Schwartzblog archives We open this week, not with a stylized tone poem, but with a BB mainstay: some gangsters meet in the desert to talk business and why they should/shouldn’t murder Walter White. The outcome of this meeting is not really in question; not only is it beginning of the episode, but we have half … Continue reading
Schwartzblog archives Our cold open this week is a spin on the “body disposal” sequence we’ve seen in many a crime movie/show over the years, including this one. But rather than a graphic dismembering of the kid’s body, we get a somber, methodical dismantling of his dirtbike. I’m not sure why exactly the went this … Continue reading
Schwartzblog archives This week’s cold open is short and simple, as we are introduced to a kid taking the dirt bike out tarantula hunting, which is one of those activities that sounds absolutely filthy until you realize it’s literal. This would be obtuse or confusing on another show, but I’ve been conditioned at this point … Continue reading
Schwartzblog archives Adios, Pontiac Aztek. You were one of television’s great punching bags for the last few years, and you will be missed. I have to imagine your new owner will treat you kinder than the last one, though. I’m even starting to suspect he may have been harboring some passive-aggression toward what you represented … Continue reading
Schwartzblog archives This week’s cold open is very straightforward, with no major temporal or spacial shifts or impressionistic flourishes. Instead, it shows us more of Mike takin’ care of business (and working overtime). I liked it more than last week’s episode because he is more purposeful, snazzy in his suit, and clever in his … Continue reading
Schwartzblog archives One of the strangest cold opens we’ve ever had this week, with a long prelude to an unknown executive, presumably played by Bill Nighy’s non-union German equivalent, committing some form of electric hara-kiri as the police close in on Los Pollos Hermanos international connections. I don’t know what exactly we’re supposed to take … Continue reading
Schwartzblog archives No one does cold opens like Breaking Bad. Not The Shield. Not Lost. Not Buffy. Not The Wire. Those all did them well, don’t get me wrong. But we never know what we’re going to get from the opening of a BB episode. It could be a flashback. It could be a … Continue reading
Schwartzblog archives Season Four does something new, and actually opens with a clean up episode. And a great example of how the show builds tension out of long, quiet stretches and stillness. The scene in that episode? Nearly ten minutes, uninterrupted, with no dialogue from anyone but Walter. Most shows would cut to commercial … Continue reading
Links to all prior blogs I mentioned last time that I don’t think of Breaking Bad as a particularly slow show. At least not in the sense that we usually mean when we say that, which is that the overall plot moves slowly, that entire episodes go by just spinning the wheels, and there are … Continue reading
Season 1 On to season 2. The premiere is a bit of an odd duck, as it plays like a part two of the first season finale, but that one didn’t really end on a cliffhanger or demand that things pick up immediately. It’s neither the beginning nor end of the Tuco storyline. But it … Continue reading