Breaking Bad Episode 1: Pilot
Apr. 10th, 2019 11:32 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
libraryseraphDoing an analytical rewatch of Breaking Bad, since I love it but haven't watched it in years. Get ready for me forgetting shit and never shutting up about Jesse Pinkman
the "naked man in RV with corpses" cold open is extremely good. Al lot of the early episodes have a very absurdist black comedy tone to them.
Even in though this first bit with Walt filiming himself his descent hasn't started, you can sort of see the bad traits starting to show through at the surface. Something about "No matter what it seems like, I only had you in my heart" feels like an excuse, and it feels like the emergence of "father/husband knows best" or "I have a good reason for this, therefore it is good" which will come to define Walt
Similarly, there's something about Walt implicitly aiming the gun at the cops before the intro ends which at the moment I'm reading as a sort of "might as well be hanged for a sheep as for a lamb"
Okay, the music is IMMEDIATELY nostalgic
Skyler and Walt: do normal, married, middle age people things and genuinely love each other
Me: OOOOOOHHHHH my heart
This conversation about getting up early reads exactly like things that happen on the weekends when my brother's home from uni. Family jokes aside, I think that shows why BrBa was such a big deal; it's a big deal television drama where the characters are actual humans, instead of noxious caricatures.
Apparently the chemistry classrooms in the States look exactly like the ones in Canada. they've even got those weird black countertops kids are always scratching their initials into. I can even remember what it smelled like. (and now, through the magic of memory, I feel stressed. Chemistry was not a great class for me)
Another thing for the "Walter used to be a normal dude" pile: the perfect capturing of the forced eagerness you get from a high school teacher stuck with the first class of the day.
"It is growth, then decay, then transformation" Everyone and their mom has already talked about this line, put it on gifsets and graphics for every fandom, etc, etc, but that's because it'd DAMN good thematically. this is a series both about chemistry and character growth, and about how people change for the worst or refuse to change and sometimes change for the better.
Walt: fuck it, I am going to start an organized crime empire so i don't have to interact with teens anymore
The framing on the surprise party scenes is really good and claustrophobic. Walt does Not want to be around people right now.
Walt being so uncomfortable around the gun is a good bit of... dramatic irony foreshadowing. The theme of masculinity also comes up here; you;ve got Hank mocking Walter's masculinity for being uncomfortable around guns, and Walter being upset with it. It establishes that the characters view masculinity as a) desireable and b) constructed around violence. Given that Walt starts out as "a provider" and later slides into using it as an excuse, it's relevant.
Walt and Skyler's bedding reminds me of hotel bedding and i'm not sure if that's an intentional artificiality or what
...oh my god, Holly hasn't been born yet. Oh my god i cannot believe i forgot Skyler started the series pregnant
There's no score in the ambulance scene, but I can;t remember what the score status in other scenes is like.
"I don't have the greatest insurance" oh, right, America
Oh fuck, this is an EXTREMELY well-framed scene. The extreme close up, the tinnitus noise obscuring just about everything but the fact that there is dialogue going on, the sudden focus on the stain on the lapel. It captures the feeling of forcing yourself to disassociate very well
"I said fuck you! and your eyebrows!" This is just a really good line
The red/blue colour contrast in this scene is very good, but I'm mostly excited for the Next Scene
The first part of this scene mostly serves to re-interate Hank's treatment of masculinity and how it connects to his job. He feels powerful in the DEA. It's esp worth noting bc here he isn;t even in the strike team, so it's like a borrowed power.
I keep forgetting to pay attention, but i Think the music in BrBa is entirely digetic, which is always an interesting tactic.
HE'S HERE
I love Jesse so much and I love that this is how he's introduced. Also I was wrong, the jaunty Jesse-music isn't in-scene. the soundtrack is still pretty minimalist though
It's interesting to see how immediately hostile Jesse is in this scene
...how old is Jesse? He said high school was "a long time ago" but I'm like 90% sure he dropped out. Is he younger than me? Am I now older than Jesse Pinkman? Bc idk if I'm ready for that responsibility
Okay, but the way Jesse's face FALLS when Walk threatens to turn him in. He really does have nothing else at this point, and while Walt isn't late-series Walt right now, he's still willing to exploit that.
"If you ever want be to read anything, I could critique it for you" "Oh! ...no." Skyler has absolutely nothing written, confirmed
Walt raiding the highschool also has music, and it's a vaguely comedic scene. I wonder if the music is meant to indicate tone. A silent montage or non-scored montage would seem more dramatic
Walt knows nothing about making drugs and IMMEDIATELY starts criticizing the way Jesse cooks.
Similarly, we've got the tension between Walt and Jesse set up. Jesse describes cooking as "art", where walt pushes it as science. Given the typical associations of Art vs Science, this helps establish Jesse as the emotion driven, impulsive one
I do not think your age is what you should be concerned with in that remark, Walt
"I am awake"
*"Scoffs* What?" I like how Jesse responds to that the way anyone would respond to that.
Walt basically walking away from the ableist bullies and demanding SKyler does the same is interesting. On one hand, society is so embedded with that stuff that it makes it hard to stand up in a way that just won't turn it into "aw, the *slur* needs his mommy to look after him!" or "It was just a joke, honest". On the other, Given what we'll later see Walt do under the banner of "for my family" it's very telling how hard it is for him to do something for Walt Jr. in front of him
...I wrote that whole paragraph and forgot how that scene ended, whoops. I don;t have much for this part: it does establish that Walt can swing between passivity and violence very easily though
"Some big cow house way out that way" Honestly? I'm like 90% sure Jesse has a learning disability, watch this space for more. The rolling lab is also a good examples: he's not traditionally bright, but he's good at thinking outside the box.
*points at Jesse on the spinning chair* he;s stimming
The jaunty meth montage is very good.
I remember this series doing some really interesting deconstructive stuff with the concept ethical villainry. The "we just use it, don't sell it" is reminding me of that, that at some level consciously causing harm makes any attempt to alleviate that harm stop mattering.
Jesse trying to ingratiate himself with Krazy is very interesting. He's in this culture, but he;s not quite a part of it. Not quite respected. And what Jesse REALLY wants is respect and validation. See how glad he is to deal to Krazy and invert their relationship.
The sheer neuroticness of the coat hangers on the rv. Walt might cook meth in his underwear in a desert, but he;s going to store his clothes properly.
Jesse: tries to run, trips, knocks himself out. Story of his life, tbh
I wonder if it was illegal for them to duscuss the meth process/show it too much on the show, to keep people from experimenting.
And Walt kills two men. It's in self-defense, but it's a pretty horrible kill, given that he gassed them. Doing that this early, instead of saving it for a later scene establishes that this is something you cannot do and keep your hands clean.
And walt immidiately fucks up the gun, undercutting the image he's trying to build, especially when the fire trucks drive by. Hie's not fear, at least not yet, just a forgettable half naked guy who can;t shoot a gun right.
Is this what money laundering means?
That was episode one. even with my foggy memories, it's amazing how much shit was established from the beginning (or they noticed it later and went "ah, this can be a Theme". Either one)
the "naked man in RV with corpses" cold open is extremely good. Al lot of the early episodes have a very absurdist black comedy tone to them.
Even in though this first bit with Walt filiming himself his descent hasn't started, you can sort of see the bad traits starting to show through at the surface. Something about "No matter what it seems like, I only had you in my heart" feels like an excuse, and it feels like the emergence of "father/husband knows best" or "I have a good reason for this, therefore it is good" which will come to define Walt
Similarly, there's something about Walt implicitly aiming the gun at the cops before the intro ends which at the moment I'm reading as a sort of "might as well be hanged for a sheep as for a lamb"
Okay, the music is IMMEDIATELY nostalgic
Skyler and Walt: do normal, married, middle age people things and genuinely love each other
Me: OOOOOOHHHHH my heart
This conversation about getting up early reads exactly like things that happen on the weekends when my brother's home from uni. Family jokes aside, I think that shows why BrBa was such a big deal; it's a big deal television drama where the characters are actual humans, instead of noxious caricatures.
Apparently the chemistry classrooms in the States look exactly like the ones in Canada. they've even got those weird black countertops kids are always scratching their initials into. I can even remember what it smelled like. (and now, through the magic of memory, I feel stressed. Chemistry was not a great class for me)
Another thing for the "Walter used to be a normal dude" pile: the perfect capturing of the forced eagerness you get from a high school teacher stuck with the first class of the day.
"It is growth, then decay, then transformation" Everyone and their mom has already talked about this line, put it on gifsets and graphics for every fandom, etc, etc, but that's because it'd DAMN good thematically. this is a series both about chemistry and character growth, and about how people change for the worst or refuse to change and sometimes change for the better.
Walt: fuck it, I am going to start an organized crime empire so i don't have to interact with teens anymore
The framing on the surprise party scenes is really good and claustrophobic. Walt does Not want to be around people right now.
Walt being so uncomfortable around the gun is a good bit of... dramatic irony foreshadowing. The theme of masculinity also comes up here; you;ve got Hank mocking Walter's masculinity for being uncomfortable around guns, and Walter being upset with it. It establishes that the characters view masculinity as a) desireable and b) constructed around violence. Given that Walt starts out as "a provider" and later slides into using it as an excuse, it's relevant.
Walt and Skyler's bedding reminds me of hotel bedding and i'm not sure if that's an intentional artificiality or what
...oh my god, Holly hasn't been born yet. Oh my god i cannot believe i forgot Skyler started the series pregnant
There's no score in the ambulance scene, but I can;t remember what the score status in other scenes is like.
"I don't have the greatest insurance" oh, right, America
Oh fuck, this is an EXTREMELY well-framed scene. The extreme close up, the tinnitus noise obscuring just about everything but the fact that there is dialogue going on, the sudden focus on the stain on the lapel. It captures the feeling of forcing yourself to disassociate very well
"I said fuck you! and your eyebrows!" This is just a really good line
The red/blue colour contrast in this scene is very good, but I'm mostly excited for the Next Scene
The first part of this scene mostly serves to re-interate Hank's treatment of masculinity and how it connects to his job. He feels powerful in the DEA. It's esp worth noting bc here he isn;t even in the strike team, so it's like a borrowed power.
I keep forgetting to pay attention, but i Think the music in BrBa is entirely digetic, which is always an interesting tactic.
HE'S HERE
I love Jesse so much and I love that this is how he's introduced. Also I was wrong, the jaunty Jesse-music isn't in-scene. the soundtrack is still pretty minimalist though
It's interesting to see how immediately hostile Jesse is in this scene
...how old is Jesse? He said high school was "a long time ago" but I'm like 90% sure he dropped out. Is he younger than me? Am I now older than Jesse Pinkman? Bc idk if I'm ready for that responsibility
Okay, but the way Jesse's face FALLS when Walk threatens to turn him in. He really does have nothing else at this point, and while Walt isn't late-series Walt right now, he's still willing to exploit that.
"If you ever want be to read anything, I could critique it for you" "Oh! ...no." Skyler has absolutely nothing written, confirmed
Walt raiding the highschool also has music, and it's a vaguely comedic scene. I wonder if the music is meant to indicate tone. A silent montage or non-scored montage would seem more dramatic
Walt knows nothing about making drugs and IMMEDIATELY starts criticizing the way Jesse cooks.
Similarly, we've got the tension between Walt and Jesse set up. Jesse describes cooking as "art", where walt pushes it as science. Given the typical associations of Art vs Science, this helps establish Jesse as the emotion driven, impulsive one
I do not think your age is what you should be concerned with in that remark, Walt
"I am awake"
*"Scoffs* What?" I like how Jesse responds to that the way anyone would respond to that.
Walt basically walking away from the ableist bullies and demanding SKyler does the same is interesting. On one hand, society is so embedded with that stuff that it makes it hard to stand up in a way that just won't turn it into "aw, the *slur* needs his mommy to look after him!" or "It was just a joke, honest". On the other, Given what we'll later see Walt do under the banner of "for my family" it's very telling how hard it is for him to do something for Walt Jr. in front of him
...I wrote that whole paragraph and forgot how that scene ended, whoops. I don;t have much for this part: it does establish that Walt can swing between passivity and violence very easily though
"Some big cow house way out that way" Honestly? I'm like 90% sure Jesse has a learning disability, watch this space for more. The rolling lab is also a good examples: he's not traditionally bright, but he's good at thinking outside the box.
*points at Jesse on the spinning chair* he;s stimming
The jaunty meth montage is very good.
I remember this series doing some really interesting deconstructive stuff with the concept ethical villainry. The "we just use it, don't sell it" is reminding me of that, that at some level consciously causing harm makes any attempt to alleviate that harm stop mattering.
Jesse trying to ingratiate himself with Krazy is very interesting. He's in this culture, but he;s not quite a part of it. Not quite respected. And what Jesse REALLY wants is respect and validation. See how glad he is to deal to Krazy and invert their relationship.
The sheer neuroticness of the coat hangers on the rv. Walt might cook meth in his underwear in a desert, but he;s going to store his clothes properly.
Jesse: tries to run, trips, knocks himself out. Story of his life, tbh
I wonder if it was illegal for them to duscuss the meth process/show it too much on the show, to keep people from experimenting.
And Walt kills two men. It's in self-defense, but it's a pretty horrible kill, given that he gassed them. Doing that this early, instead of saving it for a later scene establishes that this is something you cannot do and keep your hands clean.
And walt immidiately fucks up the gun, undercutting the image he's trying to build, especially when the fire trucks drive by. Hie's not fear, at least not yet, just a forgettable half naked guy who can;t shoot a gun right.
Is this what money laundering means?
That was episode one. even with my foggy memories, it's amazing how much shit was established from the beginning (or they noticed it later and went "ah, this can be a Theme". Either one)
