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.