After a 13-month hiatus, Breaking Bad returns on Sunday July 17th for a fourth season. Official Website IMDb Page Wikipedia Entry
I found this YouTube clip. It seems that the writers' strike had a hand in saving Jesse from being killed off. [yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YqnoJ10HqP0[/yt]
I started watching this show in December, and it didn't take me long to have picked up every season on Blu-Ray. I'm a huge fan now and Sunday cannot come here fast enough. The AV Club has a good interview with Bryan Cranston from just a few days ago here.
One of my favourite dramas of the moment (along with Mad Men and Fringe). I'm still kind of waiting for them to really do something with Walter Jr.
Walter Jr. isn't dumb, so with both of his parents complicit in the drug trade at this point, it's only a matter of time before he finds out what's happening, if the writers are smart. He's definitely the most underutilized character at this point, though. Everyone else has had something major or minor to do on their own. Walter Jr. only gets to participate in relation to the other characters (although that has still led to great moments -- like the scene where Walt gives him something to drink at a party).
Yay, one of my favorite shows is back! I agree, they need to make use of an interesting character and actor that they've got there. And I guess it's just me, but I keep envisioning Walter Jr not being Walter Sr's natural son. It's because of the TV family casting problem that you don't always end up with characters who look like they could be related, but Walter Jr doesn't look like he'd be the product of his supposed parents.
First, I think R.J. Mitte was (maybe still is) a genuine juvenile, with limited working hours, but I think he is also really has CP. Using Walt Jr. is probably pretty tricky. I gather most TV shows keep people on set for twelve, fourteen hours rather than actually get their act together and managing efficiently. (Not that I would be likely to do better, but that's still bad management.) Second, Walt's backstory about leaving Gray Matters didn't explicitly spell it out, but it was Walt Jr. that drove him into teaching, for regular hours and (probably even more importantly) health insurance. I think they've written Walt Sr. as having levels of resentment of Walt Jr. he's never dreamed of. And tacitly ignoring him is just the start of payback. Which is what it'll be, no matter how Walt rationalizes it.
I don't think they'd do it - too soapy, no point - it's just something that keeps bugging me when I see the character. According to RJ Mitte's imdb page, his case of Cerebral Palsy is milder than the character's portrayed on the show. The photos of him certainly bear that out. No indication of age, but he looks about 18.
Setting up lights, rehearsing actors, moving from location to location, breaking on time to meet union rules for lunch and dinner -- these things take more time than you think they do, obviously. The quantity and quality of work Breaking Bad manages to pull off on an eight-day per (47-minute) episode shooting schedule is nothing short of amazing, and the "efficiency" you're talking is nothing but a fantasy. Feature films (2-3 times the length of an episode of television) often spend months in production, with hours no less as long as the schedule which you describe.
Have been catching up on past episodes for a while now and I'm pretty excited. Hopefully I'll be home in time to catch it when Sunday rolls around.
Oh good, then maybe we can see more of the character. Someone who has a significant handicap who is getting mixed up with the kind of stuff on this show, would be a very interesting element.
If you mean that I have at least a vague idea of how these things work and where all the time goes, then by all means, yes.
Vince Gilligan has said at least once that the season 3 finale wasn't intended as a cliffhanger. Also, apparently, a character dies tonight! The name of the episode is "Box Cutter", and is supposed to have an especially bloody climax, so... uh, yeah. It'll be good, nauseating times.
Actually, I think most location shoots would have horrible problems with natural light, weather, enviromental disruptions. I don't think efficient management could shave too much time. Which of course is why I specifically said "on set," just to explicitly say it a third time. The idea that union mandated breaks run shooting on sets up to twelve, fourteen hours rather than the other problems is inded pure stoogery. As is the unsupported assumption that good management couldn't lower set shoots to ten or twelve hours a day!