Welcome

Welcome to my ever-evolving blog. It started out as a blog on Beachbody workouts and products, mainly when I was a Beachbody coach. I no longer coach, not because I don't believe in Beachbody's programs (I subscribe to Beachbody on Demand and use their workouts every day), I am just not a salesperson and hated that aspect of it. I am more than willing to answer questions about my experiences with their products and the various workouts, and I feel freer to do so without the appearance of giving a biased review of something.

I have also started adding reviews for various things I have purchased like movies, books, CDs, and other products. This was brought about by a fight with Amazon in which all of my reviews were removed over a completely bullshit allegation that I posted a review that violated their terms of service. After going back and forth with the morons in the community-reviews department (even after they admitted that my posts did not violate their guidelines) they restored my account (which took them six months to do), but I have been posting my reviews on my blog to have them preserved in case something like that happens again. And here, I will post uncensored reviews so I will swear from time to time and post reviews that may be longer than Amazon's character limit. Everything I post here on any topic or product is my personal opinion, and I take no compensation for any product reviews I post. I am a member of Amazon's vine program and because I get those products for free, I keep those reviews on Amazon only, but everything I have purchased with my own money, whether from Amazon or some other store/website/outlet, I will post here.  

I also plan to do some longer blog posts on various topics, such as how to learn physics, how to get through calculus, and longer reviews of workout programs as I do them. Basically, whatever strikes me as interesting at the time.  As you can see if you navigate around the blog, I had many years in between postings. During that time I was going back to school to get an engineering degree, and learning material that I avoided my first time through college was a different experience and one that gave me a lot of insight into how to do well in those classes, which I will try to impart here for those who are looking to get a science or engineering degree. 

Showing posts with label Breaking Bad. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Breaking Bad. Show all posts

Tuesday, August 16, 2022

TV Series Recap: Breaking-Bad/Better Call Saul (Spoilers)

 

  

Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul are basically extensions of each other as a series. Breaking Bad, of course, aired and ended first, with the death of Walter White (Bryan Cranston) and Jesse getting away from the Nazi compound and evading the police. We find out in the El Camino movie that Jesse managed to get out of Albuquerque with the help of the vacuum cleaner guy and start a new life in Alaska. Better Call Saul, which was spun off from Breaking Bad, is partly an origin story for the character of Saul Goodman, showing his life before the Breaking Bad timeline as a two-bit slip-and-fall crook turned lawyer named Jimmy McGill who let greed and revenge rule his life (which is where most of the series spent its time) and partly a sequel to Breaking Bad, showing that Saul ended up managing a Cinnabon in Omaha Nebraska under the name "Gene".  Gene could not leave Saul totally behind, and as shown in the second half of the final season, he got greedy and ended up getting caught. 

Between the two shows, none of the main characters had what you call a happily ever after. The closest (at least as we know so far) was Jesse, which to me is actually the best outcome since he was the least "bad" of the worst people in Breaking Bad, never turned into the monster that Walter did, and was ready to let go of that life but was constantly pulled back in by Walter's manipulation. Of course, Walter ended up dying, and as we find definitively out in BCS, Skylar made a deal to avoid prison, and Gus and Mike were dead by the end of Breaking Bad so even if the authorities found out about their roles, they were not around to be punished either. So, ultimately, that left Saul/Jimmy to face the consequences of what happened during Breaking Bad. 

Jimmy was kind of a sad-sack character, at least initially in BCS, who had genuinely tried to move on from his small-time crime life to become a lawyer and follow in his brother's footsteps. Ironically, had his brother not torpedoed him, Jimmy probably would not have made the transition to Saul. But, that betrayal wounded him so much he would always give in to greed and would always get revenge on his perceived enemies, which inadvertently led to the deaths of his brother Chuck and to Howard Hamlin. And, his greed led to him running scams in Omaha instead of getting out when he could have and then taking risks that ended up with him getting arrested in a dumpster. 

Ultimately, Saul was never as evil as Gus or Walter, but he was responsible for Walter becoming as successful as he did and thus had culpability for the things Walter did. For the first time in a long time Saul, having negotiated himself a seven-year prison sentence when he was offered 30 years and facing life plus 180 years if he went to trial, did something against his own interests when he admitted to everything to save Kim, the only person he cared about as much as he cared about himself. So, Jesse ending up in Alaska living free and Saul in prison for 86 years seems to be where the last surviving characters from Breaking Bad should have ended up. Personally, I do not think there is any reason to revisit the Breaking Bad universe and I hope Vice Gilligan and Peter Gould leave it alone. I am not sure that a Kim-centric show is needed, or would be as good as either BB or BCS. I am fine with it just being where it is with everyone living the rest of their lives. If they did want to revive the universe again, a movie in the vein of El Camino with Jesse being caught and extradited to New Mexico with Kim representing him would be a good way to do it. But, I do not think another series is needed and I doubt that they could catch lightning in a bottle a third time and make a series as good as either BB or BCS.

Wednesday, July 27, 2022

Blu-Ray/TV Series Review: Breaking Bad: The Complete Series

 


Breaking Bad was the iconic series about a high-school chemistry teacher named Walter White (played wonderfully by Bryan Cranston) who finds out he has terminal cancer and decides to start manufacturing meth with a former student named Jesse Pinkman (played by Aaron Paul) so he can make enough money to set up his family for life. Throughout the course of the series, Walter transforms from a guy who is in over his head to a horrible character with almost no redeeming qualities who uses everyone around him. The series also stars Anna Gunn as Walter's wife, Skyler, Dean Norris as Walter's brother-in-law Hank, who is also a DEA agent who ends up looking for the mysterious new meth dealer, Betsy Brandt, as Walter's sister-in-law Marie, RJ Mitte as Walter Jr. Giancarlo Esposito as Gustavo "Gus" Fring, a local drug kingpin with a cover as a business owner, Bob Odenkirk as the criminal lawyer, Saul Goodman, and Jonathan Banks as Mike Ehrmantraut, an enforcer for Gus and private investigator for Saul. The last three also appear on the great spin-off series Better Call Saul.

Where the set really shines is with the extras. There are hours of extras for each season including behind-the-scenes featurettes, commentary tracks on select episodes, episodes of "Inside Breaking Bad" the post-show wrap-up that aired after many of the episodes, music videos, gag reels, photo albums, deleted and extended scenes, character profiles, a hilarious alternate ending to the series, and more. So, if you love the show and you love watching the bonus material, there is a ton here for you.

The series is widely regarded as one of the best shows of the 2010s. It was wonderfully written and very well acted, by everyone in the main cast and the guest cast. Cranston did a great job of transitioning Walter from a wimp to a monster over the course of the series, and Aaron Paul did a wonderful job playing Jessee as a guy who got in too deep with Walter and portraying Jesse's love-hate feelings toward Walter whom he saw as a father figure, yet knew only cared about himself and money. The series really boils down to the power of greed, and how it corrupts. Even though it has been off the air for nearly a decade, the show holds up very well and is definitely worth the investment. It had a lot fewer shows than many shows that stay on the air for five seasons get (just 62 total episodes), but it told a great story and if you are a fan of crime dramas, it is a must-watch.