Amici:
Broken Bad ... How do I sum up my disappointment with Breaking Bad? While the rest of BB’s faithful followers hang on week to week, I try and imagine how much more they can destroy what had been an interesting show. Okay, so most shows require a suspension of reality, including The Sopranos. Taking bets in the Bada-Bing’s office? Really? Somebody say goodbye liquor license? And Game of Thrones has friggin’ dragons, but at least that show is supposed to be off the reality reservation. Breaking Bad has some wonderful storylines, but the last two episodes have made it impossible to digest.
SPOILER ALERT: A meth cooking/dealing gang of stone killers drops two DEA agents and there are only two witnesses, Walt and Jesse. Walt had spilled the beans while trying to bargain for his brother-in-law’s life (one of the DEA agents killed by the leader of the meth/killer gang). The beans being $80 million dollars in cash he’d hidden very nearby. What a predicament! There’s $80 million in cash, Walt and Jessy.
What’s a meth/killer gang leader to do? What, oh, what, to do?
ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?
First, the leader of the meth/killer squad finds it in his heart to allow at least one of the two witnesses to a double DEA murder live another day.
Yeah, right, makes perfect sense ... the one guy who can pin the murder of his brother-in-law and another DEA agent on you, the guy who was willing to give up $80 million to try and save his brother-in-law, you let HIM walk away.
Then the same leader of the meth/killer gang finds some George Bernard Shaw socialism in his heart. “What’s with all the greed?” he says ... and proceeds to give the one guy who can pin the murder of his brother-in-law and another DEA agent on him a barrel with $11 million in cash.
There’s no swallowing that shit. Like the great and powerful OZ said: “Not no way, not no how!”
But it doesn’t end there ... then Walt has a chance to flee the scene forever ... even while suffering what appears to be a serious relapse of his cancer ... so the guy who helps him escape far away to the mountains of New Hampshire, he also helps transport the $11 million without a thought of whacking Walt (because why would he want $11 million when he can spend the rest of his life risking jail time for harboring and aiding criminals?) ... even when Walt needs the guy to bring him cancer medicine, the good criminal doesn’t slip him something more deadly and have the $11 million all to himself. He likes driving all day and night, I guess.
Yet when Walt asks the same guy if he’ll deliver the money to his family after he dies, the guy answers: “Would you believe me if I said yes?”
Honor amongst thieves? Trust me, that’s a crock of shit.
And then there’s the whacking of Jesse’s girlfriend? Okay, so explain to me why in the world, after seeing the girl killed, Jesse would even consider cooking for them again? The kid? Please … Jesse was long gone before they whacked the girlfriend. And does he really think they wouldn’t kill the kid anyway as well?
Not that requiring Jesse to cook makes sense in the first place. Like the leader of the meth/killer gang first said, “We just hit lotto (or something along those lines). Why don’t need to do that (cook) anymore.” Then he’s convinced by the most interesting character in the series (to me), his whackjob nephew, to take more risks to make more millions. Right, after they let Walter walk away with $11 million? Sure, right, no problem.
Oy vey ...
BIG DISAPPOINTMENT ... ACROSS THE BOARD ... BREAKING BAD BROKE WHEN IT COUNTED MOST ... THEY TOOK THE CHEAPEST WAY OUT ... AND NO MATTER WHAT HAPPENS SUNDAY NIGHT, NO MATTER WHO WE’RE ROOTING FOR AND/OR AGAINST, THAT $11 MILLION DEBACLE WILL NEVER GO AWAY.
And now I have a headache from shouting.
TK’s prediction ... like a co-worker (Reginald Elkins) suggested, Jesse blows up the meth lab. I say old Walt comes back and whacks a few of the killers (because this science high school teacher has defeated a friggin’ drug cartel already) before whacking himself ... everybody wants to see Jesse make it out alive ... that’ll be what keeps us watching, but if he runs for President and wins in a spinoff series, I’m not sure I’ll be able to watch it.
Better Call Saul? Now that I wanna see.
Spiral (Engrenages) is back! And I watched all of season four over four days ... and amici, it doesn’t disappoint. In fact, this season ender will leave your mouth hanging open.
This season the focus is terrorism … but it picks up right where it left off last season, after Captain Berthaud whacks a serial killer. Now she’s under investigation for murder. And the jooooge (judge) is in hot water as well ... and Gilou is ALWAYS in the shit ... the gorgeous criminal lawyer, Josephine Karlsson (Audrey Fleurot) surprises, as does her new partner, Pierre Clement ... and a character from the past returns ... and, well ... you’ll have to watch.
Spiral is something akin to our Law and Order, except about 100,000 x’s better … check it out on Netflix and/or DVD.
Like the kid says (about Audrey Fleurot, even though the above video isn’t from Spiral) … Magnifique!
Hitchcock ...
Last Saturday night while enjoying a bottle of Beneduce Vineyards Shotgun Red (my new favorite wine), and chomping on a pound or two of strip steak (the blood, the blood) … I finally watched Hitchcock.
Anthony Hopkins, Helen Mirren and Scarlett Johansson ... forgetaboutit, what a good movie. Hopkins remains one of my very favorite actors (he can do anything) ... same goes for Mirren ... and Scarlett is pretty fantastic herself ... it was tough having to get used to Danny Houston in a role outside of the Butcher in Magic City (which has been cancelled), but he was also damn fine as a writer looking to hustle his way into Hitchock’s good graces by using Hitchcock’s wife’s growing desire for attention. It’s all about the dynamics between the Hitchcock couple as it pertained to the movie Psycho, which they financed on their own dime ... TK really enjoyed the acting in this movie.
Looking down this week’s list of Oscarology: Vol 1, pt. 2 - Best Picture Nominees, I found a few I’ll definitely be taking a look-see at in the future. Fruitvale Station for one … Captain Phillips and definitely All is Lost (that one intrigues me big time because of the lack of dialogue) … I remember a great one with not much dialogue from back in the day (The French Connection) … it can be done.
What TK wants to know is will Cinema Bytes peer into the foreign film world? We’re still finding a lot more satisfaction with foreign flicks than the homemade market offers, although there are always some independent gems (usually with Michelle Williams somewhere in the mix).
Boicotta-Barilla ... The CEO of Barilla pasta doesn’t care to use gays in advertisements for his pasta ... he says his pasta is for traditional families ... TK says: what a dick. Read about it here ... and never buy another box of Barilla pasta ...
This week in the NFL … okay, so now that I’m back to par (8-8 week 3), I’m on the upswing (5-15 the week before) … so invest your hard owned In-Knucks-We-Trust-Bucks in the following locks of the week.
40-Whiners squeak one out against the Ramettes, 27-24 (Cha-Ching, MF'ers) ...
Wes Cravens keep my Bills in the red, 30-14
Lions over the Cubs, 24-21
Colts whip the Jags, 27-10
Vikings start the climb out of the hole against the Steelerless, 24-20
The Titanics crush the Y-E-T-S, Yets, Yets, Yets, 24-13
Broncettes over the Eaglettes, 34-24
Falcons over the Poser Choketriots, 27-20
Bengalis tame the Brownettes, 30-13
Texas upsets the Sea Pigeons, 24-21
Chiefs keep the Moonachie Blue team in the red, 24-20
Cards over the hapless Bucks, 24-17
Chargerless over the Girls, 28-23
Raiderettes spoil RGIII’s 4th attempt at a W, 24-14
Aints over the fish, 34-24
—Knucks
Swing Baby … Benny Goodman, Gene Krupa, Harry James and Lionel Hampton …
Even the King of Swing can use a little clout …
