Breaking Bad is a series unafraid to mine its past, delving into earlier seasons for images and icons and details. Small moments pulsate with added emotion, layers of meaning conveyed through a tarantula creeping its way across the desert floor, or a pack of cigarettes distorting within a clenched fist. Even a half-glimpsed Hello Kitty…
An overheard conversation regarding last week’s almost pornographic episode: “Oh, did you watch last night’s Underbelly?” “Nah, I’ve already given up on the show.” “Boobs. BOOBS!” Yes, Channel Nine knows what its audience wants – Gracie Gilbert naked – and it delivers again quickly, showing flashes of her nude form in otherwise unrelated scenes. Only a…
There’s an ever-present sense of tension in the final season of a good drama, and it’s not necessarily related to fear over the plight of the show’s protagonists. The tension is born of fear that an otherwise great show might not stick the landing; that it might fumble important storylines, or simply run out of…
“Then, maybe your best course would be to tread lightly.” Man. That was satisfying. Breaking Bad has always been primarily about plot, with some compelling characterisation carried along in the wake of amazing storytelling. And the strength of that storytelling is on display in a taut, tense premiere that’s a welcome return to Albuquerque. Perhaps…
One of the big hooks of the Underbelly series is that it depicts, with some degree of veracity, real crime events from Australia’s history. The drawback to this selling point is that the show can often feel like it’s merely ticking off sufficiently interesting occurrences without having to bother with questions like “How does this…
Breaking Bad’s final season looms on the horizon; eight episodes before another television series gets to take the crown of “best show airing on TV.” Which show takes that title is very much up for debate, but the debate I’m more interested in looks at Breaking Bad itself: which season of the show is its…
Let’s be honest: Underbelly has never really produced a consistently good season of television. But its bright spots – that gold dust I spoke of – have made it fitfully rewarding viewing. More often than not, the show’s strongest moments come from its approach to violence, mixing in real pathos to elevate its usual bloodshed-as-entertainment.…
In any given year, one in four Americans will experience a mental disorder1. Yet, turning on their televisions, searching for relatable protagonists, what do they find? Insanity as a precursor to violence, an excuse for murderers and rapists. Depression and anxiety as signifiers of weakness rather than symptoms of a disorder. Unless, perhaps, they turn…
This is an extremely late review; it was hard to muster enthusiasm for the latest, unexceptional chapter in the Underbelly story. Like every Underbelly, it examines the criminal history of Australia, focusing on a particular time and place; Squizzy concerns its titular character, an up-and-coming pickpocket in 1920s Melbourne. Like every Underbelly, there’s that awful…
“Outbreak” has many of the same problems of earlier, middling episodes of Under the Dome. The large cast limits character development, relying on actors to flesh out characters we spend little time with. Sometimes it works (Dean Norris as Big Jim), but mostly we end up with teenagers who don’t act like teenagers or characters…
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