After watching the first scene of Breaking Bad in class, I couldn’t bear the suspense, and had to know the story behind the naked man with a gas mask in an RV in the desert. I started the show the night of that assignment, and finished it last weekend. The show revolves around chemistry teacher Walter White, who gets diagnosed with terminal lung cancer very early in the series. He is given a few months to live, and wants to leave his family in the best manner possible. To do this, he teams up with former student Jesse Pinkman, and resorts to cooking meth. To narrow down this breakdown of Breaking Bad while avoiding spoilers, I will focus only on season two. The opening scene of the first episode, which is shown in the link below, seems very detached from the first season and even most of the following episodes of the second season. The color scheme is gray, with a dominant feature being the teddy bear, the only colored object, and the bear’s eye. The non diegetic audio of police sirens leaves the audience with absolutely no idea what is going on. The usage of this scene fits a common pattern throughout the show, where a scene will play that foreshadows an event down the road. In this case, a plane blew up in one of the last episodes of the season right above Walter’s house, and for sentimental reasons he keeps the eye of the teddy bear. In one of the last episodes of the final season, the eye is displayed on screen, bringing the scene back to one’s memory. The director used foreshadowing constantly throughout the series to create suspense, and this is only a single example of that. Giving a what seems to be random scene causes one to think deeply about its meaning, not realizing the show would loop back around to the scene later.
As for me, this show is one of my favorites of all time. The amount of deception and intellect Walter White used was unbelievable. He battled cancer and made millions of dollars from cooking meth all while keeping his criminal activities secret from his immediate family and his brother-in-law, who was an agent with the Drug Enforcement Administration. The show kept me on the edge of my seat at all times because it was so unpredictable. I never thought he would make it as far as he did especially because he was frantically driving an RV while naked through a desert in the first episode. Walter White’s capabilities seemed to have no end, he was a master negotiator, meth cook, and even a good fighter when he needed to. His lying abilities were impeccable. He did not let cancer dictate his life, he controlled his life, and because of that he is one of my favorite characters in any TV show, and Breaking Bad was very enjoyable largely because of him.
This is the aforementioned opening scene of season two.
Hey Terry, I really liked what you said about Breaking Bad, it's one of my favorite shows too. I definitely feel that suspense you talked about when watching it, and definitely did not see some of the twists coming. Also I definitely agree that opening scene of every episode creates create suspense especially towards the end of the season where you wonder how it fits in. It keeps the audience guessing and wondering if something bad will happen to Walt. Something you didn't touch on that I like about Breaking Bad is that the main character himself is not a good person. Our protagonist is a large scale meth cooker, but the show itself makes us root for him even though he could be considered "the bad guy".
ReplyDeleteSubjectively, I completely agree and Breaking Bad is definitely one of my favorite shows as well. The way the suspense is created, how the plot develops, the great acting, it's all incredible to watch. It is a show that I binge watched all the season over the course of about a week, and will probably binge watch all of them again pretty soon. Finally I like how you said Walt makes the show great, because he truly does. The actor does an incredible job of portraying a man who wanted to take control and accomplish a goal, even if that goal was to make money cooking meth.
I 100% agree with you Terry, It's a one of a kind show with every character having a crustal role to play with zero overlapping personality. The amount of illegal projects Walt got away with is just crazy, even with his lack of knowledge about the drug industry he lived and learned to keep his head in dramatic situations and always came out on top. All while his relationship with Jessy fluctuates and they never really are on the same level of gratitude, this makes them my favorite duo in movie history, the chemistry between them is just perfect. Also I couldn't agree more the director foreshadows an accident that happened at Walt's house, making the viewer think that something happened to the family because of his connections with drug dealers. Plus with a deadline of Walt's life he doesn't care about himself and is only getting money for his family after he dies.
ReplyDeleteTerry, I unfortunately fell victimless to the same thing. Once I say the opening scene I waited a few days but as boredom got to me one day, I remembered back to class and decided why not. As of you I finished the whole series in only a matter of a week and a half, binge watching it the whole way through. In fact I was just about to write my be Reel blog on the series but judgment got the better of me and I decided to do my favorite movie instead, Monty Python Holy Grail. Breaking Bad in my opinion is a must watch, if you like a more serious series this is the one for you. With no spoilers, the ending of the series was in my own words, Disappointing. A lot of questions still bounced around in my head and I asked myself,”Is this really the end”. This TV series is all about how one person lives his life to the fullest. To provide for his family where at one time, should not be provided for, but again no spoilers. Breaking bad is a show that you can watch whenever you want to and you will remember everything that happened before. Its entertaining and I agree With terry that the rating Is a Good-Good.
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