Walter White Wednesday 47

As we begin gearing up for the final 8 episodes of Breaking Bad, there's been a lot (a LOT!) of speculation among the fan base regarding Walt's final outcome.  Face it, no one outside of those involved with the production company knows for sure (and they're not talking!  I suspect hazard pay).  There are two aspects of this that I find incredibly interesting.

The first is how invested people are in the show itself.  As a Whedon fan, I understand incredibly passionate fans and some shows attract that more than others.  Those shows, by the way, are often science fiction or fantasy shows - Firefly springs to mind.  You don't often see the same level of investment in reality-based shows - no one dresses up at Jack McCoy from Law & Order to go attend a fan convention, for instance.  (Something I once heard Elisabeth Rohm, who played Kate Lockley on Angel and Serena Southerlyn on Law & Order say at a fan convention.)

The second part that fascinates me is how many people are pulling for Walt to somehow come through all of this unscathed.  Now this, I must admit, I don't get - and I've tried.  Walt has done horrible, reprehensible things and, no matter how he attempts to justify his actions, he's steadily walked into darkness.  I happen to believe that redemption is possible for just about anybody, but it has to come with remorse, regret, and a determination to "go forth and sin no more."  This humility is simply not present in Walt.  I see no way out for him.  I think some fans see Walt as a rebel who's just had all he can take and want Walt to somehow stick it to the Man, but they ignore the awful, terrible, violent things Walt has done and the things he has set in motion and then stepped back and watched.

I've heard fans comment that they hope he goes out like Tony Montana in Scarface - and we've seen Walt watching the finale of the movie.  What I think people are missing is that the ending of the movie doesn't have Tony blasting away at his enemies and then waltzing away from the carnage.  We know Walt has justified everything as him simply "taking care of the family."  But that's the same family that has his wife flinching when he touches her, the kids packed off the the in-laws (who have made it clear that they like having the kids around), and secrets hidden under the very floorboards of the house.

He's done a lousy job of taking care of the family.

And he's got an M60 in the trunk of his car.  I don't see this ending well for Walt.

And don't forget to check out Ensley F. Guffey's ongoing "Meth Monday" posts over at his blog!  Also, you can always follow us on Twitter and we love getting comments!  Like us?  Tell us!  Think we're wrong?  Tell us - gently!

Before the Slippers Were Ruby . . .

I've liked Sam Raimi's work since Army of Darkness.  I thought the first two Spider-Man movies he helmed were quite wonderful and I've been looking forward to The Great and Powerful Oz since I first saw the trailer months ago.  (And yes, Bruce Campbell does have a quick cameo, hidden under layers of makeup as a palace guard.)

But I was also apprehensive.  So much - so very much - could go wrong here.  The Wizard of Oz is an undisputed cinematic masterpiece, from launching then 16-year-old Judy Garland into instant stardom, creating iconic characters through amazing casting - and on and on.  Oz was released in 1939, a year that saw the release of Gone with the Wind, Stagecoach, and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington - among other.  Truly, it was a banner year.

So how would Sam "Shop smart.  Shop S-Mart" do with this?

Quite well, I'm happy to report.

No, there are no ruby slippers here - Warner Brothers owns those rights, along with the character likenesses of the original Oz, so you won't see a chin mole of the Wicked Witch of the West - but there are some lovely nods to the original Oz as well as to L. Frank Baum's books.  (A few quick ones - the film begins in sepia for Kansas and goes to glorious, over-saturated color for Oz and also widens the screen ratio in Oz, Oz's assistant is named "Frank," the shoddy carnival he's eking out a living at is the "Baum Brothers Circus" and there are some shots of rainbows as Oz crashes into a river in the Land of Oz - he's somewhere over the rainbow, after all.)  At its heart, the original Oz is about discovering what you carry within you is all you have, but is also all you need - that sentiment is carried through here as well as Oz discovers that, while he might want greatness, there's a lot to be said for goodness.

Although you'll see the same actors twice, as characters you meet in Kansas come back in Oz.  Frank becomes Finley.  Annie becomes Glinda.  And Joey King's china doll will probably make you cry, or maybe that's just your allergies acting up.  Oh, and you'll be reminded that evil is bad, but good turned to evil is much, much - MUCH worse.

Don't try to stretch too hard for parallels with the original and you'll be fine - accept this as a stand-alone. Overall, Great and Powerful Oz is thoroughly enjoyable.  Don't wait for the DVD - see this one on the big screen.

Walter White Wednesday 46

. . . which is all about Jesse James.

In "Hazard Pay," the third episode of the fifth and final season of Breaking Bad, Walt throws a fit when he realizes how much of his take of the cook is being whittled away by the business end of things.  Enterprises have multiple layers of expenses and he doesn't understand that any more than he understood the concept of "breakage" earlier in his budding career as a drug kingpin.  Although Walt's taking home a bigger piece of the pie for a smaller cook now that he's an owner instead of being an employee of Gus Fring's, he's not happy.  A three-way split with Jesse and Mike - that he could handle.  But it never occurred to him that, on top of supply costs, he'd have to pay his share of the costs of the drivers, the pest guys, lawyer fees and all that hazard pay to the mooks who are keeping their traps shut in return for being paid handsomely.  He got into this partnership with Mike (and against Mike's better judgment) with the understanding that Walt was the manufacturing end and Mike was the business end.

But Walt doesn't like how Mike's running his end.  Weary of dealing with this pissant who sees dollars but has no sense, Mike issues one of the best lines of any episode of Breaking Bad:  "Listen, Walter.  Just because you shot Jesse James, don't make you Jesse James."

It's true.  Outlaw and folk hero Jesse James was betrayed and murdered by Robert Ford.  Although Ford was a member of James' gang, he was not part of the inner circle and probably never advanced beyond the position of horse-holder.  Jesse James was the sort of outlaw who, had he lived today, would probably have had narcocorridos written about him and, as it was, folk songs were dedicated to James' exploits.  But he trusted the wrong man, even though he had a bad feeling about him, and he was murdered for making this mistake.  Ford had gotten himself in trouble with the law - he wasn't a very good outlaw - and cut a deal with the governor to kill James in return for a pardon for his own crimes.  Ford delivered - he did kill James, he did receive his pardon (but not the full amount of reward money), but things didn't go too well for him afterward.  He was ultimately murdered by another no-account, who wielded a double-barreled shotgun.  Good riddance to bad rubbish, you might say.

Will Walt turn into Robert Ford?  Or is he actually Jesse James?  Only time, and the final eight episodes, will tell - but I think Mike was on to something here.  Walt has transformed a considerable amount since Season 1 - he's a greedy killer who's more than willing to put innocents in danger and lay the blame at others' feet - but he's not the criminal mastermind he thinks he is.  He may know enough to roll a barrel instead of frog-walking it, but he doesn't know how to read the blowing winds and say "enough."

At the end of the day, he's still a horse-holder.


Now go over to my co-author's blog and read his latest "Meth Monday" in which he discusses just how depraved Walt has gotten by Season 5!

Coming Down with Something

Due to a touch of the late-winter bug (I won't bore you with details), I've gotten behind on reporting on my movie-going activities.  Thankfully, Meet Me at the Movies on TV19 is forgiving.  But we're back this week with a review on the new Bryan Singer directed Jack the Giant Slayer, which has the dubious honor of being dubbed 2013's first bomb.  Jack cost in the neighborhood of $200-plus million to make and market and its opening numbers were (to be polite) subpar.  So is it really that awful?  I have a rule that says I'll go see anything with Stanley Tucci (who plays the villain Roderick), so off I went.  And I can report . . . 

. . . it's not.

Mind you, I prefer my Slayers of the Buffy variety and Jack is trying a little too hard in places, but no, it's not  awful.  The story hangs together (even if it's feels a little long), you have some nice effects, and the actors are clearly having a very fine time.  So why isn't it a smashing success?

Think of it this way.  I have a sweet tooth - I'm pretty much a candyfreak.  While others want to discover how a creative barman can mix pomegranate juice with various alcohols, I'm way more curious about what it's like to dip the somewhat-exotic seeds in dark chocolate.  I'm a card-carrying member of the Lindt chocolate club, but I can also be quite happy in the dollar store by the movie candy.  But you can have too much of a good thing - European truffles and Sugar Babies and red hots and Now 'n' Laters and caramel creams - well, that's just Not Good.

That's the problem with Jack.  I don't know if Bryan Singer (who directed the flat-out brilliant Usual Suspects, as well as three X-Men movies and the upcoming Days of Future Past installment of that franchise) had Suits poking their noses into his production or what, but there's just too much.  It's like me in a candy store with low blood sugar and a credit card - everything seems like a good idea!  Not just one giant - a whole country of them! Not just one beanstalk - how about seven or so?  A farmboy and a princess who share the same taste in bedtime stories!  Magic beans!  Monks! (Monks?)  Don't get those beans wet - wait, are we in Gremlins all of a sudden? Political intrigue! A magic crown!

 Nicholas Hoult (who was Beast in Singer's X-Men: First Class and with his turn in Warm Bodies has become one of my Young Ones to Watch) is Jack and this "Farm Boy" is very much cut in the form of Westley from Princess Bride.  Well, if you're going to crib, pick the good ones, I say.  There's more than one touch of Princess Bride in Jack, including the use of a voice-over story as a framing device.  However, these giants are not nearly as gentle as Fezzik.  The giants are gross, slobbering monsters who have a low cunning, but not much in the way of actual intelligence.  I daresay kids would be entranced by the fun the movie has with scale - full-grown men come up to about knee-level on these giants and the beanstalk is fantastic - and yes, beanstalks work both ways as chlorophyll staircases.

Look, Ewan McGregor, Stanley Tucci, and Ian McShane (now with 75% less cussing than in Deadwood!) are all having so much fun chewing the scenery that they need to floss plywood from their molars.  Not much for the women-folk to do here  - and being a giant seems to be a male-only sort of thing.  Princess Isabelle wants to have adventures, but is basically a prop to be rescued and won.  (By the way - golden armor?  Really?  Face it, princess, it looks pretty, but won't stop a butter knife.)  Then again, not every fairy tale can be Brave.

Walter White Wednesday 45

It's Crunch Time for the next month, as Ensley F. Guffey and I get the bulk of Wanna Cook? a bit further along the publishing hopper.  He's still doing Meth Monday (did you see it this week?) and I'm continuing with Walter White Wednesday - and we're both glad you stopped by to visit!

This week, for Walter White Wednesday, I want to take a moment to examine the sound of Breaking Bad.

Way back when, TV shows had theme songs - Gilligan's Island or The Beverly Hillbillies - c'mon, you know the words!  (In fact, you're probably humming them right now!)  That's less in favor now, but music is still a major part of most shows.  This is especially true of Breaking Bad.  Once you hear it, you won't forget it.

There are two people who are primarily responsible for the sound of the show - composer Dave Porter is tasked with coming up with the original music and music supervisor Thomas Golubic, whose job involves getting clearances to use prerecorded music - such as this brilliant gem.

Golubic also serves in the music supervisor capacity for Walking Dead, so he's a particularly busy fellow.  This interview details one of the most striking uses of music within Breaking Bad - the narcocorrido about the cartel's plans for Heisenberg.  It also includes Golubic's ideal playlist for . . . well, read the interview.  

Dave Porter prefers to keep sounds fresh and ever-evolving, and therefore tries to stay away from motifs associated with a particular character.  Yet, as he says in this interview, "Sonically,you always know you're watching Breaking Bad."


True, true.