Here’s a morning Breaking Bad thread, which I’m sure will have spoilers, so you’ve been warned. This is a good piece about the cinematography, and also about the popularity of the show. It also has spoilers.
Television
Sunday Night Football/Breaking Bad/Boardwalk Empire/ Everything Else Open Thread
Fully expecting the Steelers to lose at home, but in a manner in which they keep it close the whole game and lose on the last play or in overtime, thus making sure the game lasts long enough to make me miss the second showing of Breaking Bad.
Sunday Night Football/Breaking Bad/Boardwalk Empire/ Everything Else Open ThreadPost + Comments (97)
Late Night Open Thread
The complete and total moral decline of Walter White and his descent into complete and total indifference to the feelings and concerns of others in Season Five is really quite breathtaking. I’m trying to figure out how much of his decline makes me think by comparison that Jesse has been redeemed, or if maybe I need to watch it all the way through again (once I finish) and that maybe Jesse was a moral being from episode one, but just a confused junkie who when his head cleared became more of the person he really is.
I was also thinking it would be interesting to gauge the opinions of people who watched the show like I am (3 episodes a night) as opposed to someone who watched it week by week over a five year span. I think I am experiencing a far more dramatic sensation as to the shifts in character because every previous episode and season is so fresh in my mind, so I think the arc of White’s decline may be more dramatic for me than for someone who had months in between episodes.
Basically, what I am trying to say is that the way I am viewing this series, I’m experiencing a time lapse photography version of the show, so the arcs may be clearer and more vivid.
Open Thread
Sedate night because Walt and I stayed up until 4 am listening to the 9th and then switching gears to Boz Scaggs and then some Allison Krauss. So I’m sitting here on a quiet night with dogs snoring on couches and a cat on my lap watching tv and surfing the intertubes. In other words, a day that ends in -y.
One quick note- Steve is so much warmer than Tunch was. Tunch was soft and fluffy and pillowy, but when Steve sits on you it is like having a silky heating pad on your belly.
At any rate, the reason I was inspired enough to write this post. I’m on season 4 of Breaking Bad, and one of the things I find fascinating is how Walter White continues to think he is the only sane one on the show. He, by far, is the least sane and stable character on the whole series, but he is constantly lamenting how he is the only one who is “professional.”
It kind of cracks me up, in a sense, because I sort of see Jesse Pinkman as the more sane of the two- Jesse is who he is, and isn’t living multiple lives. He’s a junkie first and foremost, and given all the shit he goes through, him using shitloads of meth and not giving a fuck about the crankheads on his floor, and just doing what he wants seems kind of rational to me. Junkie’s reach for the pipe- it’s completely rational.
That Walter thinks it is irrational, and can not grok why his junkie partner would go to the pipe after murdering people doesn’t make complete sense just further illustrates what a sociopath White is- especially considering how Walter can kill people and fall asleep an hour later. He thinks “I killed people and played it cool, why can’t you, Pinkman?” and thinks that means he is more in control than Jesse, when it shows how much more of a lunatic he is. Remorse is a normal response. Killing someone and sleeping soundly isn’t.
His lying and multiple lives makes it almost comical in a sense that he is living completely oblivious to the reality of his life. No one has reacted or behaved more irrationally or out of “character” (in the sense you were led to believe Walter was just a boring HS prof at the beginning of the show) from day one than Walter White, but if you don’t really pay attention to the show’s arc, you could easily think he was the sane one while everyone around him was crazy. He really isn’t, which is what makes this show so complex and rewarding. He’s post hoc meticulous, but he is a fulle-fledged sociopath.
Kind of nifty how the writers did that, and I am totally looking forward to the next two seasons.
Sons of Anarchy Open Thread
This should be a good one.
Boardwalk Empire/ Sunday Night Football Open Thread
Still 90 and 30 mins away, respectively, but thought I would throw this up anyway.
Given the play of the Mountaineers and the Steelers, I’m beginning to wonder if I picked the wrong football season to quit drinking. Plus, the Pirates are tanking.
Awesome.
*** Update ***
Rosie is still in command of the couch:
I love that I have turned a Jack Russell Terrorist, one of the most hyper breeds of dogs on the planet, into a total couch potato worthless layabout.
Boardwalk Empire/ Sunday Night Football Open ThreadPost + Comments (77)
Open Thread
Ok. The hype was right about Breaking Bad.