AMC's The Killing

They're showing Episode 1 and 2 of Breaking Bad on Wednesday. I'm pretty pumped that I don't have to try to jump in a few seasons late.

 

Nice. They must be re-running all of them again. It's definitely become one of my favorite shows.

 

I thought her new sidekick, the young guy, was pretty good, too. Creepy. Can't tell if he's good or bad yet. But definitely an intriguing character.

 

Did they do just 12-episode seasons of Breaking Bad?

 

Mizzou, been awhile since I watched, but it's tremendous. Sez here on my DVDs that season 1 is seven episodes and season 2 is 13. I bought both sets at once and watched it all in about three nights. Very addictive.

 

Hope you watched season 3 as well, cause season 4 starts this summer.

 

Wow, only seven episodes for Season 1? That's usually a sign that AMC was very unsure of it and wanted to see how people responded to it before giving it a full season (if 12-13 episodes is really a full season, but I guess it is on cable) order.

 

I'm a Mad Men guy, but I'm not sure I don't like Breaking Bad just as much (more?), and I got hooked completely incidentally and almost against my will. So many cool things in that show.

Without giving too much away, the scene where his brother-in-law, the DEA agent, is sitting in the car in the parking lot and gets the phone call that says he has a minute to ... well, that's all I'll say, but that was the most tense and nerve-wracked I've ever been watching any TV show, ever.

It sounds weird, but that's why I don't like investing in these shows -- it takes away from other things -- but Breaking Bad, that first Sunday it runs in July, I'll be right there.

 

I was squirming in my recliner like a five-year old in church during an extra-long sermon.

 

Couldn't agree more. The whole "this-is-my-last-case" thing has been done to death. The first half hour to 45 mins struck me as very derivative of "Seven." The rain; the new guy moving into the office before she moved out; the new guy wanting to be transferred and being treated like a newbie ("I know how to work a scene"); the new guy being anxious to just take over the case himself ("it's not your case anymore, Linden"); the superior not allowing the older detective to beg off the case; hell, even Linden shaking the flashlight at the first "crime scene" — it was all right out of Seven's playbook.

There seem to be several other sources of "inspiration" (someone mentioned "Mystic River") as well.

That all said, even though nothing much happened in the first 45 minutes, they did develop the characters. The last 15 minutes of the first hour are where they really hooked me. Even though I don't think we've seen anything groundbreaking, the performances were all so strong that I'll be tuning in.

 

Interesting, then, that Seven was the movie they showed as the lead-in to the premiere of the show.

 

Does AMC show censored versions of the movies it shows? I know they have commercials.

It's funny. During the whole Mad Men craze, we did not get AMC. Since then, we've downgraded our cable and now we get it.

I've seen the first two seasons of Mad Men, but I am way behind. I'm hoping they start showing reruns soon. I'm pretty surprised they don't show it all the time like USA and TNT do with their series.