The Art of Titles: Five Awesome TV Title Sequences

I've been watching the new HBO show True Detective, and ya know, it has a pretty impressive title sequence. They really are an art form in their own right, telling a story in 90 seconds or less, or at the very least enticing you to stay on and find out what the heck is going on. Some are nothing more than the show's title but others, like the one for True Detective, go further.

Inspired by this I thought I'd share some of my favourite titles in recent years. A couple of which, it appears, belong to HBO shows. Well isn't that interesting.

In my research I was really pleased to find a website dedicated to the awesomeness of titles, which you should check out.

True Detective

Produced by Elastic.

Dexter

Produced by Digital Kitchen.

True Blood

Produced by Digital Kitchen.

Archer

Designed by Neil Holman.

And, an oldie but a goodie:

Fresh Prince of Bel Air

-Stevie O'C

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Hopeless Bromantics

Season Five of Community, one of my favourite television shows, is Donald Glover's last with his final episode airing in the US last week. A fitting send off it may be, to allow Childish Gambino to more seriously pursue his music, but still a sad end to one most innocent, humourous and enviable bromances on television.

As tribute to the end of Troy and Abed, here's my top five television bromances, in no particular order, but of course starting with the bros in question.

Troy & Abed (Community)

Who'd have thunk a once promising football jock and a socially insulated movie geek would become this generations' representative bros? Apparently Dan Harman, creator of characters Troy (Donald Glover) and Abed (Danny Pudi).

Denny Crane & Alan Shore (Boston Legal)

Played by William Shatner and James Spader respectfully, these two Boston Legal-ites were less than decent characters most of the time, except, that is, when it came to each other. Their shared cigars and bonding over whisky on the balcony epitomised their relationship - wealth, arrogance, intelligence and in the end, bros. Well, in the end husbands, actually.

Kirk & Spock (Star Trek)

Yep, William Shatner features again!

Not that you'd really know it from the films, but Star Trek's Captain James T Kirk and Mister Spock (Leonard Nimoy) were definitely bros. Spock being the logical counterbalance to Kirk's emotion. So noted is their bromance that Kirk and Spock are the subject of reams and reams of fanfic, somewhere in a dark dark place on the internets. If that's your thing, go boldly.

JD & Turk (Scrubs)

JD (Zach Braff) and Turk (Donald Faison) are such great bros that they even sang about it, in season six episode My Musical. Scrubs has to have been one of my favourite shows for a very long time, and it needed the madness of JD and Turk's bromance to carry it. The greatness of Scrubs was its ability to balance at times serious and depressing realities of life and death in a hospital with the outlandish humour of JD's relationships with his friends, colleagues and bro. Happily it appears Braff and Faison continue to be bros, with Braff recently crashing Faison's Reddit AMA (ask me anything), and to be expected, hilarity ensued.

Sherlock & Watson (Sherlock)

While there has been many an incarnation of Sherlocks grace our screens, here I'm talking the BBC's version starring Benedict Cumberbatch as Sherlock and Martin Freeman  as Dr John Watson. Arguably, Sherlock is Spock to Watson's Kirk, but with Sherlock taking the lead, if that makes sense. Sherlock is reason where Watson is empathy, and together they form a whole. And if there was any takeaway from series three episode two The Sign of Three of the BBC's Sherlock it's that they are most definitely not just colleagues, they're bros. Best bros, in fact.

-Stevie O'C

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From Podcast to Small Screen

I remember a time when people who walked around with white ear buds were widely regarded as douchebags. They could be found on any inner city street wrapped up in their own personal oblivion, narrowly avoiding being run over as they listened to horrendously low quality audio at silly volumes. Now ten years later, I am rarely seen walking around without some little bits of plastic compressing wax into my ear canal.

I am a huge music fan but in general the sound of an mp3 coming through a tiny speaker doesn’t cut it for me. Instead, I mostly listen to podcasts. There has been an explosion of new podcasts in the last few years, on just about every subject, and it’s not hard to see why. Millions of people around the world are forced to travel long distances to jobs they hate, and if they are anything like me they prefer not to be left alone with their thoughts on a cold and early winter’s commute. What better way to overcome this than by having intelligent people speak to you about interesting things?

With the growing popularity of podcasting it’s only a logical progression that some are now being made into TV shows, transitioning with their ready-made audiences. One of my favourites is Comic Book Men, based around the Kevin Smith’s New Jersey comic book store. This show emerged from the Tell ‘Em Steve Dave (TESD) podcast and while it’s clearly as staged as any other reality show, the slightly oddball yet somehow familiar personalities puts it miles ahead of the usual reality droll.

Comic Book Men: http://www.amctv.com/shows/comic-book-men

Another show featuring a TESD host is Impractical Jokers. It’s a hilarious and ridiculous spin on the long tired hidden camera concept and features four hosts, collectively known as The Tenderloins, taking turns at being tasked to carry out ridiculous undertakings.
   
Joe Rogan Questions Everything is also worth a look. It covers topics aimed at the Marijuana enthusiast out there, including chemtrails and Bigfoot in a fairly open minded yet sceptical manner. Yes, it does look like it was edited a 16-year-old snacking on pharmaceutical amphetamines but it’s a fairly thought provoking show. Apparently it pulled in some pretty impressive audience numbers on debut; take from that what you will.

Joe Rogan Questions Everything: http://www.syfy.com/joeroganquestionseverything

For those who like their comedy neurotic there’s Maron, an at times squeamish but hysterical show that’s a 'fictionalisation' of the life and times of sad and angry comedian and podcaster Marc Maron.

A more informative and family friendly show is HowStuffWorks on the Discovery Channel. The podcast and television show are always well researched and interesting but in my opinion the TV show does tend to come off as a little cheesy. Even so, it’s worth a look and you'll probably learn something.

My personal favourite is Legit, a dark but somehow heart-warming comedy co-written by Australian comedian and former Talkin' Sh!t host Jim Jefferies. Like many of these podcast-cum-television shows Legit also features past podcast guests in onscreen support roles.

Legit: http://www.fxx.com/legit/

I have also heard rumours of a Hollywood Babble On series in the works, which is yet another podcast from the Kevin Smith Smodcast stable - the guy seems to be onto something.  And with a growing number of podcasters gaining just the sort of free and effortless exposure that has television producers salivating, who can blame him.

I might sound like a douchebag saying I only use my iPod for podcasts now, but give it ten years…

-Dan Brokenborough

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Year in Review: What You Missed on Hopscotch Friday

Well it's not quite a year in review, as we've only really been around for four months, but for those four months we've enjoyed your company and support. So, thank you for that, we greatly appreciate it and hope to see you continue on the journey with us into 2014.

There's loads to come, with some new features and regular columns from our wonderful contributors. But for now, here's the top posts from 2013 for you to read as you nurse tomorrow's hangover.

People In Your Neighbourhood: Peter Neill

Coldplay by Peter Neill

In our second People In Your Neighbourhood feature I spoke with Peter Neill, wedding photographer turned concert photographer, who happens to also be a genuine and down to earth bloke who hasn't yet let hanging out with the likes of U2 and Justin Timberlake go to his head.

Read about Peter here.

The Time of the Doctor: The Long Con

http://www.bbcamerica.com/doctor-who/photos/time-doctor-sneak-peek

Emmet reviewed the Doctor Who Christmas special, the Time of the Doctor arguing that the resultant bellyaching from fans and critics was unjustified. Instead Emmet suggests that this, Matt Smith's swansong, was presented just as it should have been, remembering, of course, that regeneration came about to provide the successful show with longevity beyond the retirement of the original Doctor, William Hartnell. Nothing more, nothing less.

Read Emmet's review of Time of the Doctor here.

Get Your Kinky On

I'm wondering if this says more about you than it does us! Eliza's musings on sex with people watching and dancing like nobody is struck a nerve or peaked the curiosities of many. She's a straight shooter, but still showed us her vulnerability at this new experience, which I think many found to be both familiar and refreshing.

You can read Eliza's thoughts on the experience here, and in part two, here.

Totally Rad Adventure

Giving a platform to an amazing comic creator has been a real pleasure for Hopscotch Friday, and Caitlin's detailing of her trip to the Small Press Expo (SPX) in comic form has proved that you like it too. Caitlin's comic proves that even in drawn form, sometimes reality is funnier than fiction.

Caitlin's SPX adventure in four parts can be found here, here, here and here.

See you in 2014!

That's a wrap for 2013! We want to thank you, our readers, for your ongoing support and hope to see you continuing the adventure with us in the New Year.

I'd also personally like to thank all of Hopscotch Friday's contributors. This blog would just be boring old me if it wasn't for the effort you put in out of the goodness of your own hearts and in pursuit of your passions. For your contributions I am thankful, but so too am I grateful for the opportunity to share your talents with the blogosphere.

Don't forget you can join the conversation via Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Instagram or Pinterest.

-Stevie O'C

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The Time of the Doctor: The Long Con

In the interest of reducing angry letters, this article may contain what some consider to be spoilers. Seriously, welcome to the internet. Now, moving on...

Doctor Who fans are the worst*. They’re more annoying than Radiohead devotees.

There, I have lobbed the hand grenade of opinion into the electronic ether – come at me, Broseph!

http://www.bbcamerica.com/doctor-who/photos/time-doctor-sneak-peek

The airing of Matt Smith’s final outing as the Doctor on Christmas Day (Boxing Day in Australia) occasioned much kvetching and bellyaching, mainly due to confusion surrounding what actually happened. Was a story that skipped and jumped across centuries with the occasional block of narration to sum up amazing off-screen adventures of the Time Lord a fitting send-off to the actor’s version of the character? What is interesting is how much of this criticism has focused on Steven Moffat and his tenure on the show.

It seems not that long ago that fans were clamoring for him to replace Russell T. Davies, whom they felt had also outstayed his welcome, yet now revisionism has set in Davies’ Tennant-era is fondly remembered.

In truth, the difficulty with Moffat’s run is how ephemeral it all seems. Doctor Who has become a candy-floss confection of whimsy and misadventure that reduces sentiment to sickly sweetness and sadness to maudlin moping. You know it is time to feel those pesky emotions when the score performed by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales swells.

http://www.bbcamerica.com/doctor-who/photos/time-doctor-sneak-peek

Moffat is presiding over the most successful era of the show, sweeping up America and other foreign markets in its hipster British twee-ness. Despite the fears of long-time fans, his run has not been hindered by this success, which might have led to a desperate attempt to court mainstream tastes. That would be a criticism more appropriate to the John Nathan-Turner-era. In fact, Moffat appears to have been busily constructing a weirdly insular epic for The Eleventh Doctor.

The Doctor has frequently faced death with the determined gait of a time traveler who can recover from physical death, regenerate and come at a problem from a different angle. Though, like any surgeon, death is something he has to be conscious of as a very real outcome. The Doctor gives death meaning – often he is unable to save the lives of people he meets on his travels, but their deaths will be put to some purpose. Hence the jubilation of his exclamation, given to him by Moffat, in The Doctor Dances:

"Everybody lives, Rose! Just this once, everybody lives!"

The Matt Smith years have been dominated by the theme of the Doctor facing his own death. Hints were dropped by arc phrases such as ‘Silence will fall’, 'Doctor, who?' and mention of the planet Trenzalore, where the Doctor will die. In amongst it all, the Time Lord has already cheated the fate revealed to him during The Impossible Astronaut, where he was shot by his brainwashed lover River Song by a lake in Utah. The Eleventh Doctor has all this time been busying himself with the problem of how to escape his own imminent end, as he approaches his set limit of regenerations.

http://www.bbcamerica.com/doctor-who/photos/time-doctor-sneak-peek

This is the problem Moffat set out to solve. How to escape the canonically determined end-point for the character established back in 1976 with The Deadly Assassin, when viewers learned Time Lords were only allowed thirteen ‘lives’?

As it happens the Eleventh Doctor (‘Captain Grumpy’ aside) has the solution – and it is Clara (Jenna Coleman).

Picture the scene – the planet Trenzalore, where the Doctor will die, is inhabited by a small farming community living in a town called Christmas, where it always snows and no one can tell a lie. Here the Doctor, who lies, has to tell the truth. No clever prevarications to help him. So when every enemy he has ever had converges on the town to wipe it out, ‘silence must fall’. He could say his name and return the Time Lords to this universe, but that would only lead to the Time War all over again. Instead he is locked in a stalemate, supported by his former enemies The Church of the Silence.

What does it all mean though? Why can no one lie at Christmas? Why does the Doctor keep sending Clara away and maintain the stalemate, when previously he has always found an escape clause?

http://www.bbcamerica.com/doctor-who/photos/time-doctor-sneak-peek

The Doctor lies. He manipulates, uses and tricks his companions and those he meets to achieve the greater good. Versions of him that have tried to bluntly assert how things should be, see David Tennant in The Waters of Mars for example, fail. The Eleventh Doctor plays at being the fool in a similar manner to Patrick Troughton’s Second Doctor. He turns up to Clara’s family Christmas dinner naked, to cause confusion so she’ll accompany him to Trenzalore. Then he sends her away, which only makes her more determined to return. Promises he’ll never leave her behind, and then promptly does so again. All the while making oddly poignant asides that he will die soon and oh, if only Gallifrey could save him and break this stalemate (like they did in Troughton’s War Games), but for him to involve them would be disastrous.

Which in a roundabout way is Eleven seeding the idea in Clara’s mind to beg the Time Lords to give the Doctor an escape from his mandated death. It works. He is granted a new regenerative cycle and can set about rescuing his home world while preventing the outbreak of a second Time War.

Another possibility – isn’t it funny that Christmas is a place that happens to suit Eleven’s sense of sartorial style right down to the ground? The Doctor lies.

Fans complaining about Moffat have begun to suggest that Neil Gaiman would be a good replacement. Funnily enough The Time of the Doctor is reminiscent of The Sandman, in that Eleven like Morpheus uses the insoluble dilemma of his own imminent death to gain a second lease on life. Moffat, like Gaiman, is a fan of the long con disguised as narrative. The real question for the writer though is whether a television show can succeed as a puzzle-box instead of a gripping central narrative that audiences warm to.

-Emmet O'Cuana

*This may, in fact, be stated for dramatic effect. We love, and may possibly be, Who fans. Unfortunately the same can't be said for Radiohead fans ;)

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Scandi-Noir: The Killing III

Right, that's it, I need to get me a Sarah Lund Faroe Island sweater.

This, the third season of The Killing - or Forbrydelsen in the native Danish - is the final in the Scandi-noir series that follows Detective Inspector Sarah Lund (Sofie Gråbøl) as she solves murder mysteries in and around Copenhagen. This latest installment sees Lund continuing to investigate crime the only way she knows how - with minimal emotional investment, but with a drive to get to the bottom of it.

In this season, Lund investigates the kidnapping of the daughter of a wealthy businessman, which leads to a series of murders and is somehow linked to the alleged suicide of an orphaned teenage girl sometime earlier. In the meantime, the government is in a state of meltdown and Lund is dealing with an unexpected pregnancy - not hers.

Although not to the strength of the original or second seasons, The Killing III is still compelling watching, and continues the tradition of revealing only bites of information from which the audience may hypothesise the killer. This season presents multiple perspectives on the same event, or series thereof, only to leave the audience questioning what they saw, who the killer might be; and when they're revealed to have been mislead, wondering which character is not quite telling the truth.

What you learn from the original season of The Killing is that there is, in fact, enough information in the opening episode(s) to tell you whodunit, but it isn't until the end that the pieces fall into place. What you also learn from the preceding two series is that when it comes to Lund, no one is safe and no one is above suspicion.

This series also sees the return of everyone's favourite Detective Chief Inspector Lennart Brix. Portrayed by Morten Suuballe, I am convinced of his brilliance as an actor as he somehow manages to convey a great deal with only the slightest adjustment of his face. Gråbøl is consistent in her portrayal of Lund who is, as always, a withdrawn yet fascinating, strong and driven character. However, some cracks are beginning to appear in her stony-face with an old flame, Mathias Borch (Nikolaj Lie Kaas) - her partner on this case, stirring some deep and long repressed emotions.

SBS screened The Killing III on free-to-air earlier this year, which was an intensely frustrating affair because it takes ten weeks to get to the point! It's really no wonder people download these things! Thankfully it is now available on DVD through Madman, which is how I recommend you view it - in sequence, and preferably in one or two sittings. That way the mood is established and the momentum of the mystery, although lacking slightly with this final season, is maintained.

The Killing III is available through Madman.

-Stevie O'C

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Not So Marvel(ous): Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

Brand new 64 inch 3D television...check. Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D....check. Disappointment...check and double check!

Joss Whedon’s most recent attempt to see a television series survive beyond a handful of episodes is also the latest to come from the Marvel franchise. With the success of his blockbuster Avengers film, he seems to have been given the freedom to do whatever he wants – forever! And who could blame Marvel? The Avengers was well rad!

Sadly though, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. misses the mark on many levels.

A pilot episode is supposed to give you a taste of what’s to come and it needs to be punchy to suck you in. A good pilot is one that introduces you to the context you’ll need later in the series, but does so without the audience being aware that they’re effectively being taken on a guided tour.

Unfortunately, this is not that pilot. I don’t know if Whedon banked on it being green-lit anyway because hell it’s Marvel, but that is no excuse. The story is dull and passes slowly while archetypical characters are ham-fistedly thrown into the fray. The dialogue, which is usually Whedon’s strength, is unnatural, while the casting made me feel as though I was watching S Club 7 solve mysteries.

Has this been any other show’s pilot it would never have been green-lit. Well, maybe on SyFy.

The cast is young, Hollywood, and flat. I understand that Marvel only casts the very attractive for its heroes – they are a collection of rich philanthropists, übermenschen and gods – so it’s understandable that they’d cast men carved from marble, but applying the same approach to the rest of the humble bureaucracy seems a little excessive and fantastic. What I’m saying is that I couldn’t get a job at S.H.I.E.L.D., but I could have gotten a job on the Battlestar Galactica – that place was filled with normal looking people! S.H.I.E.L.D. is a large organisation that has access to some of the most brilliant minds in the world, with near unlimited resources, so you’d think there would be at least one Doc Cottle, Galen Tyrol, or hell, even a Gaius Baltar running around somewhere in an out of focus establishing shot!

The characters, thus far, are cookie cutter stereotypes that seem to be dusty off-the-shelf Whedonverse efforts transplanted into the Marvel universe, which could very well be fine but for the fact that the wit and banter we’ve come to expect from Whedonesque dialogue is just not there. Instead it feels, at best, phoned in. In particular, the kinship between the UK import tech team members is laboured and corny with them contributing nothing but accents and technobabble while looking both attractive and nerdy in non-threatening ways. And I can only hope that the team leader, who has a troubled but relatively stock standard past, will eventually be given a greater role than just ‘driving the bus’. And of course, there’s the quirky hacker who, for some reason, is not arrested for treason, and whose main talents appear to be being ‘bubbly and goofy’ but ‘also warm, edgy and witty’. Because, of course.

The action man field agent is quite possibly the most passable character, but only because he could be any secret agent from any applicable television show ever made. But the worst part, and it pains me to say it, is Agent Coulson. Clark Gregg is not a leading man and given Coulson's origin is as a supporting character, he has no sense of authority. You can’t have a character with a coy smile making jokes and then attempting to yell at someone. I love the film Coulson because he adds a sense of humanity and bewilderment in the superhero world, but here, without the support of the fantasy he is wasted.

Now, as this is my opinion on the pilot some have taken the time to remind me that all of Whedon’s pilots are like this and that I need to reserve my judgement. Honestly though, if he hasn’t gotten the hang of writing decent pilots by now, maybe he needs to reassess the process. Firefly was solid because it planted you right in the middle of a universe with no option but to accept the circumstances within which you found yourself. Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is not Firefly, and it even had the benefit of a head start!

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. - 7.30pm Wednesdays on Seven.

-Paul Briske

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Nothing Here is Vegetarian: Hannibal Season One

Before we begin, you must all be warned, nothing here is vegetarian…

Bryan Fuller is no stranger to death. His series Dead Like Me detailed the after-life and times of grim reapers in Seattle. The visually incredible Pushing Daisies presents almost as a fairy tale, the story a pie-maker with the ability to revive the dead. Heck, he has even called his production company Living Dead Guy! So who better to execute a portrayal of the pre-Silence of the Lambs, pre-Red Dragon Hannibal Lecter?

Immortalised by Anthony Hopkins in the 1991 thriller Silence of the Lambs, reviving such an iconic figure comes with the huge expectation and the very real risk of failing to measure up. Fortunately, Fuller and his team manage to pull it off. For me, this reimagining is far more sinister, aided by the restrained and controlled portrayal of Danish actor Mads Mikkelsen, but then this is a depiction of the character at a different stage in the storyline.

Hannibal manages to sustain a sense of distance between the detailed 'design' of the murders and Lecter's involvement. The audience never directly sees him performing these horrific deeds, but he seems to know too much. His implied participation enough.

In this respect there is a conflict between the known and the unknown for the observer of this long-form Lecter story. I know Lecter is a psychopath. I know he is a cannibal. However, the characters with whom he interacts, for the most part, do not. I watch him feed them gourmet meals featuring exotic cuts of meat. I listen to him discuss the details of horrific murders while displaying no emotional response. I know things that make this story ten times worse than the characters within it, creating a tension that compels me to watch on despite knowing it will all, at some point, go very wrong.

He is inherently evil, or at least he comes across that way. His calmness and callousness are juxtaposed brilliantly with the inner and outer torment of Will Graham, played by Brit Hugh Dancy. While Graham is in constant battle with his demons, Lecter has long since accepted them, even harnessed them. Graham becomes his personal play thing, whose life he near destroys for his own curiosity. However, Lecter does slowly reveal elements of his true self, albeit in a manner that is both calculated and deliberate, and which goes unobserved by most around him.

The imagery of Hannibal is, at times, both horrific and beautiful. As much as I want to look away, the aesthetic portrayal of these graphic and violent crimes is simultaneously compelling and stomach churning. The players that support the Lecter/Graham slow waltz are convincing, in particular Laurence Fishburne as Special Agent Jack Crawford, who is blissfully ignorant of the psychopathic tendencies of the man with whom he occasionally shares a meal.
 
Apparently Fuller has plans for seven series of Hannibal culminating with the events of the Thomas Harris novels only after the first four are completed. With relatively low ratings, it’s a positive that the show has been re-commissioned for a second season. Hopefully networks are beginning to realise that there are other mechanisms for capitalising on television series, such as downloadable content or DVD sales. But that’s another story…

Hannibal is not for the faint-hearted, or more accurately, faint-stomached, but the first season is out now on DVD and Blu-ray.

-Stevie O'C

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Adventure Time: Jake vs Me-Mow

Warning: The following review contains spoilers.
 

If you haven’t seen it, Adventure Time is an animated series about a boy named Finn and a magic dog named Jake. As a baby Finn was found in the forest by Jake’s parents who raised them together. Now Finn is 12 and Jake is 28 in magical dog years, and they are best bros.

 

So far, there are five series and each episode is an adventure Finn and Jake have been on – going through dungeons, fighting evil trolls and of course, avoiding the Ice King (because no one likes the Ice King).

 

I have two favourite episodes from this DVD. But the best one is also the episode that the DVD is named after, Jake vs Me-Mow. In this episode Finn and Jake are eating pies with Wild Berry Princess who is about to be assassinated by Me-Mow, the trainee assassin. Jake unknowingly eats the pie that Me-Mow is hiding in, which was meant for Wild Berry Princess. Me-Mow has poison that could kill Jake in one full injection.

Me-Mow blackmails Jake into trying to assassinate the Princess himself. Jake tries to fake assassinating Wild Berry Princess, but that doesn’t fool Me-Mow. So Me-Mow injects poison into Jake’s blood stream. Jake is in pain and Finn doesn’t know what is going on because Jake can’t tell him or he’ll DIE!

Me-Mow comes tumbling out and Finn figures it all out. Finn and Me-Mow go head-to-head “GIVE ME THE ANTIDOTE” screams Finn. “YOU MEAN THIS” said Me-Mow as she smashes it into a tree. Jake is too sick to go to the tree. “That poison is enough to kill a dog 50 time your size” said Me-Mow. Jake thought for a moment – I’m a magic dog, I can grow to 51 times my size, whooooop, Jake is cured.

This episode was my favourite because I like cats and it was really funny to see a tiny, cute assassin cat trying to kill the Wild Berry Princess and Jake.

There are 16 episodes on the Adventure Time: Jake vs Me-Mow DVD, which I recommend to anyone who likes crazy and random cartoons.

Adventure Time: Jake vs Me-Mow is available through Madman Entertainment.

- Matthew Fargher

(Matthew is 11)

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What Time Is It...?

Is this your Sunday afternoon in?

 -Caitlin Major

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Breaking Bad - The End is Nigh

Imagine a 10 second TV ad that had just one picture with a date below it. Pretty vague right? Say that picture was of a 50 something bald man with glasses and a goatee. I can guarantee that a hell of a lot of people would see that image and instantaneously lose their damn minds with the anticipation.

http://blogs.amctv.com/breaking-bad

In this country, at least, that is not how people will be receiving the news. As a nation that does not like to pay for cable TV, shows like Breaking Bad are the forefront of the ‘download illegally, binge watch and tell your friends’ trend. It comes as no surprise that Australia now has the dubious honour of having the most illegal downloads of episode 9.

The growing mainstream popularity of Breaking Bad is an interesting phenomenon. Making a hero of a man who is producing vast quantities of methamphetamine is a tricky task, but it’s the characters and their motivations that have made the show so enthralling. Everyone is given very human flaws and as circumstances change you are forced to reassess your opinions of them, none more so than of Bryan Cranston’s Walter White.

Watching Walter’s transformation from a massively uncool high school science teacher to a ruthless drug baron has been a fascinating and confusing ride. At first you sympathise with him and want him to succeed, despite the illegality of his plans. However, over the course of the show, on the road to the top of the trade, he succumbs to the greed and ruthlessness of the people he tried to avoid. The genius of it is he retains enough humanity and does not become an unbelievably cartoonish villain, but it’s a very, very, fine line.

Throughout its run Breaking Bad has presented a masterfully constructed cluster bomb of genuinely surprising plot twists, subtle character development and universally excellent performances from the cast. What makes it truly addictive, though, is its unpredictability. From one season to the next are left with a cliff hanger that just leads to a new world of chaos. If I had a bag of Blue for every time I told myself ‘this isn’t going to end well’, I’d never sleep again.

The last episodes of Breaking Bad will undoubtedly build to one of the best TV finales of all time, and I’d bet cold hard cash money that there will be at more than a few ‘oh my god I don’t believe what the fuck just happened’ moments.

I have no idea how it will all end and I don’t want to just yet. I’m fairly sure Vince Gilligan has the entire cast locked up in a spoiler proof bunker deep under the Mojave Desert but just in case I’ll wait till it’s all done and watch the whole thing in a weekend with a bagful of junk food. Hell, I might even buy it this time…

- Dan Brokenborough 

http://blogs.amctv.com/breaking-bad

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