Review of Breaking Bad S1

Just finished watching S1 of Breaking Bad - a television series produced and airing on AMC (American Movie Classics) channel, which approximately three people on my flist fell madly in love with: cjlasky (who raved about it in 2008-2009), flake_sake, and frenchani. I tried it once in 2008 - just the first two episodes, but couldn't get into it.
Decided to try it again, after flake_sake and frenchani's rave reviews, and well the fact that tv is a bit slow at the moment, and AMC is reairing the series in it's entirety - with two back to back episodes every Wed night. They just finished airing S1.

The series reminds me a lot of Terriers actually, even though it was advertised as the male version of Weeds, it has more in common tone, acting, and writing wise with Terriers and Justified. So if you liked Terriers for its writing, direction and acting? I'm guessing you will most likely love this.

The story is about Walter, a forty-something high school chemistry teacher in New Mexico who has been diagnosed with inoperable lung cancer, stage 3A. His forty year old wife, Skyler, is 6 months pregnant with a surprise pregnancy. And they have a disabled son who either has MS or MD. Not sure which, except he's on crutches and struggles with speech and coordination. Desperate for cash, because the HMO plan won't pay for cancer treatment, and he's not sure he'll be able to provide for his wife and kids futures, he hooks up with a former student who's in the business of selling meth. Using his chemistry skills - he starts what amounts to a meth lab with the former student, Jess (Adrian is apparently the actors name - I truly suck at remembering the names of people, regardless of who they are.). And well, things don't quite go according to plan.

Other characters in the story include Anne Marie, Skylar's physician sister, who is also a kleptomaniac, and Hank, Anne Marie's husband who is a DEA agent.

Like Terriers, Damages, and Justified - this story is character driven not plot driven, but it's not in any way shape or form a soap opera like Buffy, Grey's, or Vampire Diaries. What I mean by that - is the plot is tight, planned out ahead of time, and not based on sexual chemistry between actors or characters. It's also quite dark.

Walt, a modern anti-hero everyman, struggles with issues relevant to today's world - health insurance, lack of funds, and the inability to get ahead. ( very vague spoilers to give you an idea what this story is about )

While it's not necessary to be a chemist to enjoy this show, if you are one - you probably will fall irrevocably in love with it. The bits on chemistry are fascinating. And according to a chemist on my flist or someone who knows a lot about chemistry, astonishingly accurate. This is new. Normally tv shows get the science bits completely wrong. I've gotten used to ignoring them. (Yes, I'm looking at you - CSI, Lost, House, Dollhouse, Farscape, Doctor Who, Firefly, Fringe and Caprica.) But this one apparently gets it right - which means someone associated with the creation of Breaking Bad knows quite a bit about chemistry. My favorite bit on the chemistry is the creation of a poison with beans.

The attention to detail from a production and art set design perspective is as exact as it is in Mad Men. Each episode has a reference to death. Meth=death. The skeleton logo on a mug, the death's head on a key-chain, or the skull with his tongue hanging out on a t-shirt that Adrian wears. Subtle and somewhat ironic references.

The series, like Terriers and Justified, has a tongue firmly in cheek absurdest sense of humor. Black humor - much like MASH. It's not over the top. Subtle. Such as a shot of a perky real-estate agent, with her blond hair, and blonder dress, sunnily putting up an Open House sign, while Walt and Jesse unbeknowest to her are cooking meth in the basement. Another similarly amusing bit is Anne Marie driving over a child's remote control car - which he is racing around their cule-du-sac driveway. Deft touches like these make the series chewy and crunchy food for the eyes and the brain.

So, if you are a fan of gritty character dramas with quasi anti-heroes, such as Terriers, The Good Wife, Sons of Anarchy (the darkest and most violent of all the series mentioned and the only one besides the Shield that I couldn't get into for some reason), Damages, Justified, The Shield, and even Mad Men, you might want to check out Breaking Bad. Or for that matter, are a fan of shows that are scientifically accurate, which admittedly are rare. I highly recommend this show but with the express caveat that the first three episodes aren't that great, somewhat slow in fact, but the fourth episode, Cancer Man is amazing and the series really takes off at a gallop after that point.

Overall rating? A

The TV Slut's quintessential goodbye to 2010 - best in TV post.

Or I should say most "memorable" to me. Best isn't the right word. Memorable on the other hand is.
Finally getting around to doing the most memorable television series that I watched in 2010, post.
And doing it in 2011, so am a bit late, I guess.

Heck it's New Year's Day. The beginning of a new decade and a new year. Two in one. Doesn't happen very often. Should do best tv shows seen in last decade as well. But that'll be a separate post, if you can bear seeing more than one post from me in one day?

In no particular order, because that would require a)organizational skills and b)work.

1. Grey's Anatomy - ( Read more... )

2. Caprica - I haven't seen the last six episodes. Those air on Tuesday night, back to back. SyFy has the oddest nitch audience - they give sci-fi fans a bad name.( Read more... )

3. Lost....ah, Lost, the final season much like Caprica had its missteps. ( Read more... )

4. Terriers - this series is nearly perfect from start to finish. ( Read more... )

5. Dexter S4. Best season of this series to date. ( Read more... )

6. Doctor Who...much like Dexter S4, this is by far the best season of the New Who. (Can't comment on anything prior to the New Who, since a)don't remember and/or b)haven't seen.)( Read more... )

7. Vampire Diaries...yes, a soap opera, but an enormously entertaining one. Far more entertaining and far better paced than Tru Blood oddly enough. Although True Blood has a bit more to say, and that is the most delightful bit about Vampire..it's a show you can watch just to well have fun. No brain required. Cotton candy for the brain, or crack. It may also be the fastest paced tv show I've seen. Tight plot. Fast pacing. Intricate and innovative mythology. ( Read more... )

8. Being Human - ( Read more... )

9. Mad Men - much like Dexter S4 and Grey's S6-7, this season of Mad Men was by far the best to date. ( Read more... )

10. True Blood S2 - ( Read more... )

11 The Good Wife (tied with Mad Men) - possibly the best series on broadcast network television and proof you can do serialized television well. It's about politics. It's not really a legal procedural. The cases are often used as metaphors for the politics going on behind the scenes. ( Read more... )

Honorable mentions: Raising Hope - which put the bang back into working class family dramas and did a fantastic job of skewering our health insurance industry, Big Bang Theory - for the addition of MAyim Balik as the female Sheldon, Community for the episode Warfare - the paintball war, the stop-animation Christmas episode, and the episode with the largest pillow fort imaginable - it raised the bar on adults acting like idiotic children comedic formula, and finally Nikita - for managing to do a kick-ass female action series with not one, but four female characters, and two that are minorities - the lead Asian. Nikita is what Dollhouse could have been with a better actress in the lead, a tighter plot, and less musings on sexual violence and prostitution.

Best new series still on the air? Nikita.

Disappointments?
( disappointments of the tv season )

*[I didn't see Breaking Bad until the end of 2010 and most will be in 2011, so it's not included in this year. If I had seen Breaking Bad - it most likely would have been listed as 12 above. Certainly memorable and right up there in quality with Mad Men, The Good Wife, and Terriers. I also haven't seen many of the Premium cable series or Canadian/British series. Outside of Being Erica - we don't get Canadian TV shows in the States or at least I don't get to see them.]

Films and Reading that were memorable in 2010

Been taking it easy today, reading lj, writing on lj, watching marathons of DVR'd tv shows that have been taking up space for months, trying with little success to get rid of whatever it is in my apartment that is making me hack every few hours. A choking cough that I can't seem to get rid of.
Took antiboitics which made it better, less congested, and less frequent. But alas, still there.
Going to try Advair next and if that doesn't work - a trip to an allergist.

Not going to do a round-up of the fannish stuff I posted on lj, because I'm lazy and can't frigging find all of it. Also because I write a huge volumn of non-fannish stuff. The fannish stuff is rapidly diminishing. It comes in waves apparently, along with my interest. Most of it was on the Buffy comics, the vast majority whining and snarking about the Buffy comics. The other bit about fanfic I'd read.

The end of the year wrapping up continues...I tried to do books found memorable, but should have probably done things I've read that were memorable instead - because I've read a lot, just not necessarily all books. And quite a bit forgettable.

What I read in 2010...that I found memorable:
( books, fanfic, comics...and posts )

Mind is blanking on a 10. It does that from time to time.

Would do films, but I haven't seen that many. Best by far, of the one's I have seen are:
( The Five Notable Films that I saw in 2010 )

And that's it for movies. Like I said, didn't see that many.