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breaking-bad

Nat thought – good acting, great script, but sometimes that’s just not enough is it?

Everyone has been raving about this to me for the last couple of years, so I gave in. I’ve just had a Breaking Bad marathon fortnight. Experience should have told me that was a mistake. When EVERYONE says something’s good, it rarely is. When a moderate amount do however, it’s often fantastic. When Fanboys/Girls like something and it’s cut after its first season, that’s when its amazing. Hello Firefly.

Breaking Bad is in its fifth and final season and at the time of writing this, we’re about half way through the season. So depending on what the final eight episodes do, I might need to add a little post-script to this little post a bit later.

Anyhoo, Breaking Bad follows Walter White, a high school chemistry teacher and veritable genius who’s just been diagnosed with cancer. Worried about the financial stability of his family should he die, Walter decides to do what all rational smarty-pants would do in this position; he sets out to produce and sell the purist methamphetamine the world has ever seen.

Hilarity ensues.

No, not really. I wish it did though because this shit gets pretty heavy the more seasons you get through. Maybe it’s because I watched so many in one go, but I found my mind mind a-wandering and a-wondering. I began to wonder if the director of photography had recently finished film school. I lost count of the number of times we get camera shots from a see-through bottom under something like a deep fat fryer or industrial cooker, so that when it’s being filled, we have the sensation of being suffocated or drowned. Then there’s clever cuts and jumps to the next scene, like someone leaning forward on a chair, then when they lean back back it’s a new scene and new person leaning back on a chair. Then I thought, if my mind is preoccupied with camera shots, I’m not paying attention to what’s being said. And that can’t be good.

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I also noticed the agonisingly long scenes of mundane conversations that leave you thinking, ok well there must be some big reveal coming soon… some action… some surprise… and nothing, just more talking. Do they think this is innovative, that real life is like this? Maybe, but it’s a TV show. I want scenes that are as long as they need to be to express what needs to be expressed. I don’t need a five minute scene to show Jesse is scared to death when Walter turns up to his house in season 5 episode 8. I got it in two minutes. Move along…

And what’s with all the yelling? Walter’s Side-kickr Jesse yells for the whole first two seasons and then Walter takes over for the next two. Far out, turn it down a notch will ya? Watching people yell at each other is not my idea of entertainment. I get enough of that from the mothers with six children each on every single bus I seem to catch.

It’s premise may sound like a cross between Weeds and The Big C, but that’s where the similarities end. It sounds lame, but if I’m going to devote that many hours to a TV show, I want there to be somebody I can like. Of course, what happens to Walter’s personality makes sense, but as a character he’s not exactly endearing. None of them are really, except perhaps Hank, Walter’s DEA agent brother-in-law. Hapless Hank is always just a step away from finding out that it’s not a Mafia kingpin he’s after, but his wife’s sister’s husband. (Ooh, that’s a bit confusing).

Overall I came away wanting to watch an episode of Weeds instead. I mean, Breaking Bad is basically Weeds without the good looking people and sense of humour.