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Television

The Golden Age of TV Dramas, From Most to Least Trumpy

Characters like Breaking Bad's lucky ‘ol Walt get to live out every Trump-ish dream while the rest of us can only watch.

Evan Spiller
Recent
Film

"This Is a Cautionary Tale": An Interview With Dan Gilroy of 'Nightcrawler'

PopMatters speaks with Nightcrawler writer/director and Academy Award nominee Dan Gilroy about writing antiheroes, watching local television news, and questioning the pervasiveness of fear mongering media.

Television

Lucifer Is Free to Roam: (In)Justice and Retribution in 'Hannibal'

Hannibal, unlike much-hyped pulp revival shows like True Detective and Fargo, refuses to give its audience neat answers on matters of right and wrong.

Ryan Peters
Television

In Defense of a Second Season for 'Halt and Catch Fire'

Women are the alpha-characters in Halt and Catch Fire. There may be no better dynamic duo of smart leading females on TV today than Donna and Cameron.

Music

Dave Porter: Breaking Bad OST

One of the biggest contradictions in the soundtrack business is that the right music perfectly adheres to the scenes, and it does it so well that it disappears or, better, becomes one thing with the pictures

Television

In Defense of the Phrase 'Spoiler Alert'

Hey, did anybody else have the Good Wife plot twist spoiled for them last week? Thanks to Google, Time and the Associated Press, I did.

Events

Toy Fair 2014: Sons of Anarchy, Skylanders and More (Photos)

While Activision didn't have a new Skylanders game to show off, they did have new toys and MEZCO's line expands to include Sons of Anarchy as well as Breaking Bad.

Television

Back Away Slowly, Walter White, Sgt. Suzanne 'Pepper' Anderson's Got Her Own Big Gun

Unassuming high school chemistry teacher faced with insurmountable medical expenses turns to manufacturing illegal drugs to make ends meet? Sorry Bryan Cranston, Angie Dickinson and William Shatner got there first.

Culture

In Defense of the Influence of 'Difficult Men'

Brett Martin's latest book serves as a reminder of how enlightening dealing with darkness in television can be.

Internet

What Is It About TV These Days?

Can it still be called television if there's no network? Or even no actual, physical television?

Television

FRAME-BY-FRAME: Breaking Bad S05E10/11 - “Buried / Confessions”

In a final season where the ultimate end-game is up for grabs, every character's motivations are up for dissection. Whether anyone can have the ending he seeks, however, remains the ultimate question.

Television

"I Can't Do It, Mr. White": When Education Tastes Like Los Pollos Hermanos

Walter White as aged teacher and Jesse Pinkman as retired student grow to be somewhat of a family for each other, but the way in which Jesse learns and applies himself shows that Breaking Bad's theme of learning goes deeper than one might initially think.

Culture

"Say My Name": Mythologizing Heisenberg As an Allegory for the American West

Once a viewer starts tuning into the subtleties of those affected by the collateral damage of Walt/Heisenberg's victories, it's hard not to read the show as a satire that challenges us to rethink our romanticized assumptions about American Westward conquest.

Brian Steinbach
Television

Go Home, Walter: The Case for Gustavo Fring as the Greatest Villain in Television History

Gus Fring has earned his spot in the all-time Villain Hall of Fame. It his unexcitable demeanor when enraged that makes him unpredictable and highly volatile to be around, and that's exactly what you want in a good antagonist: never knowing what he is going to do next.

Matt Grant
Television

It's All About the Weight, Yo: A Meditation on Jesse Pinkman's Long Road Down

By the time Season Five came around, Jesse hadn't only changed, he became the moral center of Breaking Bad. His journey, grim as it is, is one of the show's most compelling arcs.

Robert Downs Schultz
Television

A City in the Desert: Landscape and 'Breaking Bad'

From cinematography to editing, each episode of Breaking Bad feels meticulously crafted, the director's authorial hand ever present to lead the viewer through the story. Every shot is as precise and deliberate a storytelling tool as the scriptwriting or the actors" performances.

Benjamin Riley
Television

Robber Barons and Meth Empires: Heisenberg and the American Dream

Looking at Heisenberg through the lens of capitalism, what he does and accomplishes is remarkable in comparison to what we see happen on a daily basis these days.

Justin Yeary
Television

Breaking Bad Frame-By-Frame: Season Five (Part 1)

With the greatest villain of all time finally defeated, Jesse, Mike, and the rest of the White's all come to the same realization: in a post-Fring world, the man who killed him has become the true terror.

Television

In Defense of 'Breaking Bad's' Skyler White

Given the amount of loathing the character has had to endure in Breaking Bad, few realize that Skyler is so much more than what she appears to be.

Television

Breaking Bad Frame-By-Frame: Season Four

Breaking Bad's Fourth Season may also be considered by some to be the slowest, but that's largely because after an explosive opening, things slowly burn and simmer until the stunning reveal of "Crawl Space" and the terror that follows it.

Television

Breaking Bad Frame-By-Frame: Season Three

Gus Fring. The Cousins. Poor, poor Gale. As the stakes increase, so do the perils (and number of flies), and Walt soon realizes that he's under the command one of the most terrifying villains in television history.

Music

Thomas Golubic: The Master of the Scene

Breaking Bad, The Walking Dead, Six Feet Under, The Killing, and now Showtime's Ray Donovan. What do they all have in common? All bear the creative mark of Thomas Golubic, the music supervisor who has been quietly and powerfully shaping the storytelling world of cable television for the past decade.

Josh Antonuccio
Television

Frame-By-Frame: Breaking Bad S5E9 - Blood Money

I've been saying it for years and tonight it held true: Introduce a DEA brother-in-law during season one and eventually you'll get a big boom. In "Blood Money", Dean Norris proves he's easily Bryan Cranston's acting equal.

Television

When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer: Gale Boetticher As Alternate-Universe Walt

Few characters in the history of television have arrived as fully and oddly formed as Gale Boetticher did during Breaking Bad's Third Season.

Television

Breaking Bad Frame-By-Frame: Season Two

After a first season compromised by a Writers Guild strike, Breaking Bad's first "full" season goes deeper, darker, and through a burned pink teddy bear, indicates that something truly horrific is on the horizon.

Television

I Am the One Who Knocks: The PopMatters' 'Breaking Bad' Companion

Our two-week-long Breaking Bad special section begins today. The show is a singular entity in the most-millennial television landscape, one that is heart-wrenching as it is funny, quirky as it is visceral. Let PopMatters show you every conceivable way that one can go out in the world and truly break bad.

Television

I Am the Danger: The Death of Walt and the Rise of Heisenberg

People ask Bryan Cranston where the "rise" of sinister alter-ego Heisenberg comes from. He says from the first episode, when he tried to be someone else. Yet the dark truths of his journey downhill reveal so much more.

Television

Breaking Bad Frame-By-Frame: Season One

Breaking Bad starts in the way that any truly great show should start: with a pair of pants falling from the sky ...

PopMatters Staff
Music

Latin Music Is American Music

For more than a century, immigrants—particularly those from Latin America—have helped forge the cultural identity of the United States. In so doing they've spiced up America's food and thankfully, its music, too.

Television

In Defense of Binge-Watching Television

Netflix's House of Cards has proven that the practice of spending 48 to 72 hours with a specific set of characters and stories isn't just the future of television -- it's also the here and now.

Reviews

I Am the One Who Knocks: 'Breaking Bad: The Complete Fourth Season'

Season Four of Breaking Bad is so flawlessly executed, relentlessly suspenseful, and powerfully intelligent that when the "greatest show of all time" tagline starts getting thrown about, it's becomes increasingly harder to ignore.

Television

In Defense of the First 11 Episodes of Season Five of 'Mad Men'

With Mad Men's season finalé set for Sunday, we look back at how polarizing the show's return to television has been.

Television

'How to Make It in America'? Well for Starters, Don't Make Hopeful Television

The HBO dramedy How to Make It in America, despite being one of television's best programs, could not make it because it was too hopeful and joyful to survive a culture of cyncism.

Television

TV Highpoints and Lowpoints of 2010-2011... Number 1

Several new series debuted in April 2011 to transform what had been a mediocre season into an exceptional one, including Game of Thrones. AMC, meanwhile, systematically abused three of its great series, calling into question whether the cable network is truly ready for the big time.

Reviews
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