breaking just sort of OK

Salix Babylonika · 2013-09-23 03:50:30

a chemistry teacher is diagnosed with a flu.

he decides to start a lemonade stand and faces stiff competition from the neighborhood preteens

coming this season to NETV.

Odradek · 2013-09-23 03:51:20

twitter will still not shut up about it.

Anonus · 2013-09-23 04:15:33

I can't allow you to make a mockery of one of AMC's crown jewels

*presses buttons tapping every ABC affiliate in Pennsylvania to send vans to Mojave's house, except WATM who doesn't have a news department*

Princess Alice · 2013-09-23 04:19:47

why did you even have those buttons installed

Anonus · 2013-09-23 04:30:07

I have buttons for every station in the network.

I'm gonna have to change some of these soon...affiliation switches and all

Obā-san · 2013-09-23 04:58:24

what is amc

Anonus · 2013-09-23 05:51:48

American Movie Classics, but never mind that

Look at this truckload of Emmys instead

Also, ABC Inc owns AMC

Obā-san · 2013-09-23 11:02:25

Emmys don't matter

Imipolex G · 2013-09-23 11:33:58

Make an ABC affiliate come to my place and give me $50,000

Yarrun XIX · 2013-09-23 12:35:59

Sometimes I get really angry about how Breaking Bad exists.

I mean, having spent a good portion of this morning reading the plot, I don't feel like it's poorly written. I just hate the premise.

Yarrun XIX · 2013-09-23 12:41:15

A black man's forced to make crystal meth, it's a sign that all blacks are terrible people who'll inevitably screw each other over.

A brown man's forced to make crystal meth, it's a sign that we should kick all those brown people out of our country.

A white man's forced to make crystal meth, it's a compelling, award-winning narrative that deserves our compassion and attention.

At least Orange is the New Black surrounds the white woman with sympathetic characters that represent the average demographics of a prison.

Fossilmaiden · 2013-09-23 13:04:10

Except that by the end of Breaking Bad, Walter White is a horrible horrible person. George R. R. Martin even called him a greater monster than anyone in ASoIaF.

Obā-san · 2013-09-23 13:10:00

i have not seen any of breaking bad but yes apparently walter does become one of the most intensely unlikeable protagonists to ever grace the airwaves

Obā-san · 2013-09-23 13:10:33

my mom watched some of it but decided she didn't like it

it doesn't sound like a thing i'd like either

Yarrun XIX · 2013-09-23 13:14:35

I know, but

They intially suckered in the audience by portraying Walt as a sympathetic man who only got into this criminal, typically not-white industry because he needed the money to help his family after he dies. And it's only later that he devolves into being a terrible human being who'd poison children to get his way. And all the while, he's allowed to be so smart and cunning.

If this was a black character, he'd start out as an irredeemable character. Maybe we get some sympathetic backstory, but probably not. And he definitely wouldn't be given lines like 'I am the one who knocks'.

(Except for maybe The Wire, but as we all know, The Wire is an outlier and should not be counted).

Imipolex G · 2013-09-23 13:16:17

white dudes rule

Odradek · 2013-09-23 13:16:52

Walter WHITE and Jesse PINKMAN fight the Latinos and win.

Obā-san · 2013-09-23 13:19:43

Walter WHITE and Jesse PINKMAN fight the Latinos and win.

and destroy themselves in the process

IT'S AN ALLEGORY

Salix Babylonika · 2013-09-23 14:03:25

I actually agree with Yarrun's sentiment, but I was mostly just punning on the honestly kind of nonsensical title of the show.

Anonus · 2013-09-23 14:05:45

Pangur Bán said:
Emmys don't matter

Yes

They do

ABC has to have class, you know

*picks his nose*

Salix Babylonika · 2013-09-23 14:07:39

I guess I should clarify for the sake of transparency that I've never seen Breaking Bad, but the descriptions I've read of it tell me that the only way it could be more "not my thing" is if the soundtrack was entirely composed of deathcore music.

Yarrun XIX · 2013-09-23 14:09:38

I feel like the overreaching plot of the finished series would be an interesting five-book series to read. Doesn't feel right to stretch it out for five seasons.

Fossilmaiden · 2013-09-23 15:00:49

Yarrun XIX said:
I feel like the overreaching plot of the finished series would be an interesting five-book series to read. Doesn't feel right to stretch it out for five seasons.

It's set over a period of roughly 1 1/2 years. 62 episodes doesn't seem ridiculous for that.

Yarrun XIX · 2013-09-23 15:10:02

What I meant to say was that this kind of 'well-intentioned anti-hero slides down the slippery slope' story is one that, in my opinion, works better in a smaller timeframe.

Anonus · 2013-09-23 15:14:02

If it operated on a smaller timeframe then AMC's idiotic executives would have had to work harder to find a decent show to replace it with because after The Walking Dead whoever greenlights shows there lost their Midas touch

Section42L · 2013-09-23 15:17:57

It still amuses me that they thought a Breaking Bad spin-off would be a good idea.

Anonus · 2013-09-23 15:28:28

And a Walking Dead spin-off!

In only six years AMC has gone from being the cool new kid on the block to resting on its laurels...

Sredni Vashtar · 2013-09-23 17:56:52

I saw a few episodes of the first season of Breaking Bad. It was very blackly funny and the writing was quite good. Never saw past that, though, so I can't say if it kept that up.

Miss Miko Mayonegg · 2013-09-23 17:59:12

I wanna see a compelling narrative about a Mexican family illegally crossing the border and selling cocaine so they can save their son from cancer

glennmagusharvey · 2013-09-23 21:29:10

Breaking Dead

Walking Bad

glennmagusharvey · 2013-09-23 21:30:37

A blue man's forced to make crystal meth, it's a sign that the music industry is dead.

A green man's forced to make crystal meth, it's a sign that environmentalism is wrong.

An orange man's forced to make crystal meth, it's a sign that he grew hands.

Viani · 2013-09-23 23:23:02

yekk

Previous Calica · 2013-09-24 04:46:14

Miko said:
I wanna see a compelling narrative about a Mexican family illegally crossing the border and selling cocaine so they can save their son from cancer

I know one of the Spanish-language networks is doing their own version of Breaking Bad.

Look up "Metastasis"

Miss Miko Mayonegg · 2013-09-24 04:47:39

hmm interesting. :o

glennmagusharvey · 2013-09-24 12:51:06

It's metastasizing.

Tachyon · 2013-09-24 13:06:17

glennmagusharvey said:
An orange man's forced to make crystal meth

and i thought the orange order couldn't get any worse than it already was

Fossilmaiden · 2013-09-24 15:06:27

A Fremen is forced to make crystal meth, it's a sign that the spice no longer flows.

Aliroz · 2013-09-24 19:21:15

There are other ways to make lots of money, other than selling meth. You could counterfeit a bunch of money, or do that one Roald Dahl story and become a psychic who can see through the cards at the casino and then make loads of money by breaking the system in a different disguise each time. You could do a ponzi scheme.

Alduin · 2013-09-25 09:11:52

Aliroz said:
or do that one Roald Dahl story and become a psychic who can see through the cards at the casino and then make loads of money by breaking the system in a different disguise each time.

Didn't he get cancer at the end, as a natural side-effect of abusing his powers?

Alduin · 2013-09-25 09:21:00

Yarrun XIX said:
A black man's forced to make crystal meth, it's a sign that all blacks are terrible people who'll inevitably screw each other over.

Yarrun XIX said:

Yarrun XIX said:
A brown man's forced to make crystal meth, it's a sign that we should kick all those brown people out of our country.

Yarrun XIX said:

Yarrun XIX said:
A white man's forced to make crystal meth, it's a compelling, award-winning narrative that deserves our compassion and attention.

I don't watch Breaking Bad either but IIRC race isn't really a major theme.

Tachyon · 2013-09-25 09:39:52

of course it isn't, he's white

Yarrun XIX · 2013-09-25 09:41:26

I'm not going to ask how you made the quote box like that. That's like, wizardry. I can't even begin to comprehend it.

Let me put it this way. The point is that the people who dictate how the media works refuse to bring in non-white or people as leading characters, even when it would be more logical to use a non-white character than a white one.

Making meth is typically a Latino or Black thing. Sometimes it's done by lower-lower-class white people (or, to use more derogatory terms, rednecks and white trash). And the media always condemns it when a meth lab's busted in a non-white neighborhood or a poor white neighborhood. Walt's a super-intelligent professor and Jesse's a rich kid who got into drugs. Thus, their methmaking is cool enough to warrant a compelling story, which then warrants praise from the media.

And on top of that, Walt and Pinkman don't just become methmakers. They become, in the shows' own words, some of the best methcooks in the entire country, beating out all the black people and the brown people.

It's kind of a double standard, you understand. When a non-white person does crime, it's bad. When a white person does crime, it's cool because they're twice as good at it.

Tachyon · 2013-09-25 09:43:27

i guess they might have been concerned that featuring a non-white lead would be perpetuating a harmful stereotype, or perceived as such?

i don't watch it either, i just wondered if that was possible.

Tachyon · 2013-09-25 09:46:39

also the idea that 'cool white professor makes meth' is a compelling premise kinda reminded of Weeds

Yarrun XIX · 2013-09-25 10:08:52

Tachyon said:
i guess they might have been concerned that featuring a non-white lead would be perpetuating a harmful stereotype, or perceived as such?

i don't watch it either, i just wondered if that was possible.

That is the exact opposite view to take on that issue.

The best way to deal with a stereotype, beyond simply disproving it, is to give it some depth. Don't just show that most Latinos don't make meth. Show that the ones who do have their reasons dor it.

And if they're really worried about it, just add a couple of non-white characters who don't sell meth.

Tachyon · 2013-09-25 10:19:11

That would clearly be a better approach, i can see that.

i think execs aren't normally interested in shows that will challenge anyone's preconceptions. There's too much fear of offending white audiences.

talking about the tv industry like i know what i'm talking about

Yarrun XIX · 2013-09-25 10:31:01

Tachyon said:
That would clearly be a better approach, i can see that.

i think execs aren't normally interested in shows that will challenge anyone's preconceptions. There's too much fear of offending white audiences.

talking about the tv industry like i know what i'm talking about

And you've hit the nail on the head.

Salix Babylonika · 2013-09-25 10:54:13

Series with nonwhite leads are often shot down as "unrelatable" by TV execs, if memory serves.

So, y'know, more or less what you said.

Odradek · 2013-09-25 11:43:25

It wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't all old people watched.

Obā-san · 2013-09-25 11:52:35

Network Television is the shittiest artistic medium of all time and I hope i live to see it finally die.

Previous Calica · 2013-09-25 12:27:21

Pangur Bán said:
Network Television is the shittiest artistic medium of all time and I hope i live to see it finally die.

not really, no

breaking just sort of OK

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