Fine Line

Uncle Jack and Todd in Breaking Bad
Uncle Jack and Todd in Breaking Bad

We’ve read and heard countless speculations on how Breaking Bad will end and even found ourselves talking about the outcome at a funeral on Friday. The episode of course is called “Felina” and our friend, John Gilmore, has reworked the Marty Robbin’s song, “El Paso.”

“Out in the west New Mexico Town Of ABQ, I think even though he is a megalomaniac and self centered egotistical person of limited morals (“Shocked by the FOUL EVIL deed I had done”) he really does love his family and originally broke bad for them. He can’t stay away (“Back in El Paso my life would be worthless”)

(“It’s been so long since I’ve seen the young maiden”) (“My love is stronger than my fear of death”) so he will come back to ABQ, gun (my little friend) in hand to shoot it out with Todd’s gang (Off to my right I see five mounted cowboys ) and the DEA  (“Off to my left ride a dozen or more”) because as we know “Everyone dies in this movie”. (“I see the white puff of smoke from the rifle. I feel the bullet go deep in my chest”).

(“Cradled by two loving arms that I’ll die for , One little kiss and Felina, good-bye.”) Probably in his back yard by the swimming pool !!! With the pink doll’s eye in his hand !!!”

“El Paso” would sound as good as The Limeliters “Times Are Getting Hard” did a few weeks ago, a great juxtaposition with something much darker. The characters have been so delicious it hardly matters what happens. The introduction of Rochester’s Robert Forster in the next-to-last episode, oddly brought a calm before the final nods to Walt Whitman and Scarface.

Peggi thinks Walt will survive, alone, only to be told his cancer is gone. This would be a brilliant summary for a show that has continually messed with our notions of good and evil.

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Br Ba

John Gilmore would not stop talking about this tv show. It was early in season one and he would go on and on about what happened last week and continually interject, “You gotta see this show.” But there was no way. We didn’t have cable tv.

So I guess we got on board during season two when the first season’s shows became available for streaming. We’ve been on the bus since and now have cable hooked up to mainline the second half of the fifth and final season. The director Vince Gilligan is quoted in this week’s Bryan Cranston profile in New Yorker as saying tonight’s show is the best of the whole season. To a fan that is a mind-blowing statement. Better than last week’s show? Better than the pilot?

But not everybody is a fan. We’ve recommended the show to so may people that have checked it out and found it too dark or evil. Aren’t we completely surrounded by dark and evil? John Gilmore is just better salesman than we are.

I compare all shows to Breaking Bad now, all movies, all story lines, paintings, life itself. The twists and turns are so enjoyable to watch they have us laughing out loud just recapping them. Tremendous characters, great actors but most of all I think the writers are fantastic. I read they were going to kill Jessie in the first season and just look at the epic interplay between him and Walt, the ongoing struggle of right and wrong, good and evil that has ensued.

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Passion

I’ve been uploading photos for the last week and I could spend the rest of my life organizing them but I was anxious to check out this external embed flash code so I put my first “set” together and embedded it above. (Note: Flickr embed no longer works)These are all stills I took from the Passion of Saint Joan movie. I can’t remember if I stopped the dvd and shot them or did screen captures from YouTube. The movie is public domain and about a million times better than “Frances Ha” which we saw at the Little on a $5 Monday night. Our neighbor’s brother and wife contributed music and had a small part but what happened to that director? We really liked “The Squid & The Whale,” sort of liked “Margot at the Wedding” and hated this one.

And while I’m complaining, the new season of Breaking Bad, that is the newly released dvd season, Part One of the fifth and final season in the series, better turn around because the first six episodes are going downhill on the brilliant meter. I just know they’re setting me up though so I’m hanging in there.

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CB & BB

The guy driving the car next to us on 590 looked just like Gustovo Fring, the Fried Chicken franchise owner/drug king pin in Breaking Bad. And The car up ahead of us looked like Walter White’s car. Isn’t it funny that Jessie still calls him Mister White? Life, these days, plays out like a dull episode of Breaking Bad and there really is no such thing. Watching all of season four in a two week period (we streamed it from Netflix) has me looking at all the angles in everyday situations and expecting the outlandish. I would not be surprised if our favorite character, Saul Goodman, the attorney with the “LWYRUP” plates who put a Jewish spin on his name for business reasons, pulled in our driveway before I finish this piece – just for some comic relief.

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Breaking Brilliant

Black and white dragon fly in woods near Rochester, New York
Black and white dragon fly in woods near Rochester, New York

We’ve been gorging ourselves on the first three seasons of Breaking Bad, all available as “Instant Play” on Netflix, in preparation for the launch of season four on Netflix dvds. Season five drops on June 14th but we don’t have cable tv so this is how we do it. The reruns still have plenty of meat on them.

We’re crazy about the show but also worry that the writers may not be able keep this brilliant run up. When we mention the show people are always trying to us into other shows like Mad Men, Six feet Under, Weeds or The Wire and we’ve given them all a try but come on. Breaking Bad is the bomb.

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Broken Bad

Peggi's Xmas Cookies
Peggi’s Xmas Cookies

We worked late last night wrapping up the crap that just had to be done before the dreaded holidays and we were getting pretty psyched to watch our new Netflix disc of “Breaking Bad”, 2nd Season, Disc Two. We stuck the dvd in and it wouldn’t play because it had a small crack in it. A series about crack with a crack in it! It wouldn’t play in my computer either. In fact I had a hard time getting it out. I had to reboot for the holidays.

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BBad TV

Icicles out the window at 4D
Icicles out the window at 4D

John Gilmore insisted we put this cable tv show called “Breaking Bad” in our Netflix queue. In fact he asked for our password and he added the movie himself. We spotted it in there and bumped it down a few times (I didn’t like the name of it) but it eventually worked its way to the top when we weren’t looking and then showed up in our mailbox.

We really love it. It’s over the top and believable at the same time without getting into reality tv territory. We watched the first three episodes in a flash and while we were waiting for the next disc to arrive our neighbors brought over a movie called “Leaves of Grass” with Susan Sarandon and Richard Dreyfuss. It was a similar topic. We watched the movie together and I was obnoxious throughout because I couldn’t believe how pale this thing was stacked up to “Breaking Bad.”

We don’t have cable tv so we have a lot of catching up to do and there is nothing but “Breaking Bad” in our Netflix queue now.

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