It used to be that when a band neared the end of their contract with a record label, it was not unusual for a greatest hits album to be released. This fulfilled the contract for both parties, allowing each to move onto bigger and better things. Sometimes there was even a new track or two, but essentially the "new" album is just a warm, if unfulfilling trip down memory lane.
Sunday's Breaking Bad was just that: a contract-fulfilling eighth episode of this half season that brought back some of Walter White's greatest hits from the last five seasons while giving us a new idea or two to kick around before the next big arc. Even the episode's title, "Gliding Over All", was merely a poetic euphemism for "Been there; done that."
Play "Gliding All Over" and you'll find yourself rocking out to the hits from yesteryear, while enjoying the more recent classics. Certainly you'll remember Walt obsessing over a fly or the acid melting of the recently deceased. Inside you'll find tense coffee meetings with Lydia and musical montages both to killing people and to cooking meth. Do you remember piles of money hidden away? How about DEA personnel posing for team pictures while bad things are happening? You'll wax nostalgic as Walt gets a PET scan and looks at the towel dispenser he destroyed when his cancer went into remission. Or just sit back and listen to Walt and Jesse talk about the RV.
If I've sounded sarcastic, I didn't mean to be. I meant to be a lot more caustic. This was the most frustrating hour of the program since an episode or two before Hank was nearly killed by the twins in "One Minute". All season we have been taking short trips down memory lane either through actions or dialogue, but to have an hour filled with little else was repetitive and dull. Others have complained about the pacing problems this season, and frankly, I have found the episodes to be just slow enough to underline the impeding sense of dread and doom while still keeping the story moving in a forward manner. Each episode this season had a singular focus and each inched the story closer to its frightening end game. In "Gliding All Over", the story moved forward but only in three short bursts near the end. Each of these bursts could have been a fascinating subject for an entire episode, but due to the split nature of this final season (eight episodes this summer, eight next) all three were given short shrift in an episode that was packed with plenty of nothing.
The first of these potential full-length episodes was Skyler getting the kids back, which led directly to the second, Walt walking away from the meth business. I thoroughly enjoyed the scene in the storage locker and the damning simplicity of the moment; I just would have liked a bigger arc to it. Even though we know it hasn't been about the money for Walt for a long time, it would have been nice to explore the reasons Walt would abandon his empire when his reach is greater now than it ever has been. Is it that he's too lonely? Is the fact that he's anonymous killing him? This has been the thrust of four and half seasons of the show, and now he walks away because he can't use the excuse of doing it for the money?
I would have even been fine with an episode of Walt getting the men in prison killed, and a second episode about reuniting the family and leaving the business. This makes sense. As it stands the dispatching of the potential snitches was conducted by people we don't know or care about. How nice would it have been to get to know these guys a little bit better, as I have a sinking suspicion they will play a larger role in the back half of this season. The show has been so careful with plotting that pushing these three plots (the prison hits, Skyler demanding her family back and Walt leaving the business) together is too rushed and clunky.
The third, and most important, beat of good storytelling was Hank discovering W.W.'s copy of Leaves of Grass and the last year suddenly coming into focus for him. This was the only beat that really worked for me as delivered. For the moment to pay off, it had to be accidental; it had to be when all else seemed good. It had to be an episode out stinger. In fact the entire sequence of the family dinner around the sunny pool was great. There was just too much muddy ground to cover to get there.
Am I walking away? Of course not, there were other things to like in this episode, especially the scene where Hank talks about marking trees. The scene itself was pretty good, but Bryan Cranston's delivery of "I used to love to go camping" hit the right note of contempt. I've liked the show from the beginning, and anxiously await to see how this final arc plays out. I only wish this half season's finale could have focused on the single story of Walt walking away so that he and Skyler could get the kids back. Packed in with an unnecessary trip down memory lane, it was all too rushed with too little new substance.
The Breaking Bad Color Wheel or Better Storytelling Through Color
--A red screwdriver was used to put the ricin back away. While one would think the hiding of the poison earlier this season was paid off when Walt brought it to his meeting with Lydia, the red screwdriver keeps it in play longer as red means death.--The Motel Hacienda sign glowed bright red as Walt, Todd and Todd's uncle met with his cronies to plot the deaths of 10 men.
--Walt wore a Gus Fring yellow shirt while the murders were taking place. He is Gus and of meth now.
--Little Holly wore yellow when Walt was playing with her at Hank and Marie's. Is the meth business going to be rubbing off on her? Yes, see below. And while I was apoplectic for a few minutes I was soon comforted as she was placed in a nice pink play pen. There's the color of innocence I was looking for.
--The drums that the meth was put in to go overseas were bright green, and subsequently the money came pouring in. The money was a greener green than money normally is, too, right?
--Lydia and Skyler were both drinking from red coffee cups, which was of course used as a visual thread in the musical montage, but indicates that neither will probably make it out alive.
--"Crystal Blue Persuasion"? Uggh.
--Holly got to wear an orange jumper while walking with her Mom on Marie's purple rug. Danger! Danger! Then I started to think perhaps the producers were just toying around a bit, getting me needlessly concerned about an innocent child. And then Skyler placed her on a big red blanket, marking her for death. Later, I was sure that she was going to drown in the pool during the family dinner and that would be the last minute twist. Thank goodness it wasn't.
--The scene with Walt and Skyler starting by the pool at night with the blue filters was great, and then her taking him to the storage lockers with the bright blue overhead doors, and them staring down at the pile of money they can't possibly spend in their blue shirts. Brilliant. They're trapped by the money and their actions.
--The pile of money rests on a large red tarp. Dun dun dunnnn.
Hiç yorum yok:
Yorum Gönder