I like Breaking Bad. I like it. It's a good, solid drama. I watched this new episode determined to fall in love; after five seasons of increasingly breathless adoration from viewers and critics, I had hoped it might all finally slot into place, that I would think about Jesse's descent into horrified blankness in the same way as Adriana's final scene in The Sopranos, still able to recall clearly that gutpunch of loss and sorrow. And I thought it was good, and solid. The last 10 minutes were a masterclass in terror and tension.
But...? I mean, come on, you just
know there's a 'but' there, don't you?
The rest of it made it clear that my problem with the show is the same as it has always been: its women are underwritten characters who only exist as plot-enabling satellites to the men.
Oh. Of course.
It's easy to argue that Breaking Bad is about a masculine world because high-level crystal meth dealers are likely to be men, and that, therefore, its female characters could only be secondary. That doesn't hold up.
Really?
Breaking Bad's women exist on the outskirts, circling the men. They are an adornment to the fabric of the plot. Walt's wife Skyler is written as a nag and a bore.
And that's just unbelievable! What do they think this is,
the Seventies?
...perhaps it is time to start applying the film-focused Bechdel test here, too. To pass, a show must have at least two women in it, who talk to each other, about something besides a man. Top of the Lake and Orange is the New Black, to name two current examples, make it look easy.
Any other
requests demands? I mean, I'm sure the scriptwriters are just hanging on your every word...
After this week's episode of Breaking Bad, so obviously well-crafted, I still don't feel as if it is one of "my" shows. Its proportions are wrong. As a female viewer, I feel like an afterthought.
Well, if you see everything through a prism of feminist bollocks, you will, won't you?
My son watched the opening episode of 'Top of the Lake'. He said he was bored stiff after 10 minutes. But that's the kind of dreary, earnest crap that Lefties love.
ReplyDeleteWe've come a long way (downwards) from 'The Sweeney'.
What an utterly vacuous piece that is, I ended up skipping on to the comments before getting to the end of it I'm afraid. Many of the comments follow her line - birds of a feather and all that - with a few in scathing opposition, who will no doubt be instantly labelled as fascists.
ReplyDeleteIf she's really concerned about women, there are many in Syria who's already shitty lives are about to get a whole lot worse. Perhaps some of her angst could be directed towards their cause rather than some perceived inequalty on the Idiot lantern.
I'm all for equality and equal opportunities, but this is just self-serving bollocks from a wannabe media twit.
I've found 'Justified' to present a good view of wimmin. You know, his ex on/off wife? She lays down the law that she accepts him for what he is and does - then leaves him because ... Then there's the 'I can take all that but I can't take the silence and walking away' - who then doesn't say anything and ...
ReplyDeleteYep, wimmins to a tee!
"The Sweeney", I remember in "Life on Mars" that the character Gene Hunt was originally the knuckle dragging anti-hero, with the character Sam Tyler as the modern hero.
ReplyDeleteWomen loved Gene hunt, and saw Sam Tyler as a wet complete waste of space.
Silly tart!
ReplyDeleteShe can always commission a remake. She can call it Breaking Balls.
ReplyDelete"..perhaps it is time to start applying the film-focused Bechdel test here, too. To pass, a show must have at least two women in it, who talk to each other, about something besides a man."
ReplyDeleteBased on that criteria "Band of Brothers" must be the worst television show ever produced.
(The only female character that actually had any lines was the Belgian nurse at Bastogne. And that was, maybe, 2 or 3 minutes of screen time.)
Rebecca Nicholson is a tit.
ReplyDeleteIt's probably true that TV execs will green light shows that follow well-trod and proven formats. But not always.
Has Bec's never seen Lynda La Plante's Widows? Or Prisoner Cell-Block H? Or ITV's Loose Women?
I suspect she doesn't want one of 'her shows', she actually wants one of 'our' shows. To inject a break into that long boring car chase to stop off at Albuquerque's Coronado Mall to pick out some curtains.
It is the smug cow's arrogance that gets you--a show that doesn't exclude wimmin (nor kiss their arses) but might be of more interest to men--how dare they etc etc?.
ReplyDelete"My son watched the opening episode of 'Top of the Lake'. He said he was bored stiff after 10 minutes."
ReplyDeleteI thought it was dreadful (albeit beautifully shot), but I had to watch to see the end. Feel I wasted 4 hours of my life.
"Perhaps some of her angst could be directed towards their cause rather than some perceived inequalty on the Idiot lantern."
I can only imagine the depths of vacuousness hat a column on geopolitical conflict would bring...
"Yep, wimmins to a tee!"
But you wouldn't have us any other way, right? ;)
"Women loved Gene hunt, and saw Sam Tyler as a wet complete waste of space."
ReplyDeleteHeh! Very true.
"Based on that criteria "Band of Brothers" must be the worst television show ever produced. "
Oh, indeed. And look how well it did.
"I suspect she doesn't want one of 'her shows', she actually wants one of 'our' shows. To inject a break into that long boring car chase to stop off at Albuquerque's Coronado Mall to pick out some curtains."
For the equality!