Breaking Bad - Season Two
Created by: Vince Gilligan
Year: 2009
The plot and the characters sicken and they do so at breakneck speed. One of the great strengths of the show is how fast it moves, not necessarily scene to scene as there are scenes that go on for several minutes, but characters are decisive with actions. They are black and white, rather they are forced to be by circumstance or their own pathology is debatable.
Walter White is dividing further and further into more stratified characters. He’s a certain kind of man when he begs for his wife’s and son’s forgiveness. He’s another when he admonishes Jesse. He’s yet another when around his brother-in-law Hank, nervous and nebbish. And at school he is a master in a world of dead-faced lemmings. He’s far beyond what some teachers experience and call “burnout”. He’s in a neutral, numb place – wondering why he’s there, but at the same time so comfortable in the environment, it gives him a sense of purpose and normalcy he doesn’t dare drift from.
Watch Walter work with Tuco – one moment Walter walks right into Tuco’s lair with a chemical bomb, demanding restitution from the psychopathic leader. The next, he’s a terrified little child when he sees Tuco beat a crew member to death for next to nothing. Moral boundaries are not explored, they’re raised then shattered. The depths the show will go to have had me close to turning away, like in Episode six (“peekaboo”) when Walter commands Jesse get his money back from the junkies that held up his dealer. The nightmare that was the house was quite enough. The fact that a young boy of no more than five years old was living in the filth, depravity and hell that was this place causing Jesse to have to walk a tightrope across a pit of alligators he never wanted to cross is fascinating and horrifying. It also brings forth a new level of sympathy, if not empathy, for Jesse.
Who is or are the good guys in this show? It’s still hard to tell. Undoubtedly the intent is to have the rooting interest behind Walter as the instigator of the action. The dubious and multi-faced level of his nature and actions make it difficult to stay betrothed to him. But wondering how the hell these characters will work themselves out of the next incredible yet somehow credible situation keeps this viewer fascinated in the ride.
The camera work and style continue to intrigue as well. The use of music, sometimes off-kilter or dissonant sounding tunes, brings a level of surrealism to the entire journey. At the beginning of episode seven, Negro y Azul, a modern-mariachi sounding trio sing an ode to Walter’s drug name, Heisenberg, fortelling of his future (certain death) in a Greek Chorus style with a Mexican twist. The cheesiness of the edits, which must have been done on iMovie or something of its ilk, add to the bizarre nature of this message, tipping off the viewer. To this point, the Director has been forthright with his foreshadowing, but something leads me to believe misdirection is in show creator Vince Gilligan’s deck of cards. Perhaps it’s because I feel so misdirected by everything and everyone I watch – that there’s no one to latch on to (for more than an episode or two, anyway) but no way I can turn away.
On most sets, actors are encouraged to “find the light” during a scene to ensure they are lit properly. This helps them determine marks. Because of the use of silhouettes in this show, indicating a character oscillating from light to dark, it almost seems as if the actors are instructed to “find the dark”. They also don’t appear to have much difficulty in doing so.
The most striking thing about this season was the possibility for Walter to emerge from his alter ego of Heisenberg and return, cancer-free, to a life with two new lives, his own and his newborn daughter’s. But he clearly doesn’t want to. He has fallen in love with money and even more so, power. He is an injured man, looking back at his life at 50 years old thinking about what could have been. Having never achieved his perceived place in life, he’s now being granted an opportunity to roar and he’s more than interested – he’s obsessed.
The use of the long tease, with the White’s pool, the reddish/purplish teddy bear whose eye floats separately from it, all of which is collected as evidence by men in chemically protective suits from some government agency is profound. Even upon the reveal in the final episode, when Skylar has had enough and leaves, giving Walter a weekend to pack up his own wares, the reason for the symbolism is still left open.
All lives cross paths, however, that much is clear. And the further out the web reaches, the more things can crawl back upon it. Heisenberg has pushed his product out via Gus and Saul. Undoubtedly, going forward, Gus will want Heisenberg to make more meth for him. And Heisenberg (not Walt) will comply. He must. He has lost everything and now must turn darkly inward, saving Jesse, his dark family, since Skylar, Flynn and his newborn daughter have turned their backs on him. He will fight to get them back – he must. But he also must find a way to legitimize his life. In the meantime, the clock is ticking. Skylar has a sympathetic, handsome love interest at her job. Walter’s brother-in-law and local DEA chief, Hank, is also not giving up on Heisenberg’s trail. Skylar’s dumping of Walt will allow hank clearer access. Jesse has hit bottom. He’s lost his love, played deftly by Krysten Ritter, who took him to new lows with the tour of heroin. In a posh rehab, Walter will call on him when the time is right.
As stated before, this show is every bit as addictive as the product it sells and has much to teach those who care to watch carefully.
Year: 2009
The plot and the characters sicken and they do so at breakneck speed. One of the great strengths of the show is how fast it moves, not necessarily scene to scene as there are scenes that go on for several minutes, but characters are decisive with actions. They are black and white, rather they are forced to be by circumstance or their own pathology is debatable.
Walter White is dividing further and further into more stratified characters. He’s a certain kind of man when he begs for his wife’s and son’s forgiveness. He’s another when he admonishes Jesse. He’s yet another when around his brother-in-law Hank, nervous and nebbish. And at school he is a master in a world of dead-faced lemmings. He’s far beyond what some teachers experience and call “burnout”. He’s in a neutral, numb place – wondering why he’s there, but at the same time so comfortable in the environment, it gives him a sense of purpose and normalcy he doesn’t dare drift from.
Watch Walter work with Tuco – one moment Walter walks right into Tuco’s lair with a chemical bomb, demanding restitution from the psychopathic leader. The next, he’s a terrified little child when he sees Tuco beat a crew member to death for next to nothing. Moral boundaries are not explored, they’re raised then shattered. The depths the show will go to have had me close to turning away, like in Episode six (“peekaboo”) when Walter commands Jesse get his money back from the junkies that held up his dealer. The nightmare that was the house was quite enough. The fact that a young boy of no more than five years old was living in the filth, depravity and hell that was this place causing Jesse to have to walk a tightrope across a pit of alligators he never wanted to cross is fascinating and horrifying. It also brings forth a new level of sympathy, if not empathy, for Jesse.
Who is or are the good guys in this show? It’s still hard to tell. Undoubtedly the intent is to have the rooting interest behind Walter as the instigator of the action. The dubious and multi-faced level of his nature and actions make it difficult to stay betrothed to him. But wondering how the hell these characters will work themselves out of the next incredible yet somehow credible situation keeps this viewer fascinated in the ride.
The camera work and style continue to intrigue as well. The use of music, sometimes off-kilter or dissonant sounding tunes, brings a level of surrealism to the entire journey. At the beginning of episode seven, Negro y Azul, a modern-mariachi sounding trio sing an ode to Walter’s drug name, Heisenberg, fortelling of his future (certain death) in a Greek Chorus style with a Mexican twist. The cheesiness of the edits, which must have been done on iMovie or something of its ilk, add to the bizarre nature of this message, tipping off the viewer. To this point, the Director has been forthright with his foreshadowing, but something leads me to believe misdirection is in show creator Vince Gilligan’s deck of cards. Perhaps it’s because I feel so misdirected by everything and everyone I watch – that there’s no one to latch on to (for more than an episode or two, anyway) but no way I can turn away.
On most sets, actors are encouraged to “find the light” during a scene to ensure they are lit properly. This helps them determine marks. Because of the use of silhouettes in this show, indicating a character oscillating from light to dark, it almost seems as if the actors are instructed to “find the dark”. They also don’t appear to have much difficulty in doing so.
The most striking thing about this season was the possibility for Walter to emerge from his alter ego of Heisenberg and return, cancer-free, to a life with two new lives, his own and his newborn daughter’s. But he clearly doesn’t want to. He has fallen in love with money and even more so, power. He is an injured man, looking back at his life at 50 years old thinking about what could have been. Having never achieved his perceived place in life, he’s now being granted an opportunity to roar and he’s more than interested – he’s obsessed.
The use of the long tease, with the White’s pool, the reddish/purplish teddy bear whose eye floats separately from it, all of which is collected as evidence by men in chemically protective suits from some government agency is profound. Even upon the reveal in the final episode, when Skylar has had enough and leaves, giving Walter a weekend to pack up his own wares, the reason for the symbolism is still left open.
All lives cross paths, however, that much is clear. And the further out the web reaches, the more things can crawl back upon it. Heisenberg has pushed his product out via Gus and Saul. Undoubtedly, going forward, Gus will want Heisenberg to make more meth for him. And Heisenberg (not Walt) will comply. He must. He has lost everything and now must turn darkly inward, saving Jesse, his dark family, since Skylar, Flynn and his newborn daughter have turned their backs on him. He will fight to get them back – he must. But he also must find a way to legitimize his life. In the meantime, the clock is ticking. Skylar has a sympathetic, handsome love interest at her job. Walter’s brother-in-law and local DEA chief, Hank, is also not giving up on Heisenberg’s trail. Skylar’s dumping of Walt will allow hank clearer access. Jesse has hit bottom. He’s lost his love, played deftly by Krysten Ritter, who took him to new lows with the tour of heroin. In a posh rehab, Walter will call on him when the time is right.
As stated before, this show is every bit as addictive as the product it sells and has much to teach those who care to watch carefully.
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