Grid Effect

Few notes before we get to the links. First off, we’re not going to be posting twice today like we suggested yesterday. For whatever reason, it alluded us that this is 4th of July weekend and we have a myriad of friends and family in town. So, consider this our last post until the sixth.

Secondly, we finished watching Breaking Bad’s strike shortened first season last night and holy shit, what an unbelievable series thus far. We’ve expressed our adulation for it earlier this week, but Bryan Cranston has somehow improved in the role and is deserving of any accolades that come his way. This is just my opinion but he trumps Jon Hamm for alpha-male of AMC. I’ve always lauded Hamm’s performance, but never really thought he was doing anything we haven’t seen before. I can’t say the same for Cranston, whose demonstrating as much range as any actor on television. I’ve even come around on Aaron Paul, who we weren’t too fond of in the first three episodes but has come into his own, and the rapport between him and Cranston is approaching that of Wendell Pierce and Dominic West on The Wire.

You can tell the series was adversly effected by the writer’s strike, as things we’re going at a snail’s pace for the first four episodes and just accelerated in the last two. We managed to go from Walter opting out of chemo and the drug game, to selling pounds of meth and accepting treatment. There haven’t been any significant leaps of faith except for maybe Pinkman’s enlightenment into the finer points of cooking, but that is a minor squabble. After just seven episodes, we’re ready to put this one on the mantle with Mad Men. The writing, the pacing, the stories and side characters and subtle humor and poignant dramatic moments all are executed impeccably.

It’s a damn shame we’ve been recapping Weeds instead of this, but we’ve come to realize we have a difficult time watching two different drama series’ back-to-back and this followed The Wire episodes, “Not For Attribution”. Naturally, it’s AMC’s fault for premiering their groundbreaking new series while the best drama of all time that regularly attracted less than one million viewers was in its final season. As long as someone else is being blamed for this travesty that isn’t me, that’s how I role.

Onto the links.

We've posted this before, but it warrants the extra attention.

Kristen Bell says she doubts that a Veronica Mars film will ever be made. I don’t really care. I’m not even sure I know what a Veronica Mars is. It could be a candy bar for all I know, but it presents the very appealing option of posting this picture off to the left, and that’s an opportunity we simply couldn’t pass up. Not to say she isn’t a good actress or that we should count Veronica Mars against her, but let’s be honest, no one is going to complain about that picture, either.

In other impossibly attractive women news, for all who like Sloane on Entourage: she’s going to be featured a lot more than she has been the past couple seasons. This is a great development for the eye candy quotient, as it’s been waning in the past couple years. But the show has been accused a number of times for rehashing the same material over and over and over again (a charge I can’t really refute, but I think it’s cyclical like just about everything else on television). Eh, this upcoming season is the one that could really tip the scales on our perennial waffling with this series, we might have to quit apologizing for it.

It’s official, Neil Patrick Harris is the host of the 2009 Emmys. Is it customary for a potential nominee to double as a host for an awards show? I hate to respond to a question with a question, but I believe the correct answer is, “who cares?” I’m fine with the choice even though I’m not completely on board with his cult following. They could have and certainly have done a lot worse.

And finally, upon the news that Al Franken has finally won the senate seat in Minnesota, the question arises of who is going to play him on SNL? Have we had a good impression on SNL since Darrell Hammond left (question: Has Darrell Hammond left SNL?). That show isn’t exactly stacked with Mike Miejers’ and Phil Hartman’s these days. In that respect I guess it really doesn’t matter. I’m sure it will be hilarious when someone comes onto stage and begins screaming insanely as their Franken impression.

Alright, that’s it for the week. Have a festive and enjoyable fourth, we’ll be back on Monday with a Hung recap and we’ll finally get to those nightly previews.