i think its brilliant from start to finish (well up to the end of Ozymandias)
i think it absolutely takes on the corruption and degradation of the 'American Dream', get sick, no money, family is fucked, gotta do what you gotta do
its interesting to me that the hardcore criminal element is portrayed as being Nazi leaning, same thing happened in Homeland when she ended up in a bar and the cowboy white dudes had swastika's on their hands,
i think both are showing us that the culture is on a trajectory towards fascism, but BB much more so than Homeland which was full of other garbled messages
Top of the Lake is a brilliant 6 episode series i just watched, wont say too much but there are definite RI themes in that one
Re: Breaking Bad
Posted: Wed Sep 18, 2013 9:29 am
by lucky
Well being in the UK we had it on late on a cable channel FX maybe - it must have been 2 years ago and I think it only got to the 2nd series. I wish I could see the rest - my lasting memory is the fella going to the 1st floor lair of a mexican 'kingpin' and throwing what looked to be meth but was actually explosive to prove he was 'de man'.
Good show wish they would show it over here without having to pay for it via netflix or similar - never saw the Wire but should have done after reading about it - kinda Hill st Blues for the norties.
They are reshowing that series on the Motel that has weird objects that give you a superhuman power - quite like that - trouble is with a zillion channels i never remember when and where
Re: Breaking Bad
Posted: Wed Sep 18, 2013 9:29 am
by lucky
Well being in the UK we had it on late on a cable channel FX maybe - it must have been 2 years ago and I think it only got to the 2nd series. I wish I could see the rest - my lasting memory is the fella going to the 1st floor lair of a mexican 'kingpin' and throwing what looked to be meth but was actually explosive to prove he was 'de man'.
Good show wish they would show it over here without having to pay for it via netflix or similar - never saw the Wire but should have done after reading about it - kinda Hill st Blues for the norties.
They are reshowing that series on the Motel that has weird objects that give you a superhuman power - quite like that - trouble is with a zillion channels i never remember when and where
Re: Breaking Bad
Posted: Wed Sep 18, 2013 10:23 am
by esotericmetal
Rubicon (also on AMC) is also excellent. Falls exactly in line with the RI wold view, but also was pretty relatable to the non-RI viewer. Incredible show. Obviously it was cancelled after a season. Pretty amazed AMC made it in the first place.
I'll give Breaking Bad credit for getting me to watch any modern American television at all, though it's lost my interest pretty quickly. Deep prejudices abound for me when it comes to movies and television. It's like I need the film art that gives me meaning to not be American most of the time. In fact, "not English language" is closer to it. It's a complex topic, actually, the dynamics of viewing choices and entrainment.
Re: Breaking Bad
Posted: Fri Sep 20, 2013 12:38 am
by divideandconquer
esotericmetal » Wed Sep 18, 2013 10:23 am wrote:Rubicon (also on AMC) is also excellent. Falls exactly in line with the RI wold view, but also was pretty relatable to the non-RI viewer. Incredible show. Obviously it was cancelled after a season. Pretty amazed AMC made it in the first place.
Rubicon was great!! The numbers were much better than the first season of either Breaking Bad or Mad Men, but AMC cancelled it anyway, although It didn't surprise me all that much because it seemed to expose a little too much. The executive producer of Rubicon, Henry Bromell's father was in the CIA, so he had some personal experience. He also wrote/ produced Homeland, Homicide: Life on the Street, and a couple other notable shows. I think he died recently.
Re: Breaking Bad
Posted: Tue Sep 24, 2013 5:14 pm
by Laodicean
Re: Breaking Bad
Posted: Tue Sep 24, 2013 5:41 pm
by Laodicean
Re: Breaking Bad
Posted: Wed Sep 25, 2013 10:37 am
by vince
I think Mr. Gillagan has giving the show a few RI moments;
Walt makes 'thermite' from thing that look like Etch-A-Scketches' to brake into a chemical wharehouse, and, of course, Jane's dad's 'malfunction' that causes two planes to collide with each other
Re: Breaking Bad
Posted: Sat Sep 28, 2013 12:54 am
by mulebone
Willow, you've mastered rhetoric, hyperbole & the science of bullshit laden condescension quite nicely.
I personally don't give a fuck about story telling. Or art. I don't give a fuck about empathy Hollywood style or seeing the world through some overpaid scriptwriter's eyes.
What I have trouble with is the thought that has me sitting on my death bed looking back on a life spent staring at a little box. Enamored of empty fictions & contrived situations that have no real function other to keep my attention until the next commercial break.
So Breaking Wind is the flavor of the day? Who cares? Gilligan gets rich while I work 16 hour days trying to keep my family's collective nose slightly above the waterline. Do you honestly think that his fiction will do much for my life?
If you answer yes to that, then your heads shoved much further up your own rhetoric than even I would have imagined possible.