How Breaking Bad is like the Little League World Series

I’m not insane, and this isn’t the dumbest comparison you’ll ever hear, but it’s close.  I realize comparing a show about a man’s slow descent from Edward James Olmos in “Stand and Deliver” to Denzel Washington in “Training Day” with the August rite of passage for 10-12 year olds in the baseball playing world is patently ridiculous on its face.  I want to assure you that this is not about Danny Almonte and the oldest twelve year old you’ve ever met.  No, this is about the general structure of the Little League World Series, and its similarities to Walter White’s rise to power.  A note about spoilers: They are prevalent after the jump.

"We Need A Dialogue About Race" - Meta interactions do no good.

Don’t get me wrong; the United States populace needs to have an honest discussion with itself about race, but the royal “we” cannot have that discussion until we understand how to confront these things in an open and honest way.  What we are getting now is neither honest, nor a discussion.  In fact, we aren’t really even getting dishonest dialogue about race.  We are getting chatter about having a discussion or dialogue about race, which is way worse than just saying, “Ah, fuck it.  Our institutions are still mired in the racial inequality of the past, and until we all fulfill George Carlin’s prophecy of forming a beautiful, non-racial, caramel colored population, we aren’t going to move past thinking white culture is superior, black culture is inferior, and stay out terrorists and Spanish speaking people.”  Why is it worse?  Because it’s hope out of Pandora’s box when it comes to those who really TRULY just want to live equally and focus our energy on solving other problems like war and poverty.  The problem is, we are looking to the wrong people to start the dialogue, we aren’t even talking about race, and the terminology we are using is non-starter language designed by people who want to not talk about anything.

A modest proposal for a better network TV programming setup that is totally implausible because Network TV is a stupid, antiquated medium that will die a slow and painful death.

Jack Shepherd’s Tattoos.

Landry and Tyra kill a drifter just to get an erection (or something.)

Kim Bauer and the mountain lion.

The Puerto Rican Day Parade.

Great TV shows have awful episodes.  Why?  Because, Great TV shows, if they hang around long enough, run out of ideas.  How many times can terrorists kidnap Kim Bauer?  How many people from the tail section can crop up in LOST with an interesting backstory that – surprise! – isn’t congruent with their persona on the forbidden island of mystery and electromagnetism?