Wow, this has
been a big week. To start things off, let's talk about an ongoing event of
sorts, a competition if you will, one of global significance. And in that
event, certain happenings transpired that are now a matter of national pride. I
am of course, talking about myself winning the most active participant award at the
Assurance 2 training at the office, which for those wondering, is the opposite
of the Academy awards and winning the MAP award is pretty much the opposite of winning an
Oscar.
Winning the award comes with an attractive something-something that I'm not at liberty to reveal right now, and of course, a lifetime supply of bragging rights and leverage for me in every argument at the office that I'm involved in. Sadly, the rumors that the winners would get a mountain bike were just that, rumors. In other unrelated news, I continue my search for a buyer for a pink helmet with a custom paint-job of a flaming skull.
More news from this week that I read off the internet ten minutes before I started writing this so that I could fill up half the post without getting to the topic of my post includes Hina Rabbani Khar denying the allegations of her being romantically involved with Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, which is surprising only to those who are unfortunate enough to have the last name Zardari. Bilawal was quick to respond by saying, “Democracy is the best revenge.” Yeah, I think he should learn some new talking points now.
Elsewhere, the Pakistan cricket team continued their infamous start-stop campaigns in world tournaments by getting an inspired win over the South Africans and then following it up by easily falling prey to the Indians, then beating the Australians (!!!) by a good margin in the ICC World Twenty20 2012 to qualify for the semi finals. The bipolarity in the cricketing form of the Pakistani team is matched only by the bipolarity of their fans who go from “Hamain tum say pyar hai!” to “Shahid bhai, pepsi chorain, petrol piyain aur wafat paa jayain.” in a matter of hours without the slightest trace of irony. Which is kind of like how people have reacted to the character of Walter White over the course of the TV show which coincidentally IS the topic of my post. Not that there’s anything common between Walter White and Shahid Afridi. For one thing, Walter White is in a better cricketing form than Afridi.
In case you haven’t guessed it by now, I’m here today to yap about the much acclaimed TV show, the most recent season of which I completed just two days ago, er legally, by Skyping with a friend who was watching it on Hulu on another computer, Breaking Bad. Now, for those of you who’ve never heard of Breaking Bad because you’re too busy with your jobs and your friends and your academic career and having a life, I only have this to say:“Say my name!”. This, of course, doesn’t make sense to you but it’s a line from the show and I’ve wanted to use it ever since I first heard it six hours ago.
Anyways, Breaking Bad is a universally praised TV show that currently airs on the AMC Network (I think now would be the time where I come out and state that I’m in no way affiliated with, connected to or employed by AMC, buy CM Punk merchandise!) about world's favorite topics, Drugs, and is the brain child of the badassery inducing mind of one Vince Gilligan. But it’s just a TV show the same way Twilight is literature, barely.
Think “The Wire”, but on a more personal level, now think of some other crime show because you’ve probably never seen The Wire. Think The Sopranos meets Weeds, but instead of being in on it, Tony’s family is clueless of what Tony does and remains so for five whole seasons. And in a matter of mere 40-some episodes, you don’t even recognize the character you started watching.
That's because back when Vince Gilligan was a writer for the X-Files, he always thought about the fact that characters on TV shows are so stagnant, static and stationery in their evolution, that it allows said shows to run for eternity, prime examples being the CSI franchise, the Simpsons and politics in Pakistan. In other words, s**t doesn’t change and everyone remains the same. So Vince decided to come up with the radical new concept of creating a show around a protagonist who would over the course of the show turn into an antagonist, the hero becoming the villain, or as Gilligan himself put it, Mr. Chips becoming Scarface. Thus, Breaking Bad was born. Now before you start screaming, “Bull! Christopher Nolan did it first! I believe in Harvey Dent!”, don’t forget to consider that 'Bad came out before The Dark Knight and Vince had a lot more time to play with than just two hours and forty minutes and thus was able to make the transformation a lot more organic and a lot more subtle. Also, Anna Gunn > Maggie Gyllenhall, but I digress.
Breaking Bad treats life the way it really is, in that no one is just a good or bad guy. It’s a lot more shades of gray (*insert 50 shades joke*), do you applaud a person diagnosed with cancer who decides to take a drastic step in seemingly the last year of his life to ensure the future of his family after his death or do you condemn him because the step he takes is becoming a drug manufacturer? Conundrums!
It also has a superb writing team which seemingly has a knack for never going for the obvious thing. Commercial break coming up? How about we don’t go to it with a cliffhanger. Everyone oversaturated with crappy twist endings? How about straight-forward story telling that gives you a setup and a payoff, every time, all the time, without fail. It’s like the anti-LOST. And this is the terrain Breaking Bad plays in, in every episode, every season. Nobody is a throw-away character. Everything connects. Nothing is unexplained or left for the viewer's imagination. There are no loose ends. Nothing drags.
And lest I forget, it has the magnificent acting of one Bryan Cranston, otherwise known as, “the idiot dad from Malcolm in the middle? Are you serious?” or by his nickname, “Really? Are you sure you’re not kidding?”. But it is the acting from Bryan Cranston that takes Breaking Bad from just another good TV show and puts it into the upper echelon of great shows. His wonderful emoting makes you root for him, admire him, or even loathe him, sometimes all in the same scene! It’s his fantastic wkiller instinct with the dialogues that transforms kinda corny lines like “Say my name.”, “I won.” or “I am the one who knocks.” into instant badassisms and has won him three Emmys.
The crystal (pardon the pun) clarity with which Breaking Bad portrays the human condition, you can't help but see people you know in the characters, as many in the Pakistani circle of fame would be right at home on the show. Imran Khan could be Hank. Our dear ol' president could be Saul Goodman. Aamir Liaquat could be Tuco. Shahid Masood could be Wendy. And Sohail Tanvir could be a dead drug addict in the background in one scene.
Breaking Bad has arguably, over the course of its run, become AMC's biggest hit with the last episode of the current season being watched by 2.98 million viewers, which in laymen's terms, means lots and lots and lots and lots of people. So give in to the intrigue and award this gloomy, twisting, turning meth-infested saga a try. Watch the most unique character on television today go from zero to hero to "That's questionable. Eh, whatever." to "What are you doing, Walt? Don't do it, Walt!" to "HE HAS NO SOUL!". You'll be hooked on it like nothing else you've ever seen and finishing enitre seasons in a matter of days. But that's okay. Because Breaking Bad is awesome. And so is the Pakistani cricket team.
Umar Ahmed often describes his life as Johnny Bravo meets obesity meets loneliness. When in company, He’s fond of pretending that he gives a crap about cricket, because every second spent by people talking about cricket is a second not spent by people making fun of his weight. He likes to ruin other people’s knock-knock jokes by loudly exclaiming, “I AM THE ONE WHO KNOCKS!”. He also has a secret, and he's not telling.
Winning the award comes with an attractive something-something that I'm not at liberty to reveal right now, and of course, a lifetime supply of bragging rights and leverage for me in every argument at the office that I'm involved in. Sadly, the rumors that the winners would get a mountain bike were just that, rumors. In other unrelated news, I continue my search for a buyer for a pink helmet with a custom paint-job of a flaming skull.
More news from this week that I read off the internet ten minutes before I started writing this so that I could fill up half the post without getting to the topic of my post includes Hina Rabbani Khar denying the allegations of her being romantically involved with Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, which is surprising only to those who are unfortunate enough to have the last name Zardari. Bilawal was quick to respond by saying, “Democracy is the best revenge.” Yeah, I think he should learn some new talking points now.
Elsewhere, the Pakistan cricket team continued their infamous start-stop campaigns in world tournaments by getting an inspired win over the South Africans and then following it up by easily falling prey to the Indians, then beating the Australians (!!!) by a good margin in the ICC World Twenty20 2012 to qualify for the semi finals. The bipolarity in the cricketing form of the Pakistani team is matched only by the bipolarity of their fans who go from “Hamain tum say pyar hai!” to “Shahid bhai, pepsi chorain, petrol piyain aur wafat paa jayain.” in a matter of hours without the slightest trace of irony. Which is kind of like how people have reacted to the character of Walter White over the course of the TV show which coincidentally IS the topic of my post. Not that there’s anything common between Walter White and Shahid Afridi. For one thing, Walter White is in a better cricketing form than Afridi.
In case you haven’t guessed it by now, I’m here today to yap about the much acclaimed TV show, the most recent season of which I completed just two days ago, er legally, by Skyping with a friend who was watching it on Hulu on another computer, Breaking Bad. Now, for those of you who’ve never heard of Breaking Bad because you’re too busy with your jobs and your friends and your academic career and having a life, I only have this to say:“Say my name!”. This, of course, doesn’t make sense to you but it’s a line from the show and I’ve wanted to use it ever since I first heard it six hours ago.
Anyways, Breaking Bad is a universally praised TV show that currently airs on the AMC Network (I think now would be the time where I come out and state that I’m in no way affiliated with, connected to or employed by AMC, buy CM Punk merchandise!) about world's favorite topics, Drugs, and is the brain child of the badassery inducing mind of one Vince Gilligan. But it’s just a TV show the same way Twilight is literature, barely.
Think “The Wire”, but on a more personal level, now think of some other crime show because you’ve probably never seen The Wire. Think The Sopranos meets Weeds, but instead of being in on it, Tony’s family is clueless of what Tony does and remains so for five whole seasons. And in a matter of mere 40-some episodes, you don’t even recognize the character you started watching.
That's because back when Vince Gilligan was a writer for the X-Files, he always thought about the fact that characters on TV shows are so stagnant, static and stationery in their evolution, that it allows said shows to run for eternity, prime examples being the CSI franchise, the Simpsons and politics in Pakistan. In other words, s**t doesn’t change and everyone remains the same. So Vince decided to come up with the radical new concept of creating a show around a protagonist who would over the course of the show turn into an antagonist, the hero becoming the villain, or as Gilligan himself put it, Mr. Chips becoming Scarface. Thus, Breaking Bad was born. Now before you start screaming, “Bull! Christopher Nolan did it first! I believe in Harvey Dent!”, don’t forget to consider that 'Bad came out before The Dark Knight and Vince had a lot more time to play with than just two hours and forty minutes and thus was able to make the transformation a lot more organic and a lot more subtle. Also, Anna Gunn > Maggie Gyllenhall, but I digress.
Breaking Bad treats life the way it really is, in that no one is just a good or bad guy. It’s a lot more shades of gray (*insert 50 shades joke*), do you applaud a person diagnosed with cancer who decides to take a drastic step in seemingly the last year of his life to ensure the future of his family after his death or do you condemn him because the step he takes is becoming a drug manufacturer? Conundrums!
It also has a superb writing team which seemingly has a knack for never going for the obvious thing. Commercial break coming up? How about we don’t go to it with a cliffhanger. Everyone oversaturated with crappy twist endings? How about straight-forward story telling that gives you a setup and a payoff, every time, all the time, without fail. It’s like the anti-LOST. And this is the terrain Breaking Bad plays in, in every episode, every season. Nobody is a throw-away character. Everything connects. Nothing is unexplained or left for the viewer's imagination. There are no loose ends. Nothing drags.
And lest I forget, it has the magnificent acting of one Bryan Cranston, otherwise known as, “the idiot dad from Malcolm in the middle? Are you serious?” or by his nickname, “Really? Are you sure you’re not kidding?”. But it is the acting from Bryan Cranston that takes Breaking Bad from just another good TV show and puts it into the upper echelon of great shows. His wonderful emoting makes you root for him, admire him, or even loathe him, sometimes all in the same scene! It’s his fantastic wkiller instinct with the dialogues that transforms kinda corny lines like “Say my name.”, “I won.” or “I am the one who knocks.” into instant badassisms and has won him three Emmys.
The crystal (pardon the pun) clarity with which Breaking Bad portrays the human condition, you can't help but see people you know in the characters, as many in the Pakistani circle of fame would be right at home on the show. Imran Khan could be Hank. Our dear ol' president could be Saul Goodman. Aamir Liaquat could be Tuco. Shahid Masood could be Wendy. And Sohail Tanvir could be a dead drug addict in the background in one scene.
Breaking Bad has arguably, over the course of its run, become AMC's biggest hit with the last episode of the current season being watched by 2.98 million viewers, which in laymen's terms, means lots and lots and lots and lots of people. So give in to the intrigue and award this gloomy, twisting, turning meth-infested saga a try. Watch the most unique character on television today go from zero to hero to "That's questionable. Eh, whatever." to "What are you doing, Walt? Don't do it, Walt!" to "HE HAS NO SOUL!". You'll be hooked on it like nothing else you've ever seen and finishing enitre seasons in a matter of days. But that's okay. Because Breaking Bad is awesome. And so is the Pakistani cricket team.
Umar Ahmed often describes his life as Johnny Bravo meets obesity meets loneliness. When in company, He’s fond of pretending that he gives a crap about cricket, because every second spent by people talking about cricket is a second not spent by people making fun of his weight. He likes to ruin other people’s knock-knock jokes by loudly exclaiming, “I AM THE ONE WHO KNOCKS!”. He also has a secret, and he's not telling.
