Goodbye Breaking Bad. Sundays just won't be the same without you.

SPOILERS AHEAD -- I guess this post is for true fans of the show that tuned into the series finale to watch it along with millions of other people. That doesn't mean that you, my many writer friends, aren't welcome to read it. But I know many of you don't watch television so you may get nothing out of this post at all.

I went to a local tavern/pub last night to watch the series finale of Breaking Bad with other rabid fans. I partook in great conversation while watching a high definition broadcast of it on a 60" screen, eating sandwiches and drinking beer. What a fun time. I told them we should do it again for the Walking Dead.

Anyway, none of my predictions landed where I wanted them. I guess one caveat is that we saw Jesse Pinkman in a flashback to his high school days working on that box I told you about last week. So in keeping with a goodbye dedication, I'm going to reflect on all the ends that got tied up, beginning with...

1) The death of Walter White. I got to hand it to him...pure genius to the end. Rather than succumb to anger over Gretchen and Elliot, he used them and their billion dollar empire to be the best money launderers ever for the 9.5 million dollars that he wants to get to his family. It was great to see Badger and Skinny Pete one last time. I love that Walter finally came clean to Skylar about why he was cooking meth. He admitted that he liked it. He was really good at it, and that it made him feel alive. I think any of us can understand that basic need. When we're really awesome at something, it feels good. RIP Heisenberg/Walter White.

2) The death of Lydia Quayle. She got everything that was coming to her. I loved that she got poisoned by the ricin, and it was perfect that she heard it from Walter White, who tauntingly asked her, "How have you been feeling, Lydia?"

3) Jesse Pinkman lived and got his robot from season 1! It seemed to me that at some point, Jesse had nothing left to live for. However, when he drove away from the compound with Walter White standing alone in his rearview mirror, he seemed glad to be alive. Maybe he can find it within himself to move beyond the swath of death created by cooking meth with his former high school teacher. One thing's for sure: Jesse will never be able to forget his high school chemistry teacher. In that sense, Walter White is immortal. Oh and in season 1, Jesse asked Walt if he was going to build a robot. Walt (at the time) scoffed at him. Well, maybe Walt just needed to be inspired. Embedded in the video below are all the greatest moments when Jesse says "bitch." It'll be Aaron Paul's greatest catchphrase from the show.

4) The death of Todd and his whole murderous family. This was perfect. I thought Jesse might cook a bomb and that turned out to be totally wrong. I found the reality just as satisfying. Walter White rescuing Jesse and then killing Todd's family with a tricked out M60 was awesome. I like how he triggered it to go off when the trunk popped open. I also thought it was great to see Jesse Pinkman strangle Todd to death. Perfect ending to that psychopath.

I wish I could have known Skylar White's fate. Did she go to prison? I kind of think that even with the bargaining chip of knowing where Gomez and Hank are buried that this would not be enough to keep her from jail. I could be wrong though. However using that as a bargaining chip would probably make Marie never speak to her again.

As series' finales go, Breaking Bad's is the best that I've ever seen. I salute Vince Gilligan, Aaron Paul, Anna Gunn, and of course, Bryan Cranston who made it all possible. It's been one hell of a run over five years and you finished it on top. Breaking Bad is easily one of the greatest stories of all time. So goodbye Breaking Bad. Sundays just won't be the same without you.

Dead Freight was truly horrific

NO NO NO...arrrggghhh. This is the adorable little kid that was murdered
by Walt and his gang in Sunday night's episode called "Dead Freight. I
hate shows that feature murdered kids. And the cuter they are, the more
traumatic it is for me. Why did this child have to die? So angry.

Since this is the final season of "Breaking Bad", I can't help myself but to speculate over every episode. Forgive me if you are not into this show like I am, but this Sunday's episode sunk to new lows. I don't mean it's terrible...but just when I thought it could get no worse...it got worse.

I've seen bodies dissolved in acid. I've seen Jesse having sex with a strung out hooker on meth. I've seen a girl asphyxiate on her own vomit form a heroin shot and die while Walt watches and does nothing. I've seen half a man's face blown off with the eyeball exposed. There have been throats cut, people burned alive, and a decapitated head attached to the back of a tortoise shell.

This is the bastard that killed the kid. Todd. He's the new guy from
the "Vamonos Pest" employer which works with Walt and Jesse to
give them houses in which they can cook their meth. I so want Jesse
to kill this jerk. Out of Walt, Jesse, and Todd, Jesse is the only one who
knows that this is incredibly wrong. He's the only one that still has the
vestiges of a moral compass.

But last night, Todd (Walt's new "guy") shot and killed an innocent boy who had just waved to them. This boy was perfectly cast...skinny, on his dirt bike, and he'd just shown his compassion by handling a tarantula in his palm and putting it safely into a glass jar that he'd punched holes in so it could breathe.

And they blew him away, because he saw them rob a train.

I felt Jesse's pain as he screamed, "Noooooo!" and tried to stop Todd from killing the kid.

But yeah, I was stunned.

Walt is evil and needs to be put down fast. But how is that going to happen? It's clear he's becoming the new Kingpin, and the clues from next week's episode is that he's a self-proclaimed emperor of all things meth.

Will Skyler break and finally spill the beans, thus dooming herself and her children? With two parents in prison for hundreds of felonies (or possibly dead), what legacy do the children have except one of poverty and ridicule by others who blame their parents for the death of hundreds of people affected by their meth manufacturing?

Here's Jesse robbing the train of the precious methylamine.  This part of
the episode was fantastic. The timing, execution, and Hitchcock-like
troubles they overcame had me on the edge of my seat biting my
nails in nervousness. Especially when the big truck showed up and
Walt refused to stop filling the tank until he had it all. Jesse almost got
run over by the train and had to lie flat on the tracks.

Will Jesse survive? I have a feeling that Todd is being groomed by Walt at this point as a replacement. Todd follows orders and isn't as emotional as Jesse. He isn't a good person (which Jesse really is). Walt didn't even move a muscle as Todd shot and killed the boy on the bike. Heck, he almost smiled. Like he was indifferent that a child died.

If ever I had a doubt, Walt's complete transformation into a sociopath who cares nothing for human life is now complete. Though I feel for Skyler, she's just as culpable by allowing this evil bastard to continue without blowing the whistle.

I also want to know what's up with Lydia? That woman can talk herself out of anything. And I almost see her as a perfect match for Walt. Are these two going to hook up? It'd be like two snakes in a basket. I think they'd love each other.

Hank Schraeder, do the world good and put a bullet in your best friend Walter White. It needs to be done. The episode "Dead Freight" was truly horrific. Walt's product is killing people every day. But something about allowing a child to die and Walt being okay with it makes me hate you, Hank, for every day you allow it to continue.

Analyzing Breaking Bad's Fifty One

On Sunday night I was reminded of why I think "Breaking Bad" is the best show on television by a superbly written episode aptly titled "Fifty One". I've been thinking about it all week, and it's really one of those dramas where you have to notice everything. You can't take your eyes off the screen because, what's being discussed or what's being shown is always important. So if you're a fan, I'm analyzing "Breaking Bad's" Fifty One (spoilers ahead):

Notice how short the "1" is. Totally a wish on Skyler's part for Walt to just die.
Skyler hates Walt so much that it's both tragic and awesome at the same time
because she can't do anything about it. She sold her soul to the devil now
and there's no going back from that.

1) First off we have this new character Lydia that Mike stopped short in killing. We know she works at Madrigal which was helping Gus' operation by supplying barrels of Methylamine. But who the hell is she really? Mike says she's dangerous and Jesse Pinkman stops him from killing her (which for the record I think is a big mistake). I think Lydia is Gus' wife, and I would trust Mike's instincts. If anything, the dude is a super lethal assassin. But he's loyal. And he knows character. Lydia should die.

Lydia and Jesse. In this scene, they're looking at a tracker on the bottom
of a barrel that Lydia claims the D.E.A. must have put there. Mike thinks
she put it there and wants to kill her for it. Mike kills lots of people in
this show.

2) The arrangement of the bacon on Walt's birthday. I looked back to the season 1 pilot, and they did this ritual only with veggie bacon. Now one year later, Skyler arranges real "cholesterol clogging" bacon on Walt's plate to spell out 51. Only she cuts the "1" in half, symbolism that she really wants him to die this year. That's just frickin awesome. She does correct the "one" at Junior's insistence but takes a piece from his plate. This is the statement, "If you want your father to live through this year, it will take life away from you." Now the beginning episode of this season had Walt alone in a diner arranging bacon on his own plate to spell out "52." So we know he lives a full year, and we have the entire season to figure out what happens up to that point. How does he come to buy the huge gun and what does he intend to do with it?

Skyler sitting on the bottom of the pool, content in knowing that even
though she may run out of breath, it's better than listening to Walt
talk about himself.

Walt is so evil now. And I do kind of feel for Skyler. However, she's just as culpable as he is, being seduced by greed and money and the power that came with that. Her fate and Walt's are irrevocably intertwined the same as Persephone and Hades. Walt is going to hell and Skyler is too. But that doesn't mean she has to like him. That becomes even more apparent in a crucial scene-stealing moment when Walt is going off at the table about how Skyler saved him from the cancer and did this and did that for him. She gets so sickened by it that she just "walks into the pool". She sits on the bottom with her dress floating up around her and is smiling cause she can no longer hear him. That's just amazing.

3) The ticking watch. Jesse gave it to Walt for his birthday present but the end of the episode has a zoom in on the watch and the ticking is very pronounced. I recall an earlier scene where Mike calls Walt "A ticking time bomb". Once again, great symbolism.

Here's Jesse presenting a watch to Walt for a gift. Tick Tick Tick

4) Walt sells the mint green Pacer for fifty bucks. This car has been Walt's stable transportation for four years of this show. It's been through everything with him. The mechanic that fixes it compliments the car and says, "It will probably go another 200,000 miles." You can see the distaste on Walt's face as he savors this information. He immediately offers it to the mechanic for fifty bucks. THIS represents one dollar for every year of his life. I was blown away by the symbolism of that. A year ago, Walt lived in fear of his cancer.  He lived in fear of men like Tuco, Mike, and Gus, and in fear of losing his job because he wouldn't be able to pay his bills. He's a new man, having defeated ALL of his enemies. He's killed people, poisoned children, and outwitted anyone that thought they were smarter than him (including his D.E.A. brother-in-law, Hank). So Walt flushes the old life down the toilet, and embraces the new life by buying muscle cars for both himself and his only son "Junior".

There was so much to think about in this single episode. If you are a writer, I think that you would be well served to take one hour of your time each week and watch "Breaking Bad" and see how masters of storytelling can unfold a tale. It's absolutely brilliant.

So my questions for you (if you watch the show):
1) Do you think Lydia is Gus' wife?
2) Do you think that Jesse and Lydia might be working together or that they might have struck some kind of deal?
3) There's a part of the episode where Skyler is smoking cigarettes heavily. Do you think that the cigarette that Walt has with the poison in it will come into play this season and that he'll poison Skyler? I sure as hell wouldn't be smoking cigarettes around Walt.
4) What do you think Walt needed the gun for in the trunk of the season opener? I've been trying to figure that out for four episodes now.
5) Do you think Jesse should have just let Mike kill Lydia? Do you think she's dangerous?

A recap of Breaking Bad season 5 episode 1

I was firmly planted on my seat Sunday night for the return of Breaking Bad. It's easily one of the finest if not best written show on television right now. Highlights from last night's episode:

1) I like how they left off pretty much at the same spot where the season finale called "Face Off" had ended. Walt's transformation into the bad guy is complete with the death of Gustavo. And any doubt that I had that Walt was responsible for the poisoning of Brock was brushed away when he threw away the Lily of the Valley plant. I mean, I really suspected that Walt was capable of this...of hurting an innocent child, but I wanted to think that this might have been a coincidence. That there was still some shred of the good Walt that we saw in season one. Nope. It's all gone. He is officially as evil as evil can get. I find myself in an odd place with Walt. He is as evil as any serial killer or any criminal mastermind, yet there is something about knowing his past that makes me root for him. I admire his cleverness. Is it wrong to admire evil when it is especially clever?

Aaron Paul plays Jesse Pinkman

2) Jesse Pinkman is coming into his own. He is confidant. It was his idea which they employed to destroy the hard drive on Gus' laptop which the police tagged as evidence and put into a very secure room. I never would have thought a magnet used in a junk yard could be used in this manner, but I guess if the magnetic field/source was strong enough, it could happen. I have seen first hand how magnets can destroy hard drives. Maybe Myth Busters will do an episode and examine whether or not this stunt would actually work. In any event, it makes for good television. I hope that Jesse becomes a source of light in this very dark show. Skyler has gone evil and accepted that she is the "Persephone" character who resides in the underworld with its ruler "Hades". I hope that by the series end (which happens this season), that Jesse decides to abandon Walt for a fate that actually has a future.

Mike Erhmantraut is a badass assassin

3) Mike appears to be accepting the fact that Walt is now the King of Hell, or for that matter, is now a free agent since Gus is dead and so is the Cartel that controlled drugs to the southwest. It will be interesting to see the line this assassin chooses to walk. I know for a fact that wherever Mike does go, corpses will follow. He is as lethal as Walt is clever.

My Predictions:

Since this is the last season of Breaking Bad, I'm just going to say that I believe the villain of this season is going to be Walt's best friend Hank. He's the only one left. I think that the D.E.A. is going to expose Walt and that it will be Hank that puts him down. And this is so screwy because to say that Hank is a villain is so wrong. Hank is a hero. But since we have a villain as a protagonist, then the antagonist has got to be a good guy.

Anyway...so excited for Sundays. Right now I'm having to balance True Blood, The Newsroom, Breaking Bad, and Falling Skies all in one night. I love my DVR.

Have a great Monday.

Breaking Bad

I heard so much buzz on the internet about the AMC show, "Breaking Bad" that I dove into season one this weekend.  Needless to say, I was back at Barnes & Noble on Labor Day buying seasons two and three on Blu-ray.  This show is absolutely riveting.

Breaking Bad follows the story of a brilliant chemist who, at the age of 50, doesn't have a whole lot going on in his life.  He chose to teach high school but many of his students are portrayed as ungrateful good-for-nothings who drive rich cars and just want to hook up with each other.  Meanwhile Walter White (the protagonist) at age 50 has got a younger wife who is pregnant, and a handicapped son that gets teased a lot in high school.  He has a second job working at the car wash where he scrubs tires on the sports cars that some of his students drive and they take demeaning pictures of him on their cell phones to talk about him with each other.

This is Aaron in the persona of the meth junkie Jesse
Pinkman.  They really do a number on his appearance.

So into all of this, Mr. White gets terminal lung cancer. The doctors tell him he only has nine months or so to live.  The chemotherapy that might save his life costs $90,000 and his insurance won't cover it. Plus he'll be leaving his wife and only son with a mountain of medical bills for fighting his cancer (not to mention) a newborn daughter.  So what does the brilliant Mr. White do?

Well he seizes a unique opportunity.  His friend works at the D.E.A. and takes him along to observe a drug bust on a meth lab and he notices one of his former students escape from just having banged a woman in the house next door.  He says nothing.  He follows the former student home and points out that his partner (the cook for the meth lab) has been arrested thereby destroying his livelihood.  He offers to cook meth for the kid if he'll make him a partner in the business.  The kid agrees...flabbergasted that the teacher that flunked him wants to "Break Bad".

This is Aaron in real life. Big
difference as you can tell.

So Mr. White ends up cooking the purest meth ever.  And the crap that these two go through in episode after episode as they deal with cartel enforcers, drug distributors, and hide from the D.E.A. is unbelievable. I can't pull my eyes away.  Also Mr. White's partner, played by Aaron Paul, is a really good-lookin' fella that they have to dirty up for the show.  It's interesting because in some scenes he looks completely strung out but in others (like when he tries to go clean and actually get a job) he looks good but his education makes it impossible for him to earn a living with any dignity.

Things I saw in the first season that surprised me:

1) Lots of meth manufacturing.

2) Nudity.

3) Drug dealers not only killed, but dissolved in hydrofluoric acid that eats through a bathtub and crashes through a floor in a house. They literally have to scoop up the bloody soup of human body with a dustpan and brushes.

4) Incredible cleverness on behalf of the protagonist (and resourcefulness).  Jesse gets almost beaten to death and Mr. White faces off with a huge drug distributor and demands $50,000 from Tuco and manages to get it. I won't spoil how but it is mind-blowing. On top of that, Mr. White gets a deal to sell four pounds of meth to this guy a week.

5) The sheer destruction of a good man like Mr. White as he descends into a world of absolute filth. Yet he is protective of Jesse (sometimes) and it's clear that he doesn't want the boy to come to harm but he certainly doesn't go easy on him at all.  Sometimes Mr. White pushes him to murder which he is growing more comfortable with as the series progresses (the first time he murdered someone was really really hard for him).  But the other aspect that is amazing about this show is Mr. White's intellect. He is far beyond the primitive minds of the drug dealers that he has to do business with and because he knows his life is almost over, the risks he is willing to take are incredible.  And of course his marriage is falling apart because the life he is choosing to lead to cushion his wife and children with money is a secret one...and the secrets are pushing all of his loved ones away.

6) The acting in this show is Academy Award level. It seriously is that good.

This isn't a show for the young adult, smurf-loving, middle-grade fiction crowd. It's a show for adults. I'm an adult...I write adult fiction...and this adult show is absolutely amazing.  If you think of yourself as having adult tastes...you need to watch!