Danny Trejo AND Ronnie from The Shield (who we did not spot last week)? AND Captain Aceveda from The Shield!?!?
Good outing for Sons of Anarchy on this basis alone. And come to think, that cool black Sheriff was on "Prison Break," which (it is often forgotten) actually was a pretty cool show - FOR A BROADCAST NETWORK - during the earliest parts of its run. You know, before they had to keep breaking out of prison after prison every year.
Actually an inherently good episode of SOA. But as we say, they still need Sopranos and Wire representation to truly step it up further.
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
Monday, September 12, 2011
Obitchba Effect - 09/12/11
Glancing at the TV monitor we see "President Obama to speak on the jobs bill any minute." And oh look, there is the presidential podium with a lot of contrived multiculturalism lined up behind it.
Well, Herd, you know what that means.....
Appears at ET 10:57. S&P is 1143
1142.
"Teachers are being laid off in droves." Well now the markets should LIKE this.
"Cops and firefighters." Well everybody likes them. But the S&P slides below 1142 so maybe it doesn't.
"Cuts taxes for businesses that hire new employees." Well no one could EVER figure out ways to "game" that shit. Bonuses for hiring people who have been unemployed for a long time? Uh, and perhaps there is a REASON someone is unemployed for a long time. Just saying.
Oooh, more tax cuts! It's like Bush with a higher melanin count! When the zombie apocalypse breaks out, Bush - instead of shooting them in the head - just would try to deal with it by proposing more tax cuts.
Ah, faux populism. Oil companies, millionaires and billionaires versus all these nice multicultural teachers and cops behind me. SO what do the markets think? Still teetering at the daily low.
Slamming Republicans now. Monkey likes this. He slams Republicans all the time. Nice to hear the ostensible "leader" of those opposed to Republicans get in the act. Market? oooh, 1143. Perhaps a favorable reaction to the unaccustomed display of cojones by the Capitulator-in-Chief.
1144 and an apparent downward tops line break.
And he's off. With S&P at what? 1143. So no conclusive verdict as to the Obitchba effect as of this writing. But certainly there is time for the White House to release some stupid shit and blast the S&P through that support level into another 2.5% down day.
Hey here is the Monkey's proposal for a jobs bill:
"My fellow Americans. Today I am going to send a bill to Congress that REPEALS the so-called Affordable Care Act of 2010. Thank you very much. God bless you and god bless the United States of America."
S&P. Up 100 points on next tick. You know, nothing to stimulate hiring by removing that de facto $250,000 penalty upon businesses for the 50th employee hired. Of course that was 250K last the Monkey read about it, which was sometime last summer. Given that the Monkey's own health premiums have doubled since then for no reason whatsoever one can only imagine what the cost to US business is for hiring that 50th employee now.
Orwellian NewThink in action: when the problem in your health care system is access (brought about by high cost) you "solve" the problem by jamming lots of stuff in that will blow up cost exponentially and just REQUIRE everyone to have ACCESS to this lovely product. Somewhat analogous to dealing with the problem of hunger by blowing up the cost of food and then REQUIRING people to buy it.
OH WAIT! WASN'T THAT WHAT OBITCHBA USED AS AN ARGUMENT AGAINST HILLARY'S PROPOSED MANDATE?
Uh, yeah, back in the day when it was 2008 campaign mode and the sniveling bastard had yet to backtrack on 100% of what he promised.
Either do single-payer - which works pretty well in the 49 countries with better health care outcomes than us at significantly lower cost. Or, oh, maybe address the COST issue by repealing the antitrust exemption and take some other measures to stimulate competition. The lower cost stimulating access and also not imposing crippling financial damage upon the US as the government is forced to subsidize premiums that are skyrocketing because of all the crazy shit jammed into ObamaCare.
Okay, back to work. Once again a demonstration of the mere THOUGHT of ObamaCare being enough to sidetrack the Monkey and send him off onto an extended rant.
Well, Herd, you know what that means.....
Appears at ET 10:57. S&P is 1143
1142.
"Teachers are being laid off in droves." Well now the markets should LIKE this.
"Cops and firefighters." Well everybody likes them. But the S&P slides below 1142 so maybe it doesn't.
"Cuts taxes for businesses that hire new employees." Well no one could EVER figure out ways to "game" that shit. Bonuses for hiring people who have been unemployed for a long time? Uh, and perhaps there is a REASON someone is unemployed for a long time. Just saying.
Oooh, more tax cuts! It's like Bush with a higher melanin count! When the zombie apocalypse breaks out, Bush - instead of shooting them in the head - just would try to deal with it by proposing more tax cuts.
Ah, faux populism. Oil companies, millionaires and billionaires versus all these nice multicultural teachers and cops behind me. SO what do the markets think? Still teetering at the daily low.
Slamming Republicans now. Monkey likes this. He slams Republicans all the time. Nice to hear the ostensible "leader" of those opposed to Republicans get in the act. Market? oooh, 1143. Perhaps a favorable reaction to the unaccustomed display of cojones by the Capitulator-in-Chief.
1144 and an apparent downward tops line break.
And he's off. With S&P at what? 1143. So no conclusive verdict as to the Obitchba effect as of this writing. But certainly there is time for the White House to release some stupid shit and blast the S&P through that support level into another 2.5% down day.
Hey here is the Monkey's proposal for a jobs bill:
"My fellow Americans. Today I am going to send a bill to Congress that REPEALS the so-called Affordable Care Act of 2010. Thank you very much. God bless you and god bless the United States of America."
S&P. Up 100 points on next tick. You know, nothing to stimulate hiring by removing that de facto $250,000 penalty upon businesses for the 50th employee hired. Of course that was 250K last the Monkey read about it, which was sometime last summer. Given that the Monkey's own health premiums have doubled since then for no reason whatsoever one can only imagine what the cost to US business is for hiring that 50th employee now.
Orwellian NewThink in action: when the problem in your health care system is access (brought about by high cost) you "solve" the problem by jamming lots of stuff in that will blow up cost exponentially and just REQUIRE everyone to have ACCESS to this lovely product. Somewhat analogous to dealing with the problem of hunger by blowing up the cost of food and then REQUIRING people to buy it.
OH WAIT! WASN'T THAT WHAT OBITCHBA USED AS AN ARGUMENT AGAINST HILLARY'S PROPOSED MANDATE?
Uh, yeah, back in the day when it was 2008 campaign mode and the sniveling bastard had yet to backtrack on 100% of what he promised.
Either do single-payer - which works pretty well in the 49 countries with better health care outcomes than us at significantly lower cost. Or, oh, maybe address the COST issue by repealing the antitrust exemption and take some other measures to stimulate competition. The lower cost stimulating access and also not imposing crippling financial damage upon the US as the government is forced to subsidize premiums that are skyrocketing because of all the crazy shit jammed into ObamaCare.
Okay, back to work. Once again a demonstration of the mere THOUGHT of ObamaCare being enough to sidetrack the Monkey and send him off onto an extended rant.
Sunday, September 11, 2011
Cleveland Browns Reax: September 7, 2021
Well it has been a busy ten years.
Sadly, the Monkey has been driven into expatriatude by the pernicious effects upon the US economy of the twin evils of ObamaCare and Teabaggery.
Nevertheless, a disciplined application of the "short the S&P whenever Obitchba appears on TV" principle has made the Monkey rich. So although he misses his homeland, there is some consolation to be derived from looking around at the walled estate he now owns outside of Saint-Tropez.
Old allegiances die hard, though. So at 5PM on a Sunday the Monkey dutifully fires up the satellite TV to tune into the opener of the Cleveland Browns' 2021 season. 5PM, you ask? But isn't Saint-Tropez five hours ahead of Eastern Standard Time?
Ah, indeed, but with US infrastructure being what it is nowadays, one must allow about an hour for the attempt to capture a useable satellite signal. (IF ONLY THOSE RASCALLY REPUBLICANS HAD GONE ALONG WITH OBITCHBA'S 2011 INFRASTRUCTURE PLAN!)
Unfortunately the start of the game is delayed as President Trick Palin has to offer a brief address from his bunker as to the issue of continued unrest and civil strife. Quoth President Palin: "we gonna shoot them faggits that's runnin' around causin' trouble!"
With that out of the way, the Browns take the field as a couple of refurbished Polikarpov I-15 biplanes now in front-line service with the USAF raggedly sputter overhead.
Ah, kickoff! Sun on the pumpkin helmets. Stirs the Monkey's heart as it has his whole life.
But from there. All downhill. No rhythm, no continuity. No playmakers on either side of the ball despite a generation of top 15 draft picks. Stupid penalties all over the place. Can't stop the run. Getting worked over up and down the field by some off-brand QB.
And in the end, a disappointing start to the season. Sigh.
It is just too bad that this has more or less been the SAME FUCKING STORY EVERY SINGLE OPENING GAME SINCE 1999. Other than that one year we beat someone under Butch Davis, who was a fucking jerkoff anyway.
EXPECTED 2011 FINAL W/L RECORD: 2-14.
Sadly, the Monkey has been driven into expatriatude by the pernicious effects upon the US economy of the twin evils of ObamaCare and Teabaggery.
Nevertheless, a disciplined application of the "short the S&P whenever Obitchba appears on TV" principle has made the Monkey rich. So although he misses his homeland, there is some consolation to be derived from looking around at the walled estate he now owns outside of Saint-Tropez.
Old allegiances die hard, though. So at 5PM on a Sunday the Monkey dutifully fires up the satellite TV to tune into the opener of the Cleveland Browns' 2021 season. 5PM, you ask? But isn't Saint-Tropez five hours ahead of Eastern Standard Time?
Ah, indeed, but with US infrastructure being what it is nowadays, one must allow about an hour for the attempt to capture a useable satellite signal. (IF ONLY THOSE RASCALLY REPUBLICANS HAD GONE ALONG WITH OBITCHBA'S 2011 INFRASTRUCTURE PLAN!)
Unfortunately the start of the game is delayed as President Trick Palin has to offer a brief address from his bunker as to the issue of continued unrest and civil strife. Quoth President Palin: "we gonna shoot them faggits that's runnin' around causin' trouble!"
With that out of the way, the Browns take the field as a couple of refurbished Polikarpov I-15 biplanes now in front-line service with the USAF raggedly sputter overhead.
Ah, kickoff! Sun on the pumpkin helmets. Stirs the Monkey's heart as it has his whole life.
But from there. All downhill. No rhythm, no continuity. No playmakers on either side of the ball despite a generation of top 15 draft picks. Stupid penalties all over the place. Can't stop the run. Getting worked over up and down the field by some off-brand QB.
And in the end, a disappointing start to the season. Sigh.
It is just too bad that this has more or less been the SAME FUCKING STORY EVERY SINGLE OPENING GAME SINCE 1999. Other than that one year we beat someone under Butch Davis, who was a fucking jerkoff anyway.
EXPECTED 2011 FINAL W/L RECORD: 2-14.
Saturday, September 10, 2011
Buckey Football reax: s121e02
OSU 27, Toledo 22.
Now that may be the final score, but in no way does the agate type here at FRM truly capture the essence of one of the finest moments in the storied history of the program.
The moment when we saw a TRUE demonstration of humanity, compassion, and Ohio student athlete-to-student athlete solidarity from the unstoppable scarlet and gray juggernaut, that Independence Day (1996)-esque force of city-smashing mayhem and modern analog to the Mongol Horde of the 13th century.
Yes, every year one or more teams from the off-brand non-OSU football programs of the Buckeye State come in to the horseshoe in September. And every year - until NOW - said unfortunate program gets served up a dose of devastation comparable to what our boys the Mongols laid out on Baghdad in February of 1258.
But unlike in years past, and unlike in 1258 (when the Mongols stuffed poor caliph Al-Musta'sim in a sack and trampled him with their horses), THIS time the great and omnipotent Buckeye program showed something you never see in major collegiate athletics: humanity.
So enlightened, so kind, so gentle, and so CIVILIZED were Fickell's men that they magnanimously allowed the helpless Toledo players to believe that they actually had a chance. That maybe, just maybe, they would someday be able to sit in their crumbling hovels within the City of Toledo, ducking random bullets, grandchildren on their laps, and be able to tell of that wondrous afternoon in 2011 when they actually did the unthinkable and BEAT the scalet and grey Horde.
Ah, cruel fate, that in the end this was not to be.The cold and cruel realities of major football factory "machine" athletics dictated that the door had to be eventually shut on this dream in the 59th minute of play. But still, that was 59 more minutes of hope than the Horde usually gives to its September opponents. The Monkey chokes up with emotion at the thought of so much compassion, so much kindness to shown to these hapless Toledettes.
NEXT UP: at Tha U, where the players in the pregame warmups can compare who got comped more in the way of hookers and blow during the recruiting process.
Now that may be the final score, but in no way does the agate type here at FRM truly capture the essence of one of the finest moments in the storied history of the program.
The moment when we saw a TRUE demonstration of humanity, compassion, and Ohio student athlete-to-student athlete solidarity from the unstoppable scarlet and gray juggernaut, that Independence Day (1996)-esque force of city-smashing mayhem and modern analog to the Mongol Horde of the 13th century.
Yes, every year one or more teams from the off-brand non-OSU football programs of the Buckeye State come in to the horseshoe in September. And every year - until NOW - said unfortunate program gets served up a dose of devastation comparable to what our boys the Mongols laid out on Baghdad in February of 1258.
But unlike in years past, and unlike in 1258 (when the Mongols stuffed poor caliph Al-Musta'sim in a sack and trampled him with their horses), THIS time the great and omnipotent Buckeye program showed something you never see in major collegiate athletics: humanity.
So enlightened, so kind, so gentle, and so CIVILIZED were Fickell's men that they magnanimously allowed the helpless Toledo players to believe that they actually had a chance. That maybe, just maybe, they would someday be able to sit in their crumbling hovels within the City of Toledo, ducking random bullets, grandchildren on their laps, and be able to tell of that wondrous afternoon in 2011 when they actually did the unthinkable and BEAT the scalet and grey Horde.
Ah, cruel fate, that in the end this was not to be.The cold and cruel realities of major football factory "machine" athletics dictated that the door had to be eventually shut on this dream in the 59th minute of play. But still, that was 59 more minutes of hope than the Horde usually gives to its September opponents. The Monkey chokes up with emotion at the thought of so much compassion, so much kindness to shown to these hapless Toledettes.
NEXT UP: at Tha U, where the players in the pregame warmups can compare who got comped more in the way of hookers and blow during the recruiting process.
Friday, September 9, 2011
Electoral map
More about this here
Memo to Republicans: if this is to be believed (and to the Monkey it appears fairly reasonable), you will need Florida, Ohio, Virginia, AND one from the list of Nevada, Colorado, Iowa, and New Hampshire.
In 2010 Florida and Ohio elected GOP governors who are both extremely unpopular at the moment.
Likely nominee Der Christenfuhrer is all buddy-buddy with that asshole fascist cocksucker Pastor John Hagee. Who calls Catholics (the Monkey's people, BTW) something along the lines of "devil-worshippers."
Where are there a lot of Catholics? Well, everywhere, for one. LOTS in Ohio. Lots in Florida. And oh yeah, by our count Obitchba can win the whole thing with just Florida from among those tossup states. And what is Florida crawling with? Bugs, certainly, but even more than that - OLD PEOPLE. Who pretty much tend to vote on one issue and one issue only: Social Security. Described by Rick Perry as a "monstrous Ponzi scheme." That the "unconstitushinul Zionist-occupahd govmint dun use ta steal from y'all an' give to sum Jewish bankers in Zoorich." (Uh, just kidding about the last part of the sentence. Just kidding that he SAID it, anyway. That he THINKS it is probably not even up for debate.)
Still want to nominate Der Christenfuhrer? Really? The Republican electorate is not generally known for its, uh, intelligence. But you dumbfuck inbred-ass teabag cocksuckers better look real hard at that map and think about all those Catholics and old people and MINORITIES in Florida.
If Christie doesn't get in you bitches need some HUNTSMAN. STAT.
Memo to Republicans: if this is to be believed (and to the Monkey it appears fairly reasonable), you will need Florida, Ohio, Virginia, AND one from the list of Nevada, Colorado, Iowa, and New Hampshire.
In 2010 Florida and Ohio elected GOP governors who are both extremely unpopular at the moment.
Likely nominee Der Christenfuhrer is all buddy-buddy with that asshole fascist cocksucker Pastor John Hagee. Who calls Catholics (the Monkey's people, BTW) something along the lines of "devil-worshippers."
Where are there a lot of Catholics? Well, everywhere, for one. LOTS in Ohio. Lots in Florida. And oh yeah, by our count Obitchba can win the whole thing with just Florida from among those tossup states. And what is Florida crawling with? Bugs, certainly, but even more than that - OLD PEOPLE. Who pretty much tend to vote on one issue and one issue only: Social Security. Described by Rick Perry as a "monstrous Ponzi scheme." That the "unconstitushinul Zionist-occupahd govmint dun use ta steal from y'all an' give to sum Jewish bankers in Zoorich." (Uh, just kidding about the last part of the sentence. Just kidding that he SAID it, anyway. That he THINKS it is probably not even up for debate.)
Still want to nominate Der Christenfuhrer? Really? The Republican electorate is not generally known for its, uh, intelligence. But you dumbfuck inbred-ass teabag cocksuckers better look real hard at that map and think about all those Catholics and old people and MINORITIES in Florida.
If Christie doesn't get in you bitches need some HUNTSMAN. STAT.
Obitchba effect - about to be put to the test
Quoth CNBC: "Obama about to speak about economy and jobs."
Ordinarily we would be ready to tee up a big short position and hit that execute button the minute president Wussy shows up on TV. However, with the S&P down 23 already you don't NORMALLY have a lot of percentage in putting shorts on.
Nevertheless, Obitchba has shown time and again an uncanny ability to tank the markets with his "inspirational" rhetoric.
Nah, won't put real money into this test today just because of the big gap-down off the open theoretically limiting your upside to a short position.
For testing purposes - Obitchba appears on CNBC at 10:38ET with S&P 1163.71.
Let's see what happens! Which would be THIS:
Ordinarily we would be ready to tee up a big short position and hit that execute button the minute president Wussy shows up on TV. However, with the S&P down 23 already you don't NORMALLY have a lot of percentage in putting shorts on.
Nevertheless, Obitchba has shown time and again an uncanny ability to tank the markets with his "inspirational" rhetoric.
Nah, won't put real money into this test today just because of the big gap-down off the open theoretically limiting your upside to a short position.
For testing purposes - Obitchba appears on CNBC at 10:38ET with S&P 1163.71.
Let's see what happens! Which would be THIS:
Thursday, September 8, 2011
Breaking Bad reax: s04e08 "Hermanos"
Okay, back for some "Breaking Bad" and Sangria!
Open to an alternate POV flashback and our boy Gus is totally running smack at a helpless Teo. Who looks like he is about to stroke out. Pretty cool. One just wonders why the Mexi Cartel hasn't brought Teo back home. Are nursing facilities THAT much better in the US than Mexico? Now once upon a time a person would never ask that but today.....
Walt going way outside the normal envelope of human interaction with that drip at the cancer test place. Deservedly so, as the jizz-stain goes to the "god" card. Yeah, some micromanager in the sky decided to give you cancer, dimwit. Good job Walt on calling that bullshit for what it is. "Who is in charge? Me. That's how I live my life."
Gus, even, has to answer the phone "Pollos Hermanos, where something delicious is always cooking." Reminds the Monkey of the shitty job he once had at which it was dictated that we say "thank you for calling Ticketmaster, where American Express is the preferred method of payment." Not to mention names or anything. One also wonders what kind of corporate drip-ass fuckwad actually thought that up and that it was a good idea.
Whoa! Called in for a sitdown with the APD and DEA. Gus naturally owns their bitch asses, except for a dubious Hank. Pretty fucking bad ass that Gus was bankrolling chemistry students for more than a decade as potential meth trainees. They tease a mysterious past for Gus, fitting in with a hypothesis we read once as to Gus having been one of Pinochet's guys.
DEA bitches more or less buy Gus' story in toto. But why, we wonder, does nobody mention the issue Hank brought up last week as to:
1) pimping $300K meth cooking machine
2) made by company with ties to Pollos Hermanos
3) signed for by goofy Gale, apparently unpaid for and about which there is no current trace.
Lapse by the writers, as these guys do not ask about or even discuss this. Which would seem to be the biggest clue of all pointing at Gus. How does some organic tofu dweeb get that machine and then cause it to disappear?
Saul seems to have more hair and some plastic surgery in place since the prior season. But unlike Beastler, who will not go along with even having a nice bottle of wine, this shit actually makes sense for the character.
Oh fuck! And there is Beastler. Hiding money in dry-cleaning bage with clothing. The weight of which causes the closet bar to snap. Kind of like what probably happens with the floor when she walks around on it.
Holy crap! As Hank and Walt roll up on LPH and Hank expresses suspicion about Gus the tension for Walt practically shatters the screen. Cranston just KILLING it here. He needs the Emmy AGAIN if for this scene alone.
Awesome! Mike pulls up and Walt looks like he is going to spontaneously fly into about 8,000 pieces. God damn - without utterly bizarre fourth-wall shit like Beastler somehow gaining 50 pounds and having plastic surgery over the course of 1 week of "show" time, Breaking Bad would so be pushing The Wire for the spot at the top of the Pantheon.
Walt freaking out in the lab and ranting at the camera. This episode being Cranston's best work in the series to date.
Speaking of acting chops, Aaron Paul killing it too in the next scene."A plus douchebag to a minus douchebag equals zero douchebags." We are so adding that expression to our lexicon. Also, "breaking out a box cutter on his sorry gimp ass."
Used in a sentence: "Obitchba had a decent speech tonight, but wait till the negotiations start when Boner starts breaking out a box cutter on his sorry gimp ass."
Gus having the meth lab camera broadcasting to his laptop on the desk in his office - LOVE THAT. Hey, and speaking of The Wire we hope Gus and Mike are regularly swapping out burners and are not using their actual cellies for all this talk about what the DEA knows and whatnot. One would think so. And one would also think the task of obtaining burners would be outsourced to a higher caliber of flunky than Squeak and Bernard from Wire Season 3.
Long flashback to back in the day, with the Mexi Cartel guys breaking out Miami Vice gear. (One imagines this probably was how these dudes dressed in '86.) We meet Don Eladio, who kind of has a Bash Brothers era Jose Canseco vibe going about him.
Giancarlo rocking the shit on the acting tip here. Not only do they make him look 25 years younger, he conveys much less of the icy badass kingpin and much more of the young guy trying to make it in the world. Almost all of it nonverbally. Can you find any show or any season with actors like Cranston, Paul, Dean Norris, and Giancarlo Esposito working it like this? Certainly, Season 2 of the Wire stands transcendent in TV history in the Monkey's opinion from a thematic standpoint. But the ACTING right here, right now, in Breaking Bad is actually a step beyond.
Oooh, Jose Canseco starts working our guys here. Kills Gus' buddy, for whom the meth scholarship will one day be named. Then tells Gus that he knows who Gus really is. Which would appear to be some sort of diaspora from the Pinochet secret police apparat.
Leading the Monkey to wonder. Will John Yoo or David Addington someday change their names and open a chicken place in Australia or some shit?
Very good stuff this week. Acting-wise, probably the best BB episode yet. And too fucking bad that there are only four eps left this season. Here's hoping that Beastler gets a relative minimum of screen time over the next month.
Open to an alternate POV flashback and our boy Gus is totally running smack at a helpless Teo. Who looks like he is about to stroke out. Pretty cool. One just wonders why the Mexi Cartel hasn't brought Teo back home. Are nursing facilities THAT much better in the US than Mexico? Now once upon a time a person would never ask that but today.....
Walt going way outside the normal envelope of human interaction with that drip at the cancer test place. Deservedly so, as the jizz-stain goes to the "god" card. Yeah, some micromanager in the sky decided to give you cancer, dimwit. Good job Walt on calling that bullshit for what it is. "Who is in charge? Me. That's how I live my life."
Gus, even, has to answer the phone "Pollos Hermanos, where something delicious is always cooking." Reminds the Monkey of the shitty job he once had at which it was dictated that we say "thank you for calling Ticketmaster, where American Express is the preferred method of payment." Not to mention names or anything. One also wonders what kind of corporate drip-ass fuckwad actually thought that up and that it was a good idea.
Whoa! Called in for a sitdown with the APD and DEA. Gus naturally owns their bitch asses, except for a dubious Hank. Pretty fucking bad ass that Gus was bankrolling chemistry students for more than a decade as potential meth trainees. They tease a mysterious past for Gus, fitting in with a hypothesis we read once as to Gus having been one of Pinochet's guys.
DEA bitches more or less buy Gus' story in toto. But why, we wonder, does nobody mention the issue Hank brought up last week as to:
1) pimping $300K meth cooking machine
2) made by company with ties to Pollos Hermanos
3) signed for by goofy Gale, apparently unpaid for and about which there is no current trace.
Lapse by the writers, as these guys do not ask about or even discuss this. Which would seem to be the biggest clue of all pointing at Gus. How does some organic tofu dweeb get that machine and then cause it to disappear?
Saul seems to have more hair and some plastic surgery in place since the prior season. But unlike Beastler, who will not go along with even having a nice bottle of wine, this shit actually makes sense for the character.
Oh fuck! And there is Beastler. Hiding money in dry-cleaning bage with clothing. The weight of which causes the closet bar to snap. Kind of like what probably happens with the floor when she walks around on it.
Holy crap! As Hank and Walt roll up on LPH and Hank expresses suspicion about Gus the tension for Walt practically shatters the screen. Cranston just KILLING it here. He needs the Emmy AGAIN if for this scene alone.
Awesome! Mike pulls up and Walt looks like he is going to spontaneously fly into about 8,000 pieces. God damn - without utterly bizarre fourth-wall shit like Beastler somehow gaining 50 pounds and having plastic surgery over the course of 1 week of "show" time, Breaking Bad would so be pushing The Wire for the spot at the top of the Pantheon.
Walt freaking out in the lab and ranting at the camera. This episode being Cranston's best work in the series to date.
Speaking of acting chops, Aaron Paul killing it too in the next scene."A plus douchebag to a minus douchebag equals zero douchebags." We are so adding that expression to our lexicon. Also, "breaking out a box cutter on his sorry gimp ass."
Used in a sentence: "Obitchba had a decent speech tonight, but wait till the negotiations start when Boner starts breaking out a box cutter on his sorry gimp ass."
Gus having the meth lab camera broadcasting to his laptop on the desk in his office - LOVE THAT. Hey, and speaking of The Wire we hope Gus and Mike are regularly swapping out burners and are not using their actual cellies for all this talk about what the DEA knows and whatnot. One would think so. And one would also think the task of obtaining burners would be outsourced to a higher caliber of flunky than Squeak and Bernard from Wire Season 3.
Long flashback to back in the day, with the Mexi Cartel guys breaking out Miami Vice gear. (One imagines this probably was how these dudes dressed in '86.) We meet Don Eladio, who kind of has a Bash Brothers era Jose Canseco vibe going about him.
Giancarlo rocking the shit on the acting tip here. Not only do they make him look 25 years younger, he conveys much less of the icy badass kingpin and much more of the young guy trying to make it in the world. Almost all of it nonverbally. Can you find any show or any season with actors like Cranston, Paul, Dean Norris, and Giancarlo Esposito working it like this? Certainly, Season 2 of the Wire stands transcendent in TV history in the Monkey's opinion from a thematic standpoint. But the ACTING right here, right now, in Breaking Bad is actually a step beyond.
Oooh, Jose Canseco starts working our guys here. Kills Gus' buddy, for whom the meth scholarship will one day be named. Then tells Gus that he knows who Gus really is. Which would appear to be some sort of diaspora from the Pinochet secret police apparat.
Leading the Monkey to wonder. Will John Yoo or David Addington someday change their names and open a chicken place in Australia or some shit?
Very good stuff this week. Acting-wise, probably the best BB episode yet. And too fucking bad that there are only four eps left this season. Here's hoping that Beastler gets a relative minimum of screen time over the next month.
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