This afternoon, overcome by a mounting frustration at being unable to get two monitors working on my new single-graphic-card-equipped home desktop personal computer, I blurted out the following on Facebook (only a couple of minutes before I entered a plaintive plea for help on the same forum, which resulted in several responses, and indeed, evenContinue reading “High-Tech, I Love You But You’re Bringing Me Down”
Tag Archives: Walter White
Jesse Pinkman and Eklavya: Teacher-Student Relationships Broken Bad
The grand old Indian epic Mahabharata contains, among its thousands of stories, several which unsettle us by their moral ambiguity. One such story is that of Eklavaya. The Wikipedia entry for him notes: He is a young prince of the Nishadha, a confederation of jungle tribes in Ancient India. Eklavya aspired to study archery inContinue reading “Jesse Pinkman and Eklavya: Teacher-Student Relationships Broken Bad”
Breaking Bad and Walter White’s Too-Neat Conclusion
Breaking Bad‘s finale was a little disappointing. After the relentless darkness of the second half of the fifth season, I had let myself believe that the show’s creator, Vince Gilligan, would go all the way and serve up a stark, brutal ending, one that would put the finishing touches on the show’s reputation as anContinue reading “Breaking Bad and Walter White’s Too-Neat Conclusion”
Walter White’s Rage Against The Dying Light
Ross Douthat ponders the question of what makes Walter White the target of such sympathy–and perhaps even affection– even as it became clear that his criminality and amorality had run amuck: The allure for Team Walt is not ultimately the pull of nihilism, or the harmless thrill of rooting for a supervillain. It’s the pullContinue reading “Walter White’s Rage Against The Dying Light”
Breaking Bad and the War on Drugs
A video made by the Brave New Foundation and titled ‘What Breaking Bad Reveals About the War on Drugs‘ is making the rounds these days. It is brief, well worth a watch, and made up of rapidly edited clips from the show. It features the following screen legends–designed in Breaking Bad’s trademark ‘chemical elements letters’ style–thatContinue reading “Breaking Bad and the War on Drugs”
Breaking Badder Than I Thought
Almost exactly a year ago, I speculated about how Breaking Bad would wrap up. I wondered about Walter White‘s eventual fate: [P]erhaps the writers will give Walter a glorious back-to-the-wall-defending-his-family-shootout kind of death, saving them from the depredations of a ruthless set of ganglords, thus redeeming himself in spectacular fashion even as he loses hisContinue reading “Breaking Badder Than I Thought”
Skyler White, The Anti-Muse?
Yesterday I wrote a short response to Anna Gunn‘s New York Times Op-Ed about the negative reaction to the Skyler White character on Breaking Bad. I want to add a couple of points to that today. Some of the adverse reaction to Skyler finds its grounding in her instantiation of an archetype that I alluded toContinue reading “Skyler White, The Anti-Muse?”
Skyler the Shrew?
Anna Gunn has an interesting Op-Ed in The New York Times today, detailing her response to the almost universally negative, vitriolic, misogynistic response that her character on Breaking Bad—Skyler, the wife of Walter White–has evoked. In it, she writes: My character, to judge from the popularity of Web sites and Facebook pages devoted to hatingContinue reading “Skyler the Shrew?”
Breaking Bad Season 5 Speculation: Reconciliations for Redemption
Having finished watching Season 4 of Breaking Bad, and having no access to Season 5 till it emerges on DVD or streaming, I’m going to go ahead and speculate a bit about the show’s eventual direction and conclusion. Many of the issues raised and provoked by the first four seasons seem to require resolution ifContinue reading “Breaking Bad Season 5 Speculation: Reconciliations for Redemption”
Breaking Bad: This Generation’s Western
The fourth season of Breaking Bad is done and dusted. (Yes, I am a Netflix-viewer of television series, and so, invariably lag behind; in this case, a full season.) I’ve not written on this blog before about Breaking Bad, and given my admiration for the show, find myself surprised by this omission. So here goesContinue reading “Breaking Bad: This Generation’s Western”
Samir Chopra 