Breaking Bad

We have just finished watching Breaking Bad (an American TV series) and are still reeling from its conclusion. Despite reading and hearing rave reviews about this series, I somehow did not feel that the plot would appeal to me and hence had refrained from starting it earlier. 

The series 'is' eminently watchable - but this blog is not about how great the series was. It is more about a side of story-telling that had been lost (on me) for a while. Each episode in this series dwells on the quotidian routines of a family that is struggling to keep up normalcy in quite abnormal times.

Having invested well over 50 hours into the Series, what struck me the most as I watched this drama unfold, was its pace! Unlike other Movies and TV Series, that over the years we have become used to - this one did not take off like a booster rocket, nor did every episode feel like it was on a testosterone high. Each episode, and the entire story itself, had a stillness - a quiet - that I did not realize was missing in modern day entertainment, until I rediscovered it in this series. The episodes were littered with scenes where the characters were caught deep in thought, or reflecting on what has just transpired.

 

The series was replete with facial close-ups capturing micro-expressions. At each and every turn in the main characters’ fate, we could literally sense the intense thought process going on, as he tried to fit another piece of the puzzle and in so doing extricate himself from that situation. Sometimes it felt like the cameraman had taken a coffee break behind the lens - so intent and fixed was the focus on the actors face and expressions. So still was the camera that we could see the entire gamut of emotions, revealing the turbulence of passions and conflicting desires as they flitted across his face. The nuances of expression were caught so stunningly, that one was almost led to believe that one could read the characters thoughts.

The entire experience harked back to the times when we had the patience to let a good story develop! To a time when giving up the first 20 minutes of a movie (to let it build momentum), or the first hundred pages of a good book (to develop its plot and characters), was not seen as a waste of time. The Director or the Writer did not feel compelled to immerse the audience into the deep end within a minute of the tale starting, or risk losing the audience altogether.

If one had told me all of this before I started the series, I would have never started it at all. I would never have thought I would have the patience to sit through the quiet moments. But having started, we were completely caught up in it and felt an almost voyeuristic pleasure, as the plot twisted the characters' lives. This show has been a paradigm shifter for me, in the sense that I always thought that the best fiction was the one with the big bangs, rather than the slow paced unraveling of a person’s life as they fight the unintended consequences of their decisions.

I think I now have a better understanding of the allure and addiction of people who are glued to Big Brother and other such Reality Shows. There is such endless fascination in the lives of others! And even though this series was not a reality show by any stretch of imagination, its pace could well have been.

When it comes to Reality Shows - I guess knowing that it is largely unscripted, adds spice that could blister even the most hardened tongue.