Breaking Bad

In 2009 I worked in a bookstore until the end of the summer when, due to sales that were low and looked to be going even lower, I was laid off. It was a sad moment as the owner, who was the only other person who worked there, and I were close and I enjoyed working there even if it did get a little boring from time to time. However, having no job meant I'd be in desperate need of some money in short time.

So I decided to become a private tutor. I posted ads in the paper and on craigslist but I ended up getting my first client by asking someone if their daughter needed help with English (turns out she did). I'm a big saver when it comes to money but whenever I get my first paycheck at a new job I allow myself to spend it to celebrate that I've started something new (an impressive feat in this economy).

What did I buy? Well I was in the bookstore and stumbled upon a DVD of a television show called Breaking Bad. The first season was on sale for $20. I'd heard good things about it so I picked it up.

If Stephen King and David Lynch defied the laws of nature and somehow produced a child together that child would make a show exactly like Breaking Bad. I was amazed by the quality of the show; it was as deep and as moving as the best books that I've read. It made me wonder why the hell anyone watches dreck like CSI: New Jersey or some other nonsense. This was a show that had something to say, had a LOT of things to say. And it said all of it well. There's nothing worse than a show or a book that has nothing to say and is just *there* which accounts for most books/TV/movies/poetry/plays. Not only had I found something that was interested in treating the audience like they were intelligent but the show also executed its vision properly.

Unfortunately the first season was only seven episodes and I had to wait a couple of months for the second season to come out. Needless to say I watched that in about two evenings. Maybe three. Definitely not four.

As I write this blog I just finished watching the most recent episode of Breaking Bad's fourth, and penultimate, season. It's final shot was not unlike a surreal moment from a Kubrick film and it made me feel completely unnerved, as if the events had happened to me. I have to respect any piece of art that does that and Breaking Bad gets my full respect.