1. I'm so addicted by Breaking Bad right now, that I bought the three episodes that the stupid DVR didn't take, because I don't want to wait to get them from netflix. Bought them on itunes and watching them via lap-top. Considering how much I despise watching tv shows on my lap-top or purchasing them from itunes - this is proof that I'm in love with the series. The only other series I did that with was The Wire.
The two series remind of each other. Both are brilliantly acted, written and produced. And while on the surface they are about drug dealing, that seems to be more of a metaphor than anything else - sort of in the same way Vampires is a metaphor in Angel.
And like The Wire, Breaking Bad is funny. Very funny in places. With complex characters.
Also, like the Wire it shows societal ills, and is in a way a critique of society. The two are very different in some respects. Breaking Bad is more focused, less an ensemble, it doesn't have a cast of thousands. But both use setting in the same way. And explore every single character.
I'd be watching it now, but I'm waiting for Hermanos to download. I will advise anyone who tries it of this...the second season is sluggish in places. So is the 4th towards the beginning. The first and third seasons, much like the Wire are the best.
BUT, by sluggish...they are still better than most tv series. I'll give it that.
Also Breaking Bad, like The Wire before it, and to a degree Friday Night Lights, proves that you can do a serialized non-episodic television show without falling into the soap opera trap. Soap Opera's have a tendency to be loosely written, they bring people back from the dead, set up dreams, and characters do things that make no sense - also there plot gaps that you can drive a mack truck through. Mad Men isn't that bad, but it is a soap, the characters don't change enough, and don't pay for their actions. Hyper-realism novela dramas - like Friday Night Lights, The Wire, The Sopranoes (although that got soapy at times), and Breaking Bad...are tight. Of all the one's I mentioned, BB is the only one I've seen that the plot is so tight, there's no gaps. You can tell the writers knew where they were going and who the characters were up front. It's a work of beauty. I've always said it was brilliantly written. But it wasn't until now, that I appreciated the characters and realized the subject matter is not a problem. May be a mood thing? (Binging on romance novels and watching soaps on tv, may have helped. LOL!)
2. It's hot today. I bought a scale, because sort of hard to track one's weight online on weight watchers without one. But stayed in most of the day. Because not just hot, but humid...so the air felt like mud.
Happy Bastille Day, by the way. One area of Smith Street next to a French Bistro was decked out in celebration of the Holiday, complete with the French sport that entail little round metal balls, which I forget the name of. We have a French, Italian and Spainish conclave in my neighborhood. Actually my neighborhood is about diverse as you can get. My brownstone certainly is. The apt below is Turkey, and the duplex is England.
And the landlords are Chinese-American and Chinese-Canadian. They both speak Chinese and English.
3. Finished latest romance novel. Not all that great. It was fun, but not memorable, and fizzled at the end. It's probably just me, but I don't think a good romance novel has been published since 1980s. Or I haven't found it. The heroes are too nice. The heroines too chirpy or wimpy. And the editing is atrocious. People whine about the bad writing in 50 Shades, I don't know, maybe it's the Kindle? But I found a lot more typos and grammatical mistakes in all the others. With the exception of Loretta Chase.
4. I'm tempted to go outside and dance in the pouring rain. But it is thundering and lightening probably is close behind...so will forgo it. It is overrated anyhow (yes, I've done it - in college).
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