Breaking Bad is about to get real, yo

Talked About Scenes Episode 501 Breaking Bad: Live Free or Die

I love Breaking Bad the television show. One of my joys in life is posting on the AV Club talk board after each episode. Most AV Club members are like me, meaning juvenile and a bit too clever for their own good. Just thought I'd share that...

The creator of the show, Vince Gilligan, has penned a riveting story rich with complex and interesting characters. I'm not going to describe what specifically happens on the show or why you should watch it. I think it's great television drama only rivaled by the Wire and I'll leave it at that.

I'll admit it, I do "steal" devices from other writers. We probably all do this, like musicians build off chords from other musicians. When writing a screenplay or scene, I'm doing my best to give the actors the food they crave, I'm going to give them words to play with and an environment that enhances their scene. Too often I talk with writers who are immersed in their projects and who refuse to take into the account the reality that their words will be changed on the set or that the final scripts may be faint echos of their original screenplays.

Maybe working as a journalist prepared me for this inevitability?

The first time a journalism intern gets to write a story and see their name on a by-line it is quite the rush working on that assignment and typing that baby up. You dream of seeing your name in a "real" newspaper page and feeling the pride of being a legitimate writer. Then you see the printed piece complete with re-writes and edited paragraphs and you see your name on the by-line and feel embarrassed and a angry. This is not what you wrote! Those are not my words! Why did they take out that quote?!

That's journalism, baby. You had 24" inches to work with, you had specific instructions from your editor on what the story should be, you had a deadline, and more than anything, you needed to understand who your audience was. Far too many writers write only for themselves and that is why they fail in the writing for pay business.

Getting back to Breaking Bad, a reviewer pointed out the similarities between Treasure of the Sierra Madre and Breaking Bad. I see the comparison. Walt is the Humphrey Bogart character who is going insane with greed, Jesse is the Tim Hult character trying to keep the peace, and Mike is Walter Huston, the elder player with experience and wisdom. There are other rhetorical devices used by Gilligan from allusions to the Simpson's, the allegory of Walter White and Tony Montana, repetition of certain words, symbolism (the pink stuffed bear comes to mind), and last week it was forecasting using a Three Stooges episode. But who was the shooting bear? Was that Mike or the Law?

And lets not forget the name of the main character - Walter White. This show is filled with ethnic characters on the bad side and most of the good guys, aside from Hanks partner, are white. I remember the episode in Season 1 where the Native American janitor who helped Mr. White with his mess was later arrested for being in the possession of marijuana. Gilligan with a slight of hand points out the disparity between equal justice for whites and non-whites. Hank represents this disparity yet he is the obvious protagonist in the series. Nothing in this show is television formula.

Next week it looks like shit gets real and the end begins for Walt and Jesse.