Better Dying Through Chemistry: Netflix April
Belated, and abbrieviated. I've mostly been preoccupied with various iPod-related activities lately. So the science of capturing album cover art is somewhat inexact, I've found. I was especially amused with three instances of iTunes finding the wrong album cover. Ha. Anyway.
Zero movies. We decided to watch another cable show (because gosh, it's not like we're ever behind in watching stuff, it's not like we have piles of stuff we still haven't watched, oh no), and that would be Breaking Bad. This is about Walter White, New Mexico high school chemistry teacher, who has a decent if somehow slightly disappointing life, a family he loves, and nagging money issues. Then he collapses one day, is taken to a hospital, and finds he has terminal lung cancer. Oh, and he's a lifelong nonsmoker. Also, his teenage son is developmentally disabled, and his wife is pregnant. So you have a straight arrow kind of guy who's always played by the rules and is suddenly up against it, with a prognosis of two years. What does he do? He decides to go into business with Jesse, a former student who now sells meth. See, he's a chemistry teacher. Many years ago, we find out, he was almost a very big deal in his field, but somehow that eluded him and he ended up instead talking chemistry to bored apathetic students. But he knows his stuff, and finds he can cook a much purer product than the lowlife competition. And he's determined not to leave his family in economic desperation when he dies. So there's your premise.
Very good show. Bryan Cranston is rather amazing in it. The first season is a mere seven episodes (the second season is airing now, and we're taping it), so it mostly is setting things up. (This takes all 7 episodes because Walt and Jesse A) screw things up in major ways, more than once; B) get their signals crossed repeatedly and are dealing with disparate things in their own lives; C) change their minds a few times about whether this is really a (*ahem*) good idea.) It manages a mix of despair and absurd/grim humor without being tonally jarring, and somehow, despite Walt's truncated future, the episodes don't play as depressing. Walt's character is handled with finesse. It's not like he turns into Bruce Willis, he remains the same guy, very out of his element. But he knows the science, and intuitively uses that to hold his own among lowlifes. And he's desperate. But yeah, it seems this is entertaining foreplay for season 2. Good stuff.
Back to movies for May, or at least, the rest of May.
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