Shall we anticipate the FIFTH SEASON of the AMC series "Breaking Bad"? I think I may.

dun dun DUN

http://blog.al.com/tuscaloosa/2012/08/man_named_walter_white_wanted.html

Heisenbear

Sorry, that's an SEC joke.

http://cn1.kaboodle.com/hi/img/2/0/0/14b/5/AAAAAp4L-t4AAAAAAUteSg.jpg?v=1221612204000

http://www.salon.com/2012/09/12/breaking_bad_white_supremacist_fable/

the headline is pretty sensationalistic but there's some really good points in there re: the show's understanding of the drug trade

i'm always shocked when anything about this show's depiction of the meth trade bears some resemblance to reality somewhere

this show's depiction of the meth trade bears

looking forward to this

lol

http://www.berfrois.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/BB_pinkbear.jpg

nice piece

agreed

re: “Breaking Bad”: White supremacist fable? (linked article above)

interesting article, but... ok, so walter white is, instead, a black or hispanic teacher who gets involved in the meth trade? racist. or, walter white is white, jesse is black or hispanic? also racist. walter white & jesse are both white people, who get involved in the meth trade, but only with other white people? i dunno, i just don't see it. maybe, according to malcom harris at the new inquiry, the show should simply not exist, because racism?

well, let's say he has a point. how do we, the upstanding citizens of ilx, rewrite the show/characters as to be not racist any more?

some good points in it except i'm not sure the show is depicting walt as some triumphant genius. to me it seems more a "this too shall pass" thing, he'll have his time, he'll have some money, but in reality he'll end up dead or in jail after what, a year or so? just like gus, mike, whoever.

The show is about Walt getting way in over his head and then just barely getting out of it, not triumphing. His victory over Gus was just being the one who isn't dead.

agree.

the other thing is, the show is in NO WAY triumphalist at all. it just shows the whole "business" as this seeping evil that infects the lives of those who become involved. there are moments, lots of them, where you want walt to triumph, but that doesn't mean he's actually happy or doing great or something. it's weird in that you're egging on the narrative arc of his total descent into evil, rather than his success at selling drugs.

The racial undercurrent that he's arguing for doesn't really make sense when you start factoring in Gus, who pointedly isn't mentioned at all.

The point about treating purer meth as an artisanal craft like homemade beer is a good one (but that analogy is already in the show, with Hank making Schraderbrau). The Wire was more realistic (I imagine, I have no idea) about the effect of changes in drug purity.

Along with ignoring Gus the article also fails to mention that Jesse's success in Mexico is based entirely on following Walter's lab procedures and recipe. It's not that he's brilliant, he's just parroting Walter. It's not primarily a racial divide, just a divide between a pro chemist and the amateurs. It's not unlikely that a pro chemist would make better product, just that anyone would be able to build an empire on the difference.

Oh and Victor does just as well as Jesse when he gets his short-lived chance.

article didn't mention that Walt and/or the show almost bend over backwards to make sure all the people he cooks or conspires with are white dudes (Jesse, Mike, Saul, Gale, Todd)

Along with ignoring Gus the article also fails to mention that Jesse's success in Mexico is based entirely on following Walter's lab procedures and recipe. It's not that he's brilliant, he's just parroting Walter. It's not primarily a racial divide, just a divide between a pro chemist and the amateurs. It's not unlikely that a pro chemist would make better product, just that anyone would be able to build an empire on the difference.

― Plasmon, Thursday, September 13, 2012 9:20 AM (34 minutes ago) Bookmark

Walt always goes on about "i'm the best and he's the 2nd best" like Jesse has serious talent or intuition aside from Walt's scientific knowledge but it's never been clear to me whether he's just saying that or if it's really true

I think the article's reaching a little too, but makes some weird points with the main character named White, making this "pure" drug in the midst of all of these brown people. (Though most of the users - the zombies - we've seen have been white as well.)

I've had the same thought, most recently when Mike, Walt and Jess drive out to meet the Arizona crew and you see the backs of these three pale bald heads in the car. Factor in Mr. White's comfort level with the actual white power dudes (white powder?) and it's not a stretch to see some of this stuff in a Paul Is Dead sort of way.

White supremacists love the Beatles, btw, maybe even more so than Elvis.

Then there's the amateur white guys who totally suck at making meth, like the dude at Home Depot buying the wrong matches. The cartel may not be up to the standards of a modern industrial chemistry lab but at least they're not buying the wrong matches.

Walter's line about Jesse's talent is super obviously Svengali bullshit. There's zero indication of that talent at any time in the first few seasons, but now Walter has every interest in keepin Jesse under his wing. The end of the "Jesse, you idiot" scenes is one of the biggest changes in the show this season.

Jesse has been uncharacteristically competent this season though.

yeah the article is definitely OTT, all the stuff about the car sponsorship is like c'mon why do you keep bringing that up. i do like that it kinda gets into the unspoken racial emphasis in a lot of these gritty cable shows critics go nuts for, which are generally more white than even their uncool network equivalents -- other than like The Wire and Oz (which didn't really get that many viewers or awards compared to some other shows) you've got the white gangster world of The Sopranos and Boardwalk Empire, Mad Men looking at the white site of the old segregated society, Hell On Wheels with a confederate soldier protagonist, The Killing adaptation changing its setting to America and inadvertantly becoming a show about dead white girl syndrome in the process, all-white biker gang on Sons of Anarchy (which at least doesn't let the characters off the hook about that), etc etc. obviously it's easy to just pull up examples and skew them that way, which the writer definitely does, but it's worth thinking about imo.

jesse was running the lab himself at the end of last season

The show is about Walt thinking he's triumphant, but all of us viewers recognizing the tragedy.

according to that piece, America is "the little guy" in the war on terror. :|
i wish he'd opened with that assertion and i wouldn't have wasted my time reading any further.

wow xposts!

latino dudes get a pretty tough time on this show, huh

- victor (dead)
- krazy-8 (dead)
- tuco (dead)
- combo (dead)
- hugo (fired from the high school for walt's sins)

― 40% chill and 100% negative (Tracer Hand), Wednesday, July 20, 2011 1:06 PM (1 year ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

oh forgot

- tortuga (dead)
- the cousins (dead)

― 40% chill and 100% negative (Tracer Hand), Wednesday, July 20, 2011 1:25 PM (1 year ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I don't know why he had to bring race into it since "breaking bad" is clearly a show about women fucking up a good thing.

xpost Well, the American drug trade has left behind nothing if not a trail of dead Latinos. Columbia, Miami/Cuba, what's going on in Mexico ...

oh yeah i remember those tracer posts! good lookin out

my fantasy for the final episode is that it's hugo who finally brings walt down, walt's in cuffs being hauled bodily through the police station and he's saying "hugo??! who the fuck is hugo??" and doesn't even recognize hugo, who's standing right there watching him go by, and he gives a slow little shake of the head

i liked the point about how 'Mexican cartels' are always this vague monolithic force -- reminds me of how the scientific consultant on Contagion insisted the virus couldn't originate in Africa because that's ALWAYS what happens in movies

Very interesting, by the way, how fast the real-life story of meth is progressing. My wife and I just watched the Louis Theroux special on "The City Addicted to Crystal Meth," Fresno, CA, which they call the meth capital of the world. That ep. was less than a decade ago, and now apparently almost all the meth manufacturing has moved out of the US and mostly to Mexico.

damn foreigners stealing our jobs.

I don't think too hard about the plot points of this basic cable television show, but it does bother me a little how the writers slapped the dust off their hands and went "Well. We've gotten rid of the Mexican Cartel from interfering with Heisenberg's operation."

I understand the head of that particular cartel and all his lieutenants were poisoned by Gus, but I'm pretty sure that whole scene works like a vacuum. If one domino falls, they don't all fall. Just another one swoops in and takes its place.

Keep in mind that only weeks have passed since Gus's demise.

http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m9es1bJd5e1qk72exo1_1280.png
http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m9es1bJd5e1qk72exo2_1280.png

Keep in mind that only weeks have passed since Gus's demise.

Goddammmit. I hate this time thing.

How long did Jane's dad take off before coming back to work? 16 hours?

Several months have passed since Gus's death now. Albuquerque does seem remarkable light on drug gangs though.

They're not selling in ABQ though are they?

I mean that was the brilliant part of their setup, all the risk shunted off to the Phoenix boys and overseas

you've got the white gangster world of The Sopranos

this is wrong btw

as is boardwalk empire as well as the notion that hell on wheels and the killing are crit faves (or that deadwood or justified - both of which are/were pretty integrated - apparently aren't). note sure how you leave downton abbey on the table there either. or for that matter girls though then you'd have to acknowledge that crit fave comedies tend to be more diverse than the norm and (coincidentally let's hope) much lower rated.

uhhh deadwood was not that well integrated, san francisco cocksuckers lol

http://dailydish.typepad.com/.a/6a00d83451c45669e2017d3c2bcdb9970c-550wi

<3

lol INTENSE