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If you don't want to read spoilers, stop reading now.
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Breaking Bad S4 episode 1 wasn't as great as it could have been. Walt and Jessie were trapped in their lab awaiting their fate. The episode was titled Box Cutter and the camera lingered on the box cutter in the opening sequence with Gil. It was heavy handed. We knew the box cutter was going to be used to kill someone and we knew that neither of the principals was going to die, so there wasn't a whole lot of drama there. We also got a cursory look at Hank and Marie's story but I'm pretty bored when those two are on screen nowadays. Hank needs to recover and get back on Walt's trail, soon. Sal needs to become a major player. I'd like to see more scenes with Walt's son. Episode 2 had more circling of the wagons. The party scene went on for a long time. Jessie's arc you could see coming a mile off and I didn't buy Walt going to the chicken man's house or his proposal in the bar...I don't know, I think it might have been smarter to have these two episodes compressed into one. A slow start to the year, but I like the foundations that are being laid for an explosive season.
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Curb Your Enthusiasm has always been hit and miss. S8E1 was very much a miss. None of the stories worked for me and I was pretty unimpressed by the whole thing. Four of the Seinfeld writers worked on this episode and it didn't show anywhere. S8E2, however, was more inspired. Larry David is at his funniest when he's getting underneath the skin of those closest to him and when he's uncovering the fracture lines in politics and religion. Bob Einstein is a great foil for Larry and Marty Funkhauser's new found love of Judaism and the opening of a fantastic Palestinian Restaurant next to his beloved deli made a wonderful collision course. I laughed out loud more than a couple of times in this episode and the Sandy Koufax neologism was a nice touch: "You're Koufaxing me?" "Yeah, I'm Koufaxing you."
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Breaking Bad S4 has yet to find its feet but I'm pretty sure it will. S8E1 of Curb was dull, obvious and kind of stupid, S8E2 was acute, witty and well observed. All in all I'm guardedly optimistic about the writing in these two returning shows.
25 comments:
I liked the opening show, even though I guessed one of the key angles, but I didn't find it boring. Last night's was very dull. Yes, particularly the Hank/Marie dynamic. Minerals?
It seems like they need to have some unknown threat coming in from outside, instead of just circling around the same material.
They are doing a week by week thing on Slate, but since they found last night's 'zingier' than the first, I'm not sure that it will really be all that interesting.
Seana
I was hoping never to see Jessie's druggie friends again.
And that whole story with Hank and Marie could surely have been told in fewer beats. We get it.
I do like the actor who plays Jesse, though. I'm not sure he gets enough credit in the shadow of the great Brian Cranston.
I think maybe they made a mistake in creating the set for the high tech meth lab. Because having built it, of course they have to use it.
One scene of things going wrong with Hank and Marie is all it would have taken.
I was just looking at the Breaking Bad: Charting the Increasing Evil of Walter White slideshow, which was a nice recap of some of the earlier lapses of our hero.
They've linked them on Grantland, too and added Louie and called them the "impotent men."
I was watching Louis the other night, John. It's not one I catch that often. This was one where the youngest daughter was telling him with arguably just passion that giving only her sister a mango bar was not fair, and then proceeded to say "It's not fair!" about a thousand times.
It was amusing, well, sort of, to find a young girl with her identical inflection say this over and over in the bookstore the very next day.
I have to admire the young actress for getting it exactly right.
Rupert Murdoch better watch out, I'm pretty sure Koufax could coax one more 96-mile fastball out of his arm.
Matt, I was a kid in L.A. when Sandy Koufax was a star, and even though I didn't know anything about baseball besides trading cards in bubble gum, I preferred him to Don Drysdale.
Yeah, it's a girl thing.
Playing second base behind Drysdale on the same high school baseball team: Robert Redford.
But yeah, you probably made the better choice with Koufax.
And I know this is controversial, but Redford probably made a better choice going into movies.
Although I bet he replays the glory days on the high school team just like every other jock I ever knew.
What does "You're Koufaxing me" mean? Not showing up to work on Yom Kippur?
Seana
Yeah thats my point too. You could have made one really good episode out of the first two, I suspect.
Jessie's good but they sometimes struggle to find things for him to do. Hooking up with his old druggie seems like a safe, backward step for the writers.
John
I've yet to see Louie but I've liked much about Louis CK that I've seen on YouTube. The previous sitcom was terrible though. Terrible. I hear its a different ballgame now. I'll check it out.
Speaking of high school Louis CK was a couple of years ahead of my wife at HS and was good friends with her brother.
Matt
Didnt know that. Explains a lot about grabbing all the glory in The Natural though.
Peter
Thats exactly what it means, which is why its so funny on the show. You need to know the context to get the joke.
Louis CK on childcare is basically an extended riff along the Go the F**k to Sleep lines. It's okay in small doses. Sort of.
I hope that show 2 in the Breaking Bad line up was in part to show where the characters can't go. Walter can't go and shoot down Gus in cold blood, though he'd like to think he's that bad, and Jesse can't go back to the old crew. So now we see what happens.
Like most things in life, you have too much you get bored! : )
It was July and Bahai Mar was a ghost town. The jolly lassies and their greying, chuckling swains had fled to cooler climes, and Meyer and I sat baking on the foredeck. "I hear some guy has been writing about us, McGee." I took a deep swallow of my third Dos Equis. "You old fool, your dementia is showing." Meyer grunted. "No seriously...fellow's name is McDonald. Has written a couple of books about our so-called 'adventures'. I saw them the other day at Seana's bookstore. She was running a special". I cracked open number four and glugged a couple of swallows. "You confused donkey, you mean Ross McDonald and he writes about a private dick named Archer." Meyer paused, bit his lip and said "You know there is really no reason to call names, McGee. I was not referring to Ross McDonald. This fellow's name is Jim or Joe - something like that - McDonald. And I think we should get some royalties out of the deal".
I tipped the bottle and let the last drops of the amber fluid flow into my eager maw. "Well let's give it a shot, Meyer."
BRIGHT WIND FROM MOUNTAIN
Seana
His stuff on fatherhood is pretty good and pretty dead on. Lots of it on youtube.
Bright Wind
That sounds like my kind of bookstore. I dont know if Seana gets to run the specials though.
Its interesting that when I was in Miami last January I hung out in a really nice Borders with comfy chairs, lots of books and a coffee lounge. All gone now I suppose.
it's all about series 3 of Engrenages and the Shadow Line up here.
Rob
I've seen some of Shadow Line. Its good. I'm a big Anthony Sher fan. Pretty much like him in everything.
There was a pretty good article on Slate about why Borders closed. I can't say that we in the indie book industry miss them all that much, but as a reader I'd say that it's probably never a good thing when a bookstore closes. And I am getting reports from all over the place that there really aren't any bookstores in a lot of places, now that the big box stores first came in and beat the small stores and now have gone themselves.
I think there are a lot of reasons why brick and mortar bookstores are good for books and good for communities. Unfortunately, I'm not really sure how sustainable any of them are in the long run.
No, I don't really have anything to do with specials, Bright Wind.
Seana
I think its a best of a stretch to lay the blame at Seattle's Best Coffee, but there are some really good points there.
Now that the big Borders has gone from Chapel Street round the corner from me now there's nowhere where I can go just to faff about and read magazines.
You would fit right in at our store, believe me.
Though magazine distribution isn't what it once was either.
I'm not sure South Philadelphia has ever had a bookstore. The city is seriously devoid of good spots for faffing about while reading. Barnes & Noble is too crowded with hipsters, and Rittenhouse Square is unsuitable out of season and in bad weather.
These days I do far more reading in bars than in cafes. (A portable reading light helps.)
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Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
http://www.detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/
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