THE THIRST GAMES

 

THE

BREAKING BAD

DRINKING GAME

 

 

Breaking Bad is one of those shows that…no, wait, there is no way to finish that sentence. Breaking Bad isn’t like any other show that has ever been. In the last few years, we have seen a plethora of shows whose lead are living some kind of double life.  Weeds gives us a housewife who is secretly a pot dealer, Nurse Jackie is about a nurse who is addicted to pain meds, Hung is about a high school teacher who moonlights as a gigolo. Breaking Bad similarly is about a high school chemistry teacher who finds out that he has terminal cancer and in desperation of not leaving his family desolate decides to cook and sell meth.The thing that this show does better than all those other shows is delve the characters into their new darker realities with realistic and believable consequences.

Liz Lemon said it best when she was arguing against reality show garbage when she said, “We are in a golden age of scripted television.” As an art form, TV has not gotten anywhere near that respect movies have.  This show elevates the art of television. It is almost movie like with its grandiose story and a titanic performance by Byran Cranston as Walter White. Every episode is rich with symbolism and style. The reason TV is such an awesome medium for these kinds of character driven dramas is that it simply has the time to develop who the characters are and why they are making the choices they are making.

You will see an actor in a movie play a role for at the most three hours. You will watch an actor play a role in a TV show for from anywhere from 40 to 100 hours depending on how long it runs.   Big name actors have traditionally avoided TV with the belief that it will kill their movie careers for this reason; once an audience has spent that much watching you do one thing, it’s a lot harder for them to believe you when you try to slip into another role, especially a role that audience will only see for under three hours. Ed O’Neil tried to do Shakespeare live years after Married with Children ended and when he appeared on stage, audiences just laughed because they were looking at Al Bundy. He has been able to find success on another family sitcom, Modern Family.

It seems like a TV career is a life sentence because you can only really be seen as someone else if audience can see you do it over and over. Bryan Cranston has been around for many years, he even appeared on an episode of Seinfeld. Prior to Breaking Bad he was best known for was his role as the goofy dad from Malcolm in the Middle. Walter White is the role Bryan Cranston was born to play. Cranston will always be Walter White, and given the quality of his performance, this is totally okay with me. He doesn’t waste an ounce.

This is a show that is good enough to watch more than once if only to catch the nuances that you may have missed the first time, or to pay attention to how much better Anna Gunn gets over the seasons as Walter’s wife Skylar. And since we here at PopFilter think everything in life is just a little bit better when you’re drinking alcohol, have devised a little drinking game to wet your whistle to while you watch or rewatch. Enjoy!

Take a shot when:

1. You see blood.
2. Jesse says the word “bitch”
3. Marie and the color purple are in the shot, so pretty much every time you see Marie.
4. Walt Jr.’s chin quivers.
5. Walt lies to Skylar
6. Walt is in his underwear
7. Someone starts speaking Spanish
8. Walt raises his voice
9. You see a bunch of cash
10. Hank’s does some good ole’ fashion police work

– Stephanie Rose