The nominations for the 67th annual Primetime Emmys were announced recently, and like all nominations in recent memory, it’s just as notable for what was snubbed as for what did end up nominated. With this becoming an increasing trend, many have taken to questioning the importance of the Emmys, and whether they’re relevant in this day …
TV Editor Kate Kulzick, who has seen Breaking Bad, and Managing TV Editor Deepayan Sengupta, who hasn’t, sit down to discuss the first season of Better Call Saul.
As part of an April Fools’ joke, blogger Julien Knez pretended that he interviewed a hipster who “only watches movies on VHS, and it might just be the best gag published on any blog this year. Knez actually went through the trouble of creating nine completely convincing VHS packages for movies and shows using the …
After a wild left turn at the end of last weeks episode, “Five-O” is left to follow through on this sudden change of pace, and elaborate on why it should matter–outside of basic fan-service that is. Luckily, it succeeds most assuredly.
After last weeks hilariously contrived scam, Saul/Jimmy is all set to reap the benefits of his newfound popularity. Unfortunately, his little stunt may have done him more harm than good.
It should be no surprise at this point that Better Call Saul is building a pretty impressive following from its AMC audience. The shows quality has been shining like a beacon from the opening moments of its very first episode. What is surprising, though, is how it continues to reveal so many layers to a character who, while always entertaining in his original iteration, never really seemed all that complex.
After a solid opening hour, Better Call Saul continues to up the ante with an even more promising follow-up.The beginning section, one of the episodes strong points, features a decidedly downplayed Tuco Salamanca (at least compared to the Scarface-like caricature that we’re used to from Breaking Bad). Strangely, the quieter, more subdued Tuco is actually far more menacing than the psycho drugged-up version. His intense close-ups and lean-ins add a brutal new dimension to this character, while his rage-fueled response to a trespass against his grandmother is strongly reminiscent of a certain key S3 scene from BB, in which Tuco’s uncle firmly intones that “family is all!”
In addition to being a modern comedy giant, Bob Odenkirk seems like a really nice guy. He’s like the Dave Grohl of comedy, minus the backlash. The movies have not treated him all that well, however, particularly in the case of the Mr. Show-derived Run Ronnie Run, which became a heavily-compromised affair. Still, Odenkirk has …
The digital age has changed television dramatically within the past two decades. With the advent of cable channels, home video media, dish on demand and the internet, the average TV viewer has a variety of venues to access television programs. With all these ways to access television shows, the viewing audience has become more aware …
For the second year running and for its final season, Breaking Bad won Outstanding Drama Series at the 66th Annual Emmy Awards. It virtually swept the awards in an especially stacked year, also picking up awards for Best Actor Bryan Cranston, Best Supporting Actress Anna Gunn, Best Supporting Actor Aaron Paul, and Best Writing for …
The 2014 Primetime Emmy Awards are now less than a week away, and everyone is excited to see if the final season of Breaking Bad can beat True Detective – and also – if Veep can stack up against Modern Family. In anticipation of the broadcast, the Television Academy has put together a fun 6-minute …
HBO’s Game of Thrones is king, leading the 66th Annual Emmy Nominations with 19 in total, including for Outstanding Drama, Outstanding Lead Actor Lena Headey and Supporting Actor Peter Dinklage. Breaking Bad‘s final season is also heading out on a swan song, earning a grand total of 16 nominations, including nods for Outstanding Drama, Outstanding …
The new film Need for Speed does not deserve its lead actor, as he proves in a number of the dramatic moments. Even those audience members not familiar with Aaron Paul’s outstanding work on the AMC drama Breaking Bad would likely notice the straining-at-the-seams emotional style he brings to his character here, which is somewhat unexpected in a movie that essentially wants to kickstart its own The Fast and the Furious-esque franchise. Those movies, like Need for Speed, boast plenty of pedal-to-the-metal street racing, outrageous stunts, beautiful women, more racing, more stunts, and so on. Need for Speed, however, tries too hard to be a real, grounded story of revenge and hate, too often tippling over into melodrama.
5. Orange is the New Black (Netflix) After the much-hyped release House of Cards and return of Arrested Development, Netflix released Orange is the New Black with little fanfare, seemingly unaware of just how great a series they had on their hands. Based on the true story of a white, privileged thirty-something who is sentenced …
The first half of the year may have had more standout episodes, but those that came in the second half were just as memorable, if not more so. Kate Kulzick, Simon Howell, Ricky D, and Randy Dankievitch finish their list of 2013’s best TV episodes with their picks for July through December.
One of the most shocking moments of the new documentary Narco Cultura comes near the end, as one of the musicians who profits from the most heinous and violent acts committed by Mexican drug cartels deliberately misquotes a memorable line from Brian de Palma’s Scarface: “First you get the money, then you get the power, then you get the bitches.”
French artist Anthony Geoffroy created this brilliant caricatural spin on the characters of AMC’s hit television series Breaking Bad. ****
Breaking Bad, Season 5, Episode 16: “Felina” Written by Vince Gilligan Directed by Vince Gilligan Airs Sundays at 9pm ET on AMC – “I did it for me.” – After Walter White utters these words, the rest of “Felina,” the final episode of Breaking Bad, almost doesn’t matter. It’s a definitive punctuation mark, the ultimate …
Breaking Bad is finally over. It’s been a long, emotional six (or for contractual reasons, five) seasons, from a goofy-looking guy driving an RV through the desert in his tighty-whiteys to tonight, but here we are. *Deep breath* Okay guys, let’s do this thing. We start inside the car Walt steals in New Hampsire, actually …
Revolution begins its second season in far more promising fashion than it ended its first. As the power ticked back on, the show’s central conceit seemed to evaporate. Thankfully, if we can take Aaron’s word for it, the power is now off for good, and the show is all the stronger for it. This was a completely necessary reset for the show: the Monroe Republic is no more, there’s no grand desire among the core group to restore power, and everyone’s getting back to pre-Surge reality without helicopters and armored cars causing carnage. Monroe’s a bare-knuckle boxer, Charlie seems to be finding herself, the Nevilles are searching for Julia, and everyone else is camped up in a remote Texas stronghold. It’s almost as if the first season never happened, other than the relationships forged between the cast. We hear nothing of the late Danny, for instance.
Breaking Bad is not a series generally noted for its lightness of tone, but Vince Gilligan and his collaborators have always managed to wring humor and quirk out of what would seem to be a hopelessly grim set of story beats. That’s what makes “Granite State,” the series’ super-sized penultimate episode, so hard to watch. Save for a few passing moments of sewer-downhill-from-the-gallows “humour,” “Granite State” is a relentlessly bleak hour of TV, wherein even the glimpses of “hope” are really just (in all likelihood) presaging more carnage.
With the past year in television ending around the beginning of summer with a slew of season and series finales, many people have begun discussing the shows, writers, and performers who deserve recognition for their work. One of the avenues of recognition are the Emmy Awards, one of the more prestigious awards for television work. …
