but it does. Maybe I can’t stand to see train wrecks and I see them coming a long way off in both these shows. But I’ll keep watching because of the quality of the acting and I’ll keep rooting for some of these characters because that’s just the kind of sucker I am.
DFH no.6
@Birthmarker: Of course there are flaws in Breaking Bad. There are flaws in everything made by the hand of mortal man.
And, just as important, there are things that some find to be “flaws” (like, say, the aforementioned ending of The Sopranos) that others find to be brilliant (again, the ending of Sopranos – I am in the “brilliant” camp on that one. Yes, Tony got whacked. The End. Oblivion).
Same goes for something like Aaron Paul’s acting (he really does not end all his sentences with “yo!” Not even close). I’ve even read some who dis Bryan Cranston’s performance as Walter White! Entitled to their opinion on that, sure, but I’m afraid their opinion sucks very hard.
I agree with many who find Breaking Bad to be the best TV series ever, even better than The Wire or The Sopranos. The Wire’s final season was an almost-universally recognized letdown, especially compared with the first four seasons; and that whole season in The Sopranos where Tony is in a coma but dreaming was not up to par with the rest of the series, at all. Breaking Bad hasn’t had anything like those season-long fall-offs in quality.
Breaking Bad’s writing (the most important part of any TV show or movie, I think) has been superb throughout, as has the direction, acting, and casting of characters, and the series has maintained its high level of quality from the first episode right through this final season (with only 4 shows left now). I have every confidence those final 4 will be great episodes and that will cement the show as the best ever.
YMMV, I suppose.
MCA1
@DFH no.6: Tough to say. I can’t disagree with your impressions above, although I think it all depends on how you weigh various things. For me, The Wire gets mad extra points based on the sheer degree of difficulty of its sprawl. The breadth of scope and matter, combined with the intricacy of detail, was an amazing combination for me. Not to mention the underlying sociological message. Also, no other show has ever spawned so many memorable, deep, human characters. The Sopranos gave us a large number of unforgettable characters, too, but dang, just look at Season 4 of The Wire – four kids as brand new characters out of nowhere take the center of the show – and how much we came to care about them (plus Marlo Stanfield!). For those things, and the sheer incredible quality of Seasons 3 and 4, I’ll take the letdown of Season 5 (I actually enjoyed Season 2, but agree it was a cut below, as well), and still put it at the top of my personal list.
You’re right, though, that Breaking Bad has not suffered as the seasons have worn on. To some degree, this is probably an unexpected (maybe?) benefit of Vince Gilligan’s stated raison d’etre for the entire show – to break the mold of the static television character, and have his protagonist undergo real personal transformation over the entirety of the show. So you don’t get a bunch of writers having to reach too far for story arcs for the upcoming season, like “Carmela’s infatuation with Furio” or “Tony in a coma for a season” and whatever other detours they had that made me lose interest for weeks at a time. It’s just a slow peeling of one onion on Breaking Bad. Those things, and the fact that I just could never bring myself to like or sympathize with Tony Soprano (which is not to say anything negative about Gandolfini’s masterpiece portrayal; I just always hated Tony from the very beginning and never wanted anything but a deserved bad end for him), I have BB at No. 2.
The sheer fact that we can have this discussion, though, is pretty amazing. We’re not even giving mention to shows like Mad Men, Six Feet Under, and Game of Thrones, either, all amazing works of art in their own right, because there’s just so much competition right now.
DFH no.6
@MCA1: I found The Wire to be the best show (for all the reasons you gave and more) right up to season 5A of BB, when it hit me just how consistently good-to-great every episode of BB was (and 5B has kept it up).
And before The Wire it was The Sopranos.
This is the Golden Age of TV drama, I think.
For me it started with Oz on HBO.
LS
@Mnemosyne: I saw “The Shining” when it first came out. I was about 16 years old at the time. Was not the least bit scared in the theater. Thought it was mostly too over-the-top (especially Nicholson’s performance). But afterwards I had nightmares about the woman in the bathtub. So I give Kubrick that.
I also give Kubrick the hedge maze scene. He didn’t try to recreate the hedge monsters from the book, which IMO could never have worked on screen. At least not with the film technology at the time.
Birthmarker
@MCA1:
This is the beauty of The Wire.