Vince Gilligan's Breaking Bad is a central work in the recent renaissance in television-making. The visionary scope and complexity of the series demand rigorous critical analysis. This collection of new essays focuses on a variety of themes. Walter White is discussed as father, psychopath and scientist and as an example of masculinity. The essayists examine the series in terms of gender, neo-liberal politics and health care reform, as well as the more traditional aesthetic categories of narrative construction, experimentation, allusion and genre. With television the dominant artistic medium of early 21st century America, Breaking Bad should be viewed as a superbly designed work reflecting widespread cultural concerns.
Vince Gilligan's Breaking Bad is a central work in the recent renaissance in television-making. The visionary scope and complexity of the series demand rigorous critical analysis. This collection of new essays focuses on a variety of themes. Walter White is discussed as father, psychopath and scientist and as an example of masculinity. The essayists examine the series in terms of gender, neo-liberal politics and health care reform, as well as the more traditional aesthetic categories of narrative construction, experimentation, allusion and genre. With television the dominant artistic medium of early 21st century America, Breaking Bad should be viewed as a superbly designed work reflecting widespread cultural concerns.
For many health care professionals and social service providers, the hardest part of the job is breaking bad news. The news may be about a condition that is life-threatening (such as cancer or AIDS), disabling (such as multiple sclerosis or rheumatoid arthritis), or embarrassing (such as genital herpes). To date medical education has done little to train practitioners in coping with such situations. With this guide Robert Buckman and Yvonne Kason provide help. Using plain, intelligible language they outline the basic principles of breaking bad new and present a technique, or protocol, that can be easily learned. It draws on listening and interviewing skills that consider such factors as how much the patient knows and/or wants to know; how to identify the patient's agenda and understanding, and how to respond to his or her feelings about the information. They also discuss reactions of family and friends and of other members of the health care team. Based on Buckman's award-winning training videos and Kason's courses on interviewing skills for medical students, this volume is an indispensable aid for doctors, nurses, psychotherapists, social workers, and all those in related fields.
All the science in Breaking Bad -- from explosive experiments to acid-based evidence destruction--explained and analyzed for authenticity. Breaking Bad' s (anti)hero Walter White (played by Emmy-winner Bryan Cranston) is a scientist, a high school chemistry teacher who displays a plaque that recognizes his “contributions to research awarded the Nobel Prize.” During the course of five seasons, Walt practices a lot of ad hoc chemistry--from experiments that explode to acid-based evidence destruction to an amazing repertoire of methodologies for illicit meth making. But how much of Walt's science is actually scientific? In The Science of “Breaking Bad, ” Dave Trumbore and Donna Nelson explain, analyze, and evaluate the show's portayal of science, from the pilot's opening credits to the final moments of the series finale. The intent is not, of course, to provide a how-to manual for wannabe meth moguls but to decode the show's most head-turning, jaw-dropping moments. Trumbore, a science and entertainment writer, and Nelson, a professor of chemistry and Breaking Bad' s science advisor, are the perfect scientific tour guides. Trumbore and Nelson cover the show's portrayal of chemistry, biology, physics, and subdivisions of each area including toxicology and electromagnetism. They explain, among other things, Walt's DIY battery making; the dangers of Mylar balloons; the feasibility of using hydrofluoric acid to dissolve bodies; and the chemistry of methamphetamine itself. Nelson adds interesting behind-the-scenes anecdotes and describes her work with the show's creator and writers. This is a book for every science buff who appreciated the show's scientific moments and every diehard Breaking Bad fan who wondered just how smart Walt really was.
An accessible and in-depth guide to all five seasons of Breaking Bad "I am not in danger . . . I am the danger." With those words, Breaking Bad's Walter White solidified himself as TV's greatest antihero. Wanna Cook? explores the most critically lauded series on television with analyses of the individual episodes and ongoing storylines. From details like stark settings, intricate camerawork, and jarring music to the larger themes, including the roles of violence, place, self-change, legal ethics, and fan reactions, this companion book is perfect for those diehards who have watched the Emmy Award-winning series multiple times as well as for new viewers. Wanna Cook? elucidates without spoiling, and illuminates without nit-picking. A must-have for any fanÕs collection.
As Head of Oncological Surgery and the Gynecology Clinic at Berlin’s Charité Comprehensive Cancer Center, Jalid Sehouli is one of the world’s leading cancer specialists. Every day, he experiences situations in which conversations take on a life-or-death significance. Delivering bad news is one of the most difficult tasks we face in life, especially for professionals such as doctors, police, or crisis intervention personnel, yet it is rarely touched on during training. Over the course of their career, a doctor will hold conversations with around 200,000 patients and their relatives that invariably involve delivering good or bad news. Either way, existential questions will arise, and the way the news is delivered is vital: recent studies show that it has a significant impact on patients’ quality of life and the way they experience treatment. Mixing his wide-ranging professional experience with personal stories, Sehouli describes the emotions and perspectives of those who have to give and receive bad news from a broad perspective. His book can be helpful for anyone who has to deliver bad news—managers, friends, or parents.
Already acknowledged by Metacritic and the Guinness World Records as the highest-rated series in the history of television, Breaking Bad has elicited an unprecedented amount of criticism. Writers both popular and academic, columnists as well as eager commenters, have addressed every imaginable topic, from the show’s characterization and major scenes, to fine details such as Walt’s knack for picking up habits from those he kills, and the symbolism inherent within the cars that characters own. This book considers another perspective, one relatively unexplored to date. By considering the series from the perspective of its interior spaces, two possibilities emerge. Firstly, the spaces become a tangible record of their characters’ inner lives, one that provides something like an objective correlative or photographic negative of their thought processes and approach to the world. They provide more, and richer ways to trace the course of character, action, and themes throughout the series. Secondly, Breaking Bad’s spaces are not simply acted upon or within: they interact with characters as well. Interpreted through the theories of Judith Butler, Michel de Certeau, and many others, the series’ homes, labs, RVs and elevators take on new significance. The collection plumbs the interior spaces of Breaking Bad from many angles. Ultimately, these diverse perspectives enrich an appreciation for the series and its innovative handling of interiors (both literal and metaphorical). They also suggest new ways of reading the series, ensuring it can continue to be explored by academics, students, and fans well into the future.
With its twisty serialized plots, compelling antiheroes, and stylish production, Breaking Bad has become a signature series for a new golden age of television, in which some premium cable shows have acquired the cultural prestige usually reserved for the cinema. In Breaking Bad and Cinematic Television Angelo Restivo uses the series as a point of departure for theorizing a new aesthetics of television: one based on an understanding of the cinematic that is tethered to affect rather than to medium or prestige. Restivo outlines how Breaking Bad and other contemporary “cinematic” television series take advantage of the new possibilities of postnetwork TV to create an aesthetic that inspires new ways to think about how television engages with the everyday. By exploring how the show presents domestic spaces and modes of experience under neoliberal capitalism in ways that allegorize the perceived twenty-first-century failures of masculinity, family, and the American Dream, Restivo shows how the televisual cinematic has the potential to change the ways viewers relate to and interact with the world.
Captivating analysis of the acclaimed TV series and its portrait of societal decline. Breaking Bad (2008–2013), a remarkable synthesis of the crime film, the sitcom, the western, and the family melodrama, is a foundational example of new television in the early twenty-first century. Receiving multiple Emmy Awards, it launched the careers of its creators and stars, most notably Bryan Cranston as high school teacher turned drug manufacturer Walter White, whose attempt to grab the American dream results in the destruction of family, home, community, and himself. In this book, Christopher Sharrett examines the innovations of Breaking Bad through a study of its main character, using psychoanalysis, genre study, gender studies, American studies, and the graphic arts to assist an exploration of the supreme danger of modern, postindustrial toxic masculinity embodied in Walter White. Serving as a fresh start for the American Movie Classics (AMC) cable outlet, Breaking Bad is probably the most uncompromised rendering of the white American male’s rage in early twenty-first-century fiction. Set against a deindustrialized American landscape, its conflicted morality can seem less ambiguous than repugnant when we note the use of humor throughout, particularly as characters are introduced and killed off. Walter’s relationships with his son, who has cerebral palsy, his former student turned business partner, his long-suffering wife, and his DEA brother-in-law are layered on top of the show’s reflection of the very real challenges facing America today, which are not limited to the opioid epidemic, lax gun laws, and racial violence. Some critics have accused Breaking Bad of inciting a disturbance rather than criticizing, as it relies heavily on the audience’s humor. Sharrett’s argument for why the show is the canniest dramatic insight of our times is worth the price of admission for scholars and students of media studies and superfans alike.
The ultimate official guide to Breaking Bad--one of the most critically acclaimed series ever produced. Adapted and expanded from an interactive e-book available only on the iPad, it's filled with insider secrets, interpretations of the show's iconography, a series timeline, exclusive interviews with creator Vince Gilligan, and much more. Bad fans will enjoy the many new images, and insightful commentary by world-renowned film critic David Thomson.
