Tuesday, April 14, 2009

HAVE A GOOD REST OF YOUR LIFE, KID


Breaking Bad is the best show on television. Period. No other show comes close to capturing the drama and real-life horror that Breaking Bad has in every episode. And it just keeps getting better. Season One had a few hit or miss episodes but Season Two came out swinging and hasn't let up yet.

I tell everyone about this show but I haven't meet anyone else who's watching it or even heard about it. Obviously they're not readers of this blog because I've posted on it a few times now.

Breaking Bad stars Bryan Cranston as Walter White, a high school chemistry teacher working a second job at a car wash to make ends meet for with his pregnant wife and teenage son who has cerebal palsy. Walter is diagnosed with terminal cancer, given two years to live. In order to make his family financially secure after his death, he decides to put his chemistry knowledge to use and become a drug dealer, making crystal meth with the help of a former student.

Breaking Bad airs on AMC Sunday nights at 10:00pm with an encore presentation at 11:00pm. It's then repeated again at 1:00am. And this past Sunday the show was so powerful, I watched the same episode three times in a row.

Below is a video recap of Season Two, Episode 6, along with a written recap of the program. The entire episode is heartbreaking and shocking, featuring a child living in filth, neglected by his drug-addicted parents and a man slowly losing his soul, destroying a friendship beyond repair.

Breaking Bad does have it's moments of humor, but it's a dark comedy about desperation, family, mayhem and a man losing himself while having the best intentions.





Jesse stands alone on a sidewalk, examining a large beetle as it wanders the pavement. Skinny Pete approaches and gives Jesse the name and address of the junkie that robbed him.

"Let me get this straight," Jesse says. "You got jacked by a man named Spooge." Pete doesn't know the name of Spooge's accomplice ("she's just his woman," he says), but he tells Jesse that these two "need to get got."

Outside the junkies' ramshackle house, Jesse draws his pistol and tries to psych himself up. Spooge and his woman aren't around, so Jesse breaks a window and enters the dank living room littered with garbage, ripped-up furniture and dirty laundry.

Waiting on the couch, Jesse is joined by an unbathed, half-dressed five-year-old boy. Turning on the television to a home shopping channel — the only station it gets — the child sits on the other end of the couch. "I'm hungry," he tells Jesse.

Skyler calls Gretchen to offer her a belated thanks for paying Walt's hospital bills. Gretchen starts to respond but can't find the words. When Skyler says that they should get together sometime, Gretchen proposes a visit that afternoon.

It's Walt's first day back at teaching. The school's assistant principal, Carmen, sits in on his lecture, afterwards telling him he should to come to her if he ever has any "issues." At the end of the day, Walt heads to his car with Walter Jr., where he finds one of his "Missing" posters stuck on the windshield. A student has defaced the flyer so it now reads, "I'm MISSING My Pants!"

Back at the junkies' place, Jesse plays peekaboo with the little boy while he eats. The two addicts — grimy, bloodied, and arguing with each other — finally return home. Jesse carries the boy into a bedroom, then attacks the couple, bashing Spooge's head with the gun.

Walt arrives home to find Gretchen's Bentley parked in the driveway. Entering the living room, Walter Jr. thanks Gretchen for her generosity. "You're very welcome," Gretchen replies before heading out. Walt follows Gretchen to the driveway and asks her not to say or do anything until they have a chance to talk. She drives away without a word.
Jesse gets the junkies to hand over a little of his stolen crystal, but no cash. Just as he threatens to shoot their kneecaps, the boy walks into the living room. Spooge's woman embraces her son, making it impossible for Jesse to do anything while he's in the room. "We got your money, man," Spooge says, but it's inside an ATM they boosted from a convenience store.

Spooge claims the ATM heist was a "victimless crime" that "went smooth as silk." In fact, it resulted in a dead cashier and a baggie of Walt and Jesse's meth left at the scene.

Spooge pounds away at the ATM with a sledgehammer to no avail, calling his woman a "skank" when she challenges his competence. Jesse notices the kid is missing, and takes the opportunity to chastise her: "How about you feed the kid a decent meal every now and then, huh?" Jesse says. "Give him a bath. Put some baby powder on him."

Walt meets Gretchen at a fancy restaurant and pleads for time to "clear this up." When she asks why he lied to Skyler and how he's paying for his treatments, he says that he owes her an apology but not an explanation.

"This isn't you," she tells Walt, who says that waving her checkbook around won't make him forget how she and Elliott made millions off his research. She reminds him that he was the one who left her without explanation — not the other way around. "That's your excuse?" he asks. "I feel so sorry for you, Walt," Gretchen says. "F___ you," he replies.

Back at the junkies' house, the boy encourages Jesse to play peekaboo again. Jesse relents, and while his eyes are covered Spooge's woman knocks him out. When Jesse comes to, his gun is in her hands. "Call me a bad mother. I'll show you a bad mother, bitch," the woman says while Spooge rifles through Jesse's pockets.

After Walt returns home, Skyler reveals that Gretchen called to say she and Elliott can't pay his medical bills anymore. Walt admits he drove to meet Gretchen and says that he deduced from their chat that she and Elliott are broke.

Back at the house, Spooge has leaned the ATM against a chair and positioned himself underneath it to drill into its base. While drilling, he gets into a fight with his woman over their drugs and calls her a skank. "I ain’t no skank," she whispers, pushing the ATM upright and crushing Spooge's head. She grabs some dope off his body, crosses the room, and passes out on the couch. Jesse retrieves his gun from Spooge's body and begins wiping his fingerprints off the ATM. As he does, its door swings open and cash spills out.

Jesse grabs a wad of cash and calls 911. Telling the boy to close his eyes like they're playing peekaboo, Jesse carries him outside past Spooge's body. "Just don’t go back inside," he tells the boy.

"You have a good rest of your life, kid," Jesse adds, slipping away while the sound of approaching sirens grows louder.

2 comments:

Keith said...

Great writeup. I had heard of this show, but I've never watched it. I did think it looked very interesting.

Keith said...

Thanks, Keith. It's a great show. Check it out Sunday nights at 10:00 on AMC.

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