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Breaking Bad: Ozymandias (2013)
Drama at its absolute best! This is Shakespeare of the 21st century.
I cannot help but write a review of Breaking Bad's "Ozymandias". I can't get the that one hour of television out of my head. Pick your stage - theatre, cinema, the web, television - this is as good as it gets!
If you haven't seen Breaking Bad yet, do NOT start with this episode. You may have heard that this is the greatest episode in the history of television, but seeing it cold turkey would leave most people thinking that Breaking Bad just gets it kicks from pure sadomasochism. This episode is brutal. Still, alone or as part of its integral whole, "Ozymandias" delivers performances and directing that are simply breath taking. It grabs your body and emotions and wrings them out. I was left limp, in tears, clinging to my chair.
The acting in this episode engulfs the audience. Performances range powerful to subtle, and then in the closing scene are as layered and complex as they can come. Bryan Cranston is so often mentioned in Breaking Bad reviews as an amazing actor. After "Ozymandias" I for one hold Anna Gunn with her performance of Skyler White in equal amazement.
And the writing here is so good (credit Moira Walley-Beckett). One example of many is the closing scene mirroring the opening scene. We have Walt phoning Skyler, their daughter Holly playing a role in both conversations. These scenes come from two different worlds - one light and fun, the other dark and devastating, and yet they still manage the mirror, twisted as it might be, which is itself a reflection of the man Walter White has become. (There is another level to viewing this mirror, but that would spoil the episode's content.) And the scenes book end not just this episode but the entire series of Breaking Bad. I was also floored that in this darkest, most heart wrenching of episodes, the writers were still able to add a touch of levity with Walter's trek through the desert.
This episode, unlike quite a few from Breaking Bad, hits hard at an emotional core. I have read that many viewers of Breaking Bad don't connect a ton with the characters. They might cheer for some one, but just for a while. And they won't cry for anyone. I get that. Me, I've cried a few times over the course of the series. But with Ozymandias, who could not help but cry, over and over again.
I gotta close with the closing scene in "Ozymandias". If you are not sure of how it is supposed to play, writer Moira Walley-Beckett has spelled it out clearly. Look it up if you need to. One can be forgiven for not initially knowing how the scene plays out because Walter White plays it so well. But then here Bryon Cranston, Anna Gunn and Betsy Brandt (taking the once side show role of Marie Schrader to a profound and essential level) give performances of a lifetime. It is a scene that reminds us why we bother with TV or cinema or theatre to begin with: It can be a beautiful and moving reflection of our reality, taking us places in our lives that we don't dare go on our own.
As I write this review two days after "Ozymandias" aired, 10,333 IMDb viewers have rated it 10 out of 10. This is a performance that truly deserves a perfect 10.
Breaking Bad: To'hajiilee (2013)
Brilliant, until the end
The outline of the story in To'hajiilee is fantastic, as is the directing, acting, camera work. It is worth watching for all of this, and will leave most viewers on the edge of their seats. The climactic buildup in the final 10 minutes of To'hajiilee is as good as it gets with TV or cinema. In addition, the episode truly feels like a worthy conclusion, that we have very nearly come full circle. There are fitting remembrances of past events that take us all the way back to Walt and Jesse's first cook.
However, the episode falls apart in some of the details. The ending, which could have been one for the ages, suffers the most egregious faults. These trace back to Season 5 Episode 10 - Buried. For me Buried was Breaking Bad's weakest episode over 5 seasons, with cardboard cutout villains and a gun battle (implied)that was just silly. I'll simply say that Uncle Jack and company come off as unbelievably invincible there. With To'hajiilee they suddenly become worthlessly incompetent.
So with To'hajiilee we have these brilliant, poignant, heart stopping 10 minutes of an ending, BUT then the closing seconds waste it all. What should have happened did not, and instead the writers pull us screaming into the next episode. Why? I hope that it was just a cheap stunt to leave us hanging for what should inevitably come next. But if Hank and Steve get written out of the fix they are in, my passion for Breaking Bad is done.
If not for those closing seconds, I would give To'hajillee a 9 or maybe even a 10. The 6 is for going with the standard Hollywood ending.
Breaking Bad: Confessions (2013)
Back to the basics - strong characters at the heart of a good story
Breaking Bad has progressed from a fascinating premise set around mundane lives in the pilot 5 years ago, to an edge of the seat soap opera set around extraordinary lives with seasons 3-5. I prefer the former to the later. As Breaking Bad nears its conclusion, "Confessions" feels closer to those earlier episodes than what I have seen with the rest of season 5.
The drug kingpins, incredibly fat stacks of cash, heavily armed cardboard mobsters, gun battles, and tightly wound plots jerking you desperately into the next episode are absent here. I felt like "Confessions" was a brief return to seeing Walt and Jesse as real people. For the first time this season I felt as if I could connect with them emotionally again. The acting from all of the leads was excellent and helped to draw me back into caring about their characters. For many episodes now I was loosing that connection. Walt, Jesse, Hank and Skyler had become more like archetypes supporting a pulsating and creative plot than real people. A totally engrossing story is great, but if you are not emotionally invested in the characters, the impact of the story is lost. "Confessions" brings that back for me.
I must add that Walter plumbs new lows in manipulation in this episode, so much so that I wanted to scream out loud, shake someone, smash something. It was so painful to watch. However, I had a different take on one of these scenes. Where others see manipulation, I see love. Walter and Jesse have an interaction here that for me shows Walter to have retained a tenuous hold on morality. I see him as still caring deeply about Jesse. There was a time when Jesse was the only person left that Walt could share a genuine relationship with; Walt's lies had distanced himself so far from his former colleagues, friends, and most importantly his family. The degree to which Walt has come to love Jesse is shown beautifully in a season 3 episode where he calls Walt Jr. "Jesse" as he is drifting off to sleep after a rare heart to heart with his son.
Anyhow, call me crazy, but I see Walt truly shedding the Heisenberg alter-ego before all is said and done with Breaking Bad. The guy with the M-60 machine gun and ricin sure as hell is not the Walter White we knew in seasons 1 and 2, but I suspect he is not Heisenberg either. After this episode I take "Remember my name" as Walt's plea to remember his humanity. His name is not Heisenberg. Remember, his name is Walter White. All these interviews with Vince Gilligan saying that Walter White was always at his core bad, rather than someone who was turned bad by circumstance - it's just a smoke screen.
Cheers!