Posts by Steve Kandell

October 10, 2011
Breaking Bad Finale Recap: Plants and Animals

I don’t know that Vince Gilligan has a post-it stuck somewhere in his office listing the general narrative priorities of Breaking Bad. But if such a document were to exist, it’s fair to surmise that “Plausibly depict the interpersonal vagaries of the southwestern methamphetamine trade” would rank somewhere below “Revel in the philosophical ramifications of […]
October 3, 2011
Breaking Bad Recap: Getting the Band Back Together

For devoted partners who’ve repeatedly risked their own lives to spare the other’s, Walter White and Jesse Pinkman don’t actually work together much. Or, really, communicate with one another other than to fight. Jesse still calls his old teacher Mr. White, and while that old habit now reads like a running joke, it’s more than […]
September 26, 2011
Breaking Bad Recap: That Rug Really Tied the Room Together

Somewhere, I’m sure, there’s a message board on which people are currently whinging that this fourth season of Breaking Bad is too slow, too staid, too something, that the show, painting itself into a corner with 19 episodes left to go, has no choice but to drag out the story and the relationships. And while […]
September 19, 2011
Breaking Bad Recap: BYOP

Last week, I received a package at my office from Billy Gibbons’ tequila company — three bottles nestled inside a heavy wooden box with my name engraved alongside a doodled self-portrait of the ZZ Top guitarist’s prodigiously bearded mug. From generous promo swag to macabre totem of instant, horrible death in just a few days’ […]
September 12, 2011
Powerless Rankings: How Do the Impotent Men of Breaking Bad, Curb, and Louie Measure Up This Week?

How are television’s favorite angry white males of a certain age feeling put-upon and impotent this week? Let us count the ways. 3. Larry David, Curb Your Enthusiasm Predicament: The season finale of Curb’s New York adventure has everything you’d want: pre-gay seven-year-olds, Mayor Bloomberg, Nazi iconography, narrative symmetry, and the highest concentration of Parkinson’s […]
September 6, 2011
Powerless Rankings: How Do the Impotent Men of Breaking Bad, Curb, and Louie Measure Up This Week?

How are television’s favorite angry white males of a certain age feeling put-upon and impotent this week? Let us count the ways. 3. Walter White, Breaking Bad Predicament: The main objective of “Hermanos” is to establish Gustavo Fring’s origin story and the source of his conflict with the cartel and the now-silent Tio Hector, just […]
August 29, 2011
Powerless Rankings: How Do the Impotent Men of Breaking Bad, Curb, and Louie Measure Up This Week?

How are television’s favorite angry white males of a certain age feeling put-upon and impotent this week? Let us count the ways. 3. Walter White, Breaking Bad Predicament: Perhaps galvanized by making clear to Skyler where he resides on the guy-who-knocks-or-doesn’t-knock continuum last week, he both disregards her instructions about returning Walt Jr.’s new Challenger […]
August 22, 2011
Powerless Rankings: How Do the Impotent Men of Breaking Bad, Curb, and Louie Measure Up This Week?

How are television’s favorite angry white males of a certain age feeling put-upon this week? Let us count the ways. 3. Walter White, Breaking Bad (Last Week: 1) Predicament: Here comes the hangover: The morning after drinking too much red wine and telling too many DEA agents that the dead meth chemist they’re investigating is […]
August 16, 2011
Powerless Rankings: How Do the Impotent Men of Breaking Bad, Curb, and Louie Measure Up?

How are television’s favorite angry white males of a certain age feeling put-upon and impotent this week? Let us count the ways. 3. Louis C.K., Louie Predicament: Double the Louie episodes (seriously, what’s your hurry, FX?) means double the opportunity for angst. In the first, Louie appears on Red Eye (!) to vigorously defend the […]
August 8, 2011
Powerless Rankings: How Do the Impotent Protagonists of Breaking Bad, Curb, and Louie Measure Up This Week?

How are television’s favorite angry white males of a certain age feeling put-upon and impotent this week? Let us count the ways. 3. Larry David, Curb Your Enthusiasm Predicament: Big drama for the Greenes as their beloved German shepherd, Oscar, has to be put down just before they move to New York for three months. […]

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