Critic Hank Stuever over at the WashPost makes this intriguing point, as fans await the first of the last eight episodes of “Breaking Bad,” coming up Sunday:
I have my own little pet theory about why “Breaking Bad,” which is demonstrably the best show of this decade and among the best shows in TV history, never quite had its “Sopranos” moment: It was set in a place no one really cares about.This has a lot to do with East Coast default settings — an I-95 thing, a New York-New Jersey-Boston-centric culture bias for urban grit, guido-ness and mob narratives. What chance does a show set in Albuquerque have to hold us in its grip? I say this as someone who has watched plenty of New Yorkers deplane in my beloved Albuquerque and, thoroughly unimpressed, sprint for the rental cars that will speed them to the tourist destinations of Santa Fe and Taos.
Georgia O’Keeffe, a prairie-raised woman who couldn’t stand another minute of New York, was really no different in this regard when she sought solace in the gorgeous emptiness of New Mexico; she was about horizons and mountains and bleached bones. All that nothing becomes something.
“Breaking Bad” also was into bleaching some occasional bones. It inhabited the riches found in both the literal and criminal expanse, but it was also about the terrible beauty in Route 66 decrepitude; those neglected lawn xeriscapes; that magnificently ugly car wash; the slimeball attorney officing on the North Valley strip….
Set anywhere else, I don’t think “Breaking Bad” would have achieved its eerie sense of remoteness and moral unease. Walter’s story simply lives better in the greatest, beige-est stretch of the flyover. Much of what made the show work was its backdrop; for New Mexicans, it occasionally verged on the documentary genre…
I think he’s right. I don’t know why I hadn’t thought of it in those terms. To the extent that the importance of the setting had struck me, it was that it underlined the banality and ordinariness of Walt’s pre-meth existence. But as Stuever says, there’s a lot more to it than that.
So now that the ground has been broken, maybe I’d better get to work on that riveting comic-drama about life in a Southern state capital…
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Get Corey Hutchins to help….
It is not a natural existence there. It is like another planet, a broken ecosystem.
That is what I thought when I got off the plane in Albuquerque in 1968, never before having been west of the Savannah River — there is something wrong with this place. After more than 33 years in the SW as an archaeologist, often out in the desert, I can tell you that it is not, on the whole, a broken ecosystem. There is a lot more there than is apparent to South Carolina-trained eyes. It suffers now from increased drought with climate change, and rising temps, but it simply is what it is — a different ecosystem. The increased density of stucco surburbia and the urban grid, especially in the river valleys, is a serious problem, but it is here as well. i started my Southwestern experience in the Puerco River drainage NW of Albuquerque living in a tent on a mesa for three months, spent 30 years in the Sonoran Desert in Tucson, and it is a beautiful place. I like it better here, because I imprinted on swamps and pine woods from infancy, but I’m glad I was able to experience the decidedly not-broken Southwest. I have some Tohono O’odham friends who would be happy to tell you their idea of a “natural existence.”
I grew up in southern Arizona–about 3 miles from the Mexican border as the crow flies. It’s not a broken ecosystem. It is a place that defines beauty on its own terms, with true blue skies that reach all the way to the ground–not just to the treeline. If it catches you while you’re young enough to fall under its spell, it will remain a part of you all of your life. Hamlin Garland called it the lure of the desert.
I made my first trip back in 33 years this summer. There was a part of me that wanted to stay.
I was proud of myself for being able to make out the word, “xeriscapes.” A month or so ago, I couldn’t have.
I don’t know how I got to this age without having heard it before, but I’m pretty sure I heard “xeric” for the first time when I was talking to some folks at Hobcaw Barony. Someone mentioned that, in addition to the salt marsh and freshwater swamps, there are actually some bits of the estate — some sandhills, I think — that constitute a true xeric landscape, with the flora and fauna typical to that condition. So I asked, “What’s that?” And I learned…
Spend more time out west, xeriscapes are all the rage.
I haven’t watched Breaking Bad, and I haven’t had anything to do with meth- but meth production is pretty much a completely rural enterprise, isn’t it?
What successful shows AREN’T based in one of a handful of major metro areas? NYC, LA, Chicago, Vegas, DC seem to be the major settings for shows. If anything is set in a smaller community it’s pretty much full up of hayseeds, rubes, hicks and other stock characters.
One unintended side effect of xeriscaping out west – increased water use, believe it or not! People were encouraged by public policy to xeriscape around their homes, so they ripped out established lawns and gardens, and replaced them with xeriscapng and when they did, they put in irrigation systems as well. The lawns hadn’t previously had them, so now instead of occasionally watering the lawn with a sprinkler, a timer sets off the irrigation system every day. Hence, water use rose. True story.
Stupid people to install irrigation, or irresponsible landscapers!
The Wire is easily a better show, and its last ep aired 2008. The gratuitous and extreme violence had us give up Breaking Bad after a few seasons. The Wire had plenty of violence, but it was integral to the reality.
There are still some people holding onto the idea that movies are better than television these days. I find that hard to fathom. Mad Men, Homeland, Ray Donovan (Showtime), The Newsroom, etc. provide better acting and writing than the formulaic action/superhero/vampire drivel at the movies. And comedies like Veep, Curb Your Enthusiasm are better than any sitcom on TV now.
If you have Netflix, a new series “Orange is The New Black” was a binge watching treat last weekend. Its about a women’s prison and is based on a true story about a yuppie woman who goes to jail for drug trafficking. Not for the kiddies…
Haven’t watched Breaking Bad – I feel like I’m too far behind to catch up. Would take me months to get there. Never got into The Wire – too slow, too many characters, too dark. But then I lost interest in The Sopranos as well. It got boring a couple seasons in.
Whoops.. that was meant for the Breaking Bad thread. Please delete, Brad.
Nevermind.
Well Doug, the thread did evolve into a discussion about xeriscaping, something alien to South Carolina’s landscaping.
A very good series, “Justified”, is one that I watch and thoroughly enjoy. The acting and writing is excellent and the characters well developed. If you haven’t watched it, you can watch the first 3 seasons for no added charge on either NetFlix or Amazon.
I tried to watch Breaking Bad one time, turned it off and haven’t been back since. Watched the Sopranos a few times, decent enough, intro music best thing about the series.
Orange Is the New Black is excellent! Different, too!
I haven’t watched it, partly because I was so disappointed by their version of “House of Cards”…
… which I still haven’t finished watching. I want to give it a chance and see the whole thing before judging it, but each episode is more like drudgery…
OItNB is vastly different from House of Cards. HoC was nothing like the original version, but if you had never seen the original, you might have enjoyed the new one more.
OItNB is a black comedy of the Catch 22 variety….
Am currently watching “Orange” and enjoying it.
You pay a price for watching “Breaking Bad.” It’s emotionally wearing. But it’s amazingly good TV. I’m sort of off and on watching the first season again on my iPad, to remind myself how far Walt has indeed broken bad.
“Orange” is fine stuff.
I’ve not watched Breaking Bad, either, but I see it’s available to stream on Netflix, so into the queue it goes. I’m actually re-watching all of Malcolm in the Middle this summer (for a connection to BB). Next up are the last two seasons of Smallville.
The Newsroom is a lot better than the reviews would have suggested. Not as good as The Hour, though….
When it first came out, I heard a clip of Jeff Daniels supposedly telling the “truth” on the air, and it sounded like an Occupy Wall Street rant. Painfully trite and naively paranoid.
But maybe the rest of it was better.
Yes….it is. The opening “truth” part was pure Aaron Sorkin, but in general, the political posturing is no worse than Jon Stewart, and only intermittent.
We just discovered The Newsroom and have been binge watching it. I think it is great.