Forgive me readers for I have sinned.
Last week, I wrote this post awarding Mad Men my distinguished "TV Season of the Year" award. To be clear, I'm not taking it back. If I were to rewrite that post today it wouldn't change much. However, I feel the need to come clean as I misrepresented my watching of Breaking Bad in that, when I wrote that post, I actually had three episodes left* in the season.
* In my further defense, obviously Friday Night Lights Season 4 and the Parks and Recreation season are not done yet either and there was no problem with including them.
Don't worry dedicated fans of the "TV Season of the Year" award, it has not been compromised. Matthew Weiner, Jon Hamm...stay calm, you're still in first place. I just want to give Breaking Bad its full due since I commented on it before watching the last three phenomenal episodes of the season.
A well-executed drama series will, naturally, build up to the end. The Baltimore PD arrests Avon Barksdale, the Dillon Panthers roll toward State, Loch finally goes into the hatch...that sort of thing. Now, I knew Breaking Bad was building to something, but it turned out to be far, far better than I imagined.
Again, this is a weird blog post for me to write since I don't think anybody who reads it has ever seen Breaking Bad and probably knows nothing more about it than, "Hey, isn't that the dad from Malcolm in the Middle?" And, honestly, probably not even that--not that you should, Malcolm in the Middle isn't exactly The Great Gatsby of serialized television. So, I'm not going to talk about the specifics of the show so much as the devices it employs to really make the end the season come together in an incredible way.
I'm going to ruin one thing for any potential viewers because it's something you know right from the beginning: Walt's (Bryan Cranston) wife is pregnant. She's pregnant for two whole seasons. You kind of get used to it. And, sure enough, when that baby comes, it is at the absolute worst time for Walt. A phrase that used to get tossed around in my screenwriting class was "surprising but inevitable." That is, of course the baby was going to come at the worst time, it had to. It was set up that way for the whole season. But, yet, it's set up over such a long period of time that you almost forget it's coming (they make sure of this in a couple of clever ways as well) and then the show reminds you of that possibility a scene before it actually happens just to give you a few moments of, "Oh my god. Holy crap. Not now? Right? It couldn't be now...holy crap." It's a remarkable convergence of two story lines.
Along the same lines (of the surprising but inevitable) is tension and release. The whole show is predicated around Walt having one gigantic secret, capable of ruining his entire life. It is inevitable that this secret will get out (see: Draper, Don), otherwise there's no show. It sneaks out in little ways here and there, always just enough to really screw something up for Walt. Now, this isn't to say it necessarily gets all the way out at the end of Season 2 (it doesn't) but it gets out just enough to change things in a way the viewer couldn't have seen coming until about five minutes before. The release of this secret (in this slightly altered way) is among the show's most gripping moments.
Something I did mention earlier, the two leads are outstanding. It took me a while to get on board with Walt's partner and former student, Jesse (Aaron Paul), but he surprisingly becomes the more sympathetic and relatable character. At first I didn't like him because he seemed too goofy, but I realize now it was intentional in that, like many people who run in these dark circles, he was merely trying to fit in and play a part. Once the humanity and helplessness of his character is revealed he almost reminds me of one of the tragic school kids from Season 4 of The Wire. The interplay between the two is great: rich in comedy, full of contempt, and, eventually, transforming into a genuine yet unusual bond.
So, my apologies to Vince Gilligan and the folks over at Breaking Bad. You still didn't quite nab that gold medal, but you made it a closer race than I initially gave you credit for. I'm anxiously awaiting the Season 3 premiere in March.
Big Love is my next show to catch-up on. I'll probably be done with that in a few months, unless I don't like it--which seems unlikely given all I've heard about it.
Back soon with some more posts on books I've finished recently; I enjoyed writing about David Foster Wallace yesterday and I think I need to get a little more literature into this blog.
Cheers.
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