Breaking Bad Season 6 (5.5?)

Episode 1

Triumph and Frustration

About the show: Wow.  This is always the word that Breaking Bad leaves us with.  Ok, that is me saying that yes, but I know I'm not alone.  The best TV Drama to ever hit media is continuing its streak of excellence.   The latest episode, the first of the final 8, although low-key in action, has set the stage, and done it quickly by bringing the plot home to roost (I don't do spoilers, sorry).  So "the plot thickens" is always an understatement with this show, and continues to be.

EVERY single shot, and I mean every one, is a study in what you're supposed to do right in cinematography, sound, lighting, acting, scripting, and plot.  For instance, just one spot, and I will not spoil anything by saying this: late at night it's quiet, and Walt steps out of his house under the suspicion that he is being watched, or there is still a "problem" out there that is not taken care of.  He searches his car, and voila! there is a tracking device.  The camera tracks back with Walt in a vulnerable position on the screen, a slight build-up to the music, the crickets chirping, he alone there having made this discovery, standing still as the shot widens ever more.  THIS is classic cinema, vulnerability, discovery, alone, and all around the darkness, holding what he fears.  Great stuff.

About iTunes: I bought the whole final season, iTunes style, and am somewhat disappointed in iTunes' delivery.  Traditionally they send an email, which they did this time, that tells me, "latest episode is ready for download".  Turns out it was "Inside Breaking Bad, Blood Money".  Well, the "inside" edition is the cast, crew, and creators talking all about the episode.  I didn't want to watch that!! Especially 1st!  You watch that AFTER the show is over.  Where's my episode??  So I learn this 5 hours after the TV episode has aired, then it's too late, and the REAL episode never gave me a notice.  So it's Monday then, and all day I'm checking back to see if it's downloaded yet, or using the "store" menu in iTunes to "check for available downloads".  Never showed.  Finally on Monday night I get desperate and go to the actual iTunes store and go to the BB site itself, and there it is, the download button is active, and I still have to put in my password to get it to work.  So then it's another 5 hours, so bottom line....I'm watching the episode on Tuesday.  Wow, what a hassle.

Not only is this wrong, but it's also wrong of iTunes/Sony Pictures/AMC to lead everyone into believing last year that we were buying the whole season, only then to come up with another half a season, called Season 6, and make us pay AGAIN.  This is so wrong.  There is a class-action suit out there for misleading us.  Tempted to join it.

In any case, because of the intensity of the show, its huge following (5 million "likes" on Facebook), the NEED for this drama, they are getting away with it, because us "fans" are truly ravenous, and will not settle for anything less than an ending that beats Cecil B. DeMille parting the Red Sea in The Ten Commandments in 1956.   This story is incredible, and has set a new bar in drama production.  Those of us who actually work in the medium, and strive for excellence are going to have to work harder now to come up to this new standard.  It may be awhile yet before someone can top this series.

Even though we've been shown a small part of the very end in two of BrkngB's famous flash-forwards to start off the last season, we are now salivating at the idea of where the next and last 7 episodes will take us.  I just hope I can figure this download thing out a bit more quickly and stop writing desperate notes to iTunes support ala Jesse Pinkman titled: "Where's my download BITCH!?" :/