"Y'think the meth fairy is gonna bring it to us?"

by: Clark Allen

Aaron Paul has signed on to co-star in Miramax’s supernatural thriller THE NINTH LIFE OF LOUIS DRAX. He joins “Fifty Shades of Grey” actor Jamie Dornan. The film, following the mysterious circumstances behind a young boy’s near-fatal accident, is helmed by “Horns” director Alexandre Aja from a screenplay by “The Social Network” actor Max Minghella. Paul is set to play the boy’s father, who becomes vulnerable to police scrutiny and criminal investigation after his son becomes comatose.

Marty McFly: "I hope so."

- "Is there any truth to the rumours of a Jesse Pinkman spin-off? (Ever?)"

Aaron Paul: "30 years from now maybe."

CONSPIRACY! JESSE PINKMAN SEQUEL CONFIRMED FOR 2043

I’ve been re-watching season three recently, while writing up a lengthy character essay that attempts to establish Jesse Pinkman as the saner, more rational half of the show’s main duo.  In ‘Half Measures’, Mike Ehrmantraut gives Walter White an iconic speech, one which practically becomes the blueprint for his character. I’ve seen it countless times, but what struck me re-watching it this time around was the realization that Mike’s speech is about so much more than a cautionary tale outlining what happens when you don’t fully commit. Mike’s speech is, ostensibly, to let Walt know that Jesse is too much of a liability and he needs to go. That Walt needs to take a stand to ensure that the ‘problem dog’ won’t hurt them later down the line.  But what neither man can possibly know at this point is how this tale describes their future relationship with Jesse.

I just can’t believe so many of my friends liked Breaking Bad. I spent four seasons of TV on Netflix waiting for the show to become something better than what was essentially a modern-day cowboys vs. indians for a modern white audience but it never happened. It was essentially that if you’re a white male, crime is okay because you have a backstory and a family to support but if you’re hispanic, black or latino you exist purely to threaten the white guy who also conveniently happens to be better than you at making drugs. 

I waited for that to flip, or to get some back-story but bloody Tuco came along as just a two-dimensional crybaby hothead, his grandfather character was in a wheelchair and dinged the bell and his cousins were identical bald hitmen in suits and I deem it racist that anyone that isn’t white in the show is played as comical and colourful and it’s simply the white characters that have any depth to them. Saul was just there for comic relief but was given a bit of time for character development. I sat watching a show that consistently built reasons to feel sorry for the white characters but gave you no reason to even try to like POC within the show.

Then there was the sexism. Oh my god. The sexism. Like, am I seriously supposed to believe that Skyler White is a bitch for knowing her husband is lying to her, trying to help him through a tough time and for trying to keep her family together and somehow SHE is the threat when fucking Walt is fucking manufacturing meth and giving it to guys with guns? Really? REALLY? SHE is the bad person in the situation? How in any fucking way does that make sense? Then there was Marie. She was so inconsequential they wrote her relapse twice. It’s like the women in the show didn’t contribute to the storyline at all and existed only as metaphorical flies in their husbands’/partners’ ointments. 

Jonathan Banks, about his first appearance in Season Two —

“I want to say, though, about that last - just really quickly, because my impression of doing that last show and coming up, and I remember walking up those steps and seeing Aaron sitting out there preparing … and I saw that, and I didn’t think anything and I went and did the scene and I remember, I reached down and I slapped the piss out of him and – that’s not written in there - and how he was there, he was right there, and that kid never let go of that all day long. And I came home and I said to my wife, I said, I just worked with a stunning – I don’t know if I used the word stunning – but, a great actor. I said, this kid, I think, is really good.”

S05 E09: Blood Money  |  by Ryan Marvin