Breaking Bad

[clackamascoug]

In these Dog Days of Summer, I was thinking about watching the last 4 episodes again, and with your post above you've pulled me back in...

[Omaha 680]

Can't say I see that one.

She says that TP was a television pioneer in a few ways. One was bringing movie-style storytelling to TV. Another was exploring very dark themes. TP was put in a primetime soap opera genre, but it was much, much darker. Lynch was obsessed with exploring the dark side of human nature and pushed the boundaries in the TP story about as far as network television would allow in the early 90s. Also the filming style can be similar. Any time BB opened with an extended shot on an object that took a while to reveal what was happening, she would be reminded of Lynch. He was always doing that and the masses just thought it was weird at the time.

I'm not even a novice critic so I'm not saying these are groundbreaking observations but the comparisons seemed valid to me. Anyway, looks like Vince Gilligan got his start in the biz writing for The X-Files.

[MarkGrace]

She says that TP was a television pioneer in a few ways. One was bringing movie-style storytelling to TV. Another was exploring very dark themes. TP was put in a primetime soap opera genre, but it was much, much darker. Lynch was obsessed with exploring the dark side of human nature and pushed the boundaries in the TP story about as far as network television would allow in the early 90s. Also the filming style can be similar. Any time BB opened with an extended shot on an object that took a while to reveal what was happening, she would be reminded of Lynch. He was always doing that and the masses just thought it was weird at the time.

I'm not even a novice critic so I'm not saying these are groundbreaking observations but the comparisons seemed valid to me. Anyway, looks like Vince Gilligan got his start in the biz writing for The X-Files.

Twin Peaks was definitely pioneer, but movie-style storytelling and dark themes have been the hallmark of the new golden age of television that started in the 2000s. Probably not terribly wrong to say those things started with Twin Peaks, but those are really broad comparisons at this point, and you can fit a pile of shows in there (starting with The Sopranos and running all the way through more recent stuff like House of Cards and True Detective). IDK, never seemed particularly Lynch-ian to me. TV-wise it always ran closer to stuff like The Wire and Sopranos in scope and theme, and of course its greatest influence was always Scarface.

[GeoArch]

Any time BB opened with an extended shot on an object that took a while to reveal what was happening, she would be reminded of Lynch. He was always doing that and the masses just thought it was weird at the time.

I'm not familiar with Twin Peaks, but (assuming I'm thinking of the same types of shots you are talking about) I always attributed such shots to the Chekhov's gun principle.

Is anyone looking forward to the Breaking Bad prequel?

[imanihonjin]

I'm not familiar with Twin Peaks, but (assuming I'm thinking of the same types of shots you are talking about) I always attributed such shots to the Chekhov's gun principle.

Is anyone looking forward to the Breaking Bad prequel?

Are you talking about the one of pre-breaking bad Saul, or is there some other prequel thing they are doing?

It may turn out really well but most of these things don't. I hope they end up scrapping it and not tarnish what they created in BB.

[MarkGrace]

Season 2 of Better Call Saul has already been ordered and the show hasn't even aired yet.

[Jeff Lebowski]

Season 2 of Better Call Saul has already been ordered and the show hasn't even aired yet.

When does it start?

Sounds like a terrible mistake to me.

[GeoArch]

When does it start?

They started filming last month. I don't know if an air date has been announced yet.

[MarkGrace]

When does it start?

Sounds like a terrible mistake to me.

All I've read is early '15. Don't think there's a specific date yet.

[Commando]

I'm not familiar with Twin Peaks, but (assuming I'm thinking of the same types of shots you are talking about) I always attributed such shots to the Chekhov's gun principle.

Is anyone looking forward to the Breaking Bad prequel?

The series takes place before, during, and after the events of BB. Bob Odenkirk is golden- I am looking forward to this.

[Donuthole]

I just hope it's not ultimately a traveshamockery.

[Omaha 680]

Twin Peaks was definitely pioneer, but movie-style storytelling and dark themes have been the hallmark of the new golden age of television that started in the 2000s. Probably not terribly wrong to say those things started with Twin Peaks, but those are really broad comparisons at this point, and you can fit a pile of shows in there (starting with The Sopranos and running all the way through more recent stuff like House of Cards and True Detective). IDK, never seemed particularly Lynch-ian to me. TV-wise it always ran closer to stuff like The Wire and Sopranos in scope and theme, and of course its greatest influence was always Scarface.

Here is a "tournament" Vulture.com did to find determine the best drama of the last 25 years. In the intro article they talked about TP quite a bit:

All of which goes to explain the fizzy-headed clamor that greeted Twin Peaks upon its April 8, 1990 debut. Here was a show that was not only willfully, almost nonchalantly weird, but also seemingly unaware of the demands of the network drama: Characters disappeared and reappeared with little warning; seemingly benign props (logs, pies, a diner jukebox) became totems of lust or dread; and story lines took months to resolve themselves — that is, if they even resolved themselves at all. Twin Peaks was a TV show that didn’t seem to know it was a TV show, and its mere existence conveyed a strangely empowering message to TV viewers everywhere, people who’d long been content with neuron-dimming procedurals and plod-heavy soaps: You’re smarter than this.

Peaks marked an epochal moment for television, one that launched a whole new wave of inventive hour-long drama and, thanks to David Lynch's very specific vision, birthed the era of the celebrity showrunner, the Head Motherwriter in Charge whom fans worshipped as much as or more than the shows' stars, and upon whom they placed all responsibility for the show's highs and lows. And so, when Vulture set out to organize the ultimate TV-drama bracket, which begins today, we used Peaks’ 1990 debut as our entry point, making it one of just sixteen shows we’ll be putting head-to-head in the next three weeks as we work toward crowning the best drama of TV’s New Golden Age. These are shows like NYPD Blue, Buffy, The Wire, and Breaking Bad — series with neatly tangled story lines, grimly hilarious dialogue, and characters who inspire loyalty, love, and the occasional fan-fic dispatch. Shows that (enabled by the immortalization of DVDs and streaming video) are strenuously worshipped or debated years after they went off the air: In the past two weeks alone, President Obama repeated his deep conviction that Omar is The Wire's greatest character, while the AV Club heretically posted that the HBO model has damaged TV by making dramas more about the overall arc than individual episodes.

http://www.vulture.com/2012/03/the-b...-25-years.html

The first round actually pitted TP against Breaking Bad.

The creators of both Twin Peaks and Breaking Bad are masters at defying convention. Here we have two shows that refuse to be simply comedies or dramas. These are true, dark dramedies, their central mysteries sprinkled with bleak (but always truthful) laughs. We witnessed Cranston’s comedy chops as the dad on Malcolm in the Middle, and he’s just as funny playing Walt. We laugh with and at him, especially when he’s at the end of his rope. The comedy of Breaking Bad stems from the ridiculous things we humans say and do when we’re at our breaking points — such as when Walt, locked out of his house by his wife, Skyler (Anna Gunn), reacts by throwing a pizza onto the roof. (Later on, he wakes up hung-over and alone, and proceeds to grabs his crotch and yell, “I’ve got your restraining order right here!” while standing alone in his underwear.)


Twin Peaks, on the other hand, utilizes the comedy of the totally, totally absurd — not out-of-this-world ridiculous, but everyday moments taken to a new place: The elaborate doughnut arrangements constructed by Lucy, the well-intentioned police secretary; Cooper’s obsessive recordings to his assistant, Diane; and the way reclusive housewife Nadine obsesses over her silent drapes.


In addition to being unexpectedly hilarious, there’s another compelling reason why we love these shows: The creators think we are geniuses. They trust us. With Twin Peaks, Lynch relies heavily on subconscious images and motifs. He trusts us to either recognize these from long-gone episodes, or — if we don’t — still garner some meaning from what we are watching, nonsensical as a scene may seem. A loyal viewer will watch the show come full circle, though it’s never quite spelled out. Intellectually delicious.

Meanwhile, back on Bad, Gilligan trusts that we’ll stick by Walt no matter what he does. He’s created a show focusing on a main character who’s constantly changing, as opposed to the conventional TV protagonist who will fundamentally stay the same from season to season. Walter White is a good guy who becomes the bad guy — and then becomes an even worse guy. As we watch him commit his first murder, strangling a meth dealer to death with a bike lock out of self-defense, we understand why he does it. Gilligan trusts us as empathetic human beings, people who understand that things aren’t always so black-and-white.

One final comparison point between those two shows: MURDER. Or, more specifically, how they treat death. When watching Law & Order or Body of Proof, it’s somehow simple to separate yourself from a scene of ghastly demise. You’re safe on your futon, the horror trapped safely within the confines of your screen, with only the possibility that it will visit you later in your dreams. But both Twin Peaks and Breaking Bad make these scenes inescapable and somehow shed new light on something we’ve seen a hundred times before. Twin Peaks makes death beautiful; Breaking Bad, specific and painfully real. And its protagonists respond accordingly.

The writer predictably (and correctly) gave the win to BB.

[chrisrenrut]

The series takes place before, during, and after the events of BB. Bob Odenkirk is golden- I am looking forward to this.

Mike Ermentrout will be a significant presence as well. Mike was one of my favorite BB characters.

AMC has it listed on their website under "Shows". http://www.amctv.com/shows/better-call-saul

Better Call Saul is the prequel to the award-winning series Breaking Bad, set six years before Saul Goodman (Bob Odenkirk) became Walter White’s lawyer. When we meet him, the man who will become Saul Goodman is known as Jimmy McGill, a small-time lawyer searching for his destiny, and, more immediately, hustling to make ends meet. Working alongside, and often against, Jimmy is "fixer" Mike Erhmantraut (Jonathan Banks), a beloved character introduced in Breaking Bad. The series will track Jimmy's transformation into Saul Goodman, the man who puts "criminal" in "criminal lawyer."

[MarkGrace]

Here is a "tournament" Vulture.com did to find determine the best drama of the last 25 years. In the intro article they talked about TP quite a bit:



http://www.vulture.com/2012/03/the-b...-25-years.html

The first round actually pitted TP against Breaking Bad.





The writer predictably (and correctly) gave the win to BB.

I agree that Twin Peaks is one of the best dramas of the last 25 years.

[Omaha 680]

I agree that Twin Peaks is one of the best dramas of the last 25 years.

LOL. OK I'll stop now.