<>REVISIT: “Breaking Bad.” “Six Feet Under.”

“Breaking Bad.” (Netflix.) 5 Seasons. Crime drama. According to series creator Vince Gilligan, the title is a Southern colloquialism meaning "to raise hell.” Yet this ultra-popular neo-Western series is definitely more than “raising hell.” I say, this could be how a template of exemplary streaming TV should be: Revolting at times but poignantly believable, piercingly dark in its bottoms-up hilarity but a sociocultural indictment that we can’t run away from. It is so wickedly truthful.

       The story: Walter White is an underpaid, overqualified and dispirited high school chemistry teacher who is struggling with a recent diagnosis of stage-three lung cancer. White turns to a life of crime, partnering with his former student Jesse Pinkman, by producing and distributing crystal meth to secure his family's financial future before he dies, while navigating the dangers of the criminal underworld.    

       Nothing so new about that plotline. We have wallowed in similar story structures over and over again. But “Breaking Bad” is something that is totally “new.” Even the bad guys—notably Gus Fring and Mike Ehrmantraut--got a soul that we can’t ignore. Those guys need spinoffs as what was given Saul Goodman. Each character is a backstory. Am I exaggerating? Maybe. 

       If you are the few who haven’t checked “Breaking Bad” out yet, try it. Bryan Cranston, Bob Odenkirk, and Aaron Paul’s breakthrough. But I must ask: where are Dean Norris and Anna Gunn? 🎥📺📽

“Six Feet Under.” (HBO.) 5 Seasons. Family drama. The lives of the Fisher family, who run a funeral home in Los Angeles, along with their friends and lovers. Mere thought that this series is set among the dead, cold cadavers, and corpses sunk in embalming chemicals—the darkness, funk, and paranoia are expected. Yet light and warmth still exude from the crevices and pores of the Fisher’s familial dysfunction and in the ruin of their respective individual relationships we glean some positive aura. At least that’s my experience watching this show.

       The life in the dead basically emanated from the sterling orchestration of the characters and how the actors played them. Frances Conroy as Ruth Fisher, the emotionally repressed or confused matriarch; Peter Krause as Nate, the tortured soul already facing his imminent death—at least in his mind; Michael C. Hall as David, another son, uptight and coming to terms with being gay; Lauren Ambrose as Claire Fisher, the youngest child, angry and lost; Rachel Griffiths as Brenda Chenowith, the kind of depression that scares as well as mystifies me. 

       The Finale though as do other Finales of awesome shows, didn’t impress me. But all in all, the series is worth your while as long as you don’t internalize the conflicts as yours. It’s just TV. But for sure, if I got money, I won’t start a funeral home.  🎥📺📽