Notes on Pop Culture: Two Seasons of 'Breaking Bad,' 'Rescue Me' Battles Alcoholism & Army Mom Goes AWOL

Breaking Bad’s First Two Seasons

CliqueClack TV, a blog to which I contribute, has this nifty little feature called the “Virgin Diaries” where the site’s writers watch a TV series for the first time and write about it, giving readers who are already fans of the show the chance to re-live the show from the beginning.

In the past few weeks I've been writing about AMC’s Breaking Bad, the drama where Malcolm in the Middle’s Bryan Cranston plays anti-hero Walter White, a high school chemistry teacher who’s diagnosed with lung cancer and starts cooking meth so that when he dies, he’ll leave some significant money behind for his pregnant wife and their 15-year-old son with cerebral palsy, as well as trying to make sure that the cost of his cancer treatments doesn't drive the family into bankruptcy.

The cancer, coupled with the drug making (he's a whiz at making pure crystal meth) awakens something dormant within Walt -- chiefly his confidence -- and he blossoms, going from a timid teacher (who had done Nobel Prize-worthy work in graduate school) to a cut-throat drug manufacturer.

My review of the complete first, seven-episode season is here, followed by my take on the first part of season two as well as the remainder of Breaking Bad’s sophomore season.

I was riveted by the first season while watching Walt transform, but I didn't find the second season as compelling as the first. Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t bad, it was just . . . different, more depressing, as Walt’s personal life fell to pieces as he learned the ropes of the meth business and his partner coped with tragedies and struggled with his own appetite for drugs.

Rescue Me Battles Alcoholism

Speaking of depressing . . . the past two weeks of Rescue Me have featured the intense fear that Tommy Gavin’s daughter Colleen – who’s a raging alcoholic like her father – had died after going on a bender with Tommy (I was convinced that she was going to be found dead by the end of last week's episode), to this week's episode, where Tommy claimed he’s off the juice again and tried to drive demonic spirits out of his daughter by forcefully baptizing/exorcising her by plunging her face into a baptismal font which Tommy had filled with a priest’s stash of booze.

I can’t decide whether the show is going to try to sink Tommy to even lower depths – I don’t think he’s reached “rock bottom” yet, whatever one might call “rock bottom” – in his and his troubled family’s battle with alcohol, or whether it'll spend the remainder of the time trying to have Tommy climb his way out of the hole he's in. I also can't figure out where the writers are headed, and that's, I think, a good thing.

Army Wives and AWOL Moms

Recently Army Wives took on the thorny issue of what to do when a single parent is supposed to deploy overseas and his or her childcare arrangements fall through. Based on a true story of an Army cook who was threatened with court martial for failing to report for duty to go overseas after her mother backed out of taking care of her 10-month-old son, Army Wives tugged at the heartstrings, asking the question of whether this fictional AWOL Army mom should’ve been loyal to her job or to her child.

My column on moms in the military -- both on the Lifetime drama and what's gone on in the real Army -- was posted on Mommy Tracked this week.

Image credit: AMC.

Notes on Pop Culture: 'Eclipse' Rises, Turning on the Lights on FNL and Tales from a 'Breaking Bad' Virgin

Eclipse: Better Than the First Two Twilight Flicks

I went to see Eclipse on opening weekend and am happy to report – even though it might diminish my credibility with some literary/film school/independent flick types – that I enjoyed it, thought it was much better than New Moon and more light-hearted in places, not taking itself TOO seriously.

My pop culture column over on Mommy Tracked this week also points out that, despite the fact that the movie (like the book series) has all these super-strong werewolves and vampires protecting the fragile human Bella Swan from violence and possible death -- at times even being held her involuntarily hostage in order to keep her “safe” -- Bella’s no slouch when it comes to protecting those she loves either, that’s when she’s not pining or pondering becoming a teenage bride.

Friday Night Lights: The Lights in Carroll Park



Being a teenager is damned hard, at least in Dillon, Texas, at least for the likes of Becky, who’s 16 and pregnant, and for Vince, who can’t find a job because he’s been arrested and has been trying as hard as he can not to fall in with the gang and the violence that threatens to envelope him.


While Vince, whose mother's drug problems make her AWOL as a parent, had Coach Taylor there to help him get a job – at Ray’s BBQ where Virgil offered to hire him as long as he kept himself out of trouble, 16-year-old Becky, herself the child of a teenage mother who's largely absent while tending bar, had no one to advise her after she got knocked up from a one-night-stand with Luke Cafferty. Though Luke has spoken with her and offered help, she’s leaning toward an abortion, though she’s still on the fence and in serious need of guidance. And seeking out Tim Riggins’ counsel – the same guy who’s working at an illegal chop shop after hours – doesn’t seem like the best move.

Meanwhile, while Eric Taylor was looking for Tinker to find out why he’s missed practice, Eric witnessed the aftermath of a shooting of a 12-year-old in Carroll Park, which made him realize that for some of his players who live in the area just getting to football practice unscathed, never mind escaping the reach of violence that plagues that area, is a constant challenge. Ever the optimist, Eric wanted to try to do something about it, but he went about it in his typically awkward Eric kind of way. No politician he.

Eric needed Buddy’s help – again -- just like he needed him to help rustle up the support of the East Dillon football alums for a Homecoming event earlier this season. With Buddy’s assistance, Eric met with a community organizer, who had credibility with some of the youth in the area, and they arranged not only to get the lights turned on in the troubled park, but to bring the community together with a pick-up football game between neighborhood players and the East Dillon Lions.

The best moment of the episode: Eric playing wry with Tami when he informed her that he was disgusted by the notion that, by the mere fact that Glenn had kissed Tami, Eric was one degree away from kissing Glenn. (When Glenn apologized to Eric, who knew nothing of the drunken kiss, loved, just loved Eric’s surprised, restrained rage look.)

Finally Saw Breaking Bad’s Freshman Season


The web site to which I contribute blog items about TV – CliqueClack TV – has this regular feature called, “The Virgin Diaries.” The writers who contribute to the site pick a show that has already aired that they, personally, have never seen before, watch it and chronicle their reactions. Fans who’ve already watched those seasons of the show get to re-live it through fresh eyes, remembering what it was like to learn a certain fact or see a new character for the first time.

My first “Virgin Diary” entry was posted today about AMC’s Breaking Bad starring Bryan Cranston. I just finished the first season – it was only seven episodes long -- over the weekend and wrote about how the star, Bryan Cranston surprised me by absolutely making me forget that he ever knew anyone named Malcolm or ever once donned roller skates and did a routine to the song Funkytown.

Image credit: AMC.

Question for 'Breaking Bad' Fans

Given how much TV I watch for my pop culture work, I find myself embarrassed to admit that I did not watch the first two seasons of AMC's Breaking Bad. Now, as the show is about ready to kick off its third season on Sunday, I'm wondering if I should leap into it or hold off and watch the first two seasons on DVD first.

The critically acclaimed show features the Emmy-winning Bryan Cranston -- whom I adored when he was on Malcolm in the Middle -- as Walter White, a high school chemistry teacher who discovers he has inoperable lung cancer and is terrified that he'll leave his wife and children with nothing, so he teams up with a former student to make and sell the best crystal meth in the area. All without letting his family know what's going on.

My compadres in the TV critic/TV blogging circles are as enthusiastic about this show as I am about Mad Men, which also airs on AMC. As much as I go around practically insisting that people watch Mad Men -- in fact I've been forcing my DVDs of the 1960s drama into my poor brother-in-law's hands -- others have been equally as enthusiastic about this edgy drama.

Entertainment Weekly -- which put the Breaking Bad season three premiere on its "Must List" -- gave it an A-, with reviewer Ken Tucker saying, "No other current TV series balances sensitivity and toughness the way Breaking Bad does . . . Breaking Bad has, in short, everything you could want from an hour-long show: suspense, laughs, danger and poignance."

A colleague at CliqueClack TV, who called it one of if not the best show on TV, says:

"There is certainly a lot of heavy drama, with Walter’s illness and home life, hiding his secret life from his family, and dealing with the dangerous world of drug trafficking. The show also offers a tremendous amount of dark humor. It often works as a perfect balance with the heavier material, giving a more realistic balance to the show and avoiding the trap of melodrama."

With so many accolades being heaped upon this show, I feel I need to at least try it and see if it lives up to the hype. Which brings me to my question, for people who've been watching Breaking Bad:

Should I go ahead and watch the show when it premieres, even though I haven't watched the other two seasons, or should I DVR Breaking Bad's new episodes and start from the beginning by Netflixing seasons one and two?

Image credit: AMC.