Mostrando entradas con la etiqueta TV. Mostrar todas las entradas
Mostrando entradas con la etiqueta TV. Mostrar todas las entradas

domingo, 6 de octubre de 2013

Breaking Bad: What was Walter's final lesson?

Breaking bad ended a week ago, so I decided to write an analysis of this meaningful series, now that is still fresh in my mind.



First of all, I have to say that Breaking Bad it's the best television series that I have ever watched in terms of quality and pacing. By that I mean that it has no downfalls, there are no low seasons, it's impossible to find a boring episode, impossible to detect a bad or useless character, this series is an achievement of storytelling and dramatic pacing. It's a rare phenomenon to find a series in which everything just fits perfectly at the perfect moment in an over all time-lapse of 5 seasons. There is no other series for me that has done this, not even The Sopranos were able to pull this off. (the first part of the six season was definitively a downer.)
In Breaking Bad nothing like this ever happened, all that was written had a purpose and all the pieces fell at the right moment.
But leaving all of those factors behind, let's analyze Breaking Bad like the great modern literary work that it is. Let's analyze this series as people analyze The Great Gatsby or Crime and Punishment. Breaking Bad deserves this.
And of course, we have to ask ourselves, what is the main theme of Breaking Bad? What was its lesson? What did this show taught us?

Crime is bad, actions have consequences, crime is addictive, power corrupts people, crime can destroy your family.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I thought of them too, but after re-watching the pilot episode I realized none of these themes are the crucial message this story wanted to transmit.
Of course, the themes I mentioned above are present throughout the whole series, but they are just the consequences of the real deal.
In my opinion, the central theme of Breaking Bad is: The terrible damage that a life of unfulfillment can do.
First, let me start with the fact that Walter was a genius. Brilliant Mind type of genius or as Hank puts it "A freaking brainiac". A man who was destined to be the leader of an important scientific revolution or the head of a giant technological company. But, that never happened. He was an ambitious genius who never had a chance to shine. Betrayed by his friends and blinded by conformity, he threw away a life full of potential to become the man we meet at the first episode.

This theme of numbness that we see in the pilot episode it's so important because that's exactly what happens to many people. A lot of us are just blinded with conformity and carried away by time that when we realize, half of our life has passed and we haven't accomplish anything that we desired when we were younger. The world and the passing of time just made us numb, and now you just have to coupe with this life you have right now, which is also the rest of it.
At the beginning of the series, Walt (our genius) was a prisoner of this numbness in which many of us are, but when he got his cancer diagnosis everything changed for him.
Receiving his cancer diagnosis (which lead him becoming a criminal) was the moment in which the real Walt, that ambitious mastermind, awoke from this numbness. You can clearly see this in the Pilot episode.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="437"] "I am awake"[/caption]

The cancer diagnosis was just the perfect justification to turn his life around and escape this horrible and conformist present he now lived in.
Walter never (and when I say never it's NEVER) needed to cook crystal meth to begin with.
He had his pals (or not so pals) of Gray Matter to back up his treatment, but he decided to reject them. Partly because of pride but also because that option wouldn't help him escape this horrible unfulfilled life he now lived in.
Initially, cooking meth was just a "badass" way to prove to himself that he was able to handle this situation. When he got more involved in the drug underworld of Alburquerque as Heisenberg, he realized that he was a desired and respected entity there. Finally someone recognized his abilities and the criminal world was the place where he received that absent fulfillment. The criminal world was the perfect place to build his empire.
But of course, this was the worst possible way in which someone could "awoke". This awakening had brutal and irredeemable consequences for himself, his family and a lot of other people by the end of the series.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="445"] He was Ozymandias king of kings. Now nothing besides remains.[/caption]

But I believe this was the great lesson that Heisenberg had to taught us at the end. This story is not just about an unfulfilled genius. The overall message of this story could apply to any other human being:
Wake up, take control of your life right now, do what you want to do, find fulfillment, before it's too late, before you're old and trapped in a life style in which you can't escape, in which escaping means to hurt someone else, before you have to do what Walter did, before the last two options that you have left are: living whatever is left of this unfulfilled life or breaking bad.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="384"] Learn from this man, cause this man is a story.[/caption]

Thanks for reading.

lunes, 30 de julio de 2012

Nolan's Bane: How to NOT Make a Villain

Ok, so finally I have watched "The Dark Knight Rises" and Oh BOY!...



...I really don't know what to think about this film.

Is not by any means a perfect film as a lot of people expected, I don't know yet if I could call it a Great film or a Good film.

But there are certain issues that really bothered me about this final part of the Nolan trilogy. And I'm not going to complain about the logistics, scientific facts or physics of the movie, like:

How Does Bruce Wayne Get Back to Gotham?

Why Does a Prison Exist Where People Can Possibly Climb To Freedom? 

The Unrealistic way that the bomb exploded or the unrealistic way that the bomb functioned.

because I know that in that territory the film is pretty flawed.

If you want to see more technical and logic problems of the film, here you go.

But you know, almost all action films have these type of flaws, specially superhero movies. But if you think about it; there are a lot of great films with a lot of technical and unrealistic flaws and they are still great films indeed, and I guess there are flaws that not even the almighty Nolan could surpass.

But anyway, as a lot of wise people said "Just ignore the technical stuff and enjoy the story", and that's what I always do, but still there are serious factors about the story that annoyed me.

There are 3 major factors about the story that simply made me consider this film the weakest of the trilogy.

1.- The obsession to make Batman a Messianic martyr of the people. Instead of the dark, underground, mysterious and symbolic vigilante figure that he really is.

2.- I feel that the film doesn't know what it wants to do or in what it wants to become, TDKR stars mainly as a noir film but eventually right in the middle of the film, it wants to become a dystopian film all of a sudden, with really poor results, that’s because the overall dystopian Gotham is not developed at all. We don’t even see the true nature of this environment within the people of Gotham, we just see cops trap inside a tunnel, bad guys with tanks in the streets and that’s it. There’s no development in the environment, you don’t really see the hell and chaos you should see. If you want to make this kind of environment effective you need to give it a lot of exposure and development. That’s why I think it would had been so much nicer and badass to start the film already in this dystopian state, develop it throughout the whole film and explain what happened with flashbacks. Instead of building this forced dystopia that nobody knew how it really worked and we only get to see until the third act.

And third and most important, the villain: Bane.



I have to admit that the Bane of TDKR is probably the most disappointing villain of the last couple of years. And here's the reason why: Trough out the hole bloody film we hear about Bane, all the stuff that he has done, all the stuff that he is doing, all the things that he has planned, they build the character as a truly bad ass brutal mastermind and that's perfect, that's exactly what they have to do, specially with his background.

I mean, uuuuh he's Bane, he escaped from a prison climbing a brutal enormous cylindrical wall and he has been the only to reach the top, and he did this while he was just a little kid.

uuuuh he's Bane, his the son of Ra's Al Ghul.

uuuuh he's Bane, he has an eternal vendetta against Batman.

uuuuh he's Bane, he's the leader of the League of Shadows.

uuuuh he's Bane, he planned all this mayhem.

They built this character as probably the greatest villain of Batman ever and suddenly, is like... uh remember all the things that we  said about this guy... well... it wasn't him... yes... yes that's right it was that new chick over there... yeah the one who is suddenly so important in the third act of the story and we pretty much ignored her throughout the whole film giving her almost no proper character development... yes... she's the one... she did all that.... uh, what did Bane did then?... uh... well, he... he... helped her.

And then BOOOM , this great and epic villain that they were able to form in this entire film is dead by a single motorcycle gun shoot, and he dies in both a physical and spiritual way. When a villain dies at least he still lives in a spiritual way when you remember all the things that he did, but we cannot do that with Bane, because he wasn't the true mastermind behind all of this, he wasn't that epic villain that you thought he was, he was basically just a goon, the thing that you least expected from him.

Is not the first time Nolan does this, he did it in Batman Begins with Ra's Al Ghul, but at least he did in a reverted form you know: when you have a really cool villain, but you think he's just a goon of someone else but actually it turns out that he's the actual leader and it's even more badass than you thought, that way really works, Ben from LOST is a living example. But don't do it the other way around.

That was the thing that just killed the character for me and a big part of the film, I know that I'm complaining a lot with this but in a superhero film, the villain is the most important character in the story. And I just hate when they fool you with the identity of the true villain. I mean that's ok in a Mystery, Thriller or Noir story, but not in an epic action superhero film, specially since you have promoted that villain in the marketing of your movie like crazy!!!

jueves, 30 de junio de 2011

Generation Y : What's the Deal With Us?

So, I don't know what's the deal with us Generation Y, we are really some strange fuckers, I mean yea we are cool we have technology we know how to use this gigantic web of communication, but that's pretty much it, our only value, our only characteristic is in a really superficial way, we have the greatest communication tool ever develop by mankind, and we use it to check our status on Facebook. Really that's all we do.



Just check this out:

The Silent Generation, well they were really ignorant but they survive a lot of stuff and they went through a lot, they were loyal and they stick to their principals, that could be annoying for some people, but for me is admirable.

[caption id="attachment_125" align="alignnone" width="236"] Boy, they look like they're having fun[/caption]

Baby Boomers, they just live some of the greatest revolutions of modern mankind, had the greatest music ever, watched the man land on the moon (okay I don't wanna get in any controversy here, whether we did or we did not land on the moon that day I personally don't care, I just figure that it must had been really cool and exciting watching that on Tv with your friends and family... I guess is better than watching two giants buildings been completely destroyed). Most of the Baby Boomers we know are our parents, my parents are like really responsable and conservative now, but they seem to had a real blast when they were young back in the day.

[caption id="attachment_126" align="alignnone" width="300"] BOY, THEY LOOK LIKE THEY'RE HAVING FUN[/caption]

Then it came Generation X, you know, they were cool, or at least they tried to, naaaaaah just kidding, yes they were really cool and very independent, they really didn't care about world ideals or anything, they just live for themselves  and the ones close to them, and that's really admirable to, I wish I could do that, free and independent.

[caption id="attachment_127" align="alignnone" width="300"] Okay, you all know that is impossible to talk about Gen X without mentioning Friends so here it is[/caption]

So then we, Generation Y appeared, and we are... I don't know, by my experience I don't know how to define our attitudes, I guess we are just... regular whinning teenagers with technology, and that's pretty much it.

[caption id="attachment_128" align="alignnone" width="300"] Okay, you all know that is impossible to talk about Gen Y without mentioning Facebook so here it is, man... this is truly the most representative thing that I could find about us[/caption]

I guess we try to be like Gen X, we try to be like free and independent but we fail miserably. I don't know anybody from 20 to 25 who lives alone and by himself, everybody still lives with their parents, and I don't know anybody from that same age who works in a job that he got by himself alone without any help from his parents or another adult person. I really didn't knew how to stereotypically define us, so I look up on the internet to see how was our stereotype or what is expected from us.

And oh boy, did I find our stereotype, here it is:

[caption id="attachment_120" align="alignnone" width="228"] tataaaaaaa...... wait a minute, WHAT THE HELL?[/caption]

Leaders?

Yes, that's how they see us, I'm not kidding, future young Messiah's of the world, I was really amazed by the overwhelming optimism that society has on us, we are like this new wave of idealistic social revolution for them. I was really amazed by that because I really didn't expect it. I thought than when I type the words Generation Y on Google, it was just going to appear what good 'ol Spider Jerusalem describes as the New Scum.

[caption id="attachment_123" align="alignnone" width="194"] "These are the new streets of this city, where the New Scum try to live. You and me"[/caption]

But no, we are like the complete opposite of that, I just can't believe it. They expect that we will bring this new ideal to the world, that we will create the definitive ideal society that will change everything.  Entrepeneur fuckers that will lead the way.







I don't know, I'm really skeptical about this, I mean of course technology, business, media communications and all that changes trough out the years, but the world is pretty much the same, not because you use more technology than you grandfather it means that you are smarter or better than him, its stupid, Technology doesn't change people's attitudes, it just changes a few aspects of how they live and that's all.

Maybe that idealistic revolution will happen, it's really probable, but I don't see it happening right now, it will take years for that to happen.

I mean, all my friends and all the people who I know are my age, they don't care about anything of that, they just want to live their lives and that's it, pretty much like Gen X, and you are telling me that we will bring this absolute new ideal that will change future generations... You know I really wanna think that but I just don't see it happening.

And what about Generation Z

[caption id="attachment_124" align="alignnone" width="300"] Well let's see, 5 year olds already hook up with laptops... man that's some sad shit[/caption]

I'm sorry if I sound to pessimistic here, but what I'm really trying to say is that please don't be disappointed at the end of the day when it turns out that we really didn't do anything significant in our time.

But you must to admit, WE HAD THE GREATEST NICKELODEON EVAAAAAA





martes, 8 de marzo de 2011

Presunto Culpable: Hasta para quitar una pelicula el gobierno esta bien pendejo

"Chingarnos al sistema" a como me caga tanto esa frase, no por el mensaje que contiene, si no por las personas que la usan, personas que repentinamente se la quieren dar de "Revolucionarios Romanticistas" en busca de un pais mejor, cuando en realidad solo siguen a los demas y repiten frases que otro cabron dijo, exactamente como lo hacen las personas que existen en ese dichoso sistema que tanto odian. Pero bien, antes de todo analizemos bien la frase, chingarnos al sistema que nos quiere dar a entender esto? derrocar un sistema fallido o cambiarlo?

Para algunas personas estas dos opciones no tendran diferencia alguna, pero hay un mar de diferencias. Para los corderos revolucionarios "Chingarse al Sistema" implica levantarse en una oposicion (violenta probablemente) en contra del Sistema Gubernamental esperando derrocarlo e impartir uno nuevo y mejor. Esto puede escucharse muy guerrero y epico pero ¿funcionara?, Levantamos una revolucion contra los españoles, levantamos una revolucion contra los franceses, levantamos una revlolucion contra los americanos, levantamos una revolucion contra nosostros mismos y estas han funcionado?. Pues no mucho, no importa cuanta gente matemos, cuanta gente muera, este metodo simplemente sigue dandonos los mismos resultados, seguimos siendo oprimidos, controlados, juzgados y condicionados bajo un sistema.

¿Saben Por Que?

Por que esa es la tarea de un sistema, un sistema se hace cargo que todo este controlado y en orden, que todos sigan al que tengan que seguir, que informacion compremetedora o "peligorsa" nunca salga a la luz, que compres lo que el pais necesite que compres. Esto se puede escuchar muy Orwelliano pero es la verdad, y otra cosa, el sistema no puede ser chingado, no puede ser derrocado, por que mientras exista una sociedad y una economia, un sistema siempre existira, el precio de la civilizacion es una pequeña gran porcion de tu individualidad.

Ahora ya aprendimos que un sistema siempre va exisitir y siempre tratara de controlarlo todo, pero la verdadera pregunta es: ¿Que tan culeras son las personas que ejecutan el sistema?



"Culpable hasta que se demuestre su inocencia" ... bastante culeras.

Presunto Culpable es un documental que narra el procesamiento judicial de Antonio Zuñiga al haber sido acusado de homicido y a pesar de tener todas las pruebas y evidencias logicas a su favor para comprobar su obvia inocencia, la corte falla en su contra y es sentenciado a 20 años en prision.

Hablando filmicamente el documental tiene una excelente calidad y una edicion casi perfecta, pero eso lo hare de un lado.  A pesar de ser un documental excelente es un perfecto vinocular que nos ayuda a ver las lamentables y horribles fallas del Sistema Judicial Mexicano,  y los efectos que causan en un individuo, una familia e inevitablemente en una sociedad.

Y todo esto lo podemos ver en la comodidad de un Cine.

Son sorprendentes los datos y estadisticas que se nos presentan cuando vemos el documental. Es inevitable que el publico generen odio, enojo y verguenza pero creo que lanzan estos sentimientos hacia algo equivocado: "las leyes". Mientras veia el documental, en una parte una familiar de Antonio dice: "¿Por que las leyes no las hacen bien?" a lo que mi hermano dijo: "Las leyes estan bien hechas, son los jueces los que son unos pendejos" y esto es completamente verdad. No odien a las leyes, las leyes de la Constitucion de Mexico son casi perfectas, no me creen, leanla, lean la constitucion de 1917 y se daran cuenta de que son los articulos, garantias y leyes mejor diseñadas que veran en su vida. Las personas que la aplican son una historia completamente diferente.

Pero es hasta ironico que la ineptitud de los jueces, policias y encargados de los sistemas judiciales en realidad no son nada mas que el reflejo de nuestra misma sociedad y de nuestras mismas actitudes, nosotros nos castigamos a nosotros mismo por las ineptitudes, pereza e ingnorancia a las que nosotros nos hemos comformado. Una horrible entidad que se auto-castiga a si misma por lo horrible que es, algo bastante hermoso.

Pero la ineptitud no se detiene ahi.

El dia de ayer, el documental fue removido de las salas de cine de la nacion, ya que Victor Manuel Reyes Bravo (primo de la victima asesinada del documental) realizo una demanda judicial a esta, justificando que el argumento de la aparicion en el documental a afectado su imagen, honor y sus intereses personales.

Y si claro, quitan una pelicula mexicana que a generado una de las mejores taquillas en la historia solo por que el primo se fue a quejar, para empezar el documental no violo ninguna de sus garantias ni derechos, por que las partes en donde es grabado, es en el ministerio publico, y tu puedes grabar lo que quieras ahi por que es (como su nombre lo dice)  publico, hubiesen cometido un delito si lo hubieran documentado en su hogar pero ese no fue el caso.

Para que nos hacemos pendejos, el gobierno quito la pelicula por que afectaba seriamente la reputacion de los funcionarios del sistema judicial y ya... pero que pendejos son me cae de madre.

Hasta para detener un docuemental son unos pendejos, al remover el documental de las salas de cine, lo unico que estan haciendo es promover el documental aun mas. La gente sabra que fue removido por que expuso las verdades del sistema judical y les dolio y con mas razon la gente lo vera, MORBO, amamos el pinche morbo y ahuevo que la gente lo va a ver.  En que pinche era el gobierno cree que estamos, ¿realmente creen que por quitar una pelicula del cine ya nadie la va a ver jamas?  ¿en que años creen que estamos, 1920?

Estamos en la era de la informacion y gracias a dios, todos poseemos en nuestro alcanze la mayor y mas grande herramiento que la era de la informacion jamas pudo a ver creado:

LA PIRATERIA

Se que esto va en contra del deseo del mismisimo director del docuemental, pero la gente necesita ver eso y chinge su madre yo amo la pirateria.







Eso es todo y recuerden: El sistema no puede ser chingado, por que si lo chingamos, nos chingamos a nosotros mismos por que todos somos parte de el. Esto no es el problema, el sistema no es el problema, si no toda la sociedad que esta atras de el, esa sociedad no podemos chingarla, pero tal vez, en futuro increiblemente improvable, cambiarla.............................................. jaja oyesamamada.

Bueno eso es todo, Gracias.

miércoles, 9 de febrero de 2011

Top Gear Mexico Scandal From a Mexican Point of View

I'm from Mexico, I don't believe in patriotism, thus I am not either proud or a shame of my country. Because countries are just spaces of land and that's pretty much it. You live in this space of this land and I live in this space of this land and that's it. Regarding of the independent culture of every country, well sure every country has their own culture and traditions but that doesn't makes us a different race of people, we all are humans, we all are sometimes shitty people,  we all are sometimes good people, we all are sometimes loving people regarding what fucking nationality we are. We all are from the same race and we all pretty much live in this same space that is divided into lands.

We live in a big world, thus there are a lot of countries with a lot of cultures, and just with this is enough for stereotypes to rise.  I don't hate stereotypes because they really not worth hating. Stereotypes are just simple satirical cartoonish jokes... and that's it, they are just a work of satire, and satire is what makes this cynical world so beautiful, and if there's someone who doesn't love satire... well then those people really are missing a lot and don't appreciate this weird ugly/beautiful world for how it really is.



As we all know, Top Gear a British TV Show, made racist and stereotypical jokes about the mexican culture, and that really cause a great controversy. But what many of us (mexicans) didn't knew at the time, is that, this is the type of humor that this guys like to roll with it. They love universal satire, they had may fun of Germans, Romanians, Homosexual people, Mental people, the British Prime Minister even their own fans.  http://bit.ly/fq6Zmw

And now it was our turn. In my personal point of view about the video, i really didn't care, i though some of those jokes were funny, but i really didn't care, because let's face it, this country, our country, our piece of land is falling apart, this country is falling deeper and deeper in the shit we have created and we must accept it. 2010 was the most violent year in Mexico's history since the fucking revolution back in 1910.

So yea, my country is in a really shitty situation right now, we must accept it and at least try to do something about it, at least try to make Mexico a little safer and peaceful place. But what do we do instead: we defend our fucking pride.

OF COURSE

Inside this country are mexicans killing mexicans and not one single mexican does anything about it. Uffff but if a foreign  just makes a satirical commentary about our culture, uffff we want his fucking head. What the fuck is wrong with us? Our country is falling apart and we are concerning for what a bunch of british hosts said about the mexican culture.

But this is the interesting and funny aspect about most of us. We love to say shit about our country, we love to say shit about ourselves, we even love to stereotype ourselves. I love to say stereotypical jokes about my country and so as my friends, and so as most of the people in here.







If a Mexican throes shit to Mexico, is OK, is fine. But if a foreign says exactly what another mexican said about his culture, we most kick his sorry ass.  That is just how it is, is sad, sad but true.

Which is ironic because we love satire, we love stereotypes, we love to make fun of other people, other countries, other cultures we love racist humor.







So yea, honestly, is ridiculous seen so many people whining and whining about this kind of humor when we love it to. We must stop whining about what other people says and start caring about our own situation and forget pride, forget that shit, pride is useless such as dumb patriotism, if you really love your country, you will do anything possible to make it a better place that is real love for you country.  Instead of whining of what other people said because it hurt our pride, when we have some much more important shit to deal with.