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. |
From inside the book
Results 1-5 of 53
Page 1
... Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul) escaping the crime scene. Later that same day, he approaches Jesse offering to either become his partner or to he will turn him in. Working in a used Winnebago converted to a mobile lab, Walt cooks a batch of ...
... Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul) escaping the crime scene. Later that same day, he approaches Jesse offering to either become his partner or to he will turn him in. Working in a used Winnebago converted to a mobile lab, Walt cooks a batch of ...
Page 8
... Walt, facing his own mortality is a prison sentence wherein part of the punishment is recognizing time spent and ... Jesse's girlfriend die or to poison a child. Walt's alias “Heisenberg” provides an interpretive frame for all of Walt's ...
... Walt, facing his own mortality is a prison sentence wherein part of the punishment is recognizing time spent and ... Jesse's girlfriend die or to poison a child. Walt's alias “Heisenberg” provides an interpretive frame for all of Walt's ...
Page 10
... Walt and Jesse. Whereas in seasons three through four, a red basement filled with stainless steel, industrial equipment becomes the central site of narrative and character contention. Guffey shows that the series' producers tap into the ...
... Walt and Jesse. Whereas in seasons three through four, a red basement filled with stainless steel, industrial equipment becomes the central site of narrative and character contention. Guffey shows that the series' producers tap into the ...
Page 11
... Walt, in the pilot episode, explains to his students his views about chemistry as the study of change involving complex processes of growth, decay, and ... Walter and Jesse's cooking sessions, or as major as an air traffic Introduction 11.
... Walt, in the pilot episode, explains to his students his views about chemistry as the study of change involving complex processes of growth, decay, and ... Walter and Jesse's cooking sessions, or as major as an air traffic Introduction 11.
Page 15
... Walt and Jesse are faced with the gruesome tasks of disposing of a dead body and dispatching a drug dealer who tried to kill them. Walt decides that the best way to get rid of the body is to dissolve it in an acid bath. Jesse, however ...
... Walt and Jesse are faced with the gruesome tasks of disposing of a dead body and dispatching a drug dealer who tried to kill them. Walt decides that the best way to get rid of the body is to dissolve it in an acid bath. Jesse, however ...
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