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Thomasb (Thomasb)
Username: Thomasb

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 75.25.141.120
Posted on Sunday, July 15, 2012 - 10:02 pm:   

Good Sunday to Everyone Across the Pond and at Sea:

Don't know if you folks are getting "Breaking Bad" over there and elsewhere--and what impression it's making--but a lot of folks on this side of the Big Ditch, including me, are pretty excited about the new--and last--season starting tonight: http://tbdeluxe.blogspot.com/2012/07/this-man-must-die.html

Thanks for reading, as always, and take care!

Cheers,

Thomas
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Craig (Craig)
Username: Craig

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 99.126.164.88
Posted on Monday, July 16, 2012 - 06:39 am:   

Thirty minutes to go, for me, Thomas, before it comes on. And all I can say is....

YES!!!!!!
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Thomasb (Thomasb)
Username: Thomasb

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 75.25.141.120
Posted on Tuesday, July 17, 2012 - 12:20 am:   

Yes! Thanks, Craig!
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Craig (Craig)
Username: Craig

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 99.126.164.88
Posted on Monday, August 12, 2013 - 07:27 am:   

Bump: it's back. It's been a year, dammit, and they made me wait too long... but all is forgiven, after tonight.

One little thing: I was struck by—this is only a SPOILER to those who haven't seen the series, not to those who haven't seen the episode, necessarily, since it's literally the first scene you see—how we flash forward to a time that is eerily reminiscent of We Need To Talk About Kevin: the down-and-out Walter White is clearly a public anathema, a pariah, and his family is gone... where? What's happened to everyone? And why is he retrieving the long-forgotten ricin?... Oh yeah, it's going to be a great seven more weeks.
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Thomasb (Thomasb)
Username: Thomasb

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 75.25.141.120
Posted on Wednesday, August 21, 2013 - 07:22 pm:   

It sure will!
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Craig (Craig)
Username: Craig

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 99.126.164.88
Posted on Monday, August 26, 2013 - 07:33 am:   

Holy crap!!! Did you see that last episode, Thomas?!?

I'm (sadly) rarely thrown for a loop anymore, but Walt's "confession"...

Best. Villain. Ever. (or, one of)
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Thomasb (Thomasb)
Username: Thomasb

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 75.25.141.120
Posted on Tuesday, September 03, 2013 - 05:15 pm:   

I sure did, Craig (though now it's next to last!) Poor hank's painted into a VERY tight corner, isn't he?
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Craig (Craig)
Username: Craig

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 99.126.164.88
Posted on Tuesday, September 03, 2013 - 05:20 pm:   

"Poor Hank" is, mm... debatable, after the 9/1 episode, Thomas. But it's great to see Marie pissed—don't mess with that woman!

And Skyler... ugh. The poor actress has been getting various threats in real life, apparently—a testament to her skills, but people, get a grip! Do not confuse the role with the actor!

(I realize almost everyone on this board is lost about now... sadly. )
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Craig (Craig)
Username: Craig

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 99.126.164.88
Posted on Wednesday, September 04, 2013 - 05:40 am:   

Hee-hee. I just saw this today, Thomas. http://youtu.be/_mVq_4BA5DQ

(Warning: No one else link to this is if you ever hope to watch "Breaking Bad," it contains major & series-ruining SPOILERS)
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Thomasb (Thomasb)
Username: Thomasb

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 75.25.141.120
Posted on Wednesday, September 04, 2013 - 06:43 pm:   

Well, in that case, I don't know if I want to see it either! ;-)
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Craig (Craig)
Username: Craig

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 99.126.164.88
Posted on Monday, September 16, 2013 - 07:32 am:   

Good God.

I feel just wrecked, after this week's episode, Thomas.

Has there ever been, in the vast history of television, an episode of any series this traumatic, this powerful, this heartbreaking, this draining?... I hardly think it's possible. I defy anyone to find me an example.

But hope persists. And I predict, we shall see Walt come back, in these last two remaining episodes... with a vengeance.
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Craig (Craig)
Username: Craig

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 99.126.164.88
Posted on Monday, September 16, 2013 - 05:30 pm:   

I'm still all fucked up from last night.

Hey, Thomas—I missed this, but someone else caught it—Walt rolled the barrel past his pants from the very first episode!

pic
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Thomasb (Thomasb)
Username: Thomasb

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 75.25.141.120
Posted on Monday, September 16, 2013 - 06:29 pm:   

Wow! Can't wait! I'll keep an eye out for it. I'll be watching it on DVR tonight.
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Craig (Craig)
Username: Craig

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 99.126.164.88
Posted on Monday, September 30, 2013 - 08:13 am:   



It's all over. (And ended perfectly.)

Alas, what is there left to look forward to?

Well, "American Horror Story: Coven" starts in a week and a half. If it's half as good as "AHS: Asylum," I guess that can sustain me.

But will there ever be another TV show like this one? Probably not for a long, long time....
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 194.32.31.1
Posted on Monday, September 30, 2013 - 10:44 am:   

Sounds great, Craig. Have you ever seen the British series' 'I, Claudius' or 'Our Friends In The North'? They're my two favourite TV drama series of all time for all the reasons you rave about this one. They left me floored emotionally.

As far as genre TV goes I could say similar things about 'The Walking Dead'. The penultimate episode of Season 3 shattered me last night. Some avid watchers of the show might disagree but it included the most devastating moment of this Season and the greatest visual use of the flesh-eating zombie (sorry, walker/biter) in on-screen horror ever made - period! I can't get it out of my head...

I'm very tempted to try out 'Breaking Bad' on DVD. Crystal meth is a truly horrible drug and I have some knowledge of its effects on communities and individuals. An insidious evil that blights certain towns and areas in Northern Ireland. Over here it's how some former paramilitaries now ply their trade in the destruction of lives.
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Craig (Craig)
Username: Craig

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 99.126.164.88
Posted on Monday, September 30, 2013 - 04:34 pm:   

I've long been meaning to see "I, Claudius," but no, haven't—and I've never heard of "Our Friends In The North." Yes, once the bar's been set so terribly high, it's hard to settles for lesser shows, so some sampling there may be in order. I wish know I had been following "The Walking Dead" all along, if nothing at least for the small-scale version of my last paragraph, below.

Odd you mention it, Stevie: My first problem with "Breaking Bad," way way back in Season 1, was that I felt it didn't exactly show the ill-effects of the "blue meth": it was never sort of seen, just the criminal enterprise creating it. But it did wade into that territory soon enough; and it created enough horrors to make, by the end, even the thought of stacks of money—a titillating image for most, usually—associative with blood and death; and even worse, the complete destruction of things priceless (families, marriages, relationships, etc.).

There was always a vein of black humor running through the show; stronger in the beginning, tapering towards the end. It had great characters that are indelibly etched in memory (it's a cold-comfort to know the sleaziest, skuzziest, oiliest, yet weirdly comforting-by-his-presence lawyer on TV, Saul Goodman [Bob Odenkirk], will next year have a series of his own ["Better Call Saul!"]), and some of the best direction around—let alone writing!

I have to admit, there was a peculiar joy in being part of a large community of fans, all over the nation—by this last episode last night, the ratings anticipated were so high, they were practically charging Superbowl ad rates ($400k/30-second ad). I went online after, as I often did, and it was like the end of high school, or leaving college: sad people saying their goodbyes, sharing how the show formed them over the span of its run; even the regular column-writers for the show bidding tearful farewells to their audiences... it was pretty emotional, really.

Jesus, that all sounds pathetic! But when will there be another wide-demo culturally-uniting weekly "story" like this? A once in a lifetime thing.
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Craig (Craig)
Username: Craig

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 99.126.164.88
Posted on Monday, September 30, 2013 - 04:53 pm:   

This is the conclusion to The New York Times' Hank Steuver's critical response to the show—it contains no spoilers, but rather, shows the emotional impact it's had on people. As well, the reason why this show shone—and maybe how more can, in years to come:

… Even though I never gave a second thought to what really happened to Tony Soprano, I think in some way I now understand the compulsion in certain fans to write their own fan fiction, to fantasize about the characters on TV shows that aren’t on anymore. As a critic, I have to finally face the fact that my favorite series (possibly ever — I’d have to think long and hard about that) is now gone. And when trying to figure out why this show worked so well, so deeply for me, I keep coming back to one simple and not terribly profound idea: “Breaking Bad” was original.

In a hyper-media era in which so much is derivative of something else, we sometimes lose sight of the value of the completely original epic. “Breaking Bad” may have drawn from the greatest tools of dramatic tragedy, but it was not based on or adapted from anything that came before. This is a common thread among our finest TV shows: They are wholly new,
sui generis (to get fancy about it).

“Breaking Bad” was born of [Vince] Gilligan’s initial and almost reductive desire to tell a story about a good man who turns bad. It was not a remake of something that came before it. It was not a Shakespearean update. It was not an imported vehicle, not previously a hit series from Britain or Sweden or Denmark. It was not optioned from a string of crime novels or a fancy comic book.

“Breaking Bad” was not trying to evoke something that it admired from before. It wasn’t reaching for an era or a particular strain of nostalgia. Thanks to its sick sense of irony and the driest humor possible, it did not neatly fit into any one genre of modern drama. (Gilligan has said before that he considered it a “western.”) And by setting its story in Albuquerque — by filming it there and inhabiting the city’s character so fully — “Breaking Bad” deliberately chose uncharted territory, a “Land of Enchantment” in which the enchantment was entirely ours and not Walter’s. Literally and figuratively, “Breaking Bad" went to a place hardly anyone ever goes.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 194.32.31.1
Posted on Monday, September 30, 2013 - 05:18 pm:   

It does sound wonderful, Craig. The simplest stories are always the most profound. Shakespeare understood that perfectly.

Life and morality are all about the decisions we make when faced with life-changing events or unexpected moral dilemmas. Sometimes it's about caring for our loved ones but at what cost to those we don't know (as with 'Breaking Bad') and sometimes it's just about basic survival, and how far we are prepared to go until we decide that enough is enough (as with 'The Walking Dead' - that title doesn't half ring more ironically with every passing episode).

I really must get round to seeing 'The Sopranos' as well ffs!!

Karma, man, karma...
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Craig (Craig)
Username: Craig

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 99.126.164.88
Posted on Thursday, October 03, 2013 - 03:52 pm:   

Me too! I watched the whole first season of "Sopranos," loved it... then for some reason neglected all the others. I get distracted easily. This has happened to me subsequently with "Boardwalk Empire," "Shameless," and "Big Bang Theory." And once you fall behind....

"Breaking Bad" had odd fans out there. This week, Ann Coulter gushed all over it, while on the other end of the spectrum so did Joyce Carol Oates (polar opposites indeed!), who Tweeted*: "Walter White joins pantheon of American mythic types: Deerslayer, Ahab, Huck Finn, the Virginian, Gatsby, Scarlet O'Hara, Willy Loman." Wow!

*I guess it's only inevitable that Oates, the prolific writer, would turn out to be be Oates the endless Tweeterer: https://twitter.com/JoyceCarolOates.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 194.32.31.1
Posted on Thursday, October 03, 2013 - 04:19 pm:   

This obsession with having to watch or read only what is current is one of the great diseases of modern society, imo, Craig. We only have one lifetime on this plane and can't possibly absorb all the Art made within that timeframe or before. I let the Universe decide what books I will read, what films I will watch and what TV series I will immerse myself in. The Universe has yet to get it wrong.

This has inspired me to do an update on what's currently showing on Stevie TV! Expect 'Breaking Bad' and 'The Sopranos' to make it into the schedule at some future date...
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 194.32.31.1
Posted on Thursday, October 03, 2013 - 04:31 pm:   

Meanwhile, buy yourself the box set of 'I, Claudius' (1976), sit back and wallow in virtually all the greatest thespians of their generation taking you to Heaven and Hell and back again. If you don't come out of that epic feature length 12 episode series staggered beyond belief, and wondering where it all went wrong, then you know nothing about acting, television or gripping entertainment.

It's simply the best TV Series ever made, imho.
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Craig (Craig)
Username: Craig

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 99.126.164.88
Posted on Monday, October 07, 2013 - 05:08 pm:   

I'm much like you, Stevie, letting the "Universe" lead me from book to book, work to work. I'm sure, to these books and films and TV shows, I appear as a cruel, arbitrary God—some that have languished for years go still unexperienced; others, freshly arrived after just discovered, get instant lavish attention. Those poor books on my shelves that stare longingly at me, wondering why I don't bother to dust them off and finally get to know them and make their existences meaningful... cursing me as I traipse around with some floozy book I just picked up for $1, pawing her pages night after night, then tossing her aside when I'm done... hee-hee. This kind of power is intoxicating!
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Craig (Craig)
Username: Craig

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 99.126.164.88
Posted on Tuesday, October 15, 2013 - 06:50 am:   

Okay, this might be going too far, what Anthony Hopkins said about "Breaking Bad":

http://popwatch.ew.com/2013/10/14/anthony-hopkins-breaking-bad-bryan-cranston/

What's funny is, when I think of some of the greatest bits of acting that I've ever seen—ever? I immediately flash to Hopkins as Othello in the BBC production (1981); maybe among the performances by a male actor ever preserved on film or tape.

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