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Breaking Bad Breakdown: Fast Forwarding
It has been 343 days since Hank sat on Walt’s toilet and had his poetic epiphany. He has also been in the bathroom for only a few minutes. This is the conundrum, and the essence, of serial television....
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Breaking Bad Breakdown: Digging Down
Sunday afternoon, I started thinking ahead to Breaking Bad in anticipation, and the question I kept coming back to was, “I wonder what they’ll do with the cold open?” The series has always used its...
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Breaking Bad Breakdown: Title Tricking
This week’s episode is entitled “Confessions.” As Jonathan Gray has discussed in his book Show Sold Separately, paratextual elements like episode titles help to shape viewer expectations and frame what...
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What Are You Missing? Aug 19 – Sept 1
Ten (or more) media industry news items you might have missed recently 1) The NFL season kicks off this week, but the organization has been in the news for less-positive reasons as of late. First, ESPN...
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Breaking Bad Breakdown: Postponing Progress
Can an episode be simultaneously very good and disappointing? That’s what I was left feeling after “Rabid Dog,” especially coming down from last week’s phenomenal “Confessions.” There was nothing...
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Breaking Bad Breakdown: Peaking Plot
In one of the most referenced axioms about suspense, Alfred Hitchcock told François Truffaut that suspense works best when the audience knows that there is a bomb under the table, but is powerless to...
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Breaking Bad Breakdown: Exploding Emotion
I’m still a wreck. It’s Monday afternoon, after a late night of obsessing, rewatching, sketchy writing, and furtive sleep. There are few episodes of television that affected me this much—Six Feet...
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Breaking Bad Breakdown: Exiling Evil
We’ve known that this was coming for quite awhile. Since “Live Free or Die” aired 14 months ago, we’ve known that Mr. Lambert would be leaving New Hampshire to settle some scores. That knowledge has...
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Breaking Bad Breakdown: Deserving Denouement
What do we want from a finale? Should it be a spectacular episode that serves as the dramatic peak of the series? Should it like any other episode of the series, only more so? Should it be surprising,...
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Style, Structuring Conceits, and the Paratexts of Mad Men
Fig. 1 — Mad Men from first … Fig. 2 — …to last. Post by Piers Britton, University of Redlands In a manner befitting a series that flourished on its reputation for visual elegance, the finale of Mad...
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AnTENNA, UnREAL: Anti-Heroes, Genre and Legitimation
The Lifetime drama series UnREAL, which recently completed its first season, was one of the surprises of the summer. A dark look behind-the-scenes of a reality dating show, the series has particular...
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