Breaking Bad habits

Ciao Walt, Skyler, Walt Jnr, Holly, Hank, Marie, Jess, Saul. Sunday morning I emerged from my bedroom blinking in the light. Four years of TV consumed in three months. My children taller and muttering “We know that unwashed woman in her housecoat, but who is she?”

If you’ve never watched Breaking Bad, please do. It’s the tale of a chemistry teacher who must make and sell crystal meth to pay his medical bills to try to beat lung cancer. He coughs his way from mild mannered man to Devil in 62 episodes, entering a world where light and dark ebb and flow and the mixture of absurdly well lit misadventure and comedy as dark as 70% cocoa solid chocolate grip certain souls – like my own – and you become addicted to the box set in the same way meth addicts become addicted to splinters of crystal.

Addicted
When you finish an episode or three or ten in one sitting you check your face in the mirror for the signs of addiction: red blotches on your skin and ghoulish teeth (the series creator apparently regretted that Jesse’s teeth were so white). OK, so I have the dead eyes. Then you realise it’s only a TV series, nothing more. Some people stay clean, like my other half. They watch one episode on Netflix and refuse to be hooked. Or like my buddy Bevs watch it with me on the sofa until 3 am – helpless as the next episode threatens to begin in 18 seconds – but they go no further. 

Alas, I became deeply involved, even when the story line veered towards crazy – 11 men in 2 minutes? Lydia? Giant magnets? But now I’m here, bereft. Left unable to watch TV, or drama at least, knowing that the lighting and scripting and suspense can never measure up to Breaking Bad. Still, good things come of leaving a screen alone – as I reminded my children several times an hour before I became a hypocrite. Yesterday afternoon I mowed the grass (and I from a family that had a no cruelty to weeds policy pulled up hundreds of the buggers), ran three miles to pick up the car from our friends’ house, washed the top of the bins (I kid you not), polished the car windows, repotted lavender, did half the shirt ironing, went food and clothes shopping and wrote this blog in my head. 

Still, life will never be the same. Surely there must be some sort of support group for those who became Breaking Bad dependent… And what comes now? What can fill the BB gap? I can’t call Saul. If only the therapist type guy who ran over his own daughter were able to advise. Someone has said I should try a hit of Tony from the Sopranos. What do you suggest?

 

 

 

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  1. Avatar
    Amanda April 17, 2014

    I had serious withdrawal symptoms when I finished watching the whole of The Killing (Nordic noir) series. I was obsessed and even started dreaming about Sarah Lund (what’s that all about?) and didn’t know what to do with myself, so I empathise! I also loved The Bridge (I seem to be drawn to Nordic Noir) and hopefully there will be a third series. I am now waiting for the second series of Hannibal (Sky living) which was brilliant! I, like you get completely taken in and get jittery – maybe that’s why you had so much energy. I wouldn’t knock it! 😉

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