Tony Soprano Meets The Bluths: How ‘BoJack Horseman’ Is Playing With The Golden Age Of TV
If Netflix is the future of television, then TV’s future might look a lot like its past.
A Long Way Down (2014)
A Long Way Down begins with a potentially promising premise before it falls, well, you know, <gestures vaguely towards title>. For a film that opens with a suicidal quartet meeting atop a London skyscraper on New Year’s Eve, it demonstrates little actual interest in examining suicide, despites its half-hearted feints at undergraduate psychology. Instead A…
Review Roundup – Eco- and Auto-Warriors
Yet again, here’s some write-ups to spruik! Rise of the Eco-Warriors is an Australian documentary about deforestation. I had the chance to interview its director Cathy Henkel for the 500 Club, and also wrote a review of the film. Another film being released today is Need for Speed, which is about as disappointing as you…
Extended Cut: Breaking Bad – “Granite State” (Season 5, Episode 15)
This final half-season of Breaking Bad has been like a game of ten-pin bowling at times. That may seem like an odd metaphor, but bear with me: there’s so many pins to knock over in this final stretch that we need to have a break every couple of episodes to line them up again –…
Breaking Bad – “To’hajiilee” (Season 5, Episode 13)
“To’hajiilee” is an example of how Breaking Bad plays its audience like a musical instrument. The bulk of the episode stretches its viewers taut like a finely-tuned violin, ratcheting up the tension inexorably, whether it’s subtle bits of (potential) foreshadowing like Saul wearing pink (and a bullet-proof vest), Pinkman enacting a fugazi portrait of death…
Breaking Bad – “Rabid Dog” (Season 5, Episode 12)
“Rabid Dog” sets the table for the final four episodes, pairing Jesse and Hank to tamp the flames of the former’s fury and give direction to the latter’s thirst for justice. This partnership may have a short lifespan (and some narrative holes – why aren’t Hank and Steve following procedure, if Hank’s so worried about…
Extended Cut: Breaking Bad – “Confessions” (Season 5, Episode 11)
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…
Extended Cut: Breaking Bad – “Buried” (Season 5, Episode 10)
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…
Breaking Bad – “Blood Money” (Season 5, Episode 9)
“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…
Extended Cut: Breaking Bad’s Seasons Ranked
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…
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