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welcome gale

RecapsJanuary 15, 2015

Summer in a Meth Lab: The Breaking Bad Season Three Diaries

welcome gale

Alex Casey has never watched a second of Breaking Bad, nor read anything about it. Going in completely blind, she has committed to watching the whole series over summer in the lead up to spin off series Better Call Saul‘s arrival to Lightbox in February. Contains spoilers, obviously.

Day Seven, Thursday 25 December (yes, it’s Christmas Day) 2pm

Watched: Season Three, Episode One

Talk about dreaming of a (Walter) White Christmas. The season opens with people crawling across the desert to a shrine in Mexico, which strongly reminded me crabs migrating across land. It’s the jarring and bizarre sort of opening I’ve come to expect, throwing all points of reference out the window and letting us crawl around to pick up the pieces.

crabs

There is a terrifying set of twins that join the crawl party wearing shiny silver suits and pointy boots, the kind you might see worn by certain young gentlemen on Auckland’s waterfront at 2am. They approach the shrine and guess who’s pinned up there like bloody Marilyn Monroe? Only Heisenberg.

wassup

Walt, as ever, is flailing manically. He tries to torch his sweet drug dosh, but realises it won’t solve any of his problems. He’s about to close a $3 million deal with Gus anyway, might as well keep raking in the Benjamins. Skyler is heading for divorce, and I suspect those Pitbull-inspired twins (they have the aesthetic of the singer and the temperament of the dog breed) are coming in hotter than a Fireball.

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Jesse is still in rehab, we have learnt that his drug sponsor ran over his daughter whilst drunk. It’s incredible how when any minor character is given more than a moment of screentime, they will always reveal the world’s darkest stories.

Here is a great lingering shot from behind the salt and pepper shakers in Los Pollos Hermanos. I nominate it for weird shot of the ep, a classic Breaking Bad ‘watch the conversation from slightly too far away” staple:

pollos

Day Nine, Monday 5 January 8pm

Watched: Episodes 2-3

I have been in the official wilderness – no phone, no TV, no internet. Kayaking around Adele Island, surrounded by pirouetting seals and penguins, I couldn’t help but say out loud “man, I can’t wait to watch Breaking Bad when we get home!” It’s official, Breaking Bad > sloppy bit of nature.

Pinkman is 45 days sober, and looking mighty fresh. Again, the subtle costuming reveals much about how the character is doing. For example, Pinkman has taken to wearing a little cardigan because he is no longer a hoodlum. His hair is also quite a lot longer now – I’ve found it key to keep an eye on hair. Skylar’s hair, for example, is getting lighter with each episode. I don’t know if this is relevant, but for such a meticulous show it’s a bloody obvious change. Maybe it’s relevant. Can someone tell me if it’s relevant?

Breaking Bad (Season 4)

We also see the rise of the Evil Twinnies in this episode – they are making a beeline for Walt via Tuco’s grandaddy. Using a Ouija board, he spells out “WALTER WHITE” using his classic bell communication technique. This is great and all, but you don’t have me believing that old people in a retirement home would ever use a Ouija board. That’s reserved strictly for cool teens

Episode three opens with the origin story of the tortoise who would end up a slow moving vehicle in the world’s grisliest parade float. The twins make it to Gus HQ, where he unwraps a delightful little platter of cherry tomatoes for his silent but violent guests. They still haven’t spoken a damn word, and have killed SO many people. Possibly rivalling the twins in The Shining for scariest twins ever.

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Day Ten, Tuesday 6 January 6pm

Watched: Episodes 4-6

Jesse is starting his own little drug ring again, swapping meth for gas with an innocent little clerk who I feel deeply sorry for. Walt storms Beneke Inc. after finding out that Skyler has slept with Ted. He has a major pot plant rage before getting scooped up by trusty Mike, resident ‘stop Walt and Jesse from doing something stupid’ advocate. Walt needs all the help he can get tbh – those Evil Twinnies have just drawn a sickle outside his house :/

potplant (1)

In episode five, Hank has turned down El Paso because he’s close to cracking Heisenberg (and has suppressed his severe PTSD). He has gone RV mad, searching through all the RV’s in town and taking time out to cry in the shower. I love Hank’s character. I love that despite representing one of the staunchest TV archetypes, he is probably the most emotionally vulnerable character on the show at this point.

Gus shows walt the ballah new lab he will be working in, hidden deep beneath a laundromat. Appreciate Gus’ commitment to ensuring his money laundering comes with a nice wee pun.

Episode six introduces us to the lovable Gale (once husband of Mel from Flight of the Conchords) and farewells the blessed RV. I actually felt deeply sad seeing it get crushed down at the junk yard, like we’ve lost a character of sorts.

We also get our first run in with a Walt Whitman poem. Walt Whitman, Walter White – I see what you are doing here.

welcome gale

I noticed in this episode just how much the décor and the shot composition work to isolate Walt from the people around him, particularly his family. Here is a good shot to illustrate my smart point:

smartpoint (2)

Hank’s RV chase reaches a head as he finally locates the rolling meth lab, with Jesse and Walt trapped inside. A very thin yellow door is the only thing keeping them from getting caught, but they still manage to make it out. With the help of the clued-up Fake Kramer and Jesse yelling “this is my own private domicile and I will not be harassed…bitch”, they live to see another day. That was the line of the episode, for sure.

Day Eleven, Wednesday 7 January 9.30pm

Watched: Episodes 7 & 8

Great flashback opening with Tio Salamanca and the young Evil Twins. Bellissimo wheelchair foreshadowing.

wheelchair

Hank beats the shit out of Pinkman in his own home – that guy has officially lost the bloody plot. Walt starts to fake-hate Gale to get Pinkman back as his lab assistant. But then who cares about anything because suddenly there is a MASSIVE showdown between Hank and the Evil Twinnies, Hank rams one twin into another car, gets shot a million times (once in the butt lol), and then shoots the other twin square in the head.

Tarantino ‘boot shot’ of the episode:

tarantino

What an end to an episode. I feel like I’ve been crushed between two cars. My legs are definitely having problems moving. 

me

In episode eight, Hank hoons into hospital and Walt is forced to wait with the family. Left to his own devices in the lab, Pinkman deploys a hilarious montage including the spectacular and inevitable yellow jumpsuit inflation:

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Walt goes to see the surviving Evil Twinnie in hospital (now with 50% legs). After spotting Walt in the window, he crawls across floor towards him, a very bloody homage to the Mexico scene that opened the season. Nice.

Gus brings his delicious chicken for the whole hospital to enjoy, the perfect example of hiding in plain sight/under a mountain of delicious fried chicken. Magic Mike kills the remaining twin – they can’t have anyone else getting Walt. It’s an incredible dynamic of false protection, they are only keeping Walt safe to serve their own interests. And those interests seem to flip like a Funyun on a windy day.

Gus sends snipers to a rival Mexican cartel – he now has the meth market (and the chicken market) stitched right up. 

Day Twelve: Thursday 8 January 9pm

Watched: Episodes 9 & 10

Episode nine opens with an amazing apocryphal Los Pollos commercial. I wish there was an Emmy for Best Food-to-Meth Transition Shot, this would take the absolute cake.

The fancy meth factory is in full swing, Willy Wonka style. Burying the meth bags in buckets of chicken batter. This episode feels a lot lighter and funnier than those prior, there’s something ironic about a class A drug being stashed in a class KFC drug (secret chicken batter). The hilarity continues with Jesse’s bizarre appropriation of “kafkaesque”, a word he picked up from his sponsor:

But the laughs stop as Hank finally wakes up, and is clearly paralysed from the waist down. Skylar offers to pay for Hank’s treatments with the drug money, she lies and says Walt accumulated a small fortune counting cards. It’s amazing how quickly and skilfully Skyler has adapted to this life of crime. She’s a really good liar, not to mention she’s blackmailing Walt due to his (assumed) involvement in Hank’s attack. Go Skyler, way to make lemonade.

I feel like you could use “Kafkaesque” to appropriately describe the episode that follows, if for nothing more than the heavy insect imagery and the relentless trapping in one location. ‘Fly’ is an incredible bottle episode set entirely in the lab. It comes at welcome time in the series – slowing down the pace and bringing the focus back to the relationship between Jesse and Walt.

fly_red

Hopelessly trying to clear the contamination in the lab (a fly), Walt and Jesse get some quality time together, sharing concerns about Opossums (Jesse) and nearly confessing to killing Jane (Walt). As Walt slowly falls asleep whilst holding a ladder for Jesse, we are reminded of his ailing health.

Those little nudges are necessary at times, it’s easy to forget that he isn’t as invincible as his huge moves and little black hat suggest.

Day Thirteen: Friday 9 January 10pm

Watched: Episode 11

The focus of this episode is finding a place for Walt to stash his cash. Saul wants him to buy a laser tag business, smart Skyler suggests he buys out the carwash he used to work in. She’s getting bloody involved, and she’s frankly loving the money laundering life.

sw6

In a deeply sad turn, Jesse finds a new meth-user girlfriend, Andrea. It’s not long before we realise that she is the older sister of Tomas, the young boy who shot Combo. Jesse goes from villain to hero with the swish of a cardigan, vowing to free Tomas from his gang trappings. And not get his older sister back into meth. I sure hope.

Day Fourteen, Saturday 10 January 3pm

Watched: Episodes 12 & 13

It’s the middle of a sunny day, but I can’t wait anymore.

Skylar and Walt meet outside her house to talk money laundering. The camera is pulled metres away as we hear them talk to the point where we can barely see their face – the total opposite of what a secret conversation should look like onscreen. They are there in the plain open for everyone to see, just like their fragile plans.

Jesse’s poison-burger plan to kill Tomas’ drug overlords backfires, and the poor little boy gets shot. Walt swings in at the last minute and runs the bad guys over.

Give me that risin, I can’t make it through the stress of another ep. But I must.

The final episode of the season opens with young Walt and Skyler buying their home together. Walt wants three bedrooms for their three predicted babies (little does he know that Jesse will end up being the final adopted child.)

young

Gus goes to talk to Gale about how soon he could run the lab solo. At this point, I naively thought he was being supportive and talking about Gale’s career goals, and didn’t realise that it was because he was planning to kill Walt. Must remember to stay alert and aware of subtext at all times.

goals

Walt is picked up by Mike, taken to “clean something” in the lab. Again, I forgot to use my brain and asked out loud why Walt was so upset at the prospect of scrubbing a barrel. It was really a euphemism, and Walt was being sent to his death. All the while, Jesse is heading to Gale’s crib to pop a cap in his cardigan ass.

Gale opens the door, Jesse is crying and then fires the gun.

Oh my god, Jesse the killah. RIP Gale.

Keep going!
walt wiltin’
walt wiltin’

RecapsJanuary 11, 2015

Summer in a Meth Lab: The Breaking Bad Season Two Diaries

walt wiltin’
walt wiltin’

Alex Casey has never watched a second of Breaking Bad, nor read anything about it. Going in completely blind, she has committed to watching the whole series over summer in the lead up to spin off series Better Call Saul‘s arrival to Lightbox in February. Contains spoilers, obviously.

Day Three: Thursday 18 December, 7am

Watched: Season two, Episode One

I woke up early SANS alarm, with enough time to squeeze in the first episode. I couldn’t face another day in the real world without knowing what happens to Walt, Jesse and bloody Tuco.

the tuco touch
the tuco touch

Turns out Tuco is a bit of psycho – beating his henchman to death and then ordering Walt to perform CPR on his bloodied corpse. Walt returns to family life and it’s pretty clear he is starting to lose the plot a bit. There is a particularly uncomfortable scene where he forces himself onto Skyler in the kitchen. He’s rapidly becoming a very awful person and it’s stressful to watch him unravel.

The paranoia of both Walt and Jesse is palpable, as they spend their days peering through curtains and arming up against Tuco. Rightly so because, at the end of the episode, he kidnaps them at gunpoint and forces them to drive god knows where. Hell of a start to the season. Seems like a cliffhanger from the end of a season, rather than an episode one kind of deal.

Day Four: Saturday 20 December 6pm

Watched: Episodes 2-6

Thank god it rained today so I didn’t have to do any of the fun outdoor social activities I had planned, and instead could smoke up a lethal amount of Breaking Bad.

the happy family
the happy family

Episode two better have won some kind of Golden Globe for “Best Use of a Bell as a Dramatic Device”, bloody hell. Shacked up with crazy drug lord Tuco and his wheelchair-bound grandfather who relies on a bell to communicate – Jesse and Walt are truly up shite creek without a paddle.

The pair might not have paddles, but they sure as hell have some magic poison bean thing that Walt has made to kill Tuco. They try to administer it to him various ways, slipping it into his burrito like you would a sick cat.

With the Grandfather witnessing the murderous scheme, he violently tries to communicate to Tuco using only his bell. It was so tense hearing the incessant dings that I genuinely feel a little jumpy now when I hear someone get a text (if they have a bell sound) (my Dad).

Somebody edited this weird/pretty accurate bell usage montage together:

The poison doesn’t work out so Walt ends up shooting Tuco, just ahead of the arrival of D.E.A Officer and brother-in-law Hank who has tracked Jesse’s car to the location. Surely they’ll get caught soon, right? Surely it’s impossible to write them out of this mess, right?

fresh buns aisle 7
fresh buns aisle 7

Wrong. The seamless return of Walt and Jesse back from the desert in the next episode just goes to show, as if there was any doubt there, that the Breaking Bad writers are a lot smarter than I. Sending Jesse on a truck with some hitchhikers – genius. Walt passing his disappearance off as a chemo-induced blackout and gets naked in a supermarket before being picked up and returned home. Hell of an alibi.

For the next few episodes, Skyler is right on the cusp of leaving Walt. I can feel it. Despite his expert naked-in-aisle-seven excuse, she found his burner phone and ain’t buying any more of his lies. Skyler is amazing at summoning that suffocating silent cloud of a person who knows they are being lied to. It makes me psychically anxious when I see her Iooking at Walt so knowingly.

The cracks are turning into giant crevices, and I reckon Walt’s about to get swallowed up deep into the earth. I quite like how he’s able to evade the DEA, druglords, his colleagues, dealers, and yet can’t quite get past the old wife. There’s got to be a little message there.

art
art

Meanwhile, Jesse has been kicked out of home, robbed of all his possessions and has crawled his way back to the Meth RV HQ via a terrible Portaloo stunt. I find it incredible that this show even makes spilt blue Portaloo water look like a goddamn Monet.

Talking of art, time to discuss the opening teasers for season two. These beautiful textural black and white shots begin underwater inside Walt’s pool, panning up to reveal various bits of evidence being collected for some reason. Deft use of colour select highlights a bright pink bear with a missing eye, which I hope to someday figure out the significance of.

Episode five is all about Hank, which I loved. Hank is a very interesting character, his bulky bald Michael Chiklis-in-The Shield-style veneer isn’t going to hold up much longer – it’s clear the guy has some deeply bottled anxiety issue. He gets promoted to some serious work on the Mexican border, which brings with it a string of panic attacks. I like that the show isn’t afraid to divert the attention to the other characters for extended periods of time. Sometimes you even forget about Walt, which seems like a massive feat in itself.

:(
:(

Pinkman gets a starring role in episode six, trapped in a house with some meth heads who knifed one of Walt’s dealers for cash. Wanting the money back, Jesse is shacked up waiting for them to give in. There’s a little dirty kid in the house too, a poignant reminder of the terrible effects of addiction on the innocent.

At this point, Walt (and the audience alike) has been comfortably distanced from the ‘reality’ of meth users, so the little boy feels like an important inclusion. We have seen Walt raking in mega cash and Jesse buying a flat screen – the poor little kid is an amazing reminder that cuts down any glamour or false heroism that may have previously been established in relation to meth. I no longer want to do even one meth.

Day Five: Sunday 21 Decmber 7a.m

Watched: Episodes 7 & 8

Had to wake up at 5am to drop my boyfriend at the airport. Came home and instead of doing the logical sleep thing – I squeezed in two more episodes.

I’ll make this quick because I have to go to work soon. Episode seven (“Negro y Azul”) is one of the most action-packed yet, delivering maybe the most powerful imagery of the season with drug lord Tortuga’s dismembered head prancing across the desert on a tortoise. Looking forward to Hank’s severe PTSD after that one.

The episode genre-bends again and ends like a straight-up romantic comedy, with Jesse finally winning over his landlord in a very cute scene featuring an untuned flatscreen. Shout out to episode seven for bringing the most disgusting and adorable shots of the season.

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Next up we meet Saul Goodman (episode eight), the criminal lawyer who puts the criminal in criminal lawyer. After Badger is arrested for dealing, the cops are after Heisenberg. Saul and the guys come up with a plan to send a similar looking bald guy to prison for Walt. Bob Odenkirk as Saul provides some much needed laughter amongst the screams of horror and stress, and it’s great to watch imagining him getting his own show. I can’t wait for Better Call Saul.

Day Six: Wednesday 24 December, 7.30pm

Watched: Epsiodes 9-12

Episode nine could almost be a short film on it’s own, isolated to pretty much one location. Pretending to visit his mother for the weekend, Walt heads out with Jesse to cook up a storm in the desert. He has just found out he needs an operation so has to make major dosh to pay for it. They make $672,000 worth. Each.

Of course though, the RV doesn’t start because Pinkman did something dumb. Watching them slowly waste away in the desert whilst trying to figure out a solution is great fun – maybe helped because I have the knowledge that they have to live for at least 3 more seasons…

Our classic black and white opening teaser has gone nek level in episode ten, revealing two BODIES in BAGS. Who dies?? Oh my god two people are going to die. Walt is starting to permeate family life with his villainous streak, forcing Walt Jr to drink gallons of tequila in some weird macho-off with Hank. Poor Walt Jr ends up chucking in the pool. We’ve all been there mate.

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Stacked with cash, Walt gets fixing the leaky water cylinder in their house. I only mention this because there is an incredible transition shot where the drip from a pipe turns to a drip in a meth-making kit, to a drip from a teabag. Those little intricate cinematic moments are so prevalent you often have to force yourself to point them out.

We lose one of Walt’s drug dealers in episode eleven – a robust gent who looks like the lead singer of Smash Mouth. It’s a very heavy and “plotty” ep, with the beginning of a turf war, the relapse of Jesse’s girlfriend into meth and Skyler’s boss admitting to millions of dollars of unreported revenue at their company. I’m not 100% sold on the boss storyline yet, but it provides a nice little contrast with the secretive workings of white collar and blue collar crime. Is drug dealing blue collar? It’s got to be. The meth is blue, at the very least.

Oh yeah, Skyler sung this creepy rendition of “Happy Birthday” to her boss as well:

We also meet the Chicken Shop Man (Gus), an undercover brother much like Walt who is doing huge drug deals from a delicious fried chicken restaurant. He’s a chilling character, switching from affable manager banter to stone cold killer faster than you can open a quarter pack.

i'm buying
i’m buying

Walt misses the birth of his baby for the Chicken Shop deal, but the ratty boss made it to Skyler’s side – which does not look great for Walt. I was deeply excited to see that Walt Jr’s donation website (www.savewalterwhite.com) is still functional, and greatly assists strengthening the line between the real the fake (that I am already proudly stepping over in my semi-delusional state).

The highlight of episode 12 has to be, as in any great artistic work, when the characters mentioned New Zealand. After getting their share of the cash, our (now heroin using) couple of the year Jesse and Jane expand their travel options beyond their bedroom. “Let’s go to New Zealand – that’s where they made Lord of the Rings!” Be still my beating hobbit heart.

Anyway, those Matamata dreams were quashed because Jane choked on her vomit whilst shooting up soon after.

Day Seven: Thursday 25th December aka Christmas Day, 11.30am

Watched: Episode 13

After I watched the finale I found myself escaping to the beach with the dogs to clear my head/breathe some fresh air. Walking along the beach, a small spherical object washed up at my feet. It was an eye-shaped bead. After the reveal in episode thirteen, I now know the one-eyed bear is due to the dramatic plane crash that happens above Walt’s house.

But that doesn’t make the coincidence any less weird.

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Can’t tell if this is life imitating art – or me slowly losing my mind. Either way, I definitely have lung cancer.

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