Initial Thoughts: Breaking Bad

Tonight I finished Breaking Bad.  Yes, gruesome and graphic, I know--and though I cannot recommend it widely, I do have to post a few thoughts on the series' significance.  So nearly a year after it's finale, here's my take.

In Breaking Bad, Vince Gilligan and his team have given us the tragedy of our time par excellence.  Being deemed the crown jewel of the 2nd golden age of TV, it has created such a high standard of literary television that I expect it will be a primary text to study for many years to come.  From its always meaningful production values to inventive cinematography usually reserved for film, this show leaves nothing to carelessness.

And oh the performances!  Bryan Cranston's Walter White is a tragic hero with the enormous fatal flaw of hubris.  When soliloquizes about when the perfect moment to die would have been, he embodies Lear; when expecting gratitude and respect for his "triumphs," Agamemnon; and when growing desperate to retain control, Macbeth.  The audience watches Walter weaving, ever so slowly, the tapestry of a self-fulfilled prophecy.  But the only performance to outshine Cranston is Aaron Paul's Jesse Pinkman.  All I can say is that throughout these 5 seasons, my #1 recurring thought was, "I love Jesse and just want to give him a hug."  Other performances support these two brilliantly, but I don't have space to do them justice.

Yet in the midst of meteoric performances and writing that made my hair stand on end, the show remained grounded in the midst of the every day.  In the first season, a character made me cry by setting the table.  This is where the Breaking Bad tragedy meets morality play.  Just before the English renaissance, the most popular form of play was the morality play, a story with a main character commonly referred to as "Everyman" who would face a variety of temptations.  Though Walt becomes "Heisenberg," he can't escape his mundane "Everyman" qualities.  Which is what makes the show so compelling because it's easy to see how you, I, anyone could succumb to darkness.  No, maybe not high-school-chemistry-teacher-turns-meth-kingpin darkness... but giving ourselves over to pride, fear, hatred, and manipulative control?  Yes, to those, "Everyman" is susceptible.

For me, the real take-away from the show's success lies in it's ability to ratchet up the incredibly high stakes while keeping the scope as limited as possible.  There's been a tendency in film & TV lately to set the stakes by making the scope wide, but I think that rarely works well.  For example, it seems like each summer blockbuster (think Marvel and DC) and now even other TV shows (one of Doctor Who's weaknesses) have to threaten at least a major city, if not a whole planet, in order to convey the gravity of the conflict our heroes must resolve.  I would argue a far superior story can be found in a film with a narrower scope that can still bring the stakes to boil.  Take the Bourne Identity, for instance, where there's no threat that the world itself is ending, just the life of one man - but which is so significant and compelling, that it might as well be the end of the world.  And that is what Breaking Bad is able to convey.  Yes, the body count rises with successive seasons, but the central conflict is always "how will this family survive?"

I'm not arguing that this is a "good show" - if you want one of those, check out Sherlock or Firefly.  But it is a great one.  In studies on narrative, the critics discuss character, plot, and style.  This one excels at all three.  So for all it's questionable content, I have to marvel at it's impeccable form.  It deserved every Emmy and accolade bestowed on it, but more than that, I hope it taught film and show makers alike that we expect more from our stories.  The bar has been set very high; good luck "breaking" that.

31 Days of Books: A Severe Mercy

Title:  A Severe Mercy

Author:  Sheldon Vanauken

Published: 1977

Year I read it:  2012

One sentence summary:  Vanauken's autobiographical narrative of the deep love he and his wife developed; their adventures all around the world, leading them to Oxford; their journey into faith, with the help of Oxfordian friend, "Jack" Lewis; and of their loss, the severe mercy.

Interesting fact:  It contains 18 of Vanauken's letters from C. S. Lewis.

Three reasons to read it:

• This is honest-to-goodness one of the best love stories I've ever read!  The depth, the romance produced from self-sacrifice (and common love for literature), is just astounding.  And it's so refreshing to hear a romance from the man's perspective!  Loved that beginning.
• Oxford!  This book captures Oxford of the '50's - which really hasn't changed much.  See below for some of the best explanations of life in that University town.
• The pain Vanauken goes through - and the faith with which he faces tragedy - are far more than "tear-jerking" or "heart-breaking."  None of those cliche's will do.  This book touches something far deeper.

One reason you maybe shouldn't:

• It has very, very sad parts.

Great quotes:

Love is the final reality; and anyone who does not understand this, be he writer or sage, is a man flawed of wisdom.

We saw self as the ultimate danger to love, which it is.

Coming to England was like coming home, coming to a home half-remembered - but home.

"That's what Oxford is, a place to talk about everything..."

"This, you know, is a time of taking in--taking in friendship, conversation, gaiety, wisdom, knowledge, beauty, holiness--and later, well, there'll be a time of giving out... Now we must store up the strength, the riches all that Oxford had given us, to sustain us after.  She stood there, Oxford, like a mother to us all with her hands heaped with riches."

I tended, indeed, to feel that God Himself dwelt in Oxford, His holy city, where He could hear the bells.

He had been wont to despise emotions: girls were weak, emotions–tears– were weakness. But this morning he was thinking that being a great brain in a tower, nothing but brain, wouldn’t be much fun. No excitement, no dog to love, no joy in the blue sky– no feelings at all. But feelings– feelings are emotions! He was suddenly overwhelmed by the revelation that what makes life worth living is, precisely, the emotions. But then– this was awful!– maybe girls with their tears and laughter were getting more out of life. Shattering! He checked himself, showing one’s emotions was not the thing: having them was. Still, he was dizzy with the revelation. What is beauty but something is responded to with emotion? Courage, at least, is partly emotional. All the splendour of life. But if the best of life is, in fact, emotional, then one wanted the highest, the purest emotions: and that meant joy. Joy was the highest. How did one find joy? In books it was found in love– a great love… So if he wanted the heights of joy, he must have it, if he could find it, in great love. But in the books again, great joy through love always seemed go hand in hand with frightful pain. Still, he thought, looking out across the meadow, still, the joy would be worth the pain– if indeed, they went together. If there were a choice– and he suspected there was– a choice between, on the one hand, the heights and the depths and, on the other hand, some sort of safe, cautious middle way, he, for one, here and now chose the heights and the depths.

For those days when you need to cry...

...read this.


If you're happily enjoying this sunny weather - keep doing that.


But.  If you want to read something beautiful and heart wrenching and tear-worthy.  Read that letter.