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Articles on Breaking Bad

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Photos of some of the 43 Mexican college students who disappeared in 2014 and are feared to have been massacred by gang members and police. Screen depictions of Mexico’s drug trade mostly ignore their human cost. Jorge Lopez/Reuters

Why glamorising narco culture, on screen and in Sydney’s pop-up shop, is wrong

Los Pollos Hermanos is a chicken shop run by a drug lord in the TV series Better Call Saul. A pop-up version opens in Sydney today - and both ignore the savage reality of Mexico’s drug wars.
Christina Hendricks with the Mad Men costume sketches being archived by the Smithsonian. But academics were interested in television long before Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Mad Men. Kevin Lamarque/Reuters

Mad Men, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and the ‘Golden Age’ of television

Before Buffy The Vampire Slayer intrigued academics, shows like I Love Lucy dominated the cultural conversation. This is worth remembering, because Mad Men and The Wire didn’t emerge from nowhere.
Writer Vince Gilligan has much to teach us about the human animal and about life. Photo Credit:Ben Leuner/AMC

Three reasons Better Call Saul works: a scriptwriter’s perspective

Many successful shows spawn sequels. In Better Call Saul, writer Vince Gilligan has created a prequel to his phenomenally successful series Breaking Bad. And it works. So how has he done it?
Go on … Idhren

In defence of the box set binge

In David Foster Wallace’s epic Infinite Jest, a major conceit is a film so good it reduces any and all who see it into a quivering pulp, physically unable to stop watching, wasting away into utter uselessness…
Lack of British chemistry. sally_monster

Why meth hasn’t broken bad in the UK

The final episode of the award-winning American TV show Breaking Bad aired last night. Set against the backdrop of illicit crystal methamphetamine production, the series highlights the huge problem parts…
What is it that we admired? bj_hale

Why the time was right for Breaking Bad guy Walter White

WARNING: SPOILERS BELOW Walter White came to us just when we needed him. Breaking Bad offered a world reeling from the effects of lengthy recession some glimmer of hope, but more importantly it now offers…
Walt and Jesse prepare for their red wedding in the final episode. deviantART

Twitter app stops you Breaking Bad news to good people

WARNING: This article contains a spoiler. Don’t worry though, it’s not what happens in the final episode of Breaking Bad. Even academics don’t get early access. This week, Netflix has created a handy service…
Crystal meth forms the basis of fictional TV show Breaking Bad, but its effects are very real. YVRBCbro

Breaking Bad and crystal meth – a chemical reaction

Crystal meth has at least two faces, in common with those people unfortunate enough to succumb to its charms, as these horrific before-and-after pics show. I’d like to look at the drug chemically, to shine…
TV gives even the most disconnected and apathetic of us a shared language, a shared experience. AAP Image/HBO

Big TV and our small screen vernacular

Slobodan Milosevic went to trial. Bali got bombed. Dudley Moore died and right up there with the memorable moments of 2002 was that 2.8 million Australians sat down and watched The National IQ Test. Because…

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