Breaking Bad: Critical Essays on the Contexts, Politics, Style, and Reception of the Television SeriesDavid P. Pierson Breaking Bad: Critical Essays on the Contexts, Politics, Style, and Reception of the Television Series, edited by David P. Pierson, explores the contexts, politics, and style of AMC's original series Breaking Bad. The book's first section locates and addresses the series from several contemporary social contexts, including neo-liberalism, its discourses and policies, the cultural obsession with the economy of time and its manipulation, and the epistemological principles and assumptions of Walter White's criminal alias Heisenberg. Section two investigates how the series characterizes and intersects with current cultural politics, such as male angst and the re-emergence of hegemonic masculinity, the complex portrayal of Latinos, and the depiction of physical and mental impairment and disability. The final section takes a close look at the series' distinctive visual, aural, and narrative stylistics. Under examination are Breaking Bad's unique visual style whereby image dominates sound, the distinct role and use of beginning teaser segments to disorient and enlighten audiences, the representation of geographic space and place, the position of narrative songs to complicate viewer identification, and the integral part that emotions play as a form of dramatic action in the series. |
Contents
1 | |
13 | |
The Politics of Breaking Bad | 71 |
The Style and Reception of Breaking Bad | 119 |
Main Cast Production History and Episode Guide | 209 |
About the Contributors | 217 |
Index | 221 |
Other editions - View all
Breaking Bad: Critical Essays on the Contexts, Politics, Style, and ... David P. Pierson,David Pierson No preview available - 2015 |
Breaking Bad: Critical Essays on the Contexts, Politics, Style, and ... David P. Pierson,David Pierson No preview available - 2014 |
Common terms and phrases
actions addiction aesthetic audience Bad’s become begins body Breaking Bad Bryan Cranston camera cancer cartels characters Christopher Cousins cinema close-up cold open contemporary cook create crime criminal culture David death desert Director disability drug dealer edited emotional feel film flash-forward flashback Gale Hank Heisenberg human identification illegal Jesse’s kill Krazy-8 Krysten Ritter Latino living Mad Men masculinity meaning Media meth methamphetamine Mexican Mexico mise en scène moral narcocorrido narrative Negro y Azul neoliberal one’s physical pilot episode present produce programming provides reality role Salamanca Salamanca cousins Sam Catlin Santa Muerte scene Schrader season five season three second-degree style sense sequence shot Skyler social song space strategy Superlab teaser tells tion Tuco TV series U.S.-Mexico border viewer Vince Gilligan visual Walt and Jesse Walt's Walt’s Walter Jr Walter White Writer York