back in march, as part of tv month, i sat down to take in the season two premiere of amc's breaking bad, starring bryan cranston as walt, a chemistry teacher turned meth dealer via the discovery of lung cancer. after an amazing season one, it had firmly cemented itself as a show which, if not my favorite show, was definitely in my top five. this past sunday night, after twelve episodes filled with insanity & surprises & continued exploration into walt's psyche, they finally brought season two to a close.
i'd been looking forward to the season finale for a while. they opened the season with a vague scene in walt's backyard, with shots of a charred pink teddy bear floating in the pool & sirens in the background. with each episode, they've revealed more & more about this vague scene & every week since, i've been striking up conversations about the show with friends & co-workers, none of who actually follow the show. i've chatted up my roommate about it. he watched the entire first season with me, so he at least had a frame of reference, but hadn't seen very much of the second season. on one hand, these conversations were me being a nerdy fan boy trying to spread the love, but on the other hand, it was me working out what i'd seen, as i tried to fit it into the larger story of a man who gets cancer, the actions he takes because of it & the impact they have on those around him.
as we entered the final episode, all the craziness of the meth-dealing & cooking has seemed to subside & walt's life actually seems to be developing some semblance of stability for once. to me, it looked like they were setting up a card house of calm (wasn't this a peter gabriel album title?) that they could then brilliantly knock down in the last episode, as they revealed what's up with that vague first scene of the season.
i'm assuming that a lot of people haven't seen this show & i'm hoping that everyone in the world eventually will, so i won't divulge what we now know (or don't know) about the mystery scene. i will say that this though: by the time the final credits came on screen, i was experiencing some serious tv blue balls. it wasn't as anticlimactic as the sopranos' series finale, but it definitely left me feeling empty. i've since thought about it more & have started to come to terms with it, establishing that based on what we now know about the mystery scene, walt's actions are--both directly & indirectly--having much wider-sweeping consequences than he can even fathom.
i can live with that, but for now, the show's on break. sigh. there's already a third season in the works, but that's not happening until next year, when we'll already be a few months into the time that i've already started referring to as the "post-35th birthday" era. double sigh. luckily, season five of weeds starts up next monday, so i can continue to get my weekly fix of average american family folk fumbling their way through the drug trade, while i supplement that with a weekly dose of mary-louise parker (mmm). on a related note, ms. parker turns 45 in august, giving hope to the idea that there's hotness post age 35.
#96 - badly breaking.
snack: 7 select scorchin' hot crunchy curls
drink: harpoon leviathan big bohemian pilsner
as i took in the finale, i dug into a bag of 7 select scorchin' hot crunchy curls, which i'd purchased a few days earlier at my local port authority area 7-11. they're only $1.99 for an 8.5 oz bag, which compared to many bags of chips, is a helluva deal. the bag even feels heavier. i guess that's gravity for ya. since i was busy watching the show, i didn't stop long enough to notice if there were any jesus-shaped cheese curls in the bag, but i did come across a few shaped like penises. they're pretty damn good for something made by 7-11 and as such, i found myself popping them into my mouth one after another...but not without serious consequences. these mofos are without a doubt WICKED SCORCHIN' HOT.
other than listing "spice extract" in the ingredients, the bag doesn't really go into how they make them so damn hot. the flavor & aftertaste both reminded me of buffalo sauce, but that could have just been a result of color & mouth-burn association. the crunch was so satisfyingly burning that i couldn't stop the rapid consumption. i mean, i wasn't sweating or anything, but at one point i seriously considered fixing myself a bowl of blue cheese to dip them in.
instead, i decided to try putting out the cheese curl fire with a beer--a harpoon leviathan big bohemian pilsner. it's part of their limited edition "leviathan" series, a line of beers designed to offer harpoon drinkers a greater flavor experience, something that is greatly needed when it comes to harpoon. today, i was chatting with a co-worker who'd visited the harpoon brewery up in boston this past weekend & eventually, our conversation led to "actually, harpoon's not really that great of a beer." for me, harpoon has always been a respectable beer (along with sam adams) that i drank a ton of when i was in college in boston, just discovering microbrews. beyond that, i don't usually search it out, really only drinking it if it's the best choice available.
the leviathan series is a different story. although it's a pilsner, which is typically extremely light on flavor, the big bohemian pilsner has a nice, rich hoppy flavor to it. as far as counteracting the effects of the cheese curls goes, it didn't help very much, but it was still enjoyable. unlike with a harpoon i.p.a., the big bohemian is the sort of beer i'd actually choose over others. that's something i haven't been able to say about a harpoon since back when i was college...over ten years ago. sigh.