When Bad Guys... Stay Bad

This blog post comes somewhat close to the conclusion of the Breaking Bad marathon. And that got me thinking ...did 2 of TV's most recent bad guys try to redeem themselves? And at what cost?

I'm talking about Walter White and Nicholas Brody.

White:
He, a chemistry teacher, did what he did to support his family. He's dying of cancer, and he's worried about what will happen after his death.  But he uses his skills in a bad way: he makes meth. He's untruthful to his family, and when he finally does come clean, his wife Skylar gets involved as well. Walt continues in the process, and he's responsible for more than one death, to say the least.

If you watch the series, there's a sort of an interesting "opposite" parallel concerning White and Jesse, his "assistant." While Walt goes deeper into this problem, Jesse, because of circumstances, grows tired of this lifestyle and tries to come clean at one point. He doesn't want to do it anymore.  Things go from bad to worse for Walt. And, his family isn't doing good either.  Also for Jesse, while we're at it.

Lastly, in the final episode, Walt is at a pretty low point.  He's sick again, and alienated from his family.  His one act for a last chance of redemption is saving Jesse, who's being held prisoner by worse "bad guys." And he succeeds.  Jesse and Walt part on *somewhat* (by that I mean "barely") good terms.  Walt accomplishes this at the cost of his life.

Nicholas Brody.  One must concede, that he does have a harder time on his show than Walt. Captured by terrorists, held for eight years, and "turned" into a terrorist, for all intents and purposes.  Brody has to keep this secret from his family, alienating himself from them.  Long story short.

Carrie Matheson tries to see the good in him, with mixed results. But her plans for him don't go so great. She ends up having him work for the CIA. It's that or go to prison.  Brody picks option A.  At the end of season 2, he will need to prove to basically all of America that he didn't do... a certain thing. Carrie tries to do it for him, as he's MIA.

I remembered Brody saying to Carrie near the end of season 2, "I just want to be a good person again." We see this with Jesse, but not with Walt.

Finally he does this one thing. And it ends badly for him. Brody's family doesn't know.  At least not yet.

Walt's image is tarnished, too.  So, neither of their families know.

So... Just because you do something for a good reason, doesn't mean it's good itself.


Sent from my iPad 2

Catching Fire Review

Okay. I know.  I'm finally getting around to it.  Here it is:

I went to go see catching fire on opening day. I wasn't that bowled over by it. But I couldn't find much to complain about. I thought it was a very solid adaptation, and it is very faithful to the book. Maybe that's why; I knew what was going to happen.

(Unlike that little battle bit in BD2.)

Here's what I really liked...

The world of Panem. We see more of it.  The various districts, etc.

Finnick. Sam C. was good. His character won't be more fully examined until Mockingjay. I just really liked his demeanor.

Johanna.  I loved, loved, loved Johanna. Jena was perfect.  A great mix of (slight) insanity and uncertainty.

I loved the ending sequence with Katniss being told about her district, her last scene.  One unexpected surprise was the morphing of the mockingjay.

The only thing I missed from the book was Plutarch's watch dialogue with Katniss.

Needless to say, I'm looking forward to Mockingjay.

PS: a special thanks to The Hob.org for the contest tickets! 

I went to go see it again last week, so here are some additional observations:

-President Snow was very creepy.
-The "documentary" style still kept, in a way (I.e. Caesar's interview)
-same music cues from The Hunger Games were used.
-Haymitch, you can tell, is starting to care about Katniss.

A 2nd thanks to The Hob for the shirt from the contest. :-)

We Fandoms Don't Riot....

Tonight I learned that having two emotional season finales in a row cannot be easily handled. It's harder if you happen to belong to more than one.

Case in point: The Walking Dead. It had been rumored for at least a couple of weeks that one of the major characters from WD was going to depart, and some people had a pretty good idea who it was going to be. People have made these "Internet pictures" saying "If _____ dies, we riot." [Insert favorite character here]

I'd liked how the season had been going. The story lines, plenty of drama, etc. The suspense.
And then came the mid season finale. It was still shocking when it happened, and it was sad. But by the end of that episode we pretty much got what we wanted, albeit with a cliffhanger.

When Herschel died, we didn't riot, we pretty much got depressed. That sums it up.

Fast forward to tonight. Homeland. If you've been watching it this season, you know it's been a bit of a mixed bag. Slow starters. Cliff hangers. Twists. More slow moments. I ended up liking it. It came to a big cliffhanger tonight. But the viewer slowly came crashing down back to earth with 20 minutes to go.

I was just left staring at the screen. What just happened? Did that just happen?

Yeah. It did. Nicholas Brody died. With Carrie- and us- watching it all. No rioting. Pretty depressed. Again.

My Twitter feed seemed to consist of subdued disappointment. And the seemingly collective feeling that Homeland couldn't continue.

Apparently, it can. There'll be a fourth season. But we- the fandom - doesn't think it should be for long.

So... Damian... If you ever see this... Thanks for a great job.