Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Walter White Wednesday 41

Welcome back to Walter White Wednesday, Breaking Bad fans!  I hope you had a restful break, because we're beginning to gear up for the final eight episodes of this astonishing show!  While Breaking Bad won't be airing new episodes until summertime, I plan on using this time to review, speculate, and underline a few things every week.  Let's get started.

Review:  Season 5A left us with a Walt who was even darker than the "I won" Walt from "Face Off," the Season 4 finale.  The mini-season started with a flash-forward to Walt's 52d birthday and we didn't get to that point in 5A.  In fact, there's a lot of ground to cover to get us there.  At the end of the mini-finale, "Gliding O'er All,"  Hank discovered Walt's copy of Whitman's Leaves of Grass and seemed to be connecting the meth-making dots.

Speculation:  Will Jane Kaczmarek appear in this final half-season?  Kaczmarek played the domineering wife to Bryan Cranton's milksop husband in Malcolm in the Middle, so her appearance would be a tip of the hat to longtime fans of Cranston's work.  (So would an episode written by  J. Michael Straczynski, but that's an extremely deep cut!)  No one seems to know for absolute sure (compare this to this) and I'd enjoy an appearance or two by Kaczmarek, provided it's not just a gimmick.  Then again, Breaking Bad doesn't really do gimmicks, so we're probably safe there.

Underline:  Too many people know too much about Walt's so-called secret life.  Too many people who have too much to lose could decide that giving up Walt is their ticket out.  Then again, Walt's shown a willingness to kill - and to have people killed - and he is a dangerous man.  Perhaps Walt, with his rampant ego, is even more dangerous than Gus was.  Heaven knows his ability to rationalize is without peer.

Meanwhile, the manuscript for Wanna Cook? is chugging along.  Between the holidays and some other writing obligations, prepping Season 4 took longer than we had originally planned.  Oh, and we heard that Wanna Cook? is scheduled to be translated into German!  Seems Madrigal Electromotive is curious about what we're doing.

And be sure you're keeping up with my co-author's take on things over on his blog - make "Meth Monday" a regular part of your Breaking Bad week!




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