So, Breaking Bad has been over for more than a week now and you are still huddled in the fetal position in some corner somewhere, blinds closed, shut out to the rest of the world, quietly sobbing, pondering if you will ever find a show that made you feel so much ever again. I am not going to pretend to have the miracle cure for what ails you but perhaps as a salve I can suggest a show that has some similarities so Breaking Bad, albeit with a lot less violence and a lot more sex: That show is Masters of Sex on Showtime, the true story of the revolutionary sex study by Masters and Johnson in the 1950s.
Breaking Bad
Breaking Bad, One Last Time
By this point you’ve seen the finale of Breaking Bad. Maybe you’ve watched it twice. By this point you’ve read everything about it too and have had a full week to process it. We’ve already done a piece on the last episode. By this point the people who love the finale have made their love known and people who didn’t like it so much have done the same. Everything has been said that needs to be said and said well. You are probably exhausted from all of this Breaking Bad content. But how ’bout one more kick at the giant barrel full of cash for old times sake?
Best Cooking Show Ever.
The blog rotation has fallen on me this week and, as fate should have it, Breaking Bad wrapped. I was going to pontificate about my latest passion which has become mid-nineties Australian sitcoms – but the timing isn’t proper. The fine folks at AMC decided to thumb its nose at the Netflix enthusiasts and DVD buyers of world. They put one of their franchise shows, Breaking Bad, on in marathon form in a build up to this season. Friday nights were marathon sessions. I missed it during the first run and was very miffed when Bryan Cranston would beat out Don Draper at the Emmys. To me, Cranston will always be Malcolm’s dad. I hated Malcolm in the Middle. He was Tim Whatley, Jerry Seinfeld’s lecherous dentist. I knew him on the pilot episode of the Pam Anderson action series VIP -but his work as meth master Walter White must be celebrated. As he moved from sheepish milquetoast to evil drug lord, he turned into having the traits of a great wrestling champion. He started off as a good guy, with tag team partners like Hank and his wife. He had a protégé to mentor and bail him out in Jesse. Then he got a manager, in lawyer Saul. He battled in feuds with the likes of contenders to his meth title with the likes of Tuco, the grizzled Mike, and Gus. Like the great wrestler he became a villain. The bad guy. He turned on his wife, Hank, and his son. He put on his literal black hat with greed and power taking over for family loyalty. And in ultimate wrestling fashion, left to go to do movies. Continue reading
Email Roundtable #30 – Happy Anniversary Edition
This week marks the 1st Anniversary of The Golden Age of Television blog. We thought we would take a look back at the past year of blogging and look into the future as well.
Continue reading
No One Left to Root For
Episode review of “Confessions”, episode 11 of season 5 of Breaking Bad
There will of course be spoilers ahead.
As we get closer and closer to the finale of Breaking Bad, the world of the show is getting smaller and smaller. Once upon a time, Walt was concerned with creating an empire. Now all he can do is manipulate the people that are left in his immediate vicinity. Walt is circling around the inevitable time when all that’s left around him is himself. Continue reading
Stop Dragon My Heart Around: Why I think you might like Game of Thrones even if you don’t think you’ll like Game of Thrones (based entirely on why I like Game of Thrones)
On a recent episode of the amazing NPR podcast, Pop Culture Happy Hour, the crew (specifically Stephen Thompson and Linda Holmes) chatted and proceeded to dump on Game of Thrones as a show that lots of other people love that they can’t get into. They cited the non-stop political talk, the constant discussion of royal lineage, the rapey-ness of the show as well as all of the violence towards kids as reasons that they didn’t continue to watch past a couple of episodes. That got me thinking, “These people are smart and I hate those things too, so why do I like the show so much?”. Here are three reasons:
(A note about spoilers: I tried to write this post without many spoilers because I hate them. Still, any mention of a seemingly minute detail on Game of Thrones is spoiler-esque. I would caution you, if you haven’t seen any of the show, to read at your own peril – especially point #1. Please also note that this post is based solely on the TV version of Game of Thrones, as I haven’t read all of the books. If I’m wrong about something below that is probably why – or I just wasn’t paying close enough attention).
Email Roundtable #11 – Television New Year’s Resolutions
In this edition of the Roundtable we share some television New Year’s Resolutions with you. Happy 2013, everyone!
Katie’s Resolutions:
3. I, Walter White, will remove myself from the drug game. Otherwise, I will surely die.
2. We, the writers of Parks and Recreation, will stop using Ann Perkins as whatever plot device we require. We will either take the time to develop her properly, or use her less frequently.
1. I, Katie Man, will never again watch an episode of Mad Men on my iPhone. No matter how much I want to watch the new episode over my lunch break, I will wait until I can watch it on a proper sized screen. Gotta respect good product.
Email Roundtable #9 – A Few of Our Favorite Things of 2012 – Part 1
In the interest of it being a particularly busy time of the year and because it is also the time of year for lists we thought we would forego our regularly scheduled Email Roundtable. Instead, we have each asked each other about a few of our favourite things from 2012. We attempt to discuss those things here. **Warning: this article probably contains spoilers**
What this exercise taught us is that we all love Christina Hendricks.
Katie asks Kerri: What was your favorite episode from any TV show? (pt. 2, what were you doing while watching it?)
I’m going to cheat a bit answering my questions so please bear with me (and I plan to discuss more of my favorite episodes and moments in my next blog post). The sexy answer to this question is “Christmas Waltz, an episode of Mad Men that includes one of my favorite scenes in an episode of TV this year: the one with Don and Joan at the bar. Continue reading
The Golden Age of Television 