The missus and I continue to persevere with the series but after last night’s two episodes (we are now late in Season Three) any comparison between Breaking Bad and The Wire is baffling. After what happens to Hank, for instance, in the parking lot with the slasher hit-men, do you think the writers would be pleased to know that my wife laughed when Netflix flipped (as it does) to the synopsis of the next episode and revealed that Hank survives? But that reaction is what the writers deserve since they seem to keep writing right up to the edge of having to conclude the series — a character’s death, discovery by the law, abandonment in the dessert — and then find a way to keep the characters in play and the production of meth active. It feels like a Warner Bros. cartoon where Wyle E. Coyote keeps falling off the cliff or blowing himself up, only to survive. What might have been really clever would have been to extend the chemistry theme throughout the story line so that Walt can (like Superman) disentangle himself from almost any dire situation by concocting some chemical combination. If he can do that by creating a battery to start the RV, why not also by creating some mist that will, while he and Jesse are hiding from Hank inside the RV, put Hank to sleep and allow them to escape and destroy the vehicle?
As it is, Breaking Bad does not reveal much about the layers of crystal meth production or even the characters themselves. In Traffic, for instance, what was happening on the Tijuanna border had reverberations in Mexico and in Washington D.C. And of course, what happened in The Wire with Avon Barksdale and Stringer Bell wound up unwinding through the layers of Baltimore politics and society. And though some have faulted The Wire for not really developing its characters, Breaking Bad’s Walt and Schuyler seem to be persons who are whom they are mainly to fit what the cartoonish plot demands. Apologies to those who love the series. The wife and I will continue just to see what the writers concoct next. We are hooked in that sense and are glad to know something about the buzz the show has created. But a production akin to The Wire? Not!
Speaking of television series comparisons, over the holidays we watched the BBC production, The Hour (which features the star of The Wire, Dominic West). Some have compared it to Mad Men. It is so much better that it the comparison is actually damning. The Hour is a combination of Good Night and Good Luck and Broadcast News with a measure of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy thrown in. It makes Mad Men look like all style and no substance.
And while I’m in the mood of making recommendations, over the holidays we visited the theaters to see Anna Karenina, Hyde Park on Hudson, and Hitchcock. The latest was arguably the best of the lot, at least if you like behind the scenes portrayals of Hollywood. Performances by Anthony Hopkins and Helen Mirren sure help. Hyde Park on the Hudson is worth seeing if only because of Bill Murray’s performance (which is good). But it’s also depressing to see (in a theme echoed in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy) the formerly great British Empire having to depend on its political and cultural wayward son. Anna Karenina has its moments and anyone who enjoys the work of Tom Stoppard (I do, particularly his play, The Invention of Love) should see how his screenplay comes to life on the big screen. But the story itself, a case of marital and sexual infidelity, looks like just one more account of romantic love gone illegitimate — the Russian equivalent of Madame Bovary or An American Tragedy. Maybe Tolstoy deserves credit for writing about this theme before Dreiser (but after Flaubert). But on this side of 2012, Tolstoy’s narrative, even as rendered by Stoppard and company, does little to separate itself from the adulterous pack.
Old Life 
On a recent trip to Philly (to take my eldest to see her birth city) we happened to be staying downtown near the Ritz at the Bourse. “Hitchcock” was showing and I was glad to have seen it. It was well-acted, but to my surprise, more than anything else a love story. You get lots of movies made about “falling” in love. But few about people well into marriage working at love and succeeding.
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True, there is a Wyle E. thing going on. But who in the wide world has been comparing BB to TW? Nothing against any of them, but that’s like comparing Miami Vice to GoodFellas.
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Zrim, I concur. I tried getting into The Wire once, and continue to consider it given Dr. Hart’s regular return to it as a show-than-which-no-other-show-is-greater, but after trying to get my head around why that might be the case again this afternoon (i.e. perusing the pretty exhaustive Wiki on it), I started thinking precisely the same thing: apples vs. oranges. They’re really very different shows. That seems to be the case with pretty much any television show you might put up next to The Wire for comparison, just based on the way the show was made.
I can see why a show that tips its hat to, f’rinstance, Mencken (Season 1) and overall to a town HLM (one of DGH’s literary heroes) was based out of, or more generally, a show set in a large urban center in the American Northeast, gritty and dark of hue in more ways than one, might always hold first place in a Northeastern American Calvinist’s heart. Everyone favors home, even Homer.
There is certainly a darkness acknowledged by Breaking Bad (heh), but there is definitely a bit of Desperate Housewives and the Acme Rocketskate Co mixed in along with it. The setting in the sparsely populated Southwest US probably doesn’t help with that last impression, either or the contrast.
To each his own. God hath foreordained whatsoever cometh to pass, right?
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greggary and zrim, both shows are about drugs and drug dealers. I have heard (even here at OL) that the development of Walt’s character is superb, as if it were a window into the making of Avon Barksdale. I’d like to think Walt is deep. Problem is I don’t think Walt’s creators are.
BTW, The Hour is better than BB. I know it’s a different show. But comparisons are okay here at OL.
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gp, I’ve heard similar complaints about BB’s setting (i.e. boooooring). Superficially, I agree. But I believe what is missed in such complaints is how the setting is less about aesthetic pleasing and more to actually play a role: the constant bearing down of heat and light on Walt (and others) and threat of undoing, eye-in-the-sky type thing.
Darryl, yes they are both about drugs/dealers, but so are Miami Vice and Goodfellas. After that, the comparisons just don’t work. It can be doubly hard to see Walt’s depth when you have his Tim Whatley (Seinfeld) on the brain. Plus, he did that Malcolm in the Middle stint. Cranston was in Detachment (Adrian Brody), which I picked up over the weekend. But we couldn’t get past the first 35 minutes or so–sort of like your body part problems with BB.
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Good recommendations.
Midway through season 1 of “The Wire” and liking it more and more. The Wire” is gritty realism whereas Breaking Bad is more of a self-contained character study/cat-and-mouse game. It’s like comparing “Fargo” to “The Big Lebowski” — you really can’t.
A few weeks ago I referred to “The Trip”. I just rewatched “Sideways” and noticed some of the similarities between the two. Alexander Payne is a really interesting writer/director/producer. I’ve liked a lot of his stuff.
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Beth and I watched all four seasons of Breaking Bad, and we’re looking forward to the fifth. Sure there were some improbabilities, but it was a fun and crazy ride.
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Erik, The Wire takes flight in Season 1, Episode 6. For me it’s the soul searching that afflicts most of the characters (of course, not in an Edwardsean way).
Did Payne produce Trip and Sideways?
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Payne wrote & directed “Sideways”, “The Descendants:, “About Schmidt”, and “Election”. I don’t think he had anything to do with “The Trip”. Michael Winterbottom directed “The Trip”. Winterbottom has directed several of Coogan’s movies along with a few other movies I’ve seen but wish I hadn’t. “A Mighty Heart” was good.
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Loved “The Trip.” Definitely one of those “either-you-get-it” or “don’t-get-it” films. Have any of you seen Brydon in “Marion and Geoff”? It’s gold.
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Saw Kung Fu Panda 2 last night. Awesome. Great character development, believable story line and most importantly GREAT Kung Fu.
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Sean – And if you’re the Sean I am thinking of you don’t even have kids, do you? Was the Kung Fu this good?
Michael – I liked Coogan & Brydon’s dueling Michael Caine impressions. “Marion and Geoff” is pretty hard to find. Not on Netflix or at my public library.
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This is really weird. I checked in here about a year ago and Darryl said something wrong. Then I checked in here a few months ago, and Darryl made false statements again. Then, I got an itch to see what was going on here and whaddaya know, Darryl’s right. That’s what I love about this place.
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Btw, my top three TV series right now are, in no particular order: Game of Thrones, The Walking Dead, and Breaking Bad.
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Erik, I’m practicing for when and If I do have kids. Plus, the Kung Fu is outta sight. It’s hard to get good Kung Fu anymore.
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That’s a tough one Erik. How do you best Kareem’s command of the script? …………Kung Fu Panda that’s how.
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Actually, per the aforementioned exhaustive TW wiki, only the first season is “about drugs and drug dealers.” It says each season takes on a different aspect of urban life in Baltimore. For example, it cites this quote from show creator David Simon regarding Season 2:
“a meditation on the death of work and the betrayal of the American working class … it is a deliberate argument that unencumbered capitalism is not a substitute for social policy; that on its own, without a social compact, raw capitalism is destined to serve the few at the expense of the many.”
It goes on to say that the show has overarching themes of “institutional dysfunction,” and the ubiquity of surveillance in American life (hence the title of the show).
So, what I was getting at re: apples v. oranges, I think, stands. Doesn’t mean you can’t still compare ’em. One may be red or green, but at least one will never be orange, without Photoshop, anyway.
The way that the show was created is also pretty different, apparently (e.g. incorporating actual people on whom certain characters in the show are based in the cast, casting non-actors in bit parts, using pretty much only incidental soundtracks, like music from a character’s radio or a bar jukebox to accompany the action on the show, etc.) would make it significantly different, almost documentary style vs. BB’s serial dramedy. Even the creator of TW has referred to it, on the whole, as an “angry” show.
Heck, once you meet Saul Goodman on Breaking Bad, or realize the meth mogul runs his operation out of a chicken chain you know this ain’t Hill Street Blues. I do think the character development on BB however, is excellent, especially for television of any sort, cable or broadcast. It’s just different to TW. Calling in locals to play bit parts is a nice touch of realism of course, but it’s not exactly great acting, either. I mean, there’s little room for character development in roles like those.
Zrim, what’s actually boring about the American Southwest? Has the American attention span suffered so much from technopoly that we need a gutter or a dingy walkup or grimy subway platform, a darkly lit police HQ set to backdrop every scene of a show to hold a viewer’s attention? Gimme a superlab in a laundromat sub basement, a bullet-riddled RV in the desert & a side o’ McGyver McGuffin, please.
If I want critiques of modern society/economics & technology, give me Wendell Berry instead.
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gp, re the American southwest, it was just the superficial opinion of a lifelong midwesterner–who prefers the bracing cold to debilitating heat, and is also likely tired of his wife’s pleading to move to the SW in pursuit of what he considers a booooring landscape and climate. I mean, give me four real turns of season, not hot and extra crispy.
Still, and this more substantively, if you put Walt et al in northern lower Michigan you kind of lose that eye-in-the-sky effect, which seems essential to the whole thing.
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Fair enough, Zrim. I agree. Pretty much any part of Michigan with anyone (real or fictitious) will deaden their eyes, since there are practically no skies, at least from September to May, anyway. Glad I live in comparatively sunny Kansas, but I’d take New Mexico’s aridity over Midwestern humidity, especially in the summertime any day.
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Zrim,
Albuquerque, being 5000 + feet above sea level, is not extra crispy in the summer. In July we open our windows at night as the cool air quickly descends from the Sandias, and it usually stays in the 90’s for only about two months. And the cinematography in BB purposely makes the city look as bleak as possible. If you watch In Plain Sight, also filmed here, you will see the area in a completely different light – no pun intended.
Your friendly New Mexico Tourist Board
P.S. My son attends the high school (Rio Rancho High) where Walt taught chemistry.
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Zrim, fair enough. As another lifelong midwesterner myself (KC here), and one who spent eleven hellish months in SE MI once, I have to agree. But then, any part of MI, especially between September and the end of May would deaden anybody’s eyes real or ficticious; there are no skies there to speak of, unless you consider scudding grey overcast a sky. Still, I’d take NM aridity to MO/KS humidity any day of the year.
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Todd – P.S. My son attends the high school (Rio Rancho High) where Walt taught chemistry.
Erik – Was he a good teacher? Was he in the same class as Jesse? Sorry, I need to adjust my meds.
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Todd, does your son notice cell phones ringing from behind the dropped ceilings? Have the chemistry labs been missing equipment?
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You mean it’s not real?
Actually, BB is often accused of taking its storyline from the headlines, but Vince Gilligan insists that is not the case, but I’m pretty sure Saul is based on a real life local attorney. My biggest beef with season 5 so far – need more Saul Goodman.
Walt’s credit union in the series is actually our local public library here in Rio Rancho.
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The surplus warehouse of the local state university sells glassware for chemists. When I see a nice, big piece I can’t help but think how useful it would be in Meth cooking.
If they can afford such a good chemistry lab, why can’t they afford decent health insurance for Walt? That’s maybe the most implausible part of the whole series — who knows a public employee with a bad benefits package?
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Greggary Greg ross, yes, parts of the SE are the armpit of MI. Re our skies, what I tell my wife: I get it, but they’re my skies and are beautiful if you’re willing to see it.
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Todd, you say high 90s like it ain’t no thang. But it’s a dry heat, right? And a Reformed pastor who sends his covenant kids to government schools? Stay in SW NM because in SW MI the exchange rate on that kind of 2k peso is pretty shabby.
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Erik
I watched the series piecemeal on youtube and other streaming sites years ago. Looks like many were taken down on youtube though.
This was my favorite episode (it won’t ruin the series if you watch it): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Clr3JcywsEY
Like most of my favorite British comedies, the humor (or “humour” if you like) is subtle, painful, and tragic.
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Michael,
Thanks for the link. “subtle, painful, and tragic” – I embrace all of those sentiments.
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I’m guessing, DGH, you didn’t see “Lincoln.” Just a wild guess.
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Erik,
“I embrace all of those sentiments.”
Then you, like me, must be an absolute delight at dinner parties.
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Richard, it’s not a function of my regard (or lack thereof) of the president. I just don’t care for Spielberg. Now if the Coens made a movie about Lincoln, I’m all over it.
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Michael – I don’t get invited to too many dinner parties. I don’t shower much.
If you haven’t seen “Sideways” you would enjoy it. I watched it for the 2nd time this week and am now watching Church & Giamatti’s commentary. Dark comedy at it’s finest. Giamatti exploding: “I’m not drinking any F***ing Merlot!”.
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Erik,
“I’m not drinking any F***ing Merlot!”.
No thanks to that movie, everyone who orders a Pino Noir now thinks they are a flipping sommolier. “Oh no, I only drink Pinots, Merlots are so prosaic…blah…blah…blah, everybody look at how smart I think I am just because I saw one movie about wine, and have just switched from drinking White Zin to Burgundy or Willamete Pinots.” It honestly makes me want to serve them some Boone’s Farm in a red plastic cup, and brag about how this particular vintage was a good week for Boone’s. Pinot Drinkers are almost as annoying as newly converted indie rock fans, who have suddenly “found themselves” when they made the switch to skinny jeans and a pair of Tom’s.
Besides, anyone who knows anything knows that Austrailian Shiraz and Washington Cabs are where the real action is at in wine, along with maybe a New Zealand Sauvingion Blanc.
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Jed,
The joke is on the would-be wine snobs because the point is that Miles is a complete ass throughout most of the movie. This really comes through in Giamatti & Haden Church’s (very funny) commentary. They basically make fun of themeselves and each other the whole time.
Besides, the correct wine to favor is whatever your wife likes to drink!
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I thought the whole idea was to look for the highest alcohol content that left you comfortably numb without passing out, impervious to the cold while walking your dogs all without leaving you wide awake at 2 a.m but sleepy again about the time you’re getting ready to go to work. Somebody crack this code for me.
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Another great sequence:
Maya – “You wouldn’t believe the things he’s been telling her.”
Miles – “He’s an actor, so it can’t be good.”
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My boss got a call from his son in the middle of the night two nights ago telling him that there was a fire in one of the newly constructed buildings near their houses. My boss, who had taken a whole sleeping pill, said something in response and was back asleep in 10 seconds. Good thing it wasn’t his house that was on fire.
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Sean,
I think the wine you are looking for is a nice strong port, or possibly my favorite wine of them all – Wild Turkey 101.
Eric,
My wife doesn’t really like to drink – so I usually get free reign on the choice of what to imbibe. Right now things are tight, so it’s been my old standby when it’s time to tighten the belt – Pabst Blue Ribbon.
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I’m on season one of “The Wire” and the character Proposition Joe just made his first appearance. The actor who plays him, Robert Chew, died last week.
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I restarted “In Treatment” yesterday and finished the first disc. It’s the perfect show to watch at work since it’s 100% dialogue. Really interesting idea for a show and good so far.
Gabriel Byrne going to see Dianne Wiest reminded me of Lorraine Bracco going to see Peter Bogdanovich in “The Sopranos”. Shrinks needing shrinks.
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Erik, what do you do for work if you can listen to dialogue while at it?
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D.G.,
Let’s just say it’s a good gig if you can get it.
Accounting. Same job for going on 16 years, same profession going on 21. I am able to multitask most of the time unless I am in a meeting or am having to read something that requires my undivided attention. If I am on top of my work I don’t get interrupted much and I don’t have to talk on the phone much. We have around 30 phones on our cell phone bill and I am mad if I don’t have the lowest number of minutes & texts every month. I am usually around 300 and that includes personal. My 10th grade daughter is usually at the top with 7000 — she has no job.
Piece on the Coen’s new movie:
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/28/movies/joel-coen-on-inside-llewyn-davis.html?nl=movies&emc=edit_fm_20130201
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Erik, thanks you SO MUCH for sharing about the Coens. I read the first line of the story to my wife and she had to apologize for not telling me about the movie. I cannot wait. It is one of those premises — the folk singer getting beat up outside a Greenwich Village club — that calls for the Coens’ ironic powers.
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The article about the Coen movie includes:
“For the record Llewyn Davis doesn’t really resemble, or sound like, Dave Van Ronk, whose posthumous 2005 memoir, “The Mayor of Macdougal Street,” written with Elijah Wald, served as source material for the film.”
Elijah Wald also wrote a fine book on Robert Johnson, “Escaping the Delta” that serves somewhat as a friendly deconstruction of some popular blues myths.
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Watching Season 3 of Downton and am a week behind. Wow. Julian Fellowes makes a bold move. Very nice writing.
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I haven’t experienced anything like this since Jake Spoon in “Lonesome Dove”.
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Finished season 1 of “In Treatment” and season 3 of “Downton Abbey”. Both very good, but I didn’t like the end of “Downton”, which I think was forced by real-world contractual issues. Watching season two of “Men of a Certain Age”. Nice series that only lasted two seasons.
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Watched Bergman’s “The Seventh Seal.” My favorite line was “Our crusade was so stupid that only an idealist could have thought it up.”
Also, playing chess with Death is a pretty cool concept.
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I’m streaming Netflix now so I watched “The Weather Underground” today. Well made. It’s interesting to think how mainstream the values of New Left Radicals are in today’s Democratic Party. Just as the revolution that William F. Buckley started with “National Review” in the 1950s culminated in the election of Ronald Reagan, the revolution that the New Left started in the 1960s culminated in the election of Barack Obama. I did find it interesting that the Weather Underground was competent (maybe lucky) enough to set off all of those bombs without killing anyone (except themselves, early on). Todd Gitlin didn’t have much good to say about them and the funniest part of the documentary was the Black Panther leader who thought they were idiots when they went on a small, misguided rampage in Chicago’s Gold Coast during their underwhelming get-together in 1969 (before they went underground).
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