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"The best video essay source on the web." (Roger Ebert) This is a web site built around original video essays and critical, personal writing about movies, TV, music, comics and whatever else interests its contributors. Co-founded by Matt Zoller Seitz, TV critic for New York Magazine, and Ken Cancelosi, it is published by Seitz and Cancelosi and overseen by editor-in-chief Kevin B. Lee and managing editor Max Winter.

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VIDEO ESSAY: Gliding Over All: The Cinematography of BREAKING BAD, Season 3

Video

Dave Bunting Jr.’s video essay on Season 3 of "Breaking Bad" opens with time-lapse landscapes, which are de rigueur establishing shots in TV these days. Here, though, they are uniquely awe-inspiring, in part for their exotic nature, and in part for how they seem to breathe life into everything.

By Dave Bunting, Jr. and Gary Sullivan
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March 15, 2013 8:35 AM
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1 Comment

Video

Hollywood can keep its 3D, its CGI and whatever Dolby Surround version they’re up to now. For a contemporary cinematic experience as visceral and visually arresting as "Breaking Bad," audiences must look abroad, to Gaspar Noé’s "Enter the Void," or further, to films coming out of Thailand, Japan, and South Korea.

By Dave Bunting, Jr. and Gary Sullivan
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October 25, 2012 8:45 AM
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0 Comments

Blogs

While femininity is perceived as a construct, an outfit that can be removed, replaced, strengthened or destroyed completely, masculinity is increasingly perceived as a fixed kind of attitude.

By Arielle Bernstein
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October 25, 2012 8:42 AM
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0 Comments

Video

"Breaking Bad," with its carefully thought-out look, dependably relies on its cinematography to deliver crucial narrative/thematic information, just as it relies on its characters to deliver significant exposition in a straightforward manner.

By Dave Bunting, Jr. and Derek Hill
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September 4, 2012 10:50 AM
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7 Comments

Television

The most striking aspect of tonight’s episode was our introduction to German mega-company Madrigal Elektromoteren (and, of course, the short-order introduction and elimination of suit Herr Schuler, who was clearly complicit in the late Mr. Fring’s meth empire, though we don’t quite know yet to what degree).

By Dave Bunting, Jr.
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July 22, 2012 10:55 PM
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4 Comments

Television

In the months since the explosive Season 4 finale of "Breaking Bad," and Walt's certainly premature declaration of victory, we've had a long time to ponder what exactly he meant by saying, "I won."

By Dave Bunting, Jr.
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July 15, 2012 10:55 PM
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7 Comments

Video

"Walter's a shithead!" I had just walked in the door to the family home in Forestville, California. My dad had just finished the second season of "Breaking Bad."

By Serena Bramble
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July 13, 2012 8:55 AM
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3 Comments

Blogs

If longtime fans of "Breaking Bad" were asked to identify the show’s most memorable scene, many would probably point out gems like Walt and Jesse’s standoff with Tuco in the Mexican desert in early Season 2, Hank’s shoot-out with the cousins in mid-Season 3, or Gus’s spectacular demise in last season’s finale.

By Mark Greenbaum
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July 12, 2012 9:00 AM
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1 Comment

Television

The two boys were inseparable growing up. They were twins, and although they fought on occasion, there was a special unbreakable bond between them at all times. Words were rarely necessary. They would just look at each other and know what the other one was thinking. It was a psychological and intellectual bond, bordering on the spiritual. It is a profound thing to not need words. Nobody else could enter their cyclical closed bond. That was okay by them. As long as they had each other, they didn't need anyone else.

By Sheila O'Malley & Dave Bunting, Jr
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March 13, 2012 3:32 AM
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3 Comments

Television

Season 3 opens with a surreal scene of a group of people crawling in the dirt through a rustic Mexican village. It seems that some well-known ritual is taking place. Nobody seems too surprised at the sight. A gleaming car pulls up and two men get out. They are bald, handsome, and dressed in immaculate suits. They are also identical twins. Without hesitation, they join the ritual, lying down in the dirt, despite their silk suits, and crawling along with the others. The destination is a run-down shack which has been built into some kind of shrine. Inside there are lit candles with dripping wax and bouquets and skulls draped in beads. The men in suits pin a picture up on the wall. It is a sketch of the chemistry teacher. Wherever we are in this opening scene is far from the sun-blasted streets of Albuquerque (the stomping grounds of the chemistry teacher), but it is clear that his fearsome influence is spreading.

By Sheila O'Malley & Dave Bunting, Jr
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March 12, 2012 9:42 AM
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3 Comments

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