The Playlist

Recap: Everybody Wins In 'Buyout,' Another Terrific 'Breaking Bad' Episode

By Cory Everett
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August 20, 2012 10:00 AM
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5 Comments

Television

This week’s episode of "Breaking Bad" begins with a funereal tone, and with good reason. After pulling off their methylamine heist successfully last week, the crew’s victory was immediately marred by the murder of a witness who just happened to be a young boy. In a haunting wordless opening Walt, Mike and Todd clean up the mess they made last week, dispensing of the dirtbike and the boy that once rode it. The buzzing score tells us that this is not business as usual for the crew and for a moment even the recently unshakable Walt appears to wince at the gravity of what they’ve done. Outside Todd tries to make small talk with Jesse, writing the incident off as, “Shit happens, huh?” before Jesse decks him. Welcome to “Breaking Bad.”

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Recap: 'Breaking Bad' Episode 5 'Dead Freight' Will Leave You Speechless

By Cory Everett
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August 13, 2012 11:05 AM
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17 Comments

Television

The opening teaser on “Breaking Bad” has proved to be one of the most elastic and effective storytelling devices used on the show. First utilized in the pilot, the opening plunged viewers into what appeared to be Walter White’s desperate final moments before spending the rest of the episode going backward to find out exactly how we got there. During the second season, the show used the opening minutes to tease out a season long mystery and most recently, the Season 5 premiere introduced "Walt 52," perhaps the most intriguing glimpse into the future thus far. But there is something special about this week’s enigmatic opening, seemingly unconnected to anything else on the show, where you keep waiting for something to happen and it never does.

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Recap: Walt Celebrates Birthday Number 'Fifty One' In Rian Johnson-Helmed Episode Of 'Breaking Bad'

By Cory Everett
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August 6, 2012 10:03 AM
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4 Comments

Television

We’re officially halfway through the first set of episodes in “Breaking Bad”’s bifurcated final season and episode 4 has really been the first opportunity for the audience to catch their collective breath. Directed by Rian Johnson (“Brick,” the upcoming “Looper”) -- who was responsible for the love-it-or-hate-it bottle episode “Fly” from Season 3 -- “Fifty-One” may be the calmest episode this season, but you can feel the storm coming (Bryan Cranston has said that the next episode will also be “the biggest episode we’ve ever done as far as scope and cost.”). But before they blow it up, they’re bringing it in and letting us focus on just how disconnected the characters have become from one another.

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Recap: Walt Learns About Overhead In 'Breaking Bad' Episode 3 'Hazard Pay'

By Cory Everett
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July 30, 2012 9:59 AM
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0 Comments

Television

If the first two episodes of “Breaking Bad”’s thus far excellent fifth season were mostly concerned with tying up loose ends from last season while setting the stage for the next phase of the story, episode 3 titled “Hazard Pay,” begins moving forward in earnest. The breakneck pacing is likely a result of creator Vince Gilligan and co. realizing exactly how much story they have left and how few episodes they have to tell it. And while we, as an audience, know that the journey of these final episodes will probably involve Walt undergoing the final phases of his transformation from family man to drug kingpin before he (or those closest to him) suffer for his sins, the trajectory will still surprise. Just as Walt has grown accustomed to outsmarting his opponents by thinking several steps ahead of them, the writers too, play on our expectations, sometimes giving us what we think might be coming but never quite in the ways we expect.

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Recap: An Uneasy Alliance Forms In Typically Strong 'Breaking Bad' Episode 'Madrigal'

By Cory Everett
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July 23, 2012 10:58 AM
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3 Comments

Television

Instead of dispensing the final 16 episodes of “Breaking Bad" at once, Vince Gilligan and co. decided it would be better to split them up over 2 shorter mini-seasons to give the writers the best chance at finishing the story in a satisfying way. So far, that decision seems to be paying off as you can feel an urgency in the first two episodes of Season 5, as they race through the hanging story threads from last season so they can begin laying the groundwork for the story to come. Two episodes down and we’re already ¼ through the 2012 episodes. Thankfully they’re every bit as good as we’d hoped they would be.

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John Cusack & Matthew Broderick Could've Been Walter White & What 'Breaking Bad' Looks Like As A Kickstarter Campaign

By Joe Cunningham
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July 19, 2012 11:43 AM
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3 Comments

Television

If you’re a fan of “Breaking Bad,” chances are you probably couldn’t imagine anyone other than Bryan Cranston in the role of Walter White. But it should come as no surprise that back in 2008 he wasn’t AMC’s first choice to lead their new series. After all, would the Dad from “Malcolm in the Middle” be the first person you’d have in mind when trying to cast a terminally ill school teacher who turns to producing and selling meth? Casting Cranston was ultimately a very brave and very wise choice…but it almost wasn’t to be.

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'Downton Abbey,' 'Breaking Bad,' 'Girls,' 'Modern Family' Top 2012 Emmy Nominations

By Oliver Lyttelton
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July 19, 2012 9:01 AM
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11 Comments

Television

So 5:30 (PST) this morning saw Jimmy Kimmel and Kerry Washington announce the 2012 Emmy nominations, and it served as a good lesson in why not to not give the organization too much credit. Yesterday we'd suggested that shows like "Parks and Recreation" and "Louie" were starting to make major inroads, giving us a little reason for optimism. And there were certainly things to be celebrated in this morning's nominees: actress and comedy nominations for "Girls," typically good showings for "Breaking Bad" and "Mad Men," and well-deserved nods for two actors we thought were unlikely, Jared Harris and Idris Elba.

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'Breaking Bad' Creator Vince Gilligan Says He's Thinking About A Saul Goodman Spinoff

By Kevin Jagernauth
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July 18, 2012 5:01 PM
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6 Comments

Television

"The Dark Knight Rises" isn't the only bit of popular entertainment out there that is causing those who have yet to see it -- which is most of us -- to keep their Facebook page closed, and Twitter feed turned off for fear of spoilers. "Breaking Bad" is back with the first eight of the final sixteen episode season airing this summer, with the show off and running this past weekend, and if you're not caught up, you may want to avoid as much chatter about the series as possible. But once the show ends, is that it for Walter White and rest of the characters? Perhaps not. Bryan Cranston has already teased about the possibility of movie followup once the show is done, and it looks like another character might be getting their own vehicle.

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The Playlist Predicts The 2012 Emmy Nominations

By Oliver Lyttelton
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July 18, 2012 1:16 PM
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5 Comments

Television

Yeah, yeah, yeah, "The Dark Knight Rises", blah blah blah. Friday might be the day that many movie-watchers have been waiting for for four years, but tomorrow sees one of the biggest points of the year for watchers of the small screen; namely, the announcement of the Emmy nominations.

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Exclusive: 'Looper' Director Rian Johnson On Transforming Joseph Gordon-Levitt & The Hour Of Deleted Scenes On The DVD

By Oliver Lyttelton
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July 16, 2012 11:00 AM
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0 Comments

Features

It's an interesting time for fans of science-fiction out there. While many of the biggest movies in the genre have tinges of sci-fi, they're mostly action-adventures in disguise, with fantastic CGI embellishments. But we've also had a string of lower-budget fare in the last few years that have embraced the more idea-led aspects of the genre -- think Duncan Jones' "Moon," Gareth Edwards' "Monsters," or Neill Blomkamp's "District 9." And the latest to join them is a man who's already made something of a specialty out of deconstructing genre tropes with his teen-noir "Brick" and meta-caper "The Brothers Bloom" -- director Rian Johnson.

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