Breaking Bad

[Gittes]

Do you mean it will be a sixty minute drama? (Asking as the last I remember, I heard this will be a thirty minute show slanted towards pure comedy.)

I was confirming that it would be primarily dramatic with comedic accents, as this seemed somewhat uncertain until the press release (I think there were earlier claims that it would be 75% comedy and 25% drama). As for the length, I'm admittedly just assuming that it will follow the typical 48 minute running time (approximately). A serialized drama consisting of thirty minute episodes would be pretty unusual.

We're in the Age of Kickstarter, and fans are used to being pandered to. I think a lot of people will expect, if not Breaking Bad 2, then at least Breaking Bad 1.5 out of this.

A huge shift in tone and visual style will alienate fans and confuse newcomers.

I'm not certain that it will confuse newcomers, as their expectations wouldn't be informed by Breaking Bad, but you may be right about some fans. I think it's definitely more exciting than a recapitulation of Breaking Bad's visual style. The Kubrick reference is intriguing. I'm curious how that will manifest.

[Irish]

I'm not certain that it will confuse newcomers, as their expectations wouldn't be informed by Breaking Bad, but you may be right about some fans. I think it's definitely more exciting than a recapitulation of Breaking Bad's visual style. The Kubrick reference is intriguing. I'm curious how that will manifest.

I only meant that in a world of social media, it's possible to brush up against a piece of pop culture and get an idea about it without ever experiencing it first hand. Breaking Bad generated a lot of talk, jokes, and one-off memes. Those create expectations around Saul where a new viewer might otherwise have none.

I agree that the choice to shift the visual style is interesting (and heightens my anticipation of Saul quite a bit, even though I loathed much of Breaking Bad). But from a commercial angle, I think it's a disaster. Fans don't want the new a different. They want more of the same.

I expect fan reaction will dictate how quickly they rope Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul into cameos. (If the show goes south, I expect to see both of them very quickly).

[Gittes]

I only meant that in a world of social media, it's possible to brush up against a piece of pop culture and get an idea about it without ever experiencing it first hand. Breaking Bad generated a lot of talk, jokes, and one-off memes. Those create expectations around Saul where a new viewer might otherwise have none.

Fair point.

I expect fan reaction will dictate how quickly they rope Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul into cameos. (If the show goes south, I expect to see both of them very quickly).

Between this comment and your statements in the Star Wars thread, you're proving adept at offering sober arguments about how even the most beloved and ostensibly artistic entertainment is beholden to a cynical bottom line.

[Irish]

Between this comment and your statements in the Star Wars thread, you're proving adept at offering sober arguments about how even the most beloved and ostensibly artistic entertainment is beholden to a cynical bottom line.

:lol: :lol: :lol:

Why thank you, sir.

[Dukefrukem]

I have doubts this will gain a quarter of the attention Breaking Bad delivered.

[Gittes]

This is so short that it almost approaches a kind of meaninglessness, but here's the first officially released footage of Better Call Saul:



As others have noticed, Saul obviously seems a little more green here, which isn't terribly surprising. This does make me wonder if he'll have more scruples at the beginning (i.e., earnestly trying to succeed as a comparably more honest lawyer, but in his typically smarmy fashion) and if he'll submit to criminality with any degree of resistance or compunction. Saul's soul isn't entirely black, after all; he apparently wasn't aware that Walt was going to poison Brock and he was noticeably upset about his unwitting involvement in the 5A premiere. He did, however, readily suggest to Walt, way back in season 3, that Jesse could be sent on a trip to Belize (a recommendation that would crop up a couple of times later on).

Breaking Bad suggested that the character was primarily motivated by financial rewards and self-preservation, and perhaps a little bit of self-aggrandizement (but, with regards to the latter, this never seemed comparable to Walt's desires and his sense of inadequacy, etc.). I'm definitely curious about how they'll inevitably complicate him through this series. Saul's brother, for instance, is apparently one of the main characters, so he's not going to be quite as unburdened as he was on Breaking Bad.

In other words, I'm looking forward to how Gilligan, Gould et al end up resolving the dilemma that Gilligan described in this interview:

"We realize there's an interesting dramatic pitfall inherent in a character like Saul [...] Saul is pretty happy with himself. He's pretty comfortable in his own skin. And he's pretty good at what he does. That, in a strange way, makes him undramatic. The dramatic characters are the Byronic, tortured heroes, or anti-heroes in the case of Walter White -- folks who have self-doubt or are not happy or who always want to attain something else. Saul seems pretty happy-go-lucky, so we're thinking a lot about that."

The show is going to air in February 2015, by the way.

[Gittes]

[Philip J. Fry]

Univision's version of Breaking Bad to finish tonight.

lololololololol

[number8]

Not sure if this is gonna be the theme song or just a promo thing, but here ya go.

[dreamdead]

Sarah and I marathoned the last six episodes last night. A great close to the series even as it sped up the intensity bit by bit, so that characters who started as quite flat (Hank and Marie in season one) end up with so much range and specificity to their relationship. This is the epitome of a show that, while governed by plot, pays attention to character just as highly.

I was reading comparisons with this show and others, where they compared it to a grand Russian novel (unlike things like Mad Men, which they compared to short stories). That's likely misguided since this show always places a little more emphasis on the grand and the arch at the expense of environmental realism. As such, it's on a different register than things like The Wire, which lets the environment guide the narrative a little more heavily (at the expense of character arcs that could appear and not randomly--Detective Kima's personal travails always seemed to come and go).

So thrilling and dynamic, though, with as rich of a cast of characters as the rhapsodic Simon show. It's gonna be sad to not have these people to look forward to...

[[ETM]]

Several items from the show, including the iconic Heisenberg hat, are now in the Smithsonian.

[Yxklyx]

Just started watching this for the first time...

[Dukefrukem]

Just started watching this for the first time...

Post your reactions here on a regular basis.

[Skitch]

This show should have been half as long as it is.

[Grouchy]

This show should have been half as long as it is.

This is true of a lot of shows and not of this one.

[number8]

Depends what you mean. A lot of shows' issues is that they go on past a respectable end point. Breaking Bad is definitely not such a case. If we're talking about cutting out fat, then yeah, a bunch of subplots on the show were really useless. But that's something I refuse to criticize about stories that are written as an ongoing.

[Sycophant]

You could definitely edit out a ton of small scenes and stories that don't have an immediate and obvious impact on the big plot picture of the series, sure. You could also cover in half a season the same major plot beats that Better Call Saul has taken three years to tell if you really wanted to move along at a fast clip. But that would be a very different show and one I wouldn't be nearly as interested in.

These stories are excellently told but not necessarily narratively efficient, but I don't necessarily want tight, concise stories from these shows. Journeys and not just destinations and all that.

[Grouchy]

You mean stuff like Marie's kleptomania and Hank's PTSD? Those are some damn fine character development, though.

[Skitch]

I don't mean the whole arc of the show. I mean those episodes were the only things of any value that happened were in the blind open and the cliffhanger end. The middle 40 minutes of nothing...way too many episodes of that.

My other major complaint is the wife. Her acting is fine, but she was horribly written. She hates what he does, then shes okay with it, then not again, then okay again, she was ridiculous. There were a lot of episodes of her flipflopping and no forward plot movement.

[number8]

Marie's kleptomania was definitely not good character development to me. I still don't know what that was supposed to add to her character and I suspect the writers didn't either. They wanted her to act out that season because of Hank's neglect, and they gave her a bizarre subplot that came out of nowhere, when her conflict with Hank was already interesting in itself and could've achieved through that. However, it is a pulpy crime show so they wanted those conflicts to be played out in an external fashion. This show explored characters by putting them through crime stories and seeing what comes through. So that's why I said that in a sense, it's not a flaw, it's just how television works—some experiments work out (Skyler's tax evasion subplot paid off greatly) and some just cause the writers to realize it's a dud and get ended quickly.

[Grouchy]

I thought it fit well into the "everyone does bad things" theme of the show. Like I said, it didn't lead nowhere important narratively.

[Milky Joe]

I would like to know why every single item in the Hank and Marie household was purple. Every piece of fabric. Every rug. Every appliance. Everything. Purple. Why?

[Russ]

I would like to know why every single item in the Hank and Marie household was purple. Every piece of fabri,. Every rug. Everything. Purple. Why?

According to Betsy Brandt, who plays Marie, it’s the most common question fans ask her. “Honestly, it’s just something I suggested in the pilot I think because we all had a color and mine was purple, and I said, ‘I think Marie is just one of those people who doesn’t do anything half-assed, whether it’s right or wrong,'” Brandt told Entertainment Weekly. “If purple is her color, then it is all about purple. And they just ran with that in a huge way, which I loved. You know she’s quirky even before you get into the show. Have you ever met an adult who’s just really obsessed with a color?”

Read more: http://stylecaster.com/breaking-bad-...#ixzz55WIkDxSP

Google is our friend.

[Milky Joe]

Google is not our friend, but OK. That's a pretty boring answer I have to say.

[Russ]

You asked. I provided the answer. Whether or not you find it boring is something I'm not particularly interested in.