Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Face Off - Breaking Bad s4

The secret role model of every chemistry teacher in America. 
This is a spoiler free look at the season 4 finale of Breaking Bad. 
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A man who would pick a pun would pick a pocket says Stephen Maturin in one of Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey-Maturin novels. Well that's certainly one opinion. I, however, am a sucker for a good pun. Face Off is the title of this episode. Nice, Mr. Gilligan, very nice indeed. 
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I liked the season finale a lot. Was it good enough to redeem a somewhat slow and patchy season? Did it make up for the creaking plot and the logic problems of the last two or three episodes? Actually, yes I think maybe it did. This episode was up there with the very best of season 1. We forget sometimes how clever Mr. White is. Neurotic, impulsive, emotional but very smart. And we also shouldn't forget that although Walter White got a degree in chemistry from the University of New Mexico a cancer diagnosis has given him a Ph.D. in advanced badassery. 
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The writing in Face Off was crisp, the directing taut, the acting spot on, the element of surprise, well, surprising and it ended with a nice Norah Jones/Danger Mouse song that I wasn't expecting either.   
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I'd really love them to end Breaking Bad at this point. I know that they won't but I wish they would. We don't really need to know how every little thing goes down and ending the entire series here would send the cast and the audience out on a high (no pun intended).