bloggie blog

This time, Breaking Bad opens with a music video. Or should I say, video de música? Los Cuates de Sinaloa cantan «Negro y Azul». Claro que Sinaloa se conoce por tener las mujeres más guapas en todo México, y supongo que eso quiere decir que en esta semana, el Breaking Malo va a tener chicas guapas. ¡Qué bueno! Aquí se puede ver otra video de «Los Cuates» con chica media desnuda. Y aquí se puede leer una entrevista con ellos.

Okay, back to English — after saying that cuate means comrade, equal, some dude from where you’re from. The lyrics to their Black and Blue (this episode’s title, too) are sung in a vocal range akin to speaking. I wonder if that’s how they always roll. But the lyrics are translated sloppily, with “potent” instead of the better “powerful,” and the all-too-common mistake of using a reverse apostrophe at the start of a word to indicate the omission of letters. “Talkin’ ‘bout” should be “Talkin’ ’bout.” ¡Drives me crazy! All of this is preview, probably with Bryan Cranston’s stand-in, so let’s move on past the first 4 minutes.

Some more teacher. Then lots of fallout from last week’s intense episode, rehashing the kid, the ATM, the sound. Then a great line for those moments when a grey lie is needed: “You didn’t hear that from me.” Got to remember that one!

Later:
“I’m a blowfish?”
“You are a blowfish.”
“I’m a blowfish.”
“Say it like you mean it!”
“I am a blowfish!”

Finally, for a second, I thought I saw a scene not shot on location. One moment where Dean Norris, the poor schmuck that doesn’t habla the Spanish, looks over the valley seems to be filmed on set. Quickly forgotten, because s#|t goes down. ¡Caracho! Things are getting malo.

I want to write about another episode of Breaking Bad. Again, I’m late, about 13 days this time. Again, the opening credits include a non-element in the name of the DP. Again, it’s an awesome show.

In this episode, we see further how the bad in Jesse‘s and Walter‘s lives creeps along, spreads further. Jesse has to go protect his drug racket, and pulls out the revolver to do so. Skyler thanks their benefactors for the money her husband didn’t get from them, so a lie will be unraveled? This is the Act I setup, counterbalanced by an everyday event, a long chemistry lecture about carbon and diamonds and H. Tracy Hall, on the normal first day of school … where not everything can really be normal now, can it?

When we return to Jesse, he’s still waiting for his victims, but playing peekaboo with their unfortunate kid. Cute and dirty. Later we see — and even more so, hear — one of the grossest deaths ever, but it was particularly satisfying, too. How easily done, how deliciously deserved.

At the end I thought that in this episode a young boy plays a key role and this cute young actor never speaks. Well written, well acted, well shot. (Carmen Serano and Jessica Hecht give awesome guest star work, too.) The boy seems to be a parallel to the work Mark Margolis played earlier this season, non-speaking and brilliant acting at the opposite end of life’s spectrum. Heartbreaking situations. And beautiful.

The writing is so beautiful when you stop and think about how they are weaving in all these bad things, keeping the show fresh, a mix of expected and unexpected problems when you get involved over your head with drugs and such. The bad is beautiful to me on this show. With one exception: Skyler and Walter seem to be going nowhere in there scenes together because their scenes together are getting repetitive.

This episode of Breaking Bad aired on April 5, and now 13 days later I’m blogging about it. Hmm. I guess that means I don’t have to worry about spoiler alerts!

DP MiChael Slovis’s credit is still out of whack, periodically speaking. And this episode is directed by Johan Renck. Re is the symbol for the chemical element rhenium, a rare metal, rarer than molybdenum and often found with it. Okay, you know what? I don’t really know where any metal comes from, let alone molybdenum. Oh sure, I’ve heard of mining, but in my tangible life it’s as relevant as alchemy.

On with the show. I noted that the DEA’s office (the excellent Dean Norris plays our main man there), shows an address in reverse lettering on the façade as they leave the lobby of 400 Gold SW. That building is shown here on Google Maps. Nice location scouting: a building without windows could well be a goverment building.

Did anybody else notice the vertical distance between the waist of Jesse (the excellent AAron Paul) with his lowriders and the waist of Jane (played by Krysten Ritter) with her long legs, skinny frame and high pants? I think her pants’ waistline was 2 feet higher off the ground than Jesse’s. It was a weird juxtaposition. But a good scene. I’m pretty sure we’ll be seeing a lot of Jane.

Later in this episode, an extended musical montage thingy. Wha?!?! So not this show! But the unappealing characters therein: so this show.

Just saw the first episode of the second season of In Treatment, the show starring Gabriel Byrne on HBO. It’s so good. I saw most episodes of the first season — though the 2 or 3 episodes I missed had some of the most pivotal plot elements!

It’s such good acting, and it’s all about character. That’s why I like it and recommend it highly. When I heard the sparse opening music, it took me back to my Newton apartment where I watched the first season. Good memories. I’m not going to blog about every episode like I’m committed to doing with Breaking Bad, but I may write from time to time.

Right off the bat, we have a variation of the brief B&W opening from Episode 201. And it reminds me more of Sunset Boulevard in that it seems to indicate the death of the protagonist. Can it be?!

The immediately we jump into the most mundane family scene ever in the history of BB. Great. We know what that means. The lull before the storm. The storm in this case turns out to be pretty passive aggressive. In short: this is an excellent episode revolving around family, or the lack thereof. And now I’m almost caught up!

I am late in blogging about this season’s 3rd episode of Breaking Bad. Oops!

It opens with a scene with actors, unlike the first 2 episodes. Somewhere I heard that Bryan Cranston very much likes to work with his pants off — and many, many scenes have found him in his BVD’s for this series. But you get him baked in the desert — literally, from heat not drugs — and he’ll even lose the briefs. So it begins.

Guest star Michael ShAmus Wiles: for your opening credit, you get americium, the most patriotic element. Tom KiEsche: you get einsteinium, an excellent element — and by the way I think we have a mutual friend. MiChael Slovis: you get my continued apologies for your nonexistent element.

Tonight I learned a new word: fugue. Of course, I know the word from music, but its second definition, related to fugitive, is new to me:

fugue |fjug| noun (Psychiatry) a state or period of loss of awareness of one’s identity, often coupled with flight from one’s usual environment, associated with certain forms of hysteria and epilepsy.

Sometimes a fugue-state episode does seem kind of tempting, I must say. Flee your problems! Head to the high chaparral! Is that so wrong? But eventually I’d come back, if only for another fine episode of Breaking Bad.

Script highlight: Very funny “Whole Foods” line! Minor complaint: You could never reinsert an IV like that! Question of the week: What does “Bit by a Dead Bee,” this episode’s title, mean?

This was supposedly written by an agent at CAA to all of his clients regarding the current state of the entertainment industry. It was forwarded to me today by a reputable source, but I am not certain of its true provenance. It’s worth a read, but it may be not be from a CAA agent. Or maybe this high-level agent doesn’t know the meaning of the word ‘conflagration’ nor how to spell some well-known names.

Dear Clients,

I wanted to take a moment and give you a number of important updates. Before I begin, however, I wish to tell you that I am so very proud of you for your dogged determination during these most difficult times. Hollywood is being challenged on multiple fronts — labor uncertainty, paradigm shifting and the ‘great recession.’

More…

I just watched the final two hours of Battlestar Galactica. Thank you, everybody. What more can I say? Thank you. Also: all my predictions were awful.

Another one-minute actorless opening sequence in this week’s Breaking Bad. Good stuff. Eerie like last week. What is that car doing? I don’t know so far, but it’s awesome.

(An opening credit still says “Director of Photography MiChael Slovis.”)

Extended first scene with Hank, the only series regular we see for several minutes. It’s an episode written for Dean Norris, it seems.

Excellent non-speaking work by Mark Margolis (pictured). And every time you think it’s going to turn into MacGyver with chemistry, they mix it up on you. Oh, that’s what’s going on with the car. Okay … brutal … but good episode!

So, I happened to catch Battlestar Galactica: The Last Frakkin’ Special. You gotta love the name. Shows self-awareness — a sense of doing good work, but also a healthy sense of self-deprecation.

It’s one of those behind-the-scenes shows. This is good homework for the actor in me, but here are a few notes:

• It’s good to hear them talk about the influence on the show of 9/11 — not that you need to hear them say it — and grey hats versus black and white hats. (Will that reference to old westerns ever stop making sense, I can’t help but wonder.)
• Note to writers everywhere: They sold the show with making the president and also Starbuck women.
• Kudos to the SFX peeps. Those long decks … turns out they’re fake.
• Music: Bear McCreary is named Bear. That’s all you really need to know. There’s the long hair and the goatee. And all the synths. Note: Orchestral elements were forbidden initially.
• “That Saul Tigh would be one of the final five, I did not see coming. That was a total surprise,” says Michael Hogan, portrayer of Saul Tigh. “This is not a wise decision.”
• Nice to hear their cluelessness about the Fifth Cylon, how it morphed into what it became.
• “All this has happened before, and all this will happen again.” This is a line from Disney’s Peter Pan. Ha!
• Lucy Lawless doesn’t get BSG. She gets herself, however.
• Jamie Bamber should consider speaking in an American accent all the time. Really.

Oh. Yeah. I understand the finale has aired. I’ll get to that soon … including a summary of how wrong my predictions were.