Breaking Bad Pilot

It's always interesting to go back and watch a pilot after you've seen the whole show. More often than not - at least in my case - find most pilots to be weak; mere shells of what the show had become. This is not the case with Breaking Bad. The pilot is as good as the rest of the show. I mean sure Walter didn't fully 'break bad' yet, but in terms of its finesse, structure, and acting its as polished as the next five seasons.

The pilot introduces us to many things in very subtle way, and many of us who have seen the whole show can pick up on small clues that reverberate through the rest of the series. For instance the intense use of color throughout the show is obvious from the pilot. One of the things I have not heard talked about in abundance is the setting. Why the west or midwest? The original setting for the show was southern California, but I think setting the show in New Mexico provided an interesting element and in a way the city - the setting became a character in of itself. The west, at least in the past as we know the 'wild west' was always about a border of civilization and a lawless land. I think - despite if this was the creators intentions - the fact that Walter is on a straight an narrow path all of his life, never going outside of his comfortable area, only to turn 'bad' at this strange boundary of civilization adds to the show. I mean in the pilot their location to cook meth, and Walter's first touch with violence is in the middle of no where - the modern wild west. And as the show progresses he grows farther and farther from his meager chemistry teacher self and becomes - well - a monster.

In short, watch the Breaking Bad pilot again if you've already seen the entire show. It'll give you a new perspective on the show and allow you to pick up on things you simply could not have seen before.

Nightcrawler

Nightcrawler is a gorgeous film for its wonderful cast, impeccable shot composition, and sociopathic story. Our main character, Louis Bloom, is played by Jake Gyllenhaal. Louis is out on a mission, I mean at first he is selling scrap metal to make ends meat, but when he sees a small film crew on the scene of a car crash he realizes there's prosperity in sorrow. "If it bleeds, it leads" is his prime directive, but while other 'Nightcrawlers' seem to film the scene as is, Bloom decides more often than not to break all ethical and moral boundaries in order to get the most money.

It's a strange profession - listening to police frequencies and becoming exited at key words like murder, fatal, crash, and homicide. It's pretty clear from the beginning in fact that Gyllenhaal's character is clearly not like the rest of us, he constantly banks on the sorrow of others and even uses people closest to him as news fodder. 

Nightcrawler is clearly a movie worth a watch.

Binge Watching

With Thanksgiving break just behind me it's a wonder I didn't binge a thing. In fact, I barely turned on a TV. I think being a college student when you go home for only a few days you mentally plan to binge, go to the store, catch up with friends and family, but in reality only end up doing half the things you said you were going to do. For me, my neglect came from not binge watching.

Despite this, I am certainly accustom to binge watching television. A few weeks prior I binged The Crown, Shameless, and a bit of Westworld. The binge culture is interesting because for Netflix shows, the excitement only comes in bursts. For instance, a Netflix show gets released and is talked about immensly for a few weeks, but then dies down. Whereas a cable show will be talked about for months because a new episode is being released every week. I much prefer binging in terms of a consumer because I can watch at my own pace, but I hope it doesn't cause an adversely bad reaction when it comes to longevity and profit.

Colony Collapse and Our Government

The bees are dying, the government is watching, and we are in a drone crisis. Black Mirror knows this, and decides to combine these three elements in their season 3 finale episode. Generally Black Mirror creates a world not to different from our own, but with a healthy overlay of science fiction. This time the bees had died, and to sustain our ecosystem (well Britain's ecosystem) a company created robot bees to pollinate in their place. There was a small caveat not mentioned until later in the episode that the government had ultimate control over these bees and were using them to spy on the public.

So drones?

It’s easy to make the comparison. Usually the show doesn’t make it so obvious, but when the government takes control of drones to willingly spy on its public it’s impossible not to see that parallels. Especially because the drones got hacked and started killing people. Again, the message is received loud and clear. But what’s most interesting to me is why they chose bees. I mean the bees are dying (see colony collapse disorder) and we don’t know how to solve it. And if we had to solve it drones would likely be the foremost contender. This scenario is scarily within reach. Its real - drones are already used to spy on ‘the bad guys.’ Snowden revealed to us that the NSA collects all of our data for security purposes. The next step? A species extinction turned into a government wet dream.

Black Mirror is frightening  simply because it's visceral. Let’s hope we can save the bees.

Black and White in Color

Technicolor either represents over exaggerated almost blinding colors, or a unique, almost paint like representation of real colors. Either way, you have to regard Technicolor in a high fashion when talking about old movies and how they evolved. Back when this was still a novel technology directors and cinematographers would use color to their advantage. The greatest example of this would have to The Wizard of Oz, where the beginning and end of the movie are in black and white, but the majority is in color. They used this as a set piece - it was part of the movie. The way the skin looked, the brick, and the flowers, were all an integral part to that movie; almost as much as the characters and plot. In fact it was a reason people went and saw movies to begin with, the color was a showpiece.

There was a fight in the industry when color was arriving and some directors specifically chose not to colorize (although initially usually based around expense). They used black and white to their advantage; used its sharp contrast to represent plot lines and character actions.

There is a somewhat large group that wants to colorize these old black and white favorites. Popular movies like Casablanca and Notorious are being colorized - the problem with that is the original meaning of the movie is taken away. Characters are shown through light and dark, good and evil are portrayed in these films in some way through the use of sharp lighting in the black and white art form. These deliberate choices to alter an original work because some feel it is missing something from not being colorized is interesting. Yes older black and white movies have a totally different aesthetic value. I mean a modern example (a film which certainly could have been shot in color) is Good Night and Good Luck. This movies uses black and white to tell its story, what would happen if it were colorized? The meaning - the impact - would be lost.

It is interesting to think that there was a struggle to popularize color movies, but at a closer analysis we can see how some movies used black and white purposefully. Others used color purposefully. Overall, it would seem most important to leave any film in its original form.

Trump and Zombie

Societal collapse is something we thought we only see in the movies, but has taken a more realistic turn these past few days. Outright societal disintegration is largely depicted in television and movies as things like zombie outbreaks, nuclear wars, and infrastructural eliminations. But what about the inklings? The ‘surface’ collapse; something that is potentially not as obvious, but just as dangerous.

I can’t help but recall not only the pitiful events of the recent presidential ‘debate,’ but also the news events following. Specifically how Trump supporters want to repeal the 19th amendment because if only men voted Trump would win. Societal collapse? Hard to say. Again it is a far cry from our nation literally disappearing overnight like the Mayans did, but for morality's sake - what does this say about our fellow Americans? Unfortunately my demographic leaves me at a disadvantage; I can hardly relate to struggle, let alone the true implications of this moral abomination.

Our society may have things like infrastructure, wealth, and freedom that dwarf other nations, but examining ourselves more closely we - at least I - find we are in the midst of a moral apocalypse.

All In The Family and Civic Discourse

With the recent presidential debates, civic discourse is threatened. We see this election in particular as more of a popularity contest complete with Twitter fights. These ‘debates’ are meant to give the american people an idea about who the candidate actually is, like what their policies are. After this we are meant to have enough knowledge to make an informed decision -- supposedly. Civic discourse is, in its basic form, conversation that increases our understanding. It is nearly impossible to relate this to modern politics (let alone this specific debate). According to Politifact , both Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton have said a large amount of overtly false statements, but Trump in particular ranks heavily in the categories of mostly false, and just plain old false.  How are we meant to understand either of our candidates if we cannot engage in the most basic form of exchange, knowledge? It’s a sad day when a nearly 40 year old television sitcom actually confronts popular issues in order to better our understanding. In fact, All In The Family has built historical importance based on their commentary regarding controversial topics. A few of the episodes we watched in class involved the Watergate scandal and interracial marriage. It’s disappointing to accept that the discourse in these episodes still feel modern in a lot of ways. They gave us information in a more appealing package then how it's delivered today.

It’s all about ratings. With the constant bombardment of news (thanks to many 24/7 news channels) we are forced to listen to whatever is most ‘popular.’ This may not all be news as history has traditionally seen it. The sad fact is ratings attract advertisers and advertisers keep a channel running, so if a thousand sound bites of Donald Trump talking about China, for instance get the most hits then that's what news will unfortunately broadcast.

As an even more unfortunate result of this Trump will get more exposure based on the increasingly ridiculous things he says. It's a perpetual and unstoppable cycle that has propelled him into superstardom. The news can never get a break. There’s no where to look (at least for the major channels) that provide any kind of real news service. I, and i hope a few others, are done with the nothing but petty back and forth between the candidates and don’t need to see it a million times across multiple stations.

We are all sacrificing civic discourse when we indulge in countless and mostly ridiculous montages involving specifically our candidates (It's a shame they are so funny). News, debates, and the media exist to promote widespread knowledge, instead they spend their time savagely curtailing even the promise of that possibility.

Good Night and Good Luck

Good Night and Good Luck at its core is about the exposing of Joseph McCarthy’s indecent acts during a supposed communist investigation. This film is very different for a lot of reasons, the main ones being its aesthetic choices. For one, it is all in black in white, and two the sound design. The way in which we are removed from the conversations, the moments, and are left to fill in the blanks and use our imaginations is a truly great experience.

The most obvious instance is right in the beginning. We are peering into a dinner party where the main character has to deliver a speech. We are being shown people laughing and having drinks, as smoke is thrown into the air, but we are not privileged to any specific conversation. Each time this barrier was shown, we were listening to a song from the era being recorded live.  This creates an interesting barrier. I mean there’s always a barrier in film and the way in which each filmmaker decides to handle it often changes the feel of the movie. For instance with this movie this allows us to be immediately thrown into the past, we are looking through a time portal of sorts. This greatly fits with the movie because it is a recreation of a historical event with real news clips intertwined. The Coen brothers, for example, do the opposite of this by placing us in the middle of everything. We almost look at the world through a character’s eyes. The camera is placed in between two people when there’s a conversation throwing us right into the action instead of us peering in like in so many films such as this one.

There were also times where we’d be looking at a character and they’re reviewing a conversation in their head. We see them going about their activities, as they replay prior events. At least that is my interpretation. In a strange way we are still removed because we are not actually seeing anyone talk. Just like before how we are only given visual this time we are only given audio. It is an interesting format, one which forces us to pay attention. We have to fill in the gaps. For just the audio we have to imagine how they looked, how they visually reacted, and for just visual we try to figure out what they’re saying. This weird style separates Good Night and Good Luck from most media.

Soap Opera, Melodrama, and Parody. How Do They Relate to Twin Peaks?

Twin Peaks is a revolutionary show that demonstrated the power of television. Television was always thought of as episodic. Now that may seem obvious, but I more mean the way in which many shows, even today, have self contained narratives. Episodic. Twin Peaks decided to use the long form narrative television can provide through many many hours of watching as opposed to a movie where everything has to be solved in a few hours. With the continuously looming question (up until mid way through the second season) who killed Laura Palmer? This one question glued viewers to their televisions for a little over a year. Ever since it has remained a cult sensation and despite its age, has held a consistent fan base.

Twin Peaks is far from the ‘normal’ show, it draws on familiar elements, but just presents them differently, in a more appealing package. There’s no denying the presence of both melodrama and the influence of soap operas. According to Wikipedia a soap opera “is a serial drama on television or radio which examines the lives of many character, usually focusing on emotional relationships to the point of melodrama.” It's a form that's been present in media since the 1930’s, but Twin Peaks pushes the boundaries of all these elements. In a way it parodies soap operas, but it also fully embraces the sopie art style. Consistent long shots, greatly exaggerated reactions to events, and undeniably quirky humor all contribute to the hypnotizing athletic Lynch created.

I looked at a few sources to try and make some greater sense of Twin Peaks and explore how it is a soap opera.

“Twin Peaks: Surrealism, Fandom, Usenet and X-ray Television” has a comprehensive and mostly self explanatory title. Throughout, the writer not only draws from his own opinions, but relates it to the opinions of others. This gives this peice great perspective, and it encompases a wide array of thoughts and ideas from many different people. One of the main points the article tries to make is how we as the audience have to interact with Twin Peaks. We cannot simply watch and walk away, we have to analyze it. This feeds right into the nature of a soap opera, because, as explained in this article, soap operas often make us turn inward and examine our own lives. It’s hyperreal. Lynch’s vision was to create a world where we’d go for an hour every week; something we’d feel in our hearts. In essence we were a character in twin peaks, involved in the highly emotional narratives, yet constantly tugged between our two worlds, and ultimately realizing a piece of our lives continues once a week. The use of very good and very evil characters traditionally associated with melodrama pull us in. And again, the open ended nature of the show, as also explained in this article, demands we examine ourselves, our world, outside of Twin Peaks. Connelly (the author of this article) suggests that through surrealism Twin Peaks explored the quirks of the human mind, and used this to expand the viewer's imagination. This not only gave Twin Peaks its aesthetic, but it's soap opera nature as well. Constantly clouding the boundaries between the real, unreal, and surreal is how the nature of soap and surrealism shaped the show.

John Kenneth Muir reflects on Twin Peaks talking particularly about its soap opera and melodramatic satirization. Like all great soap operas musical score is used to enhance every scene, every emotion, and at its heart over exaggerate every moment. Accent it, really. Twin Peaks follows suit by using it specifically to form a sort of hyper reality. The author of this article attempts to examine soap elements through a few specific moments. This is good because we get a few good examples and demonstrations of how exactly Twin Peaks is not only breaking the mold, but exercising its melodramatic nature. One of the bigger points of focus is the humor and how it is exposed in the most tragic of circumstances. For example, in the first episode when the sheriff has to inform Laura Palmer’s parents of her death, the father is on the phone with the mother and when he hears the news he drops the phone. Instead of seeing reactions from others, like the parents, we are simply looking at the phone, with the crying mother to be heard through it. It is a profoundly sad moment, but the way it was handled parodies soap opera. The audience can't help but see the deadpan comedy. Lynch, according to the article, uses the height of a serious moment to underline soap parody. Another obvious and great example is when the body of Laura Palmer is discovered we quickly proceed to the crying policeman who cannot stand the sight of the body. He even has to be sent away to wipe up his tears. The contrast between the body, the crying policeman, and the sheriff comforting the policeman create another comedic moment where it shouldn’t be found.

The last article I came across goes against the grain slightly. It suggests Twin Peaks started to fall flat at the start of the second season. Most believe it was when the murderer was discovered, but this is something different. The article says how the show had a reputation for consistency in the first season, but when it came time for the second it started to falter. The plot was the greatest thing that suffered, instead of being a surreal experience with a continuingly interesting plot it became just a series of moments with no substance. Its underlying motivation was lost and therefore its side plots faltered. In the most ironic twist, the show known for parodying soap operas became one itself. It no longer had the almost self awareness it once had. Although this article is less polished despite its mainstream publication, it brings up an interesting point. At least something worth talking about since there’s a true abundance of material outright suggesting the great show. It doesn’t back up its claims with undeniable information, but it is food for thought.

The first article we looked at used a more factual background to back up its claims. It had long citations, and quotes supporting its main points, all the while remaining interesting. The second article is just a blog, but uses examples from the show to demonstrate its point. This last article presents compelling information more so because it is not often hear, but doesn’t support its claims beyond a generalized standpoint. Regardless of your thoughts on Twin Peaks, it certainly had an influence. It used familiar elements we’ve all seen in television and gave it an injection of weirdness. Its quirks are its charm, its humor separates it, and above all it is a soap opera.

Sources

http://reflectionsonfilmandtelevision.blogspot.com/2009/11/cult-tv-flashback-94-twin-peaks-pilot.html

http://www.cgu.edu/PDFFiles/Arts%20and%20Humanities/Culture%20Critique/vol2_issue1/Connelly%20-%20Twin%20Peaks.pdf

https://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2014/10/why-were-still-talking-twin-peaks.html?a=1

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soap_opera

Twin Peaks S1E1 Thoguhts

Twin peaks is an early 90's television show that, like its name suggests, consistently plays with themes of character duality. The acting is reminiscent of a soap opera with an abundance of melodrama. It quickly gained a cult following due to its serialized nature, art style, and creative dialogue. It is also undeniably quirky.

the first episode exposes us to the weird town of Twin Peaks, the murder of Laura Palmer, and introduces us to a few of the main characters.

Twin peaks has a clear visual aesthetic, from the opening credits with plainly colored backgrounds in contrast to neon green titles. The town itself holds an interesting palate, almost as if we cannot tell if its 1990 or 1960 (aside from the cell phones). cinematography wise, the show has excellent framing as well as a lot of very long shots. a definite style, one that isn't uniquely Twin Peaks, but certainly stands out from the crowd of shows back in the 1990's. Today's shows follow the typical rule of not holding shots for more than 10 seconds at once which makes twin peaks a bit jarring.

One of the main draws to Twin peaks was its serialization. for a bigger network (like ABC) they make shows that appeal to the masses so a lot of people will watch, which draws in more ad money, which in turn makes each show more profitable. a lot of shows like NCIS, for example, are very general, they have self contained episodes, and they draw a large viewer base. At the end of the day some of those shows are just outright boring. A new skin is thrown over an old idea, and lots of people watch it, which is why those shows endure for so long. With Twin Peaks, and its atypical serialization, viewers had to tune in every week in order to follow the story. traditionally speaking these formats are left for smaller networks (like AMC) which don't have to worry so much about viewership because they are a smaller niche network. Little did NBC know, this new and unusual format would actually draw a cult following. Since this was so rare it sparked a lot of other shows to dare and be different as well. Although not on a public network, The Sopranos has a lot of Twin Peaks influence.

Black Mirror Pilot

The Black Mirror pilot episode was perhaps the most surreal commentary on modern media. When i say media i specifically mean news media. It has the Prime Minister of Great Britain forced to have sex with a literal pig on public television to free the princess from capture. At first thought this sounds disgusting, and quite frankly it is, but the message is whats important to pay attention too. 

Black Mirror starts off with a puzzled, and disgruntled Prime Minister woken to a youtube video of the captured princess stating the demands of the captor. Quite simply he had to have sex with a pig, or she would die. There's a lot at stake and immediately we can see the Prime Minister has no idea how to handle such stresses. I am not suggesting anyone would know how, but I can only hope the real Prime minister has slightly more self awareness. Regardless, he is put in a corner, and desperate to find the princess before she dies is of the highest importance. 

The constant intercutting of what all news channels were broadcasting during this time, added to the depth and commentary on modern news media. One news outlet refused to broadcast the youtube video with the demands, until all other networks did. They tried to maintain some resemblance of decency but got ultimately overshadowed by the rest of the worlds broadcasting. The desperation of one reporter to get the best story was not unsurprising, but hit a particular low point when she was sending nudes to an insider at the prime ministers office. It was astounding to see this desperation, but more than anything it was unsettling how willingly she was literally selling herself in order to get information. 

The perspectives shown of the people of Britain were extremely well done. we were shown multiple settings across the city as well as people reactions. what was most interesting was how the viewership of everyone watching steadily increased, and not a single person shut off the TV. even nurses and doctors at a hospital couldn't turn their heads or have the mindset to turn off the TV. 

behind closed doors at the prime minsters office there were two primary concerns, one was the safety of the princess, and two was the public opinion and media changes. and scarily their decisions were mostly affected by the media as well as public opinion. 

in terms of the technicalities and production value of Black Mirror there wasn't a missed beat. The audio work was outstanding. each time a tense situation came up they supported it with almost unnoticeable underscore. they even, towards the end, had one of the prime ministers advisers advice repeating in his head as he tuned everything out. the constant looming of news in the background consistently felt threatening. it takes a lot of elements to make a good TV show, and the actors followed with undeniably believable performances. the imagery depicted in Black Mirror was stunning. the empty streets of London were unsettling. almost apocalyptic. 

Overall, Black Mirror made each viewer think of media differently. we caught a glimpse of a not so far fetched situation in which public opinion and media literally have the highest power. 

Marshall McLuhan is either insane or a genius. perhaps he's an atypical hybrid usually associated with revolutionaries. regardless, his thoughts on media - ranging from clothes to the television - are intriguing. whats even more amazing is he had these theories before the over-saturated tech world of today. on top of all that he even regrettably admits in the playboy interview he doesn't like the changes in culture. hes afraid yet optimistic of the future and still somehow provides the most insightful (according to some) commentary and scientific discoveries since Pavlov.

McLuhan's ideas are all based around the study of media, but for him media is anything that creates extensions of the human body. Understandably this is a broad definition, but what's most important is how McLuhan relates this to our society both new and old. He uses this depth to encompass one of the earlier forms of media: print. Only by the invention of the printing press, we were able to have information widespread and at a relative quick speed. Print standardized all mechanization, and is an extension of the eye. According to McLuhan this lead to the industrial revolution, because there was a template laid out before hand by print that suggested an A to B process. To think of print as an extension of the eye is nothing but a stretch, but when put into perspective of McLuhan's other statements, it becomes believable. Clothes as an extension of the skin for instance - no one has ever had the audacity to simply think of it this way.

The most remarkable comments McLuhan makes, I think, are about the state of African Americans at the time of the interview (the late 1960's). "Negro Americans are still determined to join the mechanical culture. But if they can be persuaded to follow the lead of those who wish to rekindle their sparks of tribal awareness, they will be strategically placed to make an easy transition to the new technology, using their own enduring tribal values as environmental survival aids. They should take pride in these tribal values, for they are rainbow-hued in comparison with the pallid literate culture of their traditional masters" (NextNature). In a time of uncertain racial tensions McLuhan has the guts to suggest that African Americans hold the key to a better culture, and that their past is more rich than that of Caucasian Americans. McLuhan even predicts racial tensions that could lead to a civil war and even destroy the united states. With recent events it's hard to ignore McLuhan's predictions. The future of humanity looks ever more grim. But the importance of McLuhan suggesting african americans have always had a superior culture cannot be understated. Its hard to ignore his findings when he mentions how western culture is retribalizing, while the african americans are trying to adjust to the new culture. each is on an opposite path, so desperate to get there that they cannot see their own ironies. 

It is impossible to tell if McLuhan knows exactly what he is talking about, or just has a dictionary of overly complicated words beside him. The scary part would be if he is right. And since it has been 50 plus years after this interview we can see some of his findings come into play. Racial tensions are still high, and viewing media as an extension of a sense is not far fetched merely because now in such a rich electric world we are constantly connected.