Peter Foy

Breaking Bad: The Legend Ends – Felina

Breaking Bad is over! The show that so many of us have loved and watched religiously for these fast years has aired its last episode, and it was really something. It felt organic to the show’s nature, carefully paced, wisely satisfying, a mite bit predictable, and overall a great finale for the series. Where to start?

Well, for one I should point out where the episode was most surprising. I was a little worried going into the episode that Felina would have a faster pace to it than your typical Breaking Bad episode as they did have quite a bit of loose ends to close. Fortunately though, Gilligan realized what a disservice that would be, and he took his time with the pacing and in some rather unexpected ways. Some people had felt that Walt was going to pay his former Grey Matter associates Elliot and Gretchen a visit for this finale, but I don’t think anyone predicted how it would be handled. Walt asks that they give his child Walt Jr. his money for his 18th birthday. He then threatens them that he hired hitmen to kill them if it doesn’t happen, which definitely shows the character still can be scary, but then we discover that Walt has only hired Badger and Skinny Pete to play mock-assassins. It actually has us change our view a bit of Walt, and see him as more as an intelligent and well-meaning guy again, who just happened to fuck things up royally for himself.

That’s probably the episode’s greatest accomplishment, as it manages to make Walt likable again. Walt played a bad-ass come the show’s final moments, but not without showing his humanity too. The tear-jerking moment comes when Walt confronts Skyler again, and finally talks to her honestly. He admits that he became a meth cook for himself (rather than his family) as he was good at it, and he feels so sorry for the way things have turned out. He leaves her with the GPS coordinates to find Hank and Gomez’s bodies, which he feels will act as her get-out-of-jail-free-card. It was heartwarming to see Walt touch his baby Holly one last time, as we all knew that he wouldn’t be living past the credits tonight.

Which of course brings us to the final showdown. Jack is depicted as loathsome as ever, which really makes us root when Walt finally puts that M60 to use. Rigging it up to his trunk to act as a human lawn-mower when he pops it works in just such a satisfying way, especially for those who have compared Walter White’s technical genius to MacGuyver. What follows is certainly predictable, as all the neo-nazis are killed immediately from the gunfire except for Todd and Jack, but we seriously needed to see Jesse and Walt deal with these two assholes individually. It really was something poetic to see Jesse choke the life out of Todd with his own slavery chains, and then for Jack to offer Walt a way to get the money he stole from him, only to have Walt answer his proposition with a bullet.

So now Jesse is free, and Walt offers him the chance to kill him if he wants to. Fortunately though, we find that Jesse sees no reason to end his former mentor’s life, and discards the gun (notice he didn’t say bitch, either!). It was also such a great cue when Walt picks up Todd’s phone after it rings only to find Lydia on the other line…and tell her that he slipped ricin into her drink. It’s hard for us to root for Walt poisoning a woman but…c’mon, she deserved it! So now for the closing shot, of Walt returning to a meth lab again, and then finally dying from the wound his machine gun rigging gave him. It’s pretty much the ending that we all had in mind for the show, but what a hell of a ride it was getting there!

A lesser show would have probably ended with an epilogue of sorts, but here we realize that’s unnecessary. We already know that Skyler will get off the hook when she hands the DEA the coordinates, Hank’s body will be found, and Walt Jr. will receive a huge fortune come his next birthday. One loose end I would have liked a little more of a hint at is what’s to become of Brock? I was hoping this episode would leave off with us having a good feeling that Jesse is going to find a way to take care of Andrea’s orphaned child (maybe by changing their identities through the service of Ed). Still, the earlier scene from this episode where we see Jesse fantasizing on being a carpenter, and the last image we see of him laughing hysterically as he drives off to freedom, suggests that the character will now finally be able to put his dark past behind him.

Also, while it certainly isn’t a fault of the show itself…but what was with all the goddamn commercials! It eased up by the ending so it didn’t distract from the climax’s momentum, but the commercials were incredibly frequent during the show’s first half. Honestly, I found it a little insulting that one of the commercial blocks was dedicated to an extended trailer for Aaron Paul’s next starring vehicle Need for Speed. Not to sound like a dick but…anyone intelligent enough to be watching Breaking Bad I doubt would be excited about Jesse Pinkman starring in a video game adaptation. I’m really hoping that such a talented actor as Paul doesn’t find himself mis-cast in crappy action movies due to the success of Breaking Bad.

So how would I rate the final episode of Breaking Bad? Well, it’s not the series finest moment. It wasn’t as tense and unpredictable as the season 4 finale Salud (maybe cause Jack is a shallow villain compared to the sublimely complex Gus Fring), nor did it have a scene that was as gut-wrenching as the death of Hank. What it was though was a triumphant victory lap for the series, and one that really made us realize how special it all was. You could say this episode marked TV history, but I think it’s more of the 6-year run as a whole that has.

Thanks Vince Gilligan and co.! You guys just closed such a chapter for my life in a near pitch-perfect way.

4.5 stars out of 5 (might as well revert to a traditional rating system for the finale, eh?)

Breaking Bad: The Legend Ends – Granite Slate

by Peter Foy

*Spoilers, as always

Well, that was bleak, huh?

That’s obviously saying a lot for Breaking Bad, as this is a show that’s specialized in showcasing humanity at it’s lowest, including child murders and drug abuse. This penultimate episode, however, had us view Walt and Jesse at their absolute nadir, and it was certainly unpleasant as viewers. Whether we have sympathy for these characters or not, we’ve watched them for 60 episodes as they’ve gone from drug-game entrees, to become practically king-pins, and now they’re in horrible places because of their terrible crimes. Having an extended running time tonight (75 minutes with commercials) it was all very depressing to watch for sure, but it’s necessary too. This further augments the fact that the series finale mustn’t hold back at all, on the writer’s part or on Walt’s.

The episode opens up with Saul going to change his identity by enlisting the service of the “disappearing man” that we’ve heard of so elusively for years now. Walt then meets up with Saul, and he’s still trying to have his former lawyer help him with his predicament. Thing is Saul is done with helping Walt now, and even suggests that he turn himself in as it’s the only way he can give his family some support, what with his frozen bank accounts and scant possibility of ever sending them his dirty money. In fact, once we see where Walt is re-located by his forger (played by Robert Forster) we realize that Saul was probably right on the money. Walt is sent to an isolated cabin out in New Hampshire, and he is warned not to leave the premises or else he’ll be caught immediately. Knowing that Walt is going to die from his cancer eventually, this actually seems to be just as bad a fate as prison for him, if not more so.

Of course, while Walt’s predicament is harsh, Jesse has become a far more sympathetic character at this point, and his scenes this episode were far more heartbreaking. Right from the beginning when Jack discovers that Jesse ratted out Todd as a child killer on Hank’s video, you could tell that his situation just went even worse. Even though Todd talks his uncle out of executing him (only so that he can learn to cook pure meth for his love interest, Lydia), Jesse receives plenty of torture from these guys this episode. What made it all the worse to stomach though, is that it looked like Jesse might actually escape, as he uses a paper-clip to undo his cuffs, and then through a rather impressive balancing act, he breaks out of his cell…course that doesn’t exclude the security cameras. Then in the subsequent scene, seeing Todd knock on Andrea’s door was so horrific as you knew right then and there that he was going to kill her as Jesse watched, and if you were like me you probably were thinking that her character was sacred ground…Breaking Bad isn’t that kind of show. In a show that has offered us morbid takes on all sorts of criminal scum, it’s certainly saying a lot that Jack and his boys are the most EVIL PIECES OF SHIT to grace television in a good long while. I even think they give Game of Thrones’ Jofferey a run for his money. Still, the fact that Brock was spared makes me think that Jesse will somehow become the child’s adoptive father, and I would certainly be glad if the writers found a way to take that path.

The real signifier that the show is coming to an end, however, occurred in the final scene. Walt finally ventures out of his abode to a pay phone at a local bar, and then calls his son, and tell him that he is going to send him a box of a few thousand dollars. Walt Jr., however, can only berate his father and tells him he hates him for killing Uncle Hank. When Walt then calls the DA of the Albuquerque police, it seems that he is certainly about to turn himself in…then the prime motivator happens. While sitting at the bar, the owner is flipping through the channels when he comes across a filmed interview with his old Grey Matter associates, Elliot and Gretchen. As we’ve always known, Walt has always aspired for his brilliance in chemistry to make him world renowned, and he previously lost his opportunity with Grey Matter when much younger in life. Walt realizes that he has become known for his chemistry skills now, but in a much different way, and when Gretchen says that Walt is no longer with us, and that he’s become Heisenberg, then we can see how that was all Walt needed to go all out, and return to New Mexico. The decision to play the show’s theme music at the end was a fantastic touch, and truly sets us up for…for…for…

*gulp* ready to see how it all ends?

4.5 goatees out of 5 (I guess the .5 is a ‘stache?)

Blue Caprice: Dead-Eye

by Peter Foy

Blue Caprice is exactly the type of movie that aims to give off one single emotion: unease. Based on the true story behind the Beltway sniper attacks, director/screenplay-writer Alexandre Moors’ film certainly isn’t trying to be anything light, as one would expect. Still, viewers may be surprised that the film doesn’t carry the framework of a thriller to it, and actually comes off of something of a restrained bio-pic on a real-life American killer, and is actually comparable to the Don DeLillo novel Libra in that sense. It’s a film that both chilling and haunting, perhaps a bit too much at times, but it is also an unforgettable horror story, and one that speaks to contemporary America.

The movie takes us back to 2003, and examines the lives of John Allen Muhammad (Isaiah Washington) and Lee Boyd Malvo (Tequan Richmond) before and during their killing spree. Malvo is a teenager from the Caribbean, who has come to the states to live with Muhammad, a friend of his mother. While Muhammad does take on a father-figure role for Malvo, it’s also clear that he is an unstable and violent man, willing to thrust his brutal ideas on the impressionable Malvo. He eventually coerces him to help him in a series of murders, hoping they spark wide-spread chaos throughout America.

The fact that these events happened merely a decade ago (which left 10 dead, three critically wounded) can really strike a nerve with people who think America has become a far safer place to live in the last 20 years. Moors paces the film with deft skill, and knows what to show viewers and what to hold back. While we see some of the sniper victims, there’s plenty of violence that is depicted off camera, or even only hinted at. The soundtrack is also intrinsic to the film, and while Blue Caprice relies more on sound effects to establish a mood than music, in the scenes when music is played it’s used to just such immense effect. One scene that depicts Malvo’s first killing, against an eerie and chaotic track that could be considered neo-jazz, has lingered with me for day. The build-up to the inevitable violence is hardly subtle, as we watch preliminary scenes that involve the character shooting guns in the forest, or playing violent video games, but it’s hard to fault the film for being so blatant regarding something we know is coming.

While many viewers will mainly cite the film for it’s disturbing violence, it would be remiss for one to miss out on the film’s subtext. Blue Caprice is about the hardships immigrants face in America, especially in the beginning. We see Malyo struggling to adapt or meet people in this new environment, which sheds some light on why he might do such terrible things when asked to by a father-figure. There’s also plenty of allusions to the wars and military conflicts our country is involved with, at times even saying that the delusional state of these two killers reflect on America as well. It’s certainly not overtly dense, but it’s gratifying to know that there are movies out there about serial killers that aren’t as simple as they appear to be.

The performances are excellent and perfectly in sync with the film’s tone. Isaiah Washington is spectacular as Muhammad, playing him as a quiet force of evil that you don’t realize when will erupt. Richmond also shines as Malvo, especially in regards to his character growth. We see this young boy transform from a quiet and sympathetic youth into a remorseless killer within the film’s 90 minute running time, and Malvo’s performance has us on board at all times. Recently, the real-life Malyo had said that Muhammad had sexually abused him growing up, a claim that Moors doesn’t delve into. Still, the two performances are so tense, that any reference to sexual abuse could have potentially come off as subterfuge. Also, Tim Blake Nelson is great in his role as Ray, Muhammad’s gun-loving friend, and it would have been nice to actually see a bit more of him in the film.

Blue Caprice is certainly a work of great craft and precision, but it’s also not something I could so easily recommend. It’s certainly not a feel good movie, nor is it anything particularly original. What it is is an exemplary debut film, and a painful reminder of how dark humankind can be, but that’s mostly all it is as well.

Masters of Sex – Pilot Review

by Peter Foy

Of the two new Showtime series to premiere this year, Masters of Sex certainly caught more of my interest than Ray Donovan. While real life authorities on the study of sex had been documented in films(i.e. Kinsey, A Dangerous Method), I felt taking the subject to the landscape of television could really explore the nitty-gritty of such a profession, and I’m perpetually intrigued to see how sexual values have progressed throughout history. Still, I also couldn’t feel a bit cautious towards the program as well, as Showtime is more a network that specializes in accessibility over analysis, and I felt that the show could end up being something rather hokey. Also, while it certainly is just a surface resemblance, I couldn’t help but wonder how this series would compare to something like Mad Men, another period piece drama that uses sexuality as a central theme. Now, after catching an early premiere of the show’s pilot (currently available through Showtimeanytime.com), I can say that my inkling was correct in supposing that the show would certainly be interesting. Masters of Sex was quite pleasing, but I also feel that my causes for concern weren’t completely unwarranted.

Masters of Sex is based off of Thomas Maire’s biography on Dr. William Masters and Virginia Johnson, although it’s evident that there’s plenty of creative lee-way in it. Michael Sheen stars as William Masters, a gynecologist who desires to understand how the body works during sex. He wants to explore questions of gender, sex drive, and even what it is that truly causes a partner to orgasm amidst the lovemaking. Unfortunately, his superiors are simply appalled by such a proposal, and say that enacting such experiments will give him a name as “pervert” in the scientific community, and therefore act as career suicide. Masters, however, finds a key component for his research when he meets and hires a woman named Virginia (Lizzy Caplan), a former singer with no background per se in any scientific field, but she’s an individual immensely in tune with her sexuality. From here, history tells us that these two truly revolutionized the field of sexual study in America.

It’s certainly a novel idea, and hard to believe that it wasn’t until the 1950s that this type of research was being performed. Sure, this is before the whole so-called sexual revolution of the 1960s, but it’s almost laughable to think that we were just too prudish as a culture in the years following World War II to really delve into the workings of our own sexuality. In fact, if the phrase “sex sells” is still common place in the industry, it’s a bit of a wonder that a show like this hasn’t turned up before. With HBO receiving all sorts of attention for racy sex scenes in shows like Game of Thrones and Girls, it’s only feasible that the other big premium network would eventually try to go for a “more bang for your buck” approach.

Thing is, I wouldn’t call this pilot episode particularly racy, and it actually has a rather light tone to it. Sure, it’s erotic, and has a dildo in it named Ulysses, but the show’s tone is playful as opposed to the rawness of something like Girls, or the melancholy of Mad Men. Masters of Sex has plenty of humor for most of it’s pilot, and then when we finally get to some serious matter near the ending it comes off as a bit melodramatic. As I explicated earlier, Showtime has a more “fun” vibe to it than HBO or AMC, so it’s not surprising at all to see the show carry this sort of feel, and it certainly separates it from other period piece dramas airing on cable right now. It’ll be interesting to see if the show’s attitude towards it’s subject progresses as it goes on, but right now it seems stimulated (no pun intended) in the most energetic sense.

Where the show is a mixed bag, however, is in it’s presentation of the 1950s. Sure, the style of dress, architecture, and vernacular seems to be accurate enough, but the camera style really isn’t. Shot on digital, and with a mise-en-scene that’s the norm for Showtime’s programs, it can actually clash with the period setting, and it just doesn’t seem as authentic as something like Boardwalk Empire or of course Mad Men. The time-inapproriate filming style has been seen in other movies and shows, and frankly cost my enjoyment towards them, such as with Michael Mann’s Public Enemies. It’s an aesthetic concern that I really hope the show’s creators will be able to work out, and I certainly hope that these flaws weren’t the product of pressure brought onto them by the network executives.

Casting-wise though, so far it seems solid. Michael Sheen definitely fits the leading man role well, playing an inquisitive man both intrigued yet baffled by sex. While granted this episode didn’t test his acting range too much, his background in theater suggests we’ll see more weighty dramatic moments from William Masters. Lizzy Caplan is also a great choice to play the show’s voluptuous female protagonist, as not only does she sport a unique look to her, but she certainly has proven her acting range over the years (as have most alumni of Freaks and Geeks). I most fondly remember Caplan from Party Down, the Starz sitcom that was as brilliant as it was short lived, where she showed she was just as able to make us laugh as to relate to a down-on-her-luck character. It’s too early to tell if Sheen and Caplan will really have chemistry, but it appears to be a safe-bet.

Overall it’s a good first episode, that’s certainly not anything groundbreaking, but it just as much shows promise. Sure, I couldn’t help but feel that modern film making techniques clashed with the show’s period aesthetic, but I also enjoyed the rest of the episode enough to give it the benefit of the doubt that it’s still trying to find it’s voice. Hell, one of the many productive things I’ve learned from the massive amount of time I’ve spent watching television, is that plenty of great shows had rocky beginnings. Just look at the early episodes of Parks and Recreation, The Office (U.S.), and even Seinfeld. I even had a lukewarm reaction to the first episode of Orange is the New Black, and now I’m championing it as the next leap forward for the medium. Masters of Sex is absolutely worth checking out, especially if you really like…masters!

Breaking Bad: The Legend Ends – Ozymandias

by Peter Foy

*Spoilers

*Major Spoilers

*Trust Me. You do not want to read this until you’ve seen the episode

Alright now that that’s settled

R.I.P Hank and Gomez

It really couldn’t have gone any other way. They were out manned and out gunned, yet the fact that we’ve seen Hank survive two other gun-fights before made us think that he could really get through this ordeal, but this time he just couldn’t. Still, he just showed what a noble and strong fighter he was even till the end, accepting his death and refusing to beg for mercy. His last line really summed up his relationship with Walt the best, “You’re the smartest guy I’ve ever met, but you’re too dumb to realize he made up his mind 10 minutes ago.” When the gun shot finally came, the effect was simply devastating, almost as much for a viewer as it was for Walt. Walt’s action had caused the death of a family member, the one threshold he truly did not want to cross. It was heartbreaking on so many levels!

Ozymandias was an episode that really brought the series direction to an immensely powerful and satisfying destination, perfectly setting the show up for it’s final two episodes. In a tactic fully adroit to the show’s nature, Ozymandias’ cold opening does not show us the aftermath of the massive gun battle just yet, but instead takes us to a flashback scene that must have occurred within the show’s first or second season. We see Walt and Jesse (back when they had mustaches instead of beards) in lighter times, which makes one recall that at one point the show was actually quite a bit more humorous than it now is. Seeing Walt call Skylar to talk about going on a weekend vacation or contemplate their baby’s name, it really shows that the initial reason that Walt became involved with this game was always for his family’s sake. It’s enough to bring a tear to one’s eye, after everything else that follows in this episode.

Since the show’s second season I’ve contemplated how Walt would tell Jesse about Jane. I had often thought that Walt would tell him while under the influence of alcohol or some drug (similar to that time he drank too much wine and said some potentially dangerous things to Hank), but I never thought that Walt would tell it to Jesse’s face to spite him. I was really choked up seeing Walt give Jack his permission to kill Jesse, and then allow them to take him away to do god knows what. Still, the fact that Jesse survived the neo-nazis (so that he could become their enslaved meth-cook), makes me optimistic that he will have a “happy” ending, and perhaps it’s not too late for Walt and Jesse to find redemption together.

So yes, Walt lost so much due to Jack, from his brother-in-law to the vast majority of his fortune, but this episode would see him losing even more. Once again we see how Walt tries to save his family, but cannot be honest to them at the same time. Skyler immediately feels that Walt is Hank’s killer, and when she grabs a knife things only got uglier. The fight scene really was a tumultuous scene, and it was shot in just such a shocking way. It felt that Skyler or Walt Jr. could be on the receiving end of that blade at any moment, but fortunately Gilligan and his writers realized that this episode had enough bloodshed already. Walt kidnapping Holly was a huge shock as well, and I can imagine there was a very involved discussion by the writers about whether Walt would keep her or not.

Lastly, before I close this blog post and wait with abated breath for next week’s episode, I must bring up Walt’s phone call to Skyer. Skyler has often been referred to as a “bitch” by the show’s fans, and has faced so much fan-forum ridicule over the years. Still, when Walt calls he a “stupid bitch”, it really carried so much gravity to it, especially after Walt began to blame her for all his problems. Walt had said last season that he wanted to continue to cook as without his family he feels he has nothing, and in this scene we see him in full Heisenberg mode. He’s detestable, he’s intimidating, and certainly terrifying. On the other hand though, it’s hard not to acknowledge that Walt’s whole plan has gone to shit in just one episode, and we fully understand why he is so full of rage. When Walt leaves her behind, it acts as a sign that their is still humanity to him, and it makes me hopeful that Walt will earn some sort of tribulation for all the evils he’s done. The only thing is…I have no idea how that’s even possible.

Also, the title of the episode is a reference to Watchmen. It really did have everything!

5 Buckets of Los Pollos Hermanos out of 5

Breaking Bad: The Legend Ends – Better Call Saul

by Peter Foy

Yeah I know, Sunday’s episode of Breaking Bad can’t come here quick enough. I mean, we’re always eager to see the next episode, but after that cliffhanger! I for one am thinking there’s gonna be at least one major character death, and that the show is gonna make me fucking cry! Hopefully you can tide off the wait a little bit though, by reading this special editorial edition of my Breaking Bad column. While I had always intended for this to be a series of recap articles, I feel that the recent confirmation of the series getting a spin-off deserves a few of my thoughts and words.

So yeah, it’s official. Breaking Bad is getting a spin-off tentatively called Better Call Saul, and it will act as a prequel series for the titular character. I for one am pretty excited…not everyone else is though. Since this announcement was made, I’ve talked to quite a few people that have expressed their misgivings with it. Some have told me that they’re skeptical that Vince Gilligan is not going to be the show runner, and also that they’re uncertain if the character can hold his own series. Of more valid concern, however, people have told me that they feel that making a Breaking Bad spin-off is merely a cash-grab tactic, and could ultimately prove gimmicky. These are all concerns that I feel are right to consider, but I also feel that there’s plenty of great potential in this series if it’s worked the right way.

For starters, I would say that Breaking Bad is a universe rich for exploration. Characters like Gus and Michael were so complexly rendered, as both humans and monsters, that it’s easy to feel that they have backstory not unlike the one we’ve seen Walt having these last 6 years. Over the last few weeks I’ve heard from a few people that they’d rather see spin-off series for those more action-prone characters, as opposed to Saul who comes off more as a middle-man. That’s exactly what got me thinking though: Saul is the ideal character for a spin-off as he is the middle man. This series will undoubtedly look into how the character obtained his underworld ties, and also possibly act as a prequel series for the show’s other great characters. How did Saul hook up with Euell and Kuby? What was Gus’ rise to power? How did Mike leave his cop background behind for a life of crime? All these answers could be seen through the eyes of Saul Goodman.

I also admit that I was instantly attracted to the idea of a Saul TV series, as I am a massive fan of the actor that plays him. Before Breaking Bad, Bob Odenkirk was probably best known as a comic, and a very respectable one too. His 1990s sketch comedy show Mr. Show has often been called the blueprint for more recent irreverent humorist shows like Children’s Hospital and Tim and Eric Awesome Show Great Job, and his work on supporting roles on The Larry Sanders Show and The Ben Stiller Show demonstrated that he was just such a shoe-in for secondary roles. It’s for those exact reasons, however, that people are feeling that he’s not a safe-bet for starring in an hour-long drama. I for one beg to differ once more. Odenkirk has proven that he’s a very good actor in Breaking Bad and has certainly transcended any notion that he’s merely comic relief. The scene from just two episodes ago when Jesse slugs him in the face is enough to ascertain this. Also, his bit parts in recent dramatic films (such as The Spectacular Now) shows that he is able to use his penchant ability for channeling gusto and charisma into true girth. While some have told me that it seems silly to cast the 50-year old actor into a prequel series, as it will be difficult to make the character look much younger than he appears in Breaking Bad, all I have to say is this: wigs.

As for Vince Gilligan stating that he would not be acting as show-runner, I actually think it’s a smart move too. As brilliantly paced and cohesive as Breaking Bad was, I feel that this sequel series needs to take on it’s own identity. I for one think that it should be a bit more comic, and dare I even say conventional? Saul’s profession as a lawyer should prove interesting as since Damages ended there hasn’t really been any new above-average law-based TV shows to come out. I feel that Peter Gould, the writer who will be serving as the showrunner, may very well see this show as an opportunity to skewer other Law and Order-esque programs, and perhaps even satirize them. Seeing that Gould is the actual creator of the character, I feel that he would know better than anyone how Saul’s show should look, act, and feel. Hell, I’d also be open to them giving the character a change of location, perhaps to a metropolitan city. Could New York possibly work?

I’ve thought about it long and hard, and I definitely feel that Better Call Saul really does have a lot of potential, and I don’t think it will tarnish the Breaking Bad legacy at all. That series has shown us that Gilligan and his writers are very cautious and adept at their story decisions, so I don’t think they’d be going ahead with this unless they knew they were onto something special. So what I’m basically saying, is that if you have any doubts about this decision, then you should wait and see. Until then however…only three more episodes of Breaking Bad to go!

Breaking Bad: The Legend Ends – To’hajiilee

by Peter Foy

Talk about having a slow burn payoff, huh?

Of AMC’s two great shows, Breaking Bad is often seen as being less prestigious and dramatic than Mad Men. It’s such an ironic claim to make though, as Breaking Bad is more concerned with focused storytelling than Mad Men, as well as something far more tense and ultimately gripping. All regards to Mad Men, as it is a wonderful, wonderful television program, but when it’s final season airs next year, I doubt it will have an episode like To’hajiilee. It’s an episode that’s extraordinarily pulse-pounding, expertly filmed, and able to be fully satisfying even while giving viewers a cliff-hanger ending. This is television at its very, very best.

Picking off pretty much where last episode left off, we see Walt contacting Todd, and Hank and Gomez expressing their irritation with Jesse’s backing out on the Walt contact. Soon, however, we find that Jesse does indeed have a plan to bring down Walt, and it means getting to the source of the matter: threatening his money stash. The plan they concoct to extort the information from Saul’s bodyguard, Huell, proves wonders for two reasons. Not only do they find out that Walt stashed his money in barrels and had them relocated, but they also put him under watch so that he can’t be contacted by Saul. Later on in the episode when Walt learns that Huell is missing, this is certainly enough to drive his paranoia up to stifling levels.

Speaking of Walt, he once again showed us how sloppy a criminal he can be. Contacting Uncle Jack to put out a hit on Jesse certainly puts his request in capable hands, but their request proves to be a bit more than Walt bargained for. When they ask him to cook meth for them, you know that only bad things will come from this decision. Then, when Walt decides to drag Jesse out by contacting his ex-girlfriend and having her contact him, one begins to realize that his plans are running on fumes. Also, if Walt really took the time to think about it, I know he would have realized that Jesse probably hadn’t located his money. All of these fuck-ups on Walt’s part puts us well on the side of Hank…which is exactly why this episode had such a gut wrenching end to it.

Another attribute that specifies how brilliant a show this is, I will whole-heartedly admit that there were two plot points that I predicted in To’hajiilee, but it just made the whole of it even more nail-biting. The hyper-kinetic sequence of Walt driving into the desert while Jesse taunts him over the cell phone was so gripping, so well shot and edited, but I don’t think any of us really suspected that Jesse really had found his money. When Walt finally snaps and yells out to Jesse about all the people he’s murdered, it becomes clear what the real operation was at hand. As edging as this scene was though, I found the whole scene involving Hank taking his sweet time to arrest Walt was even greater. I knew Jack wasn’t going to back out on rescuing Walt, even after Walt asked him to stand down once he discovered that he would be asking them to kill his brother-in-law. I was thinking that Hank could get a sniper bullet to the head at any moment, and that would be that. Still, seeing Jack’s trucks come along put such an uneasy feeling in my stomach.

As I said before, Breaking Bad has always been about build up, and here it paid off ten-fold. I can’t tell you how agape my mouth was the whole time seeing Hank and Gomez with their arms drawn against a group of merciless killers. Such incredible pacing too, as director Michelle McLarren (in her final episode for the show) kept off the gunfire until the time was just right. We haven’t seen any casualties yet, but there’s so much to consider from the episode’s last few shots. We saw Gomez going for Walt’s car keys, and we also saw Jesse try to reach into the glove box. I’d hate to see Gomez, Jesse, or Hank go next episode, but I can’t predict an outcome where all three of these characters get away safe. This is exactly the type of scene we’ve been waiting for over these last few episodes, and only one thing about the aftermath is certain: it’s not gonna be pretty.

5 sleazy-characters-played-by-Bob-Odenkirk out of 5

The Room: 10 Years Later – A Look Back on Tommy Wisseau’s Master-Wreck of a Film

by Peter Foy

“It’s so bad that it’s good.”

If you like movies as much as I do, then chances are you’ve heard that sentence a lot. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve played witness to somebody justifying their love for a shitty movie by claiming that it’s funny in how terrible it is. There certainly are films that I feel could be very much characterized by this term, but I for one have never really been a fan of it as so many movies could fall under this jurisdiction with the right amount of flexibility. You could tell me Rob Zombie’s movies are good if you just don’t pay attention to the plot, or that The Butterfly Effect is a great movie to make fun of, but in the end I feel all your doing is making a stupid piece of crap into a decent drinking game. As someone who prides cinema as an art form, and has grown more and more disinterested in B-movies with age, I just don’t have the time to watch a bad movie, no less one that is unbelievably bad. Not to sound pompous, but as a writer I feel obligated to tell people about great works of cinema that they might have missed, not terrible ones that are exactly like the other pieces of drek that they can see anywhere or anytime. I’m just gonna say it: WHO THE FUCK WANTS TO WATCH BAD FUCKING MOVIES!!!!

Tommy Wisseau’s 2003 film The Room, however, is in a completely different league.

For those unfamiliar with the film in question, allow me to explain a bit. The Room is a low-budget film written, directed and starring a rather strange fellow named Tommy Wisseau. In the film, Tommy stars as Johnny, a banker living in San Francisco who is completely in love with his girl friend Lisa, and desires nothing more than to wed her. Unfortunately, Lisa has grown bored with Tommy over the years despite his constant devotion for her, and she plots an affair with his best friend Marc. The film then follows these three characters and several others as the love triangle only grows more intense, and the storyline becomes cluttered with various sub-plots that usually end up completely unresolved.

I was introduced to the film during my senior year of college, when a friend of mine handed me a DVD of the film and told me that it was his favorite movie. I didn’t do much research into the film, and watched it promptly only to find it utterly unwatchable. I found it to be a bland, blurry, and horrifically written piece of melodrama with probably the worse love scenes in a movie this side of Glitter, and if memory serves correctly I even fell asleep during the first viewing. Of course, the fault with this initial viewing experience was simple: I watched it alone. A few days later I watched it with a large group of friends and my reaction to it was 100 fold. I laughed my ass off for an hour-and-a-half at how ludicrous the scenarios were, and how the film making was so blatantly trying to be prestigious, but instead always fell flat on it’s face. The Room felt like an alien creature picked up vague radio signals from Earth and then made a movie based on his vastly limited understanding of human communication. Simply put, that’s possibly the best second viewing experience I’ve ever had for a film.

What makes this movie such a pillar in bad movie-dom though? Well, for starters you should consider that it isn’t a genre film. Most shitty movies fall into the horror or sci-fi movie camp, as they are genres where film makers can just run wild with silliness. The Room, however, aspires to be a prestigious drama about love and betrayal, with Tommy Wisseau citing the works of Orson Welles and Tennessee Williams as primary influences. The thing is that the film goes wrong at every possible turn, and in usually the most hilarious fashion. The film has so many abandoned sub-plots, such as a scene involving a character’s altercation with a drug dealer, or a brief moment where Lisa’s mother says she has breast cancer, with neither of these situations ever being brought up again in the film’s narrative. It makes one wonder if Wisseau had planned a much larger film out initially, and would have possibly explored even bigger themes, had he not had such a troubled production. Sources say that these resolutions were dropped after several actors in the film dropped out of production, but their decision to leave the film only added to The Room’s tapestry of badness.

The Room is also one of those films that has a back story that is just as wacky and intriguing as the movie itself. For starters, there’s so much to say about just with the enigmatic Tommy Wisseau. With his grotesquely muscular physique, pale complexion, and bizarre accent that sounds somewhat like a mesh between French and German, Tommy is exactly the sort of guy you’d expect to see fronting a European death metal band, rather than filming an American movie. Being of unknown origin, very little is known about his background, although he claims to be American despite his accent clearly being foreign. Of even more dubious claim, however, is that Tommy has consistently referred to his film as a dark comedy since it’s amassed a major cult following, even though multiple members of the cast say that the film was never intended to be as such. People have even had long conversations on how the film received funding, and there’s even a half-way plausible theory that the film was a money laundering scheme with connections to organized crime, which might be the reason for Wisseau being so shady about his past. It’s difficult to reason whether this crowd pleasing piece-of-shit movie is an act of God or of Satan, but the fact that it exists alone seems to suggest that some sort of higher power dabbled their hands in it.

As of this writing, I’m going to say that I’ve probably seen this film at least 10 times, and yet there’s still plenty of reason for me to go back for more. I notice new flaws with the film each time I return to it (the latest being Lisa’s “neck” scene), and even new interactions from it’s fans. The film really is the ideal midnight movie in recent years, as it’s just such a thing of beauty to see it’s fans go wild and mock the shit out of this film with their own kind. The Rocky Horror Picture Show-esque responses from the audience are all so clever, whether it involves people throwing spoons whenever there’s a picture of a spoon on display, or shouting sexual chants during the film’s awkward erotic scenes. In this day-and-age when media is more available then ever to the public due to the internet and on-demand options, it’s a minor miracle that there’s this decade-old movie that’s holds frequent screenings, that usually plays sold-out shows to a devoted fanbase that even includes big-name comedians such as David Cross, Patton Oswalt, Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim.

In a way, it’s hard to believe that this movie has only been around for a single decade. With it’s crappy pop-soundtrack and dated look, the film could easily fool someone into thinking that it is a product of the 80s. Instead, it’s the product of a bizarre, delusional character named Tommy Wisseau, who may just also be an accidental satirist. Who knows whether he’ll continue on his film career, or whether The Room will remain his sole narrative feature-length, but in all honestly I feel that this is enough of a contribution that I’d ever really appreciate from him. Entertainment Weekly famously referred to The Room as the Citizen Kane of bad movies, but I digress. I’d call it the good movie of bad movies.

Album Review: Earl Sweatshirt – Doris

by Peter Foy

Earl Sweatshirt: Doris

Similar Artists: MF Doom, The Wu-Tang Clan, (early) Eminem, Louis Logic

Genre: Hip-hop, Horrorcore Rap

Label: Columbia Records

If you’ve been following underground hip-hop collective Odd Future (aka Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All AKA OFWGKTA AKA Golfwang) then you’ve probably been hearing quite a bit about member Earl Sweatshirt. Thing is, you probably haven’t heard him rap all that much. Following the release of his well received received mixtape Earl back in 2010, the then 16-year old rapper mysteriously vanished, with not even his fellow group members being aware of his whereabouts. Rumors began to circulate that Earl’s mother had sent him away to a reform school due to his violent and sexual lyrics, and it didn’t take long for “Free Earl” shirts to pop up. Now, we know that Earl (real name Thebe Neruda Kgositsile) had been spending the last two years at a Somalian boarding school, but he claims it was for his trouble making and substance abuse rather than his explicit lyrics. Now, at the still budding age of 19, Earl Sweatshirt has finally released his long discussed debut album, and for the most part it lives up to the hype and extended wait.

Odd Future has gained a lot of attention due to their modernized take on horrorcore-cum-shock-rap, but Earl seems intent to prove that fans come to the music for its energy and attitude, rather than to hear graphic stories of rape and dismemberment. He let’s his guests speak their minds, but Earl keeps any violent thoughts he has to a minimum and is more interested in coming off as relatable and personal here. On the track “Chum”, Earl goes through his life story a bit and also discusses his frustrations with his perceived image (“Too black for the white kids and too white for the black”). He even tries his hand at romantic songs such as on “Sunday”, which features a rapped verse from the group’s revered singer, Frank Ocean. With explicating on how his career comes before romance, and a chorus that has Earl explaining that his love life isn’t as blissful since he quit marijuana, “Sunday” is a song that’s as sweet as it is paranoid, and a very close cousin to Tyler, the Creator’s two recent love songs, “IFHY” and “Awkward”.

Earl certainly hasn’t completely abandoned his hard-edged lyrics though, only now his wordplay is more abstract and subtle. On “Centurion”, Earl spits an incredibly tight verse over a twisting beat, where he describes an urban legend horror story that isn’t always clear to make out, but that certainly doesn’t prevent it from being scary. Then on “The Guild”, featuring a verse from Mac Miller in typical depraved form, Earl talks about more creepy things, all while using the tried-and-true Odd Future method of using audio systems to lower your octave. He claims that while in Somalia he read a lot of novels (he’s particularly a big Vonnegut fan), and it certainly shows in how much stronger a rapper he’s become. Since the inception of Odd Future, it’s been clear that these guys have been trying to do an Eminem, where they can come off as really nice guys who just happen to rap about horrible things. It hasn’t always worked though, and at times I’ve even found all the shock raps a bit childish, that don’t even carry much meaning to them. Earl, however, has accumulated the intelligence and life experience for us to really delve into his rap persona. Doris is the closest that Odd Future has come to perfecting their formula for teen-angst mixed with teen-sentimentality.

Unlike other Odd Future releases that are almost entirely produced by founding member Tyler, the Creator, Doris welcomes a plethora of different beat makers on it, including Earl himself under the alias randomblackdude. While it still has heavy use of piano and instrumentals courtesy of Tyler, Doris also sees plenty of sampled tracks, and it’s further proof how intrinsic the Wu-Tang Clan has been towards the group’s style. Speaking of which, The RZA himself handled some of the production on this album, and even does the chorus for Molasses, a short, slow and addictive little song that perfectly blends the Wu-Tang and Odd Future worlds. The album’s final track, “Knight”, samples The Magictones’ “I’ve Changed”, which Raekwon also used for his single “New Wu”, yet it’s still handled in a fresh way here. On the song, Earl and guest rapper Domo Genesis rap their verses while they continually grow lower and lower in tone, which actually has a fairly mesmerizing effect for the closing track. Still, the sound of the album doesn’t seem drastically different production wise from the group’s previous albums and mixtapes, which certainly isn’t a problem, but those looking for the group’s next major leap forward after Frank Ocean’s beloved Channel Orange, may be a bit disappointed.

All in all Doris is a very strong rap record that is as much a product of hip-hop’s rich history as it is the mind of a teenaged American boy. It’s not classic status though, as the album’s pace is a bit messy, and it also can be a little hard to interpret what Earl is trying to communicate at times. It is addictive though, and a serious step up from the Earl mixtape, which makes one hope that Earl Sweatshirt will prove to be one of those rare rappers who only gets better with age. Seeing that he’s still not old enough to drink, that’s enough to raise one’s hopes even further, if not outright make your mouth water.

Breaking Bad: The Legend Ends – Confessions/Rabid Dog

by Peter Foy

Note: I just caught up on last week’s episode yesterday, which is why I didn’t post an entry for this column last week. Therefore, this post will serve as a review for not one, but two Breaking Bad episodes!

So here’s what I’ve been waiting for since the finale of the fourth season: Jesse uncovering that Walt really poisoned Brock. I knew it was inevitable, and once again the show’s writers have picked the absolute right time for this story point to come into play. Jesse has been catching on that Walt has become so casually dishonest, and even feels that Walt won’t hesitate to kill him if he feel he needs too. Well, we the viewer (and Hank) know that Jesse is one of the few characters that Walt is strongly against killing, but we also see that he wants to get this problem settled with extremely quickly. He has Saul arrange Jesse a meet up with a mysterious black market operator who specializes in giving clients new identities, but when Jesse is waiting for him he reaches for his weed stash only to find it missing. His frustration, anger, and this chance occurrence allows him to finally put two-and-two together: Saul’s guys stole that ricin cigarette from him, just as they stole the marijuana from him just now. Could you imagine how pissed he must feel right now?

Aside from Jesse though, Walt already has so much on his hands with Hank. Hank won’t back down, which forces Walt to do something pretty horrible yet again. He hands Hank a “confession” video that he and Skylar made, in which Walt claims that Hank is the man that’s brought him into the drug game. In true Breaking Bad form, Walt’s video brings up some factors from previous seasons that viewers may have initially seen as red herrings, such as the fact that Walt paid for Hank’s medical operation. It’s a rather chilling scene as both Dean Norris and Betsy Brant seem so natural in their husband-and-wife roles, that you just have your mind completely tune out the fact that they are actors. Walt’s video is a very valid threat, and Walt’s words are just as believable as Hank’s claims.

Thus, that finally brings us to the Hank-Jesse team up that I’ve been speculating on. Confessions ended with some rather intense cinematography of Jesse pouring gasoline throughout Walt’s house, but I predicted that he wouldn’t go through with actually burning the place as the flash forward shows that his house still stands. Still, it was so brilliant of Gilligan and his writers to decide that the follow-up episode, Rabid Dog, should have its first half dedicated to Walt discovering his house was doused in gasoline, and then deciding to remove his family from it and commence a search for Jesse. We can see that Walt has no intention to kill Jesse…but that might all be changing now.

Yes, Hank does come and prevent Jesse from burning down the White residence, and takes Pinkman into his own home as a witness. Listening to Jesse’s cellphone messages, Hank discovers that Walt wants to meet with Jesse in a public place so that they can discuss things. Hank puts a wire on Jesse and asks him to meet up with Walt, but Hank also begins to show his dark side in this area. He plans to film it, and if Walt does indeed kill the “junkie murderer” then it’ll be exactly what he needs to take him in. It understandable that Hank would be breaking bad himself at this point, given the extreme circumstances this particular investigation must be having on his psyche. Marie already has confessed to have wicked thoughts, as she consults a psychologist and explains that she’s been contemplating poisoning someone (I.E. Walt). There’s just so much tension, I’m thinking that at some point one of the two Schraders (if not both) is going to begin working outside the law to try and bring down Walt.

In my last post for this column I had said that we have come to see Walt as such an efficient criminal in recent episodes, but last night’s also showed us that he is in many ways still too clumsy for this profession. He tries to explain to his family that the gasoline spillage in their house comes from a freak accident at a gas station, but both Skylar and Walt Jr. see through his bullshit. When Walt finally does come clean to his wife that Jesse did indeed break into their house and attempt to burn it to the ground, Skylar says that he must deal with it immediately. Walt’s meeting with Jesse could have clearly been the end of everything, especially as he went there alone, but we can be thankful that the writers realize that Walt’s success rate is at least 30% luck. Jesse turns away when he suspects that Walt has brought a thug along to kill him, which infuriates Hank. Still though, Jesse’s payphone call to Walt suggests that he may want to intimidate him some more, and he may not be as much a coward as some people say he is.

Lastly though, I’d like to point out once again that the writers seem to be planning for something rather ominous to come from Todd and his Uncle Jack. It’s interesting that these two episodes are bookended with scenes involving them, starting out with a really unexpected cold opening in Confessions that finds the pair of them at a roadside diner. Here we seeing Todd describing the train heist job that they pulled off, and even though we the viewers have already seen it, it’s fascinating to hear it retold from this character’s perspective. Also, we can’t help but acknowledge that he left out the part about gunning down a child. We then go to a scene where we see Uncle Jack wiping blood off his boot and flushing the cloth down the toilet. It’s easy to read this as foreshadowing for bad things to come, but it’s just so deliciously shot for us to really complain about it being blatant. With Rabid Dog ending with a scene where Walt calls Todd saying he might have another “job” for his uncle, we know shit is only gonna get uglier now.

Half-way through now! Lets see how the other 50% goes.

5 Dead Gus Frings out of 5

Peter Foy

Footer