Breaking Bad- I’m Out of Sync

Everyone loves Breaking Bad, and everyone is talking about it.  The husband and I started watching it because everyone said we should.  I admit, the storytelling is good and the characters are well-drawn.

That being said, I’m almost indifferent to the show, on the point of not liking it.  However, even though I don’t like it, I feel compelled to continue watching it, and I probably will finish all of it, though at a less frenetic pace than most people seem to.  Not long ago, the TV Guy’s Stepmom blogged about it and mentioned how she went through 40 episodes in 5 weeks.  The husband went from nothing to caught up in about 2 or 3.  I’ve been watching 4-5 episodes per weekend, so I’ll catch up eventually.

It took me awhile to figure out why I’m less “into it” than everyone else seems to be.  Before I go further, let me say that I’m going to start talking about some spoilers.  I’m only into Season 2, and the spoilers I talk about will be broad concept type things.  Just FYI.

The husband watched an episode of Talking Bad with the show’s creator, Vince Gilligan, and he explained that the show isn’t about good guys and bad guys.  There’s no moral lesson.  It’s just about the de-evolution of Walter White.

And right there is the reason I don’t much like it.

Walter starts out as a nice guy.  He’s a pushover, and early on, I cheered him on as he started to gain confidence and some power.  I even cheered him on as he pushed around stoner-loser Jesse.  However, it quickly became apparent that Jesse has moral lines that he won’t cross, even when “ordered” to.  And Walter’s lines are blurring.  If they’ve blurred this much by Season 2, I can’t imagine where they’ll go by the end.

I love stories about dystopian futures, tragedies, difficult circumstances.  But what I like in a story is a redeeming main character.  Sure, we all make mistakes, and I’m fine with a human main characters who makes mistakes, has moral failings, and even acts in ways I don’t approve of.  But in the end, I want them to have grown in a positive direction.  Walter White isn’t doing that.  He’s becoming someone I don’t like, at all.  Is it a “true” story of the human condition?  Maybe.  I could see someone in that circumstance becoming like Walter, but why would I want to watch it?

For the record, I don’t like Skyler either.  Something about her just rubs me the wrong way.  I really think the people I like best are Jesse and Walt Jr.

Anyone else have thoughts on this very polarizing show?  Do you watch it?

Catching up with Breaking Bad

Guest post by The TV’s Guy’s Stepmother

After my nephew urged me to watch his favorite show, the TV Guy’s father and I watched the first episode of Breaking Bad. Five weeks later, we have somehow managed to watch 40 episodes (way more TV than I like to watch in such a short span of time…)  Needless to say, we are hooked!

The show has far exceeded our expectations, as former high school chemistry teacher turned crystal meth cooker, Walter White, has undergone an amazing transformation. By now, some of the characters are in so deep that their lives are forever changed, and there is no turning back.  It’s as if they were swept up in a wave.

Irony is everywhere, especially as Skylar, Walt’s sometimes estranged and perpetually conflicted wife, goes about finding a way to launder the drug money that her husband continues to amass.  The camera finds the face of their infant daughter and juxtaposes her innocence against her parent’s turmoil.

And we can’t forget Hank, Walt’s DEA agent brother-in-law, hot on the trail of Walt’s elusive alter-ego, Heisenberg.

Don’t plan on reading a magazine or checking Facebook while you’re watching this show… the plot twists demand-and deserve all of your attention.

Fourteen episodes to go for us until August 11^th, when the first of the final eight installments airs.  I hate to see it end, but at the same time, can’t wait to find out

what the writers have in store for Walt and Skylar.

Summer TV

by The TV Guy

The summer used to possess much more meaning when I was a kid. It meant free time and all the re-runs my little heart could watch. Often I was able to get caught up on the 10 pm shows I missed during the school year. I could never understand why there was never any new TV for those of us who wanted more. The wise people at TNT have been pumping out new TV for the summer viewer. In the age of reality shows, TNT has all the drama one can consume. Rizzoli and Isles is back for another season. Over on AMC, Breaking Bad returns July 15^th for season 5. A new one this summer is Perception. Dr. Daniel Pierce is a schizophrenic, eccentric professor of neuroscience, who solves crimes with the FBI. While the concept is a little off, the doctor is played by Eric McCormack of Will and Grace fame.

Summer is no longer the graveyard of the repeat. So if the heat has driven you indoors, take heart; there is plenty of new TV to entertain you.