December 28: Five-Minute Breaking Bad

[Nate the Great]

*Tap tap tap* Is this thing on?

An update is needed, Z. Schoolwork more than you were expecting? Just joined an exciting new club? Got a new girlfriend? What?

[Zeke]

School, mostly. Though I feel like I'm making a bad joke even saying that, because while I'm busy with school, I'm not nearly busy enough -- I got slaughtered on my midterm today. Anyway, I'll see what I can do. There's some material around that's ready or close to it, and wouldn't be much work to post.

[Nate the Great]

No April Fools event? You are busy.

[Nate the Great]

Erm, Tenth Anniversary Year?

[evay]

Why not? It's easier on the eyes than the anime screen was.

[Zeke]

Season five of Breaking Bad premiered yesterday, so I took the opportunity to advertise this fiver. (I also whipped up a new image for the page.)

While I'm here, a couple of things I meant to answer before...

Hydrogen, Tungsten, Lithium? I suppose it could be a tungsten hydride of some sort.

It's a reference to how they do the credits in the show. Each name has at least one elemental symbol emphasized; the main cast are Bryan Cranston, AnNa Gunn, AAron Paul, and so on. It's cute, but I'm betting at least half the audience doesn't get it.

Haven't seen the show (though I've heard it talked up as well). Did you like it?

Yes and no. I'm halfway through Season 2 so far; it's very good television, no question, but I don't really enjoy watching it. The heart of the show is Walt and the path his decisions lead him down. Apparently the writers' goal was to start with him sympathetic and make him gradually less so. Didn't work for me -- I despise Walt, and have from day one. He's like the Platonic ideal of dealing with your problems wrong. His noble goal of making enough money to support his family justifies everything: hurting people with the drugs he makes, keeping Pinkman stuck in a life he wants to escape, rejecting friends' kindness, kidnapping and killing people, telling lies within lies within lies... and most pathetic of all, driving away the very family he's doing it all for. He's using what little remains of his own life to make everyone else's hell.

I still have a couple of seasons to catch up on, so my opinion may change. But I've never related to Walt -- and I'm appalled at the idea that I should.

[evay]

Yeah, the show never appealed to me from the beginning. There are, surprisingly, enough powerful, well-written, well-acted, well-produced TV shows out there which don't involve breaking the law and making people suffer as part of the show's premise that Breaking Bad never even caught my potential interest. I don't care how much praise it gets; I'm not going to watch.

Leverage started S5 last night too, and that's a helluva lot more fun. I believe Alphas and Warehouse 13 start their seasons either tonight or next Monday, Merlin S5 comes on in the fall, Once Upon a Time and Person of Interest were both renewed for S2, we still have to finish the entire back half of Grimm... We have enough to watch. Hell, I even finally picked up Doctor Who after being nagged by my best friend for two years, so we'll start watching that at some point this summer.