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Breaking Bad concluded its run back in the fall, but the show continues to make news.  It's awards season in Hollywood right now and Breaking Bad has been well represented on the red carpet.  Anna Gunn, who played Skyler, apparently knows that no matter how great your red carpet gown is, it's all about the accessories - and Bryan Cranston seems to agree!  The picture at the top of this post is a snapshot of the clutch Anna Gunn carried to the Screen Actors Guild Awards, where Breaking Bad won for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series.  You can read more about that here.

The show continues to inspire fan art - there have been some amazing fan videos, paintings, cosplay, etc., but the cover for the imagined Little Golden Book is in a class by itself!  It's already sold, but maybe the entire book will be produced - although that's sort of scary.

Last in this week's Breaking Bad roundup - Giancarlo Esposito, who played Gus Fring, was the keynote speaker at a Martin Luther King, Jr. Day event held at Lane Community College in Eugene, Oregon.  A local news crew sat down with Esposito to discuss King's legacy - you can play the video here.

It's true - the show may be over, but we're going to continue to hear about it for quite some time!

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Holy.  Cow.

This week's episode is titled "Ozymandias," after the Shelley sonnet.  I mentioned the sonnet when Breaking Bad used it as a promotional piece with Bryan Cranston intoning the lines - click here for that - and the Wanna Cook? guide will have a brief discussion of it to go with the episode.  Spoilers aplenty.  Deal.

In what very well may be the absolute best cold open of the show, we see how far Walt has descended and just what he's lost - and our first image is of water coming to a boil.  The joy is gone and there are no exultant cheers of "Chemistry!  Science!  Yay!"  What began as a highly stupid, pissant criminal enterprise intended to create a nest egg for Walt's family (a loving, caring family, as the cold open points out) has vanished into the blank, bleak desert.  It vanished one lie at a time and the winds of change swept away the footprints so Walt can't even see where he began, although we know it was in this very place.  But the trackless desert has no memory.

Honestly, I've been reeling ever since I watched this one.  I've seen other amazing dramatic episodes of television that left me breathless, but "Ozymandias" is different.  It's more gut-wrenching, more horrifying, and if anyone remains convinced that Walt is somehow to be emulated and sympathized with - seek help.  Several diagnoses in the current version of the DSM apply and none of them are good.  Sure, his rant to Skyler very well may be his attempt to get her off the hook for her involvement, but so what?  That doesn't make up for a teenth of the bone-headed, petty, and just plain mean things he's done and said.  And nothing, nothing justifies that chilling line to Jesse regarding Jane.

Walt's lost. He's not noble, he's not heroic, he's a man whose choices have caused him to lose every single thing he once held as precious and valued. So he hooks up with Saul's guy out by the spillway with his one remaining barrel and makes tracks. In his wake are bodies, despair, cruelty, and blood.

I've often been amazed at how Breaking Bad ratchets up the tension and then keeps doing it!  It's like some sort of crazed Jack-in-the-Box that never quite manages to pop, instead going&going&going while your nerves fray under the tension.

So let's talk about Jack.  Not the one in the box; rather, let's talk about the one in the desert.  I'm not sure there's a better example of just how much control Walt doesn't have than his use of Jack.  Walt thinks he can tell Jack to "jump" and Jack will simply ask, "How high, Walt?"  Not happening.  Even Todd, who appeared to be a fairly dim bulb, turns out to have a strong streak of family loyalty to Uncle Jack, to the point of committing wholesale murder, enslavement, and just generally being a waste of human skin.  Walt has not just brushed up against evil, he made a deal - and shook on it.  Might as well of signed the contract in blood, Walt.  Preferably your own, but Walt gets squeamish that-a-way.

But I've got to give Walt points for one thing.  He raised a hell of a son, who I will no longer call "Junior."  He's Flynn all the way.  His world, the one that had Walt as its sun, was rocked and split and he didn't want to believe it.  But when Walt showed his true face, Flynn didn't hesitate - and the kid gets around on crutches!  Flynn chose his side - and it wasn't Walt's.

So Walt's in the wind.  Hank's in the ground, as in Gomez.  Jesse's chained like a beaten dog on a backyard run.  Todd's got help in the meth kitchen to up the purity in order to impress his heartless Lady Love, who probably won't like seeing Jesse beaten and enslaved, but hey, it's for the good of the brand.  Jack's rolling in stolen cash. Holly's safe at an ABQ firehouse.  Skyler and Marie are pulling together.  And Flynn became the man of the house.

Two to go.

For more, read my co-author's blog.  And also this one, which happens to be written by my good friend and editor.  Both posts brilliantly discuss this episode.

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. . . which is the one that doesn't get written.

Sorry, folks - and I truly am, for I enjoy writing these posts every Wednesday - but last night was Election Night here in North Carolina and the U.S. of A. and I stayed up late.  Very late.  Too late for someone who has a day job and a 12-hour stint at it this too-early morning.  But I believe that some things are worth seeing live and this was one of them.  (Also - I think we can put aside our differences about the candidates and just admit that the Democrats have a much better soundtrack.  Also - rest of the world, please ignore Donald Trump.  Paying him attention only encourages him to continue acting the fool.)

At first, I thought about crafting a post about who would make the better First Lady, Marie (who'd probably steal the linen from the Lincoln Bedroom) or Skyler (who'd probably squirrel pallets of campaign donations away in the walls).  I also considered cobbling together my thoughts on who would prevail in a Hank vs. Walt tossup, but I got stuck on who would be Hank's running mate (although I have to admit, siccing Jesse on certain world leaders DOES make me smile on this under-caffeinated morn).  Instead, I'm going to simply admit that there's no post this week.

I'll be back next week with thoughts on Breaking Bad, but today, I need more coffee.

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Breaking Bad is on hiatus, both Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul have movies coming out this weekend (Walt's is here, Jesse's is here) and Aaron Paul has Emmys for bookends. So it seems like a pretty good time to take a look at just why fans love the show.  In no particular order, I give you 6 reasons to love Breaking Bad - and why you should catch up on it.

1. Jesse. The story goes that the character of Jesse Pinkman, an ex-student of Walt's who's turned meth dealer and general loser, wasn't supposed to live beyond the first season.  But when you have an actor as talented as Paul, who can bring a fragility and layers of nuance to a character who is so basically unlikable, well - that's not something you just toss aside.  Over the run of the show, Jesse has deepened, matured and become a character to watch. He's got some talent for drawing, carefully moves a random bug so he won't crush it, but he's also a drug maker-and-dealer and, oh yeah, a murderer. Yet in many ways, he's become the moral center of Breaking Bad and yes, it's a little weird to realize that at first - and it's a clear indication of just how skewed Breaking Bad can get.

2. Family Life. Good stories are always about relationships and Breaking Bad's Vince Gilligan knows this. Jesse might be Walt's surrogate son (they do go into business together, after all) and Walt claims loudly and often that everything he's done, he's done for his family, but take a look at the Salamanca familia for a terrifying look at how tightly those family bonds can constrict. Hector has drawn so many into his orbit - some of whom are related by blood and some of whom are definitely not - but this is a man who understands loyalty and family, as well as murder and revenge. I wonder - think there's a parallel between Gus/Hector and Jesse/Walt?  Hmmm.

3. Skyler. Talk about a character who gets the social media nets a-humming!  There's a disturbing amount of Skyler-hate out there and any time there's that strong a reaction to a character, it's a good idea to keep an eye on her. Some of the hatred seems to come from fans who just can't stand the idea of anyone getting in Walt's way but - let's face it - Walt's off the rails. Sky is the one who keeps the family actually going. Once she's brought in to the mess that is Walt's retirement account, she has to figure out how far she's willing to go (pretty darned, it turns out) and where she's going to draw the line. The goalposts keep moving.

4. Tension & Drama. Breaking Bad is a thoughtful show that understands that you don't have to rush things. Sure, it uses time-lapse photography with changing light angles to show the passage of time, but it is willing to let stories unfold slowly rather than go for the quick solve. There are distinctive camera angles (look for the "up and through" shot) and images that echo in later episodes to pull viewers full circle. The show is primarily focused on Walt's descent into his own personal Hell (he even made the handbasket!) and the fundamental shifts his choices make in his own psyche. That's a story that takes time to tell and Gilligan & Co. aren't rushing it.

5. Humor. Without this, Breaking Bad would probably be too bleak for me. Humor runs throughout the show as a sort of leavening agent to keep things from getting just Too Damn Dark. It tends to be dark humor  (the kiddie pool scene, for example, or Ted's supposed end), but not exclusively.  Whenever I see Saul Goodman, I just start chuckling.

6. Walt. The diseased heart of the show. Walter White is a good man who goes bad and discovers that he likes it. He makes horrific decisions, bobs and weaves like a welterweight (hmm, close to "Walter White," isn't it?) to avoid being tagged with responsibility for his own twisted actions, yet we spend a good part of the first couple of seasons (maybe even longer) pulling for him.  That's the true genius of the show! Look, Walt is slowly becoming something terrible and malignant - he doesn't have cancer, he is cancer to everyone whose life he touches. And yet.  And yet. Can he change? Does he want to? And what price must he pay for the devastation he's wreaked in those lives?

In short, the show is fantastic and completely unlike anything else on television today. Watch. Catch up. Tell a friend.

But above all else - watch. Breaking Bad's like will not be seen again.

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Walt's first pool victim

. . . which is halfway to fifty, which is the birthday of Walt's that this whole maniacal Tilt-A-Whirl of a ride started with!

This week, we learn that it's been a year in "real world time" since the pilot episode.  It's Walt's birthday again and oh boy! how things change in a year.  Let's just look at a couple of items, all of which serve to accentuate Walt's descent into darkness.

1. Ha! There's the Aztec.  Over the last year, that car's been in the shop so much that the mechanic can probably bank on putting a kid through college on the repair bills.  Walt's ready to get rid of it, this tangible link to his old chemistry-teaching life - but he takes the Heisenberg porkpie.
2. Far from preparing Walt a big ol' birthday breakfast and throwing a surprise party, Skyler's keeping low to the ground.  She has to be cajoled into breaking the bacon into a "51" to decorate Walt's plate (and remember that by his 52d birthday, Walt's alone in a Denny's doing this birthday ritual all by himself) and the party is strictly family and mostly takeout.
3. Marie and Hank driving to the family party.  Look at that shot - the Schraders are in Marie's car and the full-frame fisheye lens used to shoot through the windshield achieves two effects.  First, the distortion reminds the viewer that the Schraders aren't exactly seeing the situation head-on.  Two, Hank and Marie are in a sort of literal bubble, separated from the madness that is Walt and Skyler's world of secrets.  Ah, Michael Slovis, I adore you!
4. The pool scene.  Has any show used the backyard pool to such great effect?  This is where Walt retreats to to think, to scheme, to drink, and to lie.  However, he never actually gets in the water.  As he's spinning his tale of reflection and the importance of family, Skyler silently rises, looks blankly at the pool's surface, and then simply steps into the water and keeps going.  Breaking Bad usually has at least one moment per episode that has me gobsmacked (that's for my Britslang readers) and this was this week's.  Skyler's literally hit bottom and what an echo to Season 2's scorched symbol of innocence lost to Walt's machinations, the teddy bear. Like the bear, Skyler is mute as she sinks beneath the calm blue water.  (And I loved how the tension in this scene was ratcheted up by [once again] Walt nattering on while the others stay quiet.  The man just can't shut up and therefore, he misses important information.) 
5. The only good thing about hitting bottom is that you can't go lower.  After weeks of passive terror, Skyler rises up, ready to fight.  And she's now is willing to use anything - ANYTHING - to achieve her goal of keeping the children out of this.  At first, Walt tries to match her in some sort of domestic arms race, but Skyler wins this one.  All she has to do is bide her time.  The cancer will come back.  Did you hear the anvil hit the bottom of Walt's shriveled heart?  All this awful, done ostensibly to "save his family," and he's already lost his wife and the mother of his beloved children.  Further, the kids aren't even in the house at this point; they're with Hank and Marie.  

Skyler hitting bottom

Frightening stuff - and we're only halfway through Season 5A.  

Please recall that my co-author and all around swell guy, Ensley F. Guffey, is also writing about Season 5A over on his blog with a new feature called "Meth Monday."  Follow us both on Twitter for updates on Wanna Cook? The Companion Guide to Breaking Bad!

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Season 5A is really cooking now!  Literally.  In the third episode of this season ("Hazard Pay"), Walt and Jesse hit upon a new cook scheme - they'll hide in plain sight and cook in houses that are being tented as part of pest extermination.  No one is in the house during the process anyway, it's a loud process, so no neighbors will think anything of the extra noise, the smell will be chalked up to the toxic fumes used to rid the house of earwigs, roaches, and other nasty critters, and what's a couple of extra guys in jumpsuits?  Taking a page from Gus Fring's Mexican operation, there's a "tent within a tent" for the cook and all the equipment is moved in with the pest equipment - cunningly hidden in giant roadie cases.  (Who knew Skinny Pete had the hands of a concert pianist?  Ah, secrets.)  But Hank's on the scent of the "hiding in plain sight" plan, and I suspect that things are going to get very sticky for the new meth kingpin of ABQ.

There are several chilling, chilling moments in "Hazard Pay," and one of them is in the soundtrack.  As Walt & Co. are discussing the cook plans, we hear the sound of children playing near the house.  Later, we see stray meth fumes being vented into the backyard of the house which contains a swing set and a kiddie pool.  People are becoming collateral to Walt, and collateral damage, well . . . sometimes things happen.

For instance, what does Brock know?  Brock has always been a quiet kid - he's a little like the child in "Peekaboo" in that respect.  Watch the interaction of Brock and Walt on that striped couch - which echoes the striped tents of "Vamanos Pest Control."  On the couch, the stripes are almost like a boundary line - Walt has his space and Brock has his - but  both the striped tent and the striped couch are very toxic places to be, due to Walt's presence.  I was watching that scene with this growing sense of dread - if anything threatens Walt's world, we know that he won't think twice about removing the threat.  Permanently.

Walt's not the only one who knows that, either.  Skyler is terrified of what her husband has become.  She may not be entirely sure what that is, but she knows enough to be scared of it.  Look at her face when she comes into the living room to find her son watching (and quoting) Scarface with her husband, who's dandling their baby daughter on his lap.  "Everybody dies in this movie, don't they?"  Life's not a movie, Walt.  Skyler's box is getting smaller and smaller and she cracks in this episode.  Walt, by the way, doesn't hesitate a second before throwing Skyler under the bus to keep playing the victim to Marie.  (There's an interesting interview with Anna Gunn, who plays Skyler, here.  It's well worth checking out - Skyler is a character who drives many fans crazy and, while I have never understood the Sky-hate, she's got an interesting perspective on it.)

We also know that Walt doesn't do well either handling the business end of things or trusting anyone else to handle that end of things.  He doesn't see the need for "hazard pay" for Gus' old network just as he didn't understand the concept of "breakage" back in Season 2.  That stack of cash is his, all his, and I suspect his failure to understand certain realities is going to cause him to do something deeply stupid.  Like cut Todd out of his share of the pie, at which point Todd might just forget to disable a cleverly-hidden "nanny cam" in some house being treated by Vamanos Pest.

By the way, if you haven't been following my co-author Ensley Guffey's take on Season 5A, bookmark his blog as well.  He's added in "Meth Mondays" for his thoughts, comments, and rampant speculations, and we generally pick up on some different things, so it's a good idea to check up on both of us every week!  And of course, you can follow us both on Facebook and Twitter as well!  Love to hear from you as Wanna Cook? continues.

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WOW!  You saw the first episode of Season 5A* by now - or I certainly hope you have, because I plan to talk about it in this post.  So if you haven't seen "Live Free or Die," just stop reading right now.  There will be spoilers, you have been warned and I simply cannot abide whiners.

Let's start with the title, which is the state motto of New Hampshire.  In the cold open, Walt presents a New Hampshire driver's license to get the "birthday discount" (after all, as the chatty Denny's waitress puts it, "free is free")' and his car has NH plates.  We're probably all glad to see the Aztec go, but NH is a long way from NM, so something very strange has happened since the end of Season 4.

"Live Free or Die" starts with a cold open that looks further into the future than we've been taken before.  I suspect Gilligan will take his time getting us back to this point on the circle, but he starts with an open that left me with my jaw dropped. As Walt breaks his bacon into pieces and spells out "52" on the plate, we've come full circle from the pilot episode in which Sky decorates his plate with veggie bacon (truly an unholy thing; little wonder Walt broke bad eating that sort of non-food) for what is Walt's 50th birthday.  Walt has hair, so time has clearly passed.  And this version of Walt has plans.  Plans that involve our favorite thoughtful dealer in unlicensed firearms.

What the hell has happened?

By the end of the episode (I'm not going to spoil too much here, but there are a couple of biggies coming up), we learn a couple of truly disturbing things.  Maybe Walt actually IS the Danger, the One Who Knocks ("OWK," my term).  Certainly Jesse, Saul, and even Mike (yay, Mike's back!) seem to view him with a newfound caution.  Skyler's out and out scared of him, and Sky's becoming a scary being in her own right.  Just ask Ted.  Yeah.  Ted.

The storm clouds are gathering, children.  And the rain falls on the righteous and the wicked alike.

So much more will come for Season 5A, but I'm actually blogging this as I travel home from Vancouver, which hosted the 5th Biennial Slayage Conference on the Whedonverses.  Travel has not been without glitches and I won't be home and over jet lag before this needs to be posted, so I tapped this out from 38,000 feet in the air and am posting it before I collapse from jet lag.  That's how much you matter to me.  We (my co-author was there in Vancouver with me) actually had a makeshift viewing party Sunday night, which was great fun as we introduced a number of friends to the show.  What an episode to start on!

*just to be clear, "Season 5A" refers to the eight eps that will air in the summer/fall of 2012.  The remaining ones airing in 2013 will be referred to here as "Season 5B," since Vince Gilligan talks about all these episodes as "Season 5."

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. . . which is the one about family.

The concept of family runs throughout Breaking Bad - most obviously with Walt, who uses his desire to provide for his family as his reason for getting into the meth trade.  For new viewers, when Walt is diagnosed of terminal lung cancer, he begins to take stock of his life and he doesn't like what he sees.  Teaching high school chemistry to bored teenagers hasn't brought Walt happiness or prestige.  Desperate to at least leave behind a tidy nest egg for his wife and children (Skyler is pregnant with a "surprise" baby at the beginning of Season 1, remember), Walt comes up with the hare-brained idea of using his stellar background in chemistry to manufacture the purest methamphetamine on the market.  He's got the skills in the manufacturing arena, but doesn't count on the casual viciousness of the drug trade.  I've argued before that his motives aren't really that pure, anyway.  With Walt, it's more about pride than it is about providing.  He refuses help when it's offered (and offered by well-meaning people, including his brother-in-law) and digs his hole deeper and deeper until he apparently decides he likes the darkness he finds underground.  He doesn't like - not one little bit - his son's efforts to raise money for his treatment.  Walt wants to be The Man Who Provides, but he's busy keeping secrets and shoving away the very ones he's supposed to be providing for.

Not that he's the only screw-up in that household.  Skyler has her own sins to atone for.

But the White family is not the only example of family ties in Breaking Bad.  Look beyond that small circle and you find the strong bonds of family loyalty in the Schrader household, for instance.  Marie and Hank have problems (mild kleptomania and a streak of jackassery), but their loyalty to each other is above question.  Exhibit A - see how Hank tears out of the junkyard when he thinks Marie has been injured, even though it means leaving ABQ's drug kingpins behind to flee (and if you don't think Walt owes a debt for that lie, just ask Jesse, much less Hank, or Marie, or Skyler).  And Exhibit B - see how Marie transforms from self-centered memememe! to Tiger Wife when Hank's treatment options are being discussed.

Now expand out to Jesse's circle.  From what we see of Jesse's parents and brother, he was raised in solid comfort, but his choices have caused his family to make the painful decision to cut ties with him.  Call when you're ready to actually change, not just when you're in trouble and we'll talk is the message his parents send to him after years of shattered promises and broken hearts.  Jesse comes close - so close! - to forming a family of his own with Jane (I'm not counting Skinny Pete and Badger here, although a case could be made), but that ends badly.  The bad ending is the result of a toxic combination of miserable choices and Walt.  Collateral damage here includes Jane's father and an entire planeload of innocents.

But go even further from the bright firelight of the middle-class American family.  Look at the family in "Peekaboo," but don't stare too long - that cracking sound in your chest is your heart breaking for the child.  Oh, and drug lords have families, too.  Just ask the bloodthirsty Cousins, who arrive in Season 3 to exact vengeance on those responsible for the death of Tuco, a hit that has the blessing of the patriarch of the family.  Well, the family that slays together . . .

Normally, family ties are seen to be good things that serve to hold the fabric of society together.  But the family values of Breaking Bad challenge that viewpoint.  Is it love that holds these people together and drives their actions, or is it something more sinister, like the desire to control and to be held in esteem by those under you?  And just what sort of family is it that has these levels of secrecy, violence, and a running body count?

Tune in to AMC beginning on July 15 for Season 5 to find out!

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. . . which is the one about Skyler.

Skyler is Walter White's wife (hey, try saying that three times fast!).  She's the one who found the house they live in and she's worked hard over the years to make it into a cozy home for the family.  She understands numbers and has worked as a bookkeeper.  She loves her husband and her family.  She is also the perfect match for Walt in terms of manipulation and a sense of knowing more than she actually does.

In the beginning, it's easy to see Sky as an innocent.  She's at home getting ready for this unexpected baby to arrive and has gone so far as to sell various household knick-knacks to make ends meet for her family.  She's a little frustrated that Walt hasn't finished the nursery the way he promised to do.  Then she's hit with the whammy of her husband having advanced lung cancer that they can't afford to aggressively treat.  He goes off the deep end, disappearing for hours (and then days) at a time, and shutting her out of whatever's going on.  She's practical about expenses so when her sister's baby shower gift turns out to be a jeweled tiara, Sky's determined to return it to the store.  However, when she does, she is promptly threatened with arrest.  (Seems Marie has a problem that way.)

Here's where things get interesting.

Sky blusters and whimpers in turn until she cries her way out of a tight spot.  She will do this again when she needs a locksmith to let her in to Walt's condo without proof that she lives there (in fact, she doesn't).  She hounds Walt to tell her what's going on.  Okay, that's understandable to a point, but when Walt won't move out of the family house after she discovers his master plan of meth-making, she starts an affair with Ted to force the issue.  She's sneaky and sly and - just like Walt - says she's doing it all for the family.  While she doesn't go as far as Walt - you ARE watching Season 4 by now, aren't you? - Sky's no choirgirl.  In trying to protect her from the gritty details of just how degraded the drug world is, Walt has inadvertently left Sky exposed.  At the end of Season 4, Sky doesn't know everything (if she did, I have to think she'd pack up the kids and run like hell), but she knows enough to know that the water in which Walt is moving is both deep and swift.  She also knows that she's tethered herself to him.  If he goes down, she's very likely to go with him.

And then who's left to take care of the family?

Season 4 of Breaking Bad is now available on DVD and if you aren't watching (or re-watching!) it in anticipation of Season 5, maybe this teaser poster from AMC will convince you.  With the events of Season 4 behind him, is Walt truly the king?  I think the Sun King of France went for grander surroundings than some grimy warehouse and a tattered lawn chair for a throne, but maybe that's just me.

One last thing - beginning on June 11, AMC is running multiple episodes late night Sundays to get everyone up to speed before Season 5 begins broadcasting on July 15.  Set your DVR!

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Which is the one devoted to sweet Marie.

It's possible to have a good TV show with characters who remain static.  Not easy, but it's possible.  I'm thinking along the lines of older comedies such as I Love Lucy (oh, Lucy, will you ever get in Ricky's show?) and The Andy Griffith Show (oh, Barney, will your wacky vision of total control over Mayberry ever get past the calm folksy logic of Andy?).  What those shows have in common is a sort of nostalgia for a time that, quite frankly, never was.  In such a case, viewers not only can deal with non-changing characters, those characters bring comfort to viewers living in a world that is often topsy-turvy.  After all, it's nice to be able to tune out the insanity of contemporary life and count on Ethel and Floyd.

But that's comedy.  Gilligan can foolishly drop the coconuts on Skipper's head over and over, but the same schtick doesn't work so well in dramas.  For instance, Joe Friday from Dragnet would be in front of the Internal Affairs Board like that! for his pre-Miranda warning treatment of suspects.

A different Gilligan learned that lesson well.  Vince Gilligan's Breaking Bad has never settled for stock characters.  The show does a great job of fleshing out secondary characters and even gives tertiary characters details and depth (think about Hugo the janitor from way back in Season 1).  As Breaking Bad's Walt puts it, "Chemistry is the study of change," so it's not surprising that a show devoted to such a concept would be populated with the main characters who change dramatically.

Which brings us to Marie.

Marie is, among other things, Hank Schrader's wife.  (I've written about Hank before - click here.)  She deserves some attention - and she'd be the first one to tell you so.  Marie likes stuff, especially purple stuff.  Purple is the color most closely associated with Marie - she often wears purple (see the picture at the top of this post) and much of her house is decorated in purple - it's used so often that she's blogged about it on the AMC site.  It's not actually her, of course, but you get the idea.  She and Hank live in a very nice house - much nicer in terms of material stuff than her sister Skyler and Walt.  (Then again, it's just the two of them.  They have no children and they both work; Hank for the DEA and Marie as a radiology technician.)  Marie also has a tendency to pry into other people's lives, give plenty of unwanted advice, and occasionally steal things.  She's exasperating, self-centered, and all that changes when Hank needs her.

This is the key to Marie.  (Hey, that rhymes!)  Marie is all those things - nosy, an attention-seeker, and a royal pain part of the time - but she also is fiercely loyal.  She genuinely cares for her nephew and thinks her newborn niece is just about the neatest thing ever.  She loves her sister and worries about her brother-in-law.  And when Hank's serious injuries cause him to fall into a deep depression, she squares her shoulders and she takes the weight.  She advocates for his care and gets him out of the hospital by proving that he's on the mend in a most unusual way.  (By the way - what is it with these sisters and manual stimulation of their men?  Think back to the pilot episode and Skyler's "birthday present" to Walt.  Marital hint, Sky honey.  Close the laptop.)  Marie connives to get Hank the best physical therapy possible and she (mostly) keeps her hurt feelings hidden from him when he shuts her out.  She's strong in the way that women often are - she doesn't come in with guns blazing, but by God, you want her type there after the guns stop firing.

Walt thinks he loves his family and is doing "all of this" to protect them.  In fact, Hank and Marie have the stronger marriage of the two.  They may be in a rough patch just now, but neither one is running away from it.  Walt actually needs to add Marie to his list of things to worry about.  While she may initially come across as a feather-headed Real Housewife of Albuquerque wannabe, she's got grit underneath.

Time - and Season 5 - will tell.

Walter White Wednesday 5

Shhhh!  The silent edition.

Usually, television and film are all about the “tell” and not so much about the “show.”  Showing  without explanation requires the audience to focus on the scene and (heaven forbid!) figure things out independently.  Gilligan and company understand that - it's one of the many elements that make Breaking Bad a show you have to watch as opposed to one that you simply turn on while you putter about the house. 

This week, I want to talk about not talking.  Our everyday lives tend to be noisy, filled with street noise, the buzz of copier machines, the “ding!” to alert us that a tweet or e-mail has arrived, ringtones, and of course human conversation.  However, studies show that the amount of emotional content we pick up nonverbally (through expression, tone of voice, posture, etc.) to be as high as 90%.  If you’ve ever been involved in some minor escapade or another and been caught (say, by your mom or a teacher), you probably had a moment of thinking, “Uh-oh.  It’s that look.”  You’re in trouble and you can probably calculate fairly closely just how much trouble you’re in.  That is the essence of nonverbal communication. 

Just three examples to illustrate.  I’ll try to stay spoiler-free, but know the first two come from Season 3 and the last one is from the first episode of Season 4.  If you haven’t watched to that point, just stop now, okay?

SKYLER from the very end of Season 3, Episode 3 (“I.F.T.”).  Skyler has taken a desperate road in her effort to get Walt to leave the house.  Walt is in fine fettle, trusting that his efforts to manipulate the situation are causing things to break his way – she cares too much about the family to cause a scene in front of their son and his friend, whom Walt has cannily invited to stay for dinner.  (“Look honey, I made pot roast instead of meth!”)  Just watch her as Walt prattles on.  There’s a monologue of frustration, disgust, and revenge in her face here, which gives her line that much more power when she delivers it.  And now it's time for salad!

THE COUSINS from pretty much any episode in the first half of Season 3.  Both are trained and ruthless killers and neither of them talk much.  In fact, it’s Episode 6 (“Sunset”) before we hear a word from either of them.  Silence can make a scene heavy with meaning and the meaning is often threatening or menacing.  Think of seeing people meet each other at an airport – the ones who are happy squeal, stretch out their arms, and dash towards each other.  The ones who just glumly stare at each other – well, that car is going to host a different conversation on the way home.  From the cold open of the first episode of Season 3 (“No Mas” [which was directed by Bryan Cranston who plays Walter White]), something very, very creepy is going on here – and we don’t need dialogue to tell us that.

GUS from Season 4, Episode 1 (“Box Cutter”).  To be fair, I could’ve picked nearly any scene with Gus.  I find the casting of Giancarlo Esposito in this role to be downright inspired – he can do so much by staying so very, very still.  Gus is a very dangerous man wearing a very pleasant face and that fools many people who interact with him.  (I doubt his Los Pollos managers think of him as a particularly harsh boss, although he is very meticulous about how he wants even minor tasks done, for example.)  To borrow an old phrase, he’s a wolf in sheep’s clothing.  And at the end of this episode, he doesn’t have to say a word to get his point across.  Also note the difference in Walt and Jesse’s reactions to what Gus does – it says a lot about the changing relationship between all three characters.

There's much more - Hector Salamanca's "bell of doom" comes to mind, which communicates so much without words - but it's a start!