I find that life, mine in particular, can be explained as a line, starting at zero or “neutral,” followed by a series of events and factors that cause this line to rise above or dip below neutral. The events that cause changes in this line eventually average out to zero. All I am saying by this is that as one thing comes, another goes, and visa versa. I find this the most true in the things that entertain me. For example, the NBA had a lockout. I don’t know if you heard about it, but it was kind of a big deal. During those five months, I had a void that needed to be filled. To do this, I turned to hockey. Being as I have a propensity for fully diving into things, I adopted hockey as my third favorite sport and quickly started following it like baseball and football. Then the NBA lockout ended. But that doesn’t matter. What matters is that I made my “line” dip back up.
The same can be said for TV shows, on two counts. As we all know, Hollywood hasn’t had an original idea in a good five years now. This is a byproduct of studio executives being wildly, wildly terrible at their job. That’s the only explanation I have. How is it possible that Land of the Lost was made into a movie, after being one of the worst cartoons of all time? What number remake of The Planet of the Apes are we on? As much as I liked The Dark Knight, when will we stop pumping out superhero movie after superhero movie? Will there come a time when the Fast and Furious and Transformers franchises shut down? And more importantly, will anyone miss them? I mean as bad as Jack and Jill was, you still have to give Adam Sandler credit in at least not making Happy Gilmore 2 (although that would probably have been a better movie). But, I digress. The moral here is that now that I hate movies, I have had to salvage my entertainment in the form of television. That was the first part of my television renaissance. The second part cannot be written without mentioning the wonderful writers of House, and how they managed to ruin the only show I watched every single week for 8 seasons. After I gave up on House, I went on a safari through TV Guide and found a little show on AMC called Breaking Bad. I don’t exactly know how to put this into words, so I will just saying to the best of my abilities:
The premise is as follows: Walter White is a high school chemistry teacher, who learns that he has cancer. He then teams up with his former student, Jesse Pinkman (a former crystal meth dealer) and they start making meth. However, as he is a chemist, Walt’s meth is the most chemically pure meth in the world. Walt’s family includes his wife Skylar, their 17-year-old son Walt Jr. who was born with cerebral palsy, and their newborn daughter Holly. Skylar’s sister Marie is married to Hank, who is a DEA agent. I know it may seem far-fetched, and it very well might be, but I love this show. So much so, in fact, that I plowed through four seasons in approximately two weeks. The show is brilliantly written, acted, and designed.
WARNING: SPOILER ALERT FROM THIS POINT ON.
Character progression is what the show does best. Over the four seasons, Walter White goes from a calm, passive and depressed individual, to a vicious murderer, then to a pathological liar, followed by a deranged maniac, only then to come back to being weak. After that began his ascension to full-blown criminal mastermind. In a nutshell, Walter White’s life is portrayed as how the broken man can rebuild himself.
I find the true brilliance of the show in the spare part characters and actors. Starting in the middle of the second season, we were introduced to Gus Fring, Saul Goodman, and Hector Salamanca. Lets examine them one at a time:
The anomaly that is/was Gustavo Fring contributed to every scene creating a sense of fear. Gus uses his fast food chain, Los Pollos Hermanos as a front for a crystal meth distribution empire that he is in charge of. Although coming off as a calm and understanding man, Gus shows his true emotions when he cuts the throat of his second-in-command just to prove to Walter and Jesse that he is still in control of their actions. Gus killed the entire Mexican drug cartel by poisoning the tequila that he brought as a gift. He drank from the same bottle just to bolster the lie. Although a very precise man, Gus disregards his health, as well as the health of others to get complete and absolute power.
“Better Call Saul!” has quickly become my most used saying, even though the times that I use it are not particularly appropriate. Saul Goodman, who Jesse describes as a “CRIMINAL, lawyer” (meaning that he takes the not-so-legal approach to the law) adds humor to the show. Without him, the show would be Skylar and Walter yelling, Walter coughing up cancer-filled mucus, cut scenes of the production of meth. (Note: This would still be fine.) The ads for Saul’s “law firm” are especially hilarious, and very scene with him is an adventure. Also, his hair always seems a little off. I think it has to do with the awful, awful comb over he has.
Which bring me to Hector Salamanca. Of all of the television I have watched, never have I seen a character like this. He is an integral part of the storyline, is the most important character in six or seven episodes. Yet, he has exactly zero, count em’ ZERO, lines of dialogue. I don’t know what the actor who plays him sounds like. Moreover, he is always in a robe, always angry, and always in a wheelchair after the stroke that he suffered a while back. His only form of communication is ringing the bell he has on his wheel chair handle. My description of him doesn’t come close to doing him justice. It is truly amazing what the writers, along with creator Vince Gilligan have created. Because of Hector, every time I hear a bell ring at school I inexplicably jump through a window, just to get away from what could be him.
This brings me back to my original theory on life. Breaking Bad has never had an average moment. Ever. There is always something going on. There is something going on inside of something going on. For example, the opening scenes of every episode in the second season where that of a Teddy Bear floating in the Walter White’s pool. 45 seconds of foreshadowing that lead to about ten minutes of analyzing what it all means. Therein lies the brilliance of the show. Every action, every word, every breath of a character makes you think of five different outcomes, and what they mean.
This is the best show on television. It’s better than Mad Men, Dexter, TrueBlood, and The Walking Dead. It’s better than Lost ever was. And it’s going into the final season. So you should watch. Trust me.
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