tv: Last weeks episode of Breaking Bad was all about consequences. It was the consequences of Walt's actions over the last five seasons played out in action. Hank was shot. His money was stolen. He and Skylar had their final confrontation that cut the family to shreds with a knife. Jesse was forced to live out his life in some sort of meth cooking hostage purgatory. It was all of what was coming to pass for Walt and those around him as a result of all his horrible acts played out in the worst possible ways. In Granite State, we were given a different kind of consequence. We were given emotional consequence. Gone was the horrifying gut wrenching fights and shootings and kidnappings and in their place were nothing but the faces of those beaten down characters left to stare down the wreckage and wonder how they would go on.
The episode begins with our introduction to the vacuum cleaning company. While he may not be in any imminent danger, Saul is there to get out of town before it is too late. This is a wonderful end for Saul who had been saying since the end of season four that it was time to run. And now he has the right idea. Just go. But before he leaves he has to spend a couple of days with his former client. Walt is still scheming and plotting to kill Jack and Todd and the rest of their family, still clearly in denial of the end of his criminal enterprises. And even as Saul pleads with him to just give up and leave he refuses. He even thinks at one point Saul should come with him! But with a cough that weakens him to his knees he relents and lets Saul go to his Cinnabon future in Nebraska.
The episode picks up with Marie and Skylar facing their own aftermaths. Marie is being driven home by a DEA detail. The plot of the scene is centered around the fact that Jack stole Jesse's confession DVD from Marie's house in order to see if the DEA knows about them but the real point is the scene in the car. It is just silence with the camera as tight on Marie's face as possible. And as she stares out the windshield all the is on her face is devastation; over the sadness of what happened to her husband and the devastation over the irreparable damage that was done to her's and her sisters family. Meanwhile Skylar is lost, staring into space as Lawyers are trying to get her to tell them something about the whereabouts of her husband. That Skylar is telling them the truth when she says she doesn't know anything seems to be an impossibility to those questioning her. And the blankness on her face as she listens to those around her, distant while she wonders how this became her life, replaying the wreckage, and accepting her fate, having to say over and over to those who will never believe her that she knows nothing about where Walt went should officially end all of the Skylar hate out there as she oozes sympathy and sadness.
From there we jump to our first moments with Mr. Lambert. When the door opens on the truck and our vacuum cleaner, played with brilliant restraint by Robert Forester, welcomes Walt to his home he covers his eyes to the blinding reflection off the snow. I must admit that I live in a place that gets lots of snow during the winter and even I felt the need to shade my eyes after having adjusted to the stark heat of the New Mexico Desert. Walt is told that he is not allowed to leave his new home for fear of being recognized. But as soon as he is left to his own devices he dons the black hat and walks up to the road. With a brutal cough he stares down the road and decides tomorrow would be better. When the vacuum cleaner returns a month later Walt is frail, sick, and losing his sight. And as he finds his new glasses with his beard and head of hair we seem him become the Mr. Lambert we have seen. He is brought his chemo by a man who he pays fifty thousand dollars to do so. And then he seems to get it. He realizes that this is fate: a sick man that will die alone. And in a moment of desperation pays ten extra thousand dollars to have him stay for an hour. Desperation is no longer a plan to fight enemies. It is a plea to not be miserable. Walt's final blow to his hope is when he asks if his money will be taken back to his family when he dies. The answer is blunt no from the man who is feeding him his treatment and playing cards with him because he was payed to act like a friend.
There is not enough that can be said about Bryan Cranston in the scenes in Vermont. While the superlatives are running out for how great he has been throughout Breaking Bad, watching him transform over the course of those scenes from the man we knew to a broken and ruined and sick man were just beautiful. And while there has been plenty said of Cranston's brilliance as Walt, I feel like with so little time left to talk about it, finding standout moments to mention should be relished and talked about. He is and will forever be on the Mount Rushmore of TV actors.
Once Walt settled in for a slow and sad end to his story, Jesse was turned to. And of course his moment was maybe the worst. Jesse was still fighting, trying to find an escape from Jack and Todd. What he gets for his trouble is a batch of meth good enough that he is expected to stay a captive as long as there is material to use for cooking along with his punishment for an attempted escape. That punishment was to was Andrea get unceremoniously killed. There was no sound of the gun, no close up, no tears, and only same charm from Todd there always is. The loudest thing in that scene was Jesse's head banging against the car door window. And while it may not have been as bloody or internet-rage-inducing as something like the Red Wedding, it was at least as swift and brutal if not more so. Just a quiet puff of red from the distance.
The episode ends with Walt taking what we think will be his final step towards contrition before he dies. When he wakes up to find out he has become so frail his wedding ring won't even stay on his finger anymore he packs the only box he has left with money to send back to his family and finally leaves the reservation. He doesn't care, he's dying. He smartly addresses it to Lewis, Flynn's bff and calls to let Flynn know that it is coming. Instead of the thanks Walt was expecting for the money and the hope from his son that he was OK, all he gets is "You're an asshole!" and "Go to hell!" After a brief fight for the idea that what he is doing is right, Walt gives up. And in a season full of phone calls he makes a last one. He calls the DEA to turn himself in. While waiting for his escort back to Alberquerque he decides to have a drink and watch some TV. Big mistake. Walt comes across an interview with his former Grey Matter partners about their association with him. They explain that Walt contributed very little to the company besides its name, which we know is a lie from that arc back in the first season where Walt is pushed out of the company despite the fact that his research was the basis for their work. They also talk about the fact that his blue meth is still being made. This may have been the saddest moment of a very sad episode. We have known for a while now that Walt would leave then eventually go back. I always assumed that is would be because Walt gained some knowledge of a catastrophe that he had to go back to deal with. But as we watched his face twist and tighten with hatred over what he was watching, we realize that it is something far worse and sad than that. He is being driven back by the same thing that forced him to begin cooking meth in the first place. After doing great work in his field, then chemistry and now drug manufacturing, he is now being forced to sit around and watch people belittle his talent and take credit for his work. And that resentment towards those doing it and the ego to prove them wrong drives him back home. Not the need to save Jesse or settle a score with Todd and Jack, but his ego and insecurities. Maybe he is still the same pathetic guy he was in the beginning. And in that moment we see what was said on TV. We watched Walter White die. And Now only Heisenberg is left to head back home to meet his own end.
And now we come to it. The final episode of this great show is airing Sunday. Predictions are flying everywhere about who will live and who will die. I am willing to admit that I have no clue. But there are two things we know that have to play into our expectations. The first is our villains. While Gus Fring may have been the best and most interesting villain on the show, no one has been as ruthless as Todd and Jack. Between them and Lydia, whose concerns about Skylar should not be taken lightly after the nine man hit she put out in the Madrigal episode to keep herself out of jail, we know that these are people ready and willing to do whatever it takes to make sure they're the last ones standing. The second is that Vince Gilligan has spent the season setting us up for this by showing us eight of the most emotionally difficult hours of television we've ever seen. The question of who dies and who lives may not even be important since based on what we've seen we know that it is just going to be awful to watch. So sit back, relax and brace yourselves for the end of one of the best shows ever made. Oh, and call your therapist. You will probably need them.
Wednesday, September 25, 2013
Saturday, September 21, 2013
Breaking Bad Ozymandias Recap
tv: Staring out into the New Mexico dessert, empty and desolate, we see a stationary RV fade into view. And inside is the beginning of the long journey we are now at the end of. The bubbling beaker, the science experiment that started it all and the two men who conduct that experiment. Walt explaining in detail the science behind what they are doing. As they step outside for a break, one of them, Walter White, walks away to make a phone call. We see him practicing his lines. Working out the first lie. At that time he needed to practice. Over the course of that phone call, through the lies he tells, we see the most tender version of the White family we have seen through the entire show. As they discuss pizza and Ebay and work and the name of their new daughter with love. It was the very first lie. After Walt hangs up the phone, that scene fades away, back into the dessert. And so did everything from it. The science is now gone. Any love that may have been there is gone. The nerves are gone. And all that remains is what Heisenberg has left in his wake.
Breaking Bad is in itself a science experiment. The meticulous detailed nature with which Vince Gilligan has told his story is like watching science unfold. You are presented with something that can happen. Then you see logical steps that are required for it to unfold. That could be said of both episodes and of the series as a whole. No stone is left unturned and everything is there for a reason. But as the plain dessert returns and the new scene fades into view, we see something very horrifying. What if science was tossed away? What if the experiment was governed by the man Walter White became after that phone call; a man driven by insecurity and ego, a man who believed he could make the experiment yield the results he wanted to simply because he said so. Chances are the results of that experiment would not produce the results one sought.
The results of the Breaking Bad experiment were played out to the most terrifying ends in Ozymandias. Our new scene that faded into view was a familiar one. It was the end of the shootout that ended last weeks episode, To'hajiilee. From there the episode plays out as our worst fears coming true. Hank is wounded and staring his fate down bravely as a gun is pointed at his head with Gomie lying dead next to him. Walt continues to fight for Hank's life, offering up even his 80 million that is buried under their feet. But finally Hank gives Walt the harsh truth he was needing: "You're the smartest guy I know. How can you not see he made up his mind ten minutes ago?" Hank seems to realize that Walt can't just make things work out the way he wants because he says so. And as Hank falls to the ground with the life having left him, Walt seems to do the same. Lying there it appears that all of his power, all of Heisenberg is leaving him and he is going to be left there to suffer in a pathetic state similar to the one we met him in five years ago when he found out about his cancer as a broke teacher. But as Todd and his family are taking their money and doing their cleanup work, Walt seems drag back to life as Heisenberg fights his way back into his being. And as the pain leaves, the hate re-appears forcing him to commit yet another unthinkable act.
He turns Jesse in. Seeing him under the car Walt gives him up. He wants the job he paid for to be done. But Todd decides it would be better to find out what Jesse told Hank. Jesse clearly knows his fate. The fear that sets is on Aaron Paul's face is heart breaking as his character gets offered up to the most viscous of men. But before they leave Walt decides he has one more favor to return to Jesse. And in one of the show's greatest callbacks he tells Jesse in gruesome detail about how he watched Jane die. One good spit in the face deserves another I guess.
As if all of this weren't enough emotional terror to put a viewer through in one hour, after those opening fifteen minutes (fifteen minutes!) it only got worse. And this is the point at which I have to stop describing every scene as if there is subtext. The horror is just played out for all of us to suffer through. Marie goes to the car wash to tell Skylar that Walt has been captured and to force her to tell Flynn (I'm pretty sure he is never going by Walt Jr. ever again.). The pain and disbelief that burst out of R.J. Mitte was spectacular. Throughout the series he has not always been given a lot to do. But this season he has, and he delivered at every turn, showing real versatility.
We get a brief respite from the pain, grief and terror of the White's to see Jesse beaten, getting chained to the ceiling as he stares with tear filled eyes at picture of Andrea and Brock as Todd walks and says "Lets cook", as pleasant as ever. But we quickly return to the White's who are now back at home. Skylar and Flynn come home to find Walt packing for an imminent departure. But as the truth of why he is not in jail as they had been told by Marie becomes revealed and things quickly boil over.
The shot was so simple and beautiful. Would she go for the knife or the phone? And Skylar went for the knife. And then I actually had to get up and leave. I was literally shaking! And I couldn't stop! I have to say it only helped a little. Just the noise of that fight was enough to keep me at my wit's ends. But then Flynn saved his mom, along with my emotional state. And just as we thought all possible awful acts had been exhausted Walt kidnaps his own daughter!
Then comes the phone call. Walt calls Skylar. When he is told by a very generous pause that the police are listening in, he begins his final lie. And with all the bile of Heisenberg at his worst he rips Skylar apart, and in the process exonerates her. It was a gut wrenching scene that ended one of the most gut wrenching episodes of television ever. Watching Bryan Cranston thunder away so abusively was just horrifying. Watching him do it with the pauses to correct his lies mid-sentence and the tears running down his face was otherworldly. And then just like that, after leaving Holly behind for her mother, Walt leaves. We all knew the trip to New Hampshire was coming but what a relief it was to get there the end of that hour.
As I said earlier, Breaking Bad plays out like the science experiments cooked up in that beat up RV. But unlike those, in which the outcome is the spectacular blue that prints green, the shows experiment didn't end so well. Let me reiterate after that understatement that I almost had a nervous breakdown during a scene that is described as the most horrifying five words possible: HUSBAND AND WIFE KNIFE FIGHT!!! And that was because the shows main character didn't treat the lives of his fellow characters or the plot of his life with the same respect he treated a cook of meth. And in this episode we saw the outcome. And it was carried out mercilessly in one brutal hour(the most brutal hour). The results of Walt's life as Vince Gilligan's little science experiment? Well, I'll let Percy Shelley tell you:
'My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!'
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away."
Breaking Bad is in itself a science experiment. The meticulous detailed nature with which Vince Gilligan has told his story is like watching science unfold. You are presented with something that can happen. Then you see logical steps that are required for it to unfold. That could be said of both episodes and of the series as a whole. No stone is left unturned and everything is there for a reason. But as the plain dessert returns and the new scene fades into view, we see something very horrifying. What if science was tossed away? What if the experiment was governed by the man Walter White became after that phone call; a man driven by insecurity and ego, a man who believed he could make the experiment yield the results he wanted to simply because he said so. Chances are the results of that experiment would not produce the results one sought.
The results of the Breaking Bad experiment were played out to the most terrifying ends in Ozymandias. Our new scene that faded into view was a familiar one. It was the end of the shootout that ended last weeks episode, To'hajiilee. From there the episode plays out as our worst fears coming true. Hank is wounded and staring his fate down bravely as a gun is pointed at his head with Gomie lying dead next to him. Walt continues to fight for Hank's life, offering up even his 80 million that is buried under their feet. But finally Hank gives Walt the harsh truth he was needing: "You're the smartest guy I know. How can you not see he made up his mind ten minutes ago?" Hank seems to realize that Walt can't just make things work out the way he wants because he says so. And as Hank falls to the ground with the life having left him, Walt seems to do the same. Lying there it appears that all of his power, all of Heisenberg is leaving him and he is going to be left there to suffer in a pathetic state similar to the one we met him in five years ago when he found out about his cancer as a broke teacher. But as Todd and his family are taking their money and doing their cleanup work, Walt seems drag back to life as Heisenberg fights his way back into his being. And as the pain leaves, the hate re-appears forcing him to commit yet another unthinkable act.
He turns Jesse in. Seeing him under the car Walt gives him up. He wants the job he paid for to be done. But Todd decides it would be better to find out what Jesse told Hank. Jesse clearly knows his fate. The fear that sets is on Aaron Paul's face is heart breaking as his character gets offered up to the most viscous of men. But before they leave Walt decides he has one more favor to return to Jesse. And in one of the show's greatest callbacks he tells Jesse in gruesome detail about how he watched Jane die. One good spit in the face deserves another I guess.
As if all of this weren't enough emotional terror to put a viewer through in one hour, after those opening fifteen minutes (fifteen minutes!) it only got worse. And this is the point at which I have to stop describing every scene as if there is subtext. The horror is just played out for all of us to suffer through. Marie goes to the car wash to tell Skylar that Walt has been captured and to force her to tell Flynn (I'm pretty sure he is never going by Walt Jr. ever again.). The pain and disbelief that burst out of R.J. Mitte was spectacular. Throughout the series he has not always been given a lot to do. But this season he has, and he delivered at every turn, showing real versatility.
We get a brief respite from the pain, grief and terror of the White's to see Jesse beaten, getting chained to the ceiling as he stares with tear filled eyes at picture of Andrea and Brock as Todd walks and says "Lets cook", as pleasant as ever. But we quickly return to the White's who are now back at home. Skylar and Flynn come home to find Walt packing for an imminent departure. But as the truth of why he is not in jail as they had been told by Marie becomes revealed and things quickly boil over.
The shot was so simple and beautiful. Would she go for the knife or the phone? And Skylar went for the knife. And then I actually had to get up and leave. I was literally shaking! And I couldn't stop! I have to say it only helped a little. Just the noise of that fight was enough to keep me at my wit's ends. But then Flynn saved his mom, along with my emotional state. And just as we thought all possible awful acts had been exhausted Walt kidnaps his own daughter!
Then comes the phone call. Walt calls Skylar. When he is told by a very generous pause that the police are listening in, he begins his final lie. And with all the bile of Heisenberg at his worst he rips Skylar apart, and in the process exonerates her. It was a gut wrenching scene that ended one of the most gut wrenching episodes of television ever. Watching Bryan Cranston thunder away so abusively was just horrifying. Watching him do it with the pauses to correct his lies mid-sentence and the tears running down his face was otherworldly. And then just like that, after leaving Holly behind for her mother, Walt leaves. We all knew the trip to New Hampshire was coming but what a relief it was to get there the end of that hour.
As I said earlier, Breaking Bad plays out like the science experiments cooked up in that beat up RV. But unlike those, in which the outcome is the spectacular blue that prints green, the shows experiment didn't end so well. Let me reiterate after that understatement that I almost had a nervous breakdown during a scene that is described as the most horrifying five words possible: HUSBAND AND WIFE KNIFE FIGHT!!! And that was because the shows main character didn't treat the lives of his fellow characters or the plot of his life with the same respect he treated a cook of meth. And in this episode we saw the outcome. And it was carried out mercilessly in one brutal hour(the most brutal hour). The results of Walt's life as Vince Gilligan's little science experiment? Well, I'll let Percy Shelley tell you:
'My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!'
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away."
Wednesday, September 11, 2013
Breaking Bad To'hajiilee Recap
tv: And here we are. Its time to set aside the meanings beneath the surface, push away from our minds the significance of camera angles, and let go all the thoughts of what will be. Its time to just relish in the fifth episode of this part of season five: To'hajiilee. This was a significant episode four two reasons. One was that it marked the passing of the halfway point of the final eight episodes, thus making viewers believe that we would begin to careen off a cliff towards the end of the series. The second reason was that this was Michelle Maclaren's, the best of Breaking Bad's fantastic directors, final episode. This recap may read as a love letter to Maclaren, but I'm OK with that. This was certainly her masterpiece.
The first half of the episode was an actually lighter version of Breaking Bad. With the teaser being almost cute. Despite the tension of the other side of the phone call that ended last weeks episode, where Walt puts a hit on Jesse using Todd and his Nazi family to carry it out, the lasting image of scene will be Todd and Lydia sitting at the table as Sherrie played on the radio. Not since last seeing the Lannisters have I been lightened by a scene about a crush between such terrible people. And it really was the radio that made it. Usually those are moments for love songs to swell in the soundtrack. But just having it play in the background actually on the radio almost took you out of the setting they were actually in, until you realized that they were flirting by talking about meth.
From there the episode continued its slower pace. We got to see Hank and Jesse and Gomez continuing their investigation of Walt. Their quest: to find his money. And what better way to do that than question Huell. The fun in watching Hank not even hide the fact that he is just outright lying to him was great. He knew this wasn't Heisenberg, no subtlety was needed. And Huell responded perfectly in turn, giving Hank everything he needed to keep looking for Walt's money without a thought of questioning the good police officer. It has been said in recent episodes that some of Hank's lying might be blurring some lines. But this was not about good and bad. This was just about getting another hilarious moment with Huell amid all the darkness in these characters lives.
We got one more fun moment. Watching Skylar and Flynn at the car wash as she was training him and letting him work was delightful. Not only was Flynn's interaction with Saul priceless as he stared at "the guy on the billboard" like he was a rock star, but watching he and Skylar interact may be the first time since, well I don't know when, that we got to witness the White's as a loving family where there were no secrets being kept or ulterior motives on display.
And then the phone call came. The engine roared. And the trademark tension of Maclaren's episodes kicked into full gear. With Walt racing towards his trap in the desert to save his money, the noise of his engine was almost deafening. In an episode with no music and only light conversation it was enough to jar you into remembering what show you were really watching. And as hearts raced almost as fast as Walt's car while blowing red lights as he tried to save his empire, there couldn't have been another second of that scene that was bearable. And then he arrived.
He turned off the car. And we were enveloped by the desert. And we were back into silence with nothing but the sound of Walt's dusty footsteps as he surveyed the setting of his imminent demise. Suddenly I missed the sound of that car engine. Anything would have been better than nothing. If screaming would have helped I would have. But then things just would have gone silent again when I ran out of breath.
Hiding behind a rock watching his enemies arrive, Walt calls Todd to tell him where to go to find Jesse. And then he stops as both of his weaknesses have been exploited. His greed got him into this mess and his family is going to keep him there as he sees Hank get out of the car and call off the hit. As Walt sighs realizing his defeat, the camera pulls in, giving us a look at the face we have grown to fear now just allowing itself to sadly face defeat(Bryan Cranston got the role of Walt because of an episode of the X-Files that Vince Gilligan wrote. He played an anti-Semite who would die if he didn't keep heading west. Gilligan said it was Cranston's ability to make such a despicable man sympathetic that got him the role of Walt. And in that moment I understood. I have called Walt the devil as much as anyone, but in that moment I felt bad for him. Like, I wanted to cry feeling bad.). Walt then gives himself up, quietly walking to Hank with his hands in the air. He says nothing. Just gets up and walks.
I was hoping to be happy for Hank when he got his moment, when he finally won. But it was just so hard. I started thinking about how far outside the law he had gone to capture Walt. I saw the smiles on Jesse's and Gomez's faces. I watched as Hank was given the honor of reading Walt his rights. And proud of Hank as you could be, there was no way it could be that simple. And then the final stroke fell as Hank called Marie. Their conversation about Hank's victory and how things would get better could be seen as heavy-handed by some, but it was necessary. And also the final blow that let us all know that things were not actually going to get better.
I don't think it is quite fair to try and rehash the brutal intensity of the gun fight in the desert that capped off what has been a western of a season. So let's take a moment to talk about Maclaren. She has been responsible for some the show's best and most tense moments. She directed One Minute, giving us the shootout in the parking lot between Hank and the twins. She directed a personal favorite, Madrigal in season five, which gave me two of my favorite moments of the entire series. Watching the introduction that told the story of the death of Her Schueler was one of the most spellbinding mini-stories I have ever seen on television. That was also the episode where we met Lydia, and Laura Frazier pleaded not for her life but for her child to find her dead body so that she knew her mom wasn't a deadbeat that left. Maclaren's other 2012 credit was for the mid-season finale Gliding Over All, featuring prison murders and the immortal Crystal Blue Persuasion montage and the Hank on the toilet learning about Walt moment. This year she already directed the second episode which featured the fight between Marie and Skylar, a scene that was both so intense and frightening that I almost had to walk away.
And now that we see what moments she has already provided for the show it is no wonder that Maclaren was given this as her final episode. And what a more fitting way for her to walk out than with that ending. As the bullets flew, leaving us no idea of who lived or died, just with our hearts racing and our lungs reaching for breath, the master of the most intense show on television's most intense moments walked away. I have no doubt that Rian Johnson will be more than capable of picking up the rest of that scene in the next episode and taking us further towards whatever Mr. Lambert has in store in his return to Albuquerque. But watching To'hajiilee was the perfect beginning of the end as we didn't careen off that cliff I alluded to earlier. Instead Maclaren hung us off that cliff and then just let a tidal wave hit it.
The first half of the episode was an actually lighter version of Breaking Bad. With the teaser being almost cute. Despite the tension of the other side of the phone call that ended last weeks episode, where Walt puts a hit on Jesse using Todd and his Nazi family to carry it out, the lasting image of scene will be Todd and Lydia sitting at the table as Sherrie played on the radio. Not since last seeing the Lannisters have I been lightened by a scene about a crush between such terrible people. And it really was the radio that made it. Usually those are moments for love songs to swell in the soundtrack. But just having it play in the background actually on the radio almost took you out of the setting they were actually in, until you realized that they were flirting by talking about meth.
From there the episode continued its slower pace. We got to see Hank and Jesse and Gomez continuing their investigation of Walt. Their quest: to find his money. And what better way to do that than question Huell. The fun in watching Hank not even hide the fact that he is just outright lying to him was great. He knew this wasn't Heisenberg, no subtlety was needed. And Huell responded perfectly in turn, giving Hank everything he needed to keep looking for Walt's money without a thought of questioning the good police officer. It has been said in recent episodes that some of Hank's lying might be blurring some lines. But this was not about good and bad. This was just about getting another hilarious moment with Huell amid all the darkness in these characters lives.
We got one more fun moment. Watching Skylar and Flynn at the car wash as she was training him and letting him work was delightful. Not only was Flynn's interaction with Saul priceless as he stared at "the guy on the billboard" like he was a rock star, but watching he and Skylar interact may be the first time since, well I don't know when, that we got to witness the White's as a loving family where there were no secrets being kept or ulterior motives on display.
And then the phone call came. The engine roared. And the trademark tension of Maclaren's episodes kicked into full gear. With Walt racing towards his trap in the desert to save his money, the noise of his engine was almost deafening. In an episode with no music and only light conversation it was enough to jar you into remembering what show you were really watching. And as hearts raced almost as fast as Walt's car while blowing red lights as he tried to save his empire, there couldn't have been another second of that scene that was bearable. And then he arrived.
He turned off the car. And we were enveloped by the desert. And we were back into silence with nothing but the sound of Walt's dusty footsteps as he surveyed the setting of his imminent demise. Suddenly I missed the sound of that car engine. Anything would have been better than nothing. If screaming would have helped I would have. But then things just would have gone silent again when I ran out of breath.
Hiding behind a rock watching his enemies arrive, Walt calls Todd to tell him where to go to find Jesse. And then he stops as both of his weaknesses have been exploited. His greed got him into this mess and his family is going to keep him there as he sees Hank get out of the car and call off the hit. As Walt sighs realizing his defeat, the camera pulls in, giving us a look at the face we have grown to fear now just allowing itself to sadly face defeat(Bryan Cranston got the role of Walt because of an episode of the X-Files that Vince Gilligan wrote. He played an anti-Semite who would die if he didn't keep heading west. Gilligan said it was Cranston's ability to make such a despicable man sympathetic that got him the role of Walt. And in that moment I understood. I have called Walt the devil as much as anyone, but in that moment I felt bad for him. Like, I wanted to cry feeling bad.). Walt then gives himself up, quietly walking to Hank with his hands in the air. He says nothing. Just gets up and walks.
I was hoping to be happy for Hank when he got his moment, when he finally won. But it was just so hard. I started thinking about how far outside the law he had gone to capture Walt. I saw the smiles on Jesse's and Gomez's faces. I watched as Hank was given the honor of reading Walt his rights. And proud of Hank as you could be, there was no way it could be that simple. And then the final stroke fell as Hank called Marie. Their conversation about Hank's victory and how things would get better could be seen as heavy-handed by some, but it was necessary. And also the final blow that let us all know that things were not actually going to get better.
I don't think it is quite fair to try and rehash the brutal intensity of the gun fight in the desert that capped off what has been a western of a season. So let's take a moment to talk about Maclaren. She has been responsible for some the show's best and most tense moments. She directed One Minute, giving us the shootout in the parking lot between Hank and the twins. She directed a personal favorite, Madrigal in season five, which gave me two of my favorite moments of the entire series. Watching the introduction that told the story of the death of Her Schueler was one of the most spellbinding mini-stories I have ever seen on television. That was also the episode where we met Lydia, and Laura Frazier pleaded not for her life but for her child to find her dead body so that she knew her mom wasn't a deadbeat that left. Maclaren's other 2012 credit was for the mid-season finale Gliding Over All, featuring prison murders and the immortal Crystal Blue Persuasion montage and the Hank on the toilet learning about Walt moment. This year she already directed the second episode which featured the fight between Marie and Skylar, a scene that was both so intense and frightening that I almost had to walk away.
And now that we see what moments she has already provided for the show it is no wonder that Maclaren was given this as her final episode. And what a more fitting way for her to walk out than with that ending. As the bullets flew, leaving us no idea of who lived or died, just with our hearts racing and our lungs reaching for breath, the master of the most intense show on television's most intense moments walked away. I have no doubt that Rian Johnson will be more than capable of picking up the rest of that scene in the next episode and taking us further towards whatever Mr. Lambert has in store in his return to Albuquerque. But watching To'hajiilee was the perfect beginning of the end as we didn't careen off that cliff I alluded to earlier. Instead Maclaren hung us off that cliff and then just let a tidal wave hit it.
Monday, September 2, 2013
Breaking Bad: Rabid Dog
tv: After the freak out inducing end of last weeks episode of Breaking Bad, we all wanted to know what was going to become of Jesse's gasoline rampage. This weeks episode, Rabid Dog, did not disappoint. Starting right where we left off last week Walt pulled up to his house to see the car that Jesse left askew in his driveway. Gun in hand, Walt enters his gasoline soaked house. Silence. And as the droning music rises with a beat slower than the beat of the racing hearts watching the scene we get three words: "Jesse, show yourself!" But no one is revealed to Walt.
The episode then begins with Walt, with no success, trying to pay a cleaning crew to get the gas out of his carpets. The money isn't the problem, the gas just won't come out. And the scheme begins. We watch Walt's actions as he douses various belongings, his clothes and his car in gas. The trap has been set. Skylar returns from a shopping trip with her husband ready to begin his lies. But unlike last week when Walt produced his greatest lie on tape for his brother-in-law, no one was buying it. Flynn immediately attributes his gas pump malfunction story to his cancer and the fact that Walt, with all his pride, didn't want to admit that he passed out again (another lie). Skylar goes right along with Walt's story. They decide to relocate to a hotel because of the gas and for Walt, of course, because of the one who put it there.
Once at the hotel, under the ruse of going for ice, Walt holds a meeting with Saul. With Jesse still out there and his whereabouts unknown, Saul suggests that Jesse be dealt with like Old Yeller. And Walt reacts with by saying that that would never be an option, a reaction Old Yeller's owners surely had before facing their situation truthfully. But Walt doesn't yet see it that way. He is going to hold on to those lies he tells himself, as well as the ones he told everyone else, for as long as he can. And when he returns to his room he is forced to hold on them as tight as he can. His ice story doesn't fly. Skylar, drunk and in bed, stares down the husband that just last season terrorized her in this very scenario by screaming at her to tell him her plan to stop him, and tells him she knows all his lies.
It was amazing to see this seen play out. In seasons past Walter would have terrorized his wife. Or come up with a plan or simply stated something so bold and crazy that Skylar would have realized she doesn't need two hands to count people who knock on doors. But now, with Jesse missing, he simply shrinks under her accusations. And finally, just shrugs and lies to himself. He talks himself into believing that Jesse stopped because of their friendship. He talks about how Jesse is a good kid who is just emotional. And he is the only one buying what he is selling now.
And in one final act of defiance Skylar suggests that Walt kill Jesse. Because if he were being honest, why not? He's done it before for worse reasons than someone threatening to burn his house down. But Walt will just not hear this. Meanwhile, all anyone (both in the show and out of it) wants to know is where's Jesse?
Jesse kicks the door down and we get a replay of the end of last weeks episode. But we quickly get the answer as fast as all the others have been coming this season. Hank walks in and talks Jesse off the ledge. He answers to Jesse's plea that Mr. White has to pay for what he has done. And off they go to the one place in the world Jesse never thought he'd be crashing. Not the Enterprise where pie eating contests occur regularly, but Hank's home. Marie returns home to find her husband has packed a bag so that she doesn't have to deal with their new house guest. But after witnessing Marie's most recent therapy session, where we watch her talk out in code her feelings about Walt, we know she isn't going anywhere if the person in her guest room can help hurt Walt. It must be noted (I am probably going to gush over the cast every week. That's not what I'm noting) how amazing Betsy Brandt was in that scene. Watching jitter and sniffle on the edge of a knife balancing her anger and confusion and sadness and fear while discussing googling untraceable poisons was breathtaking. Possibly even the best therapy session since Tony Soprano stopped going to see Dr. Melfi.
There was a real fun to watching Jesse wake up from his nap at Hank's house. With the scene shot in very wide and long and deep sets and camera angles, there was an almost surreal sense to the mundanity Jesse had just awoke in the middle of that bordered on hilarious. But just as his coffee is being delivered to him (in a DEA mug! Cymbal crash!) the real world comes right back to him. He sees the camera being set up. And as the scene at Hank's house between he and Jesse and Gomez plays out, the truth pours out from Jesse. He explains that he has no evidence of Walt's crimes. And then he gives his own confession. And based on the discussion that follows, it stuck closer to the true events than Walt's did. And just to mirror the reactions of the two people Walt was stuck with all episode, we see Hank and Gomez agree that they believe Jesse. People are believing him. And before Jesse and his two new DEA agent friends decide to put there plan in motion to take down Walt, Jesse gives them the final truth: "Mr. White, he's the Devil."
Once the final scene begins we are thrust back into the intensity we hadn't felt since Walt stormed his own home gun in hand at the beginning of the episode. And as a wired Jesse approached his meeting with Walt, that swell and that bass returned. And so did all the racing hearts. And just like in the beginning, the conflict didn't happen. Only this time, Jesse walked away with a threat and a plan to "get Mr. White where it will hurt most," and not the sad sack of lies we saw Walt concoct earlier.
This was an episode all about doubles. The lies of Walt and the truths of Jesse. Those new people who believe Jesse and those who have been with Walt longest who see right through him now. The two confessions. The thrilling beginning and end that both end with a phone call and a plan. We see Walt's reaction to Jesse's threat of a plan. He gets on the phone to call Todd and have his white supremacist family kill Jesse. But even this felt like one last lie this time from Walt to us the viewer. Because it has to be Walt that kills Jesse, it can't be anybody else. Jesse never tells us his plan, but I believe he has one, and that its a good one. He certainly at this point doesn't seem like a rabid dog anymore, no longer just looking to lash out in irrational rage. He now looks like a dog looking to bite his abusive owner, and nobody else.
The episode then begins with Walt, with no success, trying to pay a cleaning crew to get the gas out of his carpets. The money isn't the problem, the gas just won't come out. And the scheme begins. We watch Walt's actions as he douses various belongings, his clothes and his car in gas. The trap has been set. Skylar returns from a shopping trip with her husband ready to begin his lies. But unlike last week when Walt produced his greatest lie on tape for his brother-in-law, no one was buying it. Flynn immediately attributes his gas pump malfunction story to his cancer and the fact that Walt, with all his pride, didn't want to admit that he passed out again (another lie). Skylar goes right along with Walt's story. They decide to relocate to a hotel because of the gas and for Walt, of course, because of the one who put it there.
Once at the hotel, under the ruse of going for ice, Walt holds a meeting with Saul. With Jesse still out there and his whereabouts unknown, Saul suggests that Jesse be dealt with like Old Yeller. And Walt reacts with by saying that that would never be an option, a reaction Old Yeller's owners surely had before facing their situation truthfully. But Walt doesn't yet see it that way. He is going to hold on to those lies he tells himself, as well as the ones he told everyone else, for as long as he can. And when he returns to his room he is forced to hold on them as tight as he can. His ice story doesn't fly. Skylar, drunk and in bed, stares down the husband that just last season terrorized her in this very scenario by screaming at her to tell him her plan to stop him, and tells him she knows all his lies.
It was amazing to see this seen play out. In seasons past Walter would have terrorized his wife. Or come up with a plan or simply stated something so bold and crazy that Skylar would have realized she doesn't need two hands to count people who knock on doors. But now, with Jesse missing, he simply shrinks under her accusations. And finally, just shrugs and lies to himself. He talks himself into believing that Jesse stopped because of their friendship. He talks about how Jesse is a good kid who is just emotional. And he is the only one buying what he is selling now.
And in one final act of defiance Skylar suggests that Walt kill Jesse. Because if he were being honest, why not? He's done it before for worse reasons than someone threatening to burn his house down. But Walt will just not hear this. Meanwhile, all anyone (both in the show and out of it) wants to know is where's Jesse?
Jesse kicks the door down and we get a replay of the end of last weeks episode. But we quickly get the answer as fast as all the others have been coming this season. Hank walks in and talks Jesse off the ledge. He answers to Jesse's plea that Mr. White has to pay for what he has done. And off they go to the one place in the world Jesse never thought he'd be crashing. Not the Enterprise where pie eating contests occur regularly, but Hank's home. Marie returns home to find her husband has packed a bag so that she doesn't have to deal with their new house guest. But after witnessing Marie's most recent therapy session, where we watch her talk out in code her feelings about Walt, we know she isn't going anywhere if the person in her guest room can help hurt Walt. It must be noted (I am probably going to gush over the cast every week. That's not what I'm noting) how amazing Betsy Brandt was in that scene. Watching jitter and sniffle on the edge of a knife balancing her anger and confusion and sadness and fear while discussing googling untraceable poisons was breathtaking. Possibly even the best therapy session since Tony Soprano stopped going to see Dr. Melfi.
There was a real fun to watching Jesse wake up from his nap at Hank's house. With the scene shot in very wide and long and deep sets and camera angles, there was an almost surreal sense to the mundanity Jesse had just awoke in the middle of that bordered on hilarious. But just as his coffee is being delivered to him (in a DEA mug! Cymbal crash!) the real world comes right back to him. He sees the camera being set up. And as the scene at Hank's house between he and Jesse and Gomez plays out, the truth pours out from Jesse. He explains that he has no evidence of Walt's crimes. And then he gives his own confession. And based on the discussion that follows, it stuck closer to the true events than Walt's did. And just to mirror the reactions of the two people Walt was stuck with all episode, we see Hank and Gomez agree that they believe Jesse. People are believing him. And before Jesse and his two new DEA agent friends decide to put there plan in motion to take down Walt, Jesse gives them the final truth: "Mr. White, he's the Devil."
Once the final scene begins we are thrust back into the intensity we hadn't felt since Walt stormed his own home gun in hand at the beginning of the episode. And as a wired Jesse approached his meeting with Walt, that swell and that bass returned. And so did all the racing hearts. And just like in the beginning, the conflict didn't happen. Only this time, Jesse walked away with a threat and a plan to "get Mr. White where it will hurt most," and not the sad sack of lies we saw Walt concoct earlier.
This was an episode all about doubles. The lies of Walt and the truths of Jesse. Those new people who believe Jesse and those who have been with Walt longest who see right through him now. The two confessions. The thrilling beginning and end that both end with a phone call and a plan. We see Walt's reaction to Jesse's threat of a plan. He gets on the phone to call Todd and have his white supremacist family kill Jesse. But even this felt like one last lie this time from Walt to us the viewer. Because it has to be Walt that kills Jesse, it can't be anybody else. Jesse never tells us his plan, but I believe he has one, and that its a good one. He certainly at this point doesn't seem like a rabid dog anymore, no longer just looking to lash out in irrational rage. He now looks like a dog looking to bite his abusive owner, and nobody else.
Monday, August 26, 2013
Breaking Bad: Confessions Recap
tv: Fear is an interesting thing. It is said that how we deal with it defines us. But is what often meant by that is that how we deal with it is what separates strong people from weak people. While there may be truth in the latter statement, it is more a combination of the two that is the most accurate. How we deal with our fears is what both defines us and separates us. But this has nothing to do with strength. It is simply to be taken at face value. Individually, our reactions to facing something that frightens us is a defining part of what separates us and defines a part of who we are. And often our fears are different, making our reactions different. If you fear fire, do you run towards the burning building or keep a safe distance? If you fear an alien invasion, do you bust out the tin foil and go to work?
In the third episode of Breaking Bad's final season, Confessions, the fear of all of the characters was brought into focus. The episode began with Todd retelling the story of the train heist in dead freight with both a fear and admiration for Walt, the mastermind behind what he called the biggest heist ever. He also took care to leave Walt a voicemail about the shoot out in Phoenix and the change of management. He just thought Walt would want to know, because well, you know. Or not just, you know, but because Todd is still in firm belief that if his former boss doesn't know all the details there will be hell to pay, despite the fact that Walt is trying to live in a world where the word former still applies. And just before the periodic table comes into view we see the very methlamine from the train heist, no doubt fatefully, heading back to Albuquerque.
Post teaser the episode picks up right where we left off last week. Hank is getting his golden opportunity to swim instead of sink in his investigation of his brother-in law by interviewing Jesse. Hank has totally reversed his feelings about Jesse. Or at least he has gone from hating him to just not caring what happens to him. His focus is on Walt. He tells Jesse he has no interest in him and is just after the man known as Heisenberg. At the sound of that name Jesse can't help but react. And thus the dance begins as they trade knowing glances over the monster they both are dealing with. Hank just wants him to be brought to justice. Jesse just wants out of that cell. He knows that even prison can't keep him safe from Walt's wrath. But before any progress can be made Saul comes to Jesse's rescue and firmly reminds him that because of what Walt has become and what his rage can bring people, this is about as bad a situation can be.
Walt meanwhile is trying to deal with his sister-in-law. After a pulse pounding attempt to take the kids out of his house in last weeks episode, Marie tries a more subtle approach. But Walt is wise to the true meaning of computer problems and decides to keep his son at home. He does so trough the guilt Junior feels over leaving his dad after being told that Walt's cancer has returned. But evil as the Joker himself, Walt fits his story to his new situation. I don't know if we will ever know what the truth is about his cancer. I don't know if I need to. Its use as just another tool in his manipulative box is more effective at this point.
Knowing that these acts to separate his family makes a bold move against Hank. He makes a confession tape. But first the Whites and Schraders meet for dinner. Walt and Skylar look talk there way out of there troubles one least time in a scene tailor made for Breaking Bad. As the tension ratchets to a breaking point it ends up being only broken by comedy relief and an offer of fresh guacamole that few besides these four could resist. Hell, its made at your table! But through it all Marie gets in her mata-commentary when she asks if Walt will kill himself. "All of this will just end if you die," she pleads. And isn't that just the truth.
And then we see The Confession. A jarring retelling of the plot of the entire series in an alternate reality that plays itself as threat to every fiber of Hank's credibility as a good guy, portraying him as the mastermind behind all of Walt's evil doings. The only thing more frightening than the fact that I can actually imagine a show of what Walt confesses is the performance itself. We have seen actors act within acting before, playing a person pretending to be something they are not. And while I don't doubt the difficulty of that type of performance or the imagination it takes, there is always one defining characteristic. You can always tell the character is acting. What made Bryan Cranston's performance during his confession so jarring was that he seemed to decide not play it as if acting. He played it as if this was the story that he had actually been telling for five years and the one his character's foundation was built upon. And while I doubt there is anyone who will doubt Cranston's ability as actor, it was that decision that made the performance so jarring, terrifying, and sociopathic.
Walt's confession is followed by a meeting in the dessert to to assess the damage of Jesse's being interviewed by Hank. Once Walt has heard everything he decides to advise Jesse. He puts on the fatherly hat and asks Jesse to call Saul's carpet cleaner and leave and start anew. But instead of Jesse just accepting Walt's manipulation quietly he fires back. Jesse asks him to just ask that this favor be done for Walt's own good. And then throws the final dagger by showing that he knows that this meeting is in its chosen location so that if he refuses Walt will kill him "like he killed Mike". And finally Heisenberg is speechless.
The episodes strongest symbol of fear happened in the following scene as Walt returned to his carwash. He finds Skylar in their office clearly grappling with the morality of The Confession. Hidden in shadows, Walt is allowed to embody his wife's fears about whether or not the right decision was made and the monster behind that decision. The entire scene is shot from Skylar's height. From her point of view she is looking up at the shadow and specter of evil looming over her. When the discussion is shown from Walt's point of view he appears as a shadow hovering above her. But always just a shadow. The dark presence he as so totally become.
From there the episodes breath taking final sequence begins as Jesse prepares to get lost for good. Sitting in Saul's office as he is reminded as the call is made for the vacuum cleaner to come and suck away the dirt and wipe clean the slate for Jesse's new life (I know, but those were just too easy.) Saul tells Jesse there are no take backs, revisiting a familiar theme most commonly known through the titles of the third seasons final two episodes. In this world you cannot go half measure. You can only go to the full measure. But as Jesse is getting to go, Saul's careful lifting of his weed lifts the vale off of something from his past. He realizes now who stole the ricen cigarette and poisoned Brock. And if there is one thing we know about Jesse it is that he loves kids. And while Walt has been complicit in some terrible things that have happened to kids, Jesse now knows he actually did something to a kid, and one he cared about on a personal level. And as the episode steamrolled towards its final scene we saw Jesse snap out of it, and when he did the wheels came off the bus as he literally through gasoline on the growing fire that is the journey towards the end of this series. He knows there are no take backs. And with his decision to go after Walt for what he did to Brock it seems he has no interest in them anymore.
Confessions may end up being remembered as the finest episode of this last half season. It seems that Vince Gilligan and the writing staff are bent on confounding our expectations and blowing up every "how's it going to end?" by pushing the pace of these final episodes and allowing the characters act as there own agents of destruction. But more importantly it will be one of, if not this seasons finest episodes because it showed the the best of what it had to offer. Walt acted as a Beacon of terror and fear at the center of everything that unfolded and we got to watch the rest of the characters react around him each in their own turn. And the finest cast on television showed that they were up to the task. And in doing so they showed that there characters strength was not defined by how they dealt with that fear. But in dealing with it differently, their fear was part of what did define a piece of them and was just one more part of the separation between these compelling individuals. Their fear, however, was rooted in the same evil.
In the third episode of Breaking Bad's final season, Confessions, the fear of all of the characters was brought into focus. The episode began with Todd retelling the story of the train heist in dead freight with both a fear and admiration for Walt, the mastermind behind what he called the biggest heist ever. He also took care to leave Walt a voicemail about the shoot out in Phoenix and the change of management. He just thought Walt would want to know, because well, you know. Or not just, you know, but because Todd is still in firm belief that if his former boss doesn't know all the details there will be hell to pay, despite the fact that Walt is trying to live in a world where the word former still applies. And just before the periodic table comes into view we see the very methlamine from the train heist, no doubt fatefully, heading back to Albuquerque.
Post teaser the episode picks up right where we left off last week. Hank is getting his golden opportunity to swim instead of sink in his investigation of his brother-in law by interviewing Jesse. Hank has totally reversed his feelings about Jesse. Or at least he has gone from hating him to just not caring what happens to him. His focus is on Walt. He tells Jesse he has no interest in him and is just after the man known as Heisenberg. At the sound of that name Jesse can't help but react. And thus the dance begins as they trade knowing glances over the monster they both are dealing with. Hank just wants him to be brought to justice. Jesse just wants out of that cell. He knows that even prison can't keep him safe from Walt's wrath. But before any progress can be made Saul comes to Jesse's rescue and firmly reminds him that because of what Walt has become and what his rage can bring people, this is about as bad a situation can be.
Walt meanwhile is trying to deal with his sister-in-law. After a pulse pounding attempt to take the kids out of his house in last weeks episode, Marie tries a more subtle approach. But Walt is wise to the true meaning of computer problems and decides to keep his son at home. He does so trough the guilt Junior feels over leaving his dad after being told that Walt's cancer has returned. But evil as the Joker himself, Walt fits his story to his new situation. I don't know if we will ever know what the truth is about his cancer. I don't know if I need to. Its use as just another tool in his manipulative box is more effective at this point.
Knowing that these acts to separate his family makes a bold move against Hank. He makes a confession tape. But first the Whites and Schraders meet for dinner. Walt and Skylar look talk there way out of there troubles one least time in a scene tailor made for Breaking Bad. As the tension ratchets to a breaking point it ends up being only broken by comedy relief and an offer of fresh guacamole that few besides these four could resist. Hell, its made at your table! But through it all Marie gets in her mata-commentary when she asks if Walt will kill himself. "All of this will just end if you die," she pleads. And isn't that just the truth.
And then we see The Confession. A jarring retelling of the plot of the entire series in an alternate reality that plays itself as threat to every fiber of Hank's credibility as a good guy, portraying him as the mastermind behind all of Walt's evil doings. The only thing more frightening than the fact that I can actually imagine a show of what Walt confesses is the performance itself. We have seen actors act within acting before, playing a person pretending to be something they are not. And while I don't doubt the difficulty of that type of performance or the imagination it takes, there is always one defining characteristic. You can always tell the character is acting. What made Bryan Cranston's performance during his confession so jarring was that he seemed to decide not play it as if acting. He played it as if this was the story that he had actually been telling for five years and the one his character's foundation was built upon. And while I doubt there is anyone who will doubt Cranston's ability as actor, it was that decision that made the performance so jarring, terrifying, and sociopathic.
Walt's confession is followed by a meeting in the dessert to to assess the damage of Jesse's being interviewed by Hank. Once Walt has heard everything he decides to advise Jesse. He puts on the fatherly hat and asks Jesse to call Saul's carpet cleaner and leave and start anew. But instead of Jesse just accepting Walt's manipulation quietly he fires back. Jesse asks him to just ask that this favor be done for Walt's own good. And then throws the final dagger by showing that he knows that this meeting is in its chosen location so that if he refuses Walt will kill him "like he killed Mike". And finally Heisenberg is speechless.
The episodes strongest symbol of fear happened in the following scene as Walt returned to his carwash. He finds Skylar in their office clearly grappling with the morality of The Confession. Hidden in shadows, Walt is allowed to embody his wife's fears about whether or not the right decision was made and the monster behind that decision. The entire scene is shot from Skylar's height. From her point of view she is looking up at the shadow and specter of evil looming over her. When the discussion is shown from Walt's point of view he appears as a shadow hovering above her. But always just a shadow. The dark presence he as so totally become.
From there the episodes breath taking final sequence begins as Jesse prepares to get lost for good. Sitting in Saul's office as he is reminded as the call is made for the vacuum cleaner to come and suck away the dirt and wipe clean the slate for Jesse's new life (I know, but those were just too easy.) Saul tells Jesse there are no take backs, revisiting a familiar theme most commonly known through the titles of the third seasons final two episodes. In this world you cannot go half measure. You can only go to the full measure. But as Jesse is getting to go, Saul's careful lifting of his weed lifts the vale off of something from his past. He realizes now who stole the ricen cigarette and poisoned Brock. And if there is one thing we know about Jesse it is that he loves kids. And while Walt has been complicit in some terrible things that have happened to kids, Jesse now knows he actually did something to a kid, and one he cared about on a personal level. And as the episode steamrolled towards its final scene we saw Jesse snap out of it, and when he did the wheels came off the bus as he literally through gasoline on the growing fire that is the journey towards the end of this series. He knows there are no take backs. And with his decision to go after Walt for what he did to Brock it seems he has no interest in them anymore.
Confessions may end up being remembered as the finest episode of this last half season. It seems that Vince Gilligan and the writing staff are bent on confounding our expectations and blowing up every "how's it going to end?" by pushing the pace of these final episodes and allowing the characters act as there own agents of destruction. But more importantly it will be one of, if not this seasons finest episodes because it showed the the best of what it had to offer. Walt acted as a Beacon of terror and fear at the center of everything that unfolded and we got to watch the rest of the characters react around him each in their own turn. And the finest cast on television showed that they were up to the task. And in doing so they showed that there characters strength was not defined by how they dealt with that fear. But in dealing with it differently, their fear was part of what did define a piece of them and was just one more part of the separation between these compelling individuals. Their fear, however, was rooted in the same evil.
Friday, August 16, 2013
breaking bad returns: blood money
tv: As the light bulb turned on in Hank's mind while he did his business in the White household, we the viewer were left with more of a concern for how things were going to for Walter and his newly ended meth business than any sort of epiphany like what we had just watched. In the first part of the fifth and final season of Breaking Bad we had watched Walt descend completely into his evil alter-ego Heisenberg. The hard and fast science that had governed his every decision, much like the show he was a character on, was replaced by a sheer ruthlessness and ego now driven by the little more than the belief that things would work because he said so. Murder was becoming an even more regular part of the business and so was the bold nature of the acts he used to keep it going, be it a train robbery or a mass prison murder or the expansion to sales in the Czech Republic. And despite Skylar finally getting through to her husband after many ill fated attempts by simply asking how much is enough for him to walk away in front of a near mountain of cash, that terror and ego were what we feared would be Walt's undoing now that Hank seemed to finally know his secret. And with Jesse having also quit the business and Mike having "left town" for good, it seemed an almost more doomed fate for televisions most terrifying meth dealer.
The final installment of Breaking Bad began by dealing with one of last summers most talked about mysteries. Our teaser began by picking up with Mr. Lambert after he left the diner with his new car and the arsenal in the trunk. The arrival at what appears to be the former home of the White's affirms the fact that Walt, now as Mr. Lambert, is heading back to his old stomping grounds after some time away to take care of some unfinished business. The terrified nature of poor Carol and the condition of the home, complete with Heisenberg graffiti, gives us a ton of information about what happens between now and then. Walt has been outed as the villain he has become and his family, whether geographically or spiritually, is gone. But it is Walt's purpose for returning to the house that is the real moment. After a years worth of speculation about what the use of the ricen would be, we come to find out that even after things have gotten so bad that Walt had to run, it is still unused. And thus the questions of true endgame have been given to the viewer. Why is Walt back? If getting away wasn't enough, then what is the true end of his story? And of course, who the hell is he going to give the ricen to?
From their the story immediately jumps back to the moment of Hank's epiphany. As Hank stumbles his way to the car for a quick exit, Vince Gilligan and his writers telegraphed the next few moments. Well, mostly. Hank was clearly headed for a stroke or panic attack. But this is Breaking Bad. And so a panic attack immediately becomes a fatal car crash due to a heart attack in the minds of the viewers. Knowing what was to come, the mercy shown to Hank with a quick "oh everything is fine" was much appreciated.
As Hank begins his investigation into his brother in law, Walt spends his time getting faced with two truths. One of which he seems ready to accept and one he seems blind to. While working as a car wash manager for a second time in the show he is greeted by Lydia, our favorite up tight Madrigal employee who has become one of the show's best characters, not to mention being one whom the conspiracy theories swirl around. While Walt's ego allows himself to push through her plea and maintain that walking away from being a drug dealer and manufacturer is as easy all of our favorite just say no slogans, he certainly doesn't seem shocked that his past is in need of a an occasional revisit. And while Lydia is gone for now, the drop in quality of meth is sure to be a source of contention going forward since just saying no isn't always enough to get the temptress of drugs to go away forever. Walt then is forced to once again revisit his past by going to try to talk Jesse out of giving away his five million dollars worth of exit money. In a brilliant as always scene between these two we see Walt working as a master manipulator, trying to win an argument by any means necessary after dismissing a previous evil deed as himself doing just that. But as we see Jesse put the pieces of the past (what we saw in the last two episodes of last summer) we realize that he is on to Walt. And as the camera lingers on him one moment too long at the end of the scene we get the sense that he still isn't buying what Walt is selling.
Walt then heads home for the night. Jesse on the other hand decides to give his blood money away in a different manner. But before that he runs into a a homeless person and offers him some of his money, about a thousand dollars. The suspicion that action is met with seems so base and fundamental and yet is said with just a look that it hit home. This man knows that Jesse didn't get that money for doing nothing and fears the catch that will come with his taking it and the blood that that money will soon leave on his hands. Frustrated by this notion Jesse does the sensible thing and begins the quest of throwing his five million, one thousand dollars at a time, out his car window as if it was the morning paper.
Just as this is all going on Walt decides to go have himself some alone time in the same place that his new adversary did, the master bathroom(by the way, what guest uses the master bathroom, come on Hank.). He even has the same reading taste as he reaches for that old Walt Whitman book that we all know makes for the best bathroom reading. After not being able to find his book, Walt begins to put the pieces together himself. This is where the only crazy theory from me will come into play (really, I promise!). Walt runs outside to check his car and finds a tracking device. I can't help but believe that this is a bit of a mislead for Walt. He believes it is Hank who put it there and thus decides to confront him. But we as viewers saw such a detailed version of Hank's departure from Walt's house that we know it could not have been Hank. Lydia, however, was at the car wash in a much more sparsely shown scene. I refer to this as Walt looking into the Palantir(sorry, no Tolkien history in this piece. If you don't know what I am talking about you will have to look it up). He is shown an actual truth, that someone is watching him and keeping tabs on him, but the specifics he draws from that conclusion are doomed to falsehood and lead to a catastrophic choice of actions.
Those actions are shown in the final scene. A scene that was easily one of the shows finest ever. Walt goes to see Hank. Walt asks how he is doing after the panic attack and decides to just leave. Here is where Breaking Bad shows its true merit. Having gotten Hank's temperature in terms of his suspicion, the show could easily have ended on Walt walking down the driveway with that devilish smirk. And in those four extra minutes, the ultimate epiphany, much like Hank's at reading the inscription in the Whitman book, happens for the viewer. How could they possibly jam as much story as we all thought they had to cover into just eight episodes? The answer became simple. Have Walt turn on a dime and ask a question his continuingly uncontrollable ego couldn't resist and force us into a moment that should have taken three episodes to get to. I am not going to relive the gory details of this years most memorable television moment. But suffice to say there was nothing as intense as seeing not only two of televisions best (I know I keep saying that but this whole cast goes in that category. Its just true.) thunder away at each other in a moment that we had all spent five years waiting for. And yet when it came upon us we all had to tread carefully for fear of a spell that would drive us off the road like we had just read the words of Whitman.
And here we are. After an episode told with the speed of a methlamine carrying train (there damn fast right?), we now know how everything can be done in a short eight hours. Jesse is out, Walt is outed, and Lydia is trying to drag them all back in. And somewhere in all of that is the reason Mr. Lambert must make his triumphant return to ABQ. I am imagining some sort of combination of the two movies watched by their respective characters last season. Walt going in a blaze of glory after we say hello to the little friends in his trunk. Hank finally getting a criminal worthy of his skill as a detective and out of brotherly love getting that hand hold at the airport. But of course I am probably wrong. Vince Gilligan is smarter than me. And he maybe has not shown it more than in Blood Money.
The final installment of Breaking Bad began by dealing with one of last summers most talked about mysteries. Our teaser began by picking up with Mr. Lambert after he left the diner with his new car and the arsenal in the trunk. The arrival at what appears to be the former home of the White's affirms the fact that Walt, now as Mr. Lambert, is heading back to his old stomping grounds after some time away to take care of some unfinished business. The terrified nature of poor Carol and the condition of the home, complete with Heisenberg graffiti, gives us a ton of information about what happens between now and then. Walt has been outed as the villain he has become and his family, whether geographically or spiritually, is gone. But it is Walt's purpose for returning to the house that is the real moment. After a years worth of speculation about what the use of the ricen would be, we come to find out that even after things have gotten so bad that Walt had to run, it is still unused. And thus the questions of true endgame have been given to the viewer. Why is Walt back? If getting away wasn't enough, then what is the true end of his story? And of course, who the hell is he going to give the ricen to?
From their the story immediately jumps back to the moment of Hank's epiphany. As Hank stumbles his way to the car for a quick exit, Vince Gilligan and his writers telegraphed the next few moments. Well, mostly. Hank was clearly headed for a stroke or panic attack. But this is Breaking Bad. And so a panic attack immediately becomes a fatal car crash due to a heart attack in the minds of the viewers. Knowing what was to come, the mercy shown to Hank with a quick "oh everything is fine" was much appreciated.
As Hank begins his investigation into his brother in law, Walt spends his time getting faced with two truths. One of which he seems ready to accept and one he seems blind to. While working as a car wash manager for a second time in the show he is greeted by Lydia, our favorite up tight Madrigal employee who has become one of the show's best characters, not to mention being one whom the conspiracy theories swirl around. While Walt's ego allows himself to push through her plea and maintain that walking away from being a drug dealer and manufacturer is as easy all of our favorite just say no slogans, he certainly doesn't seem shocked that his past is in need of a an occasional revisit. And while Lydia is gone for now, the drop in quality of meth is sure to be a source of contention going forward since just saying no isn't always enough to get the temptress of drugs to go away forever. Walt then is forced to once again revisit his past by going to try to talk Jesse out of giving away his five million dollars worth of exit money. In a brilliant as always scene between these two we see Walt working as a master manipulator, trying to win an argument by any means necessary after dismissing a previous evil deed as himself doing just that. But as we see Jesse put the pieces of the past (what we saw in the last two episodes of last summer) we realize that he is on to Walt. And as the camera lingers on him one moment too long at the end of the scene we get the sense that he still isn't buying what Walt is selling.
Walt then heads home for the night. Jesse on the other hand decides to give his blood money away in a different manner. But before that he runs into a a homeless person and offers him some of his money, about a thousand dollars. The suspicion that action is met with seems so base and fundamental and yet is said with just a look that it hit home. This man knows that Jesse didn't get that money for doing nothing and fears the catch that will come with his taking it and the blood that that money will soon leave on his hands. Frustrated by this notion Jesse does the sensible thing and begins the quest of throwing his five million, one thousand dollars at a time, out his car window as if it was the morning paper.
Just as this is all going on Walt decides to go have himself some alone time in the same place that his new adversary did, the master bathroom(by the way, what guest uses the master bathroom, come on Hank.). He even has the same reading taste as he reaches for that old Walt Whitman book that we all know makes for the best bathroom reading. After not being able to find his book, Walt begins to put the pieces together himself. This is where the only crazy theory from me will come into play (really, I promise!). Walt runs outside to check his car and finds a tracking device. I can't help but believe that this is a bit of a mislead for Walt. He believes it is Hank who put it there and thus decides to confront him. But we as viewers saw such a detailed version of Hank's departure from Walt's house that we know it could not have been Hank. Lydia, however, was at the car wash in a much more sparsely shown scene. I refer to this as Walt looking into the Palantir(sorry, no Tolkien history in this piece. If you don't know what I am talking about you will have to look it up). He is shown an actual truth, that someone is watching him and keeping tabs on him, but the specifics he draws from that conclusion are doomed to falsehood and lead to a catastrophic choice of actions.
Those actions are shown in the final scene. A scene that was easily one of the shows finest ever. Walt goes to see Hank. Walt asks how he is doing after the panic attack and decides to just leave. Here is where Breaking Bad shows its true merit. Having gotten Hank's temperature in terms of his suspicion, the show could easily have ended on Walt walking down the driveway with that devilish smirk. And in those four extra minutes, the ultimate epiphany, much like Hank's at reading the inscription in the Whitman book, happens for the viewer. How could they possibly jam as much story as we all thought they had to cover into just eight episodes? The answer became simple. Have Walt turn on a dime and ask a question his continuingly uncontrollable ego couldn't resist and force us into a moment that should have taken three episodes to get to. I am not going to relive the gory details of this years most memorable television moment. But suffice to say there was nothing as intense as seeing not only two of televisions best (I know I keep saying that but this whole cast goes in that category. Its just true.) thunder away at each other in a moment that we had all spent five years waiting for. And yet when it came upon us we all had to tread carefully for fear of a spell that would drive us off the road like we had just read the words of Whitman.
And here we are. After an episode told with the speed of a methlamine carrying train (there damn fast right?), we now know how everything can be done in a short eight hours. Jesse is out, Walt is outed, and Lydia is trying to drag them all back in. And somewhere in all of that is the reason Mr. Lambert must make his triumphant return to ABQ. I am imagining some sort of combination of the two movies watched by their respective characters last season. Walt going in a blaze of glory after we say hello to the little friends in his trunk. Hank finally getting a criminal worthy of his skill as a detective and out of brotherly love getting that hand hold at the airport. But of course I am probably wrong. Vince Gilligan is smarter than me. And he maybe has not shown it more than in Blood Money.
Monday, April 1, 2013
game of thrones returns
tv: Last night Game Of Thrones returned to HBO for the beginning of its third season. The fantasy epic picked up right where it left off last summer. With the screen black we here the screams of what I have now found out George R.R. Martin calls the others, but because that just makes me think of Lost I have to call ice zombies, and the clang of swords in battle. And then Sam appears running across the frozen north. He looks like he has just been face to face for to long with the terror he was bracing for as he hid behind that rock. He is frozen and tired and carries a look that says he has seen hell. And through it all he is still Sam, forgetting send out ravens to tell of what they have seen to warn those south of the wall. And with that scream into the winter that all those we love will not survive, we are welcomed back to Westeros.
From there the episode finds its way, like most others, trekking across the map to check in on how the characters are faring in their various stories. John Snow is taken by Ygritte, his crush above the wall, to see the King Of The North. Shortly after the reveal of the existence of giants, yet another thing said to be lost to the world that we are finding out actually isn't, Snow meets the king and gets the chance to show his worth. After he makes a transparently cheesy plea that the reason he is there for freedom, his admission of the corruption he witnessed among his own men who know of the white walkers earns him the trust of this new king. But for all the honesty on Snow's face and the empathy we can all feel for wanting to fight a pure fight, one can only wonder at Snow's own sincerity towards the wildlings. Not to mention the fact that we all know, after having spent two years in Westeros, that the honorable and honest fight is probably not the one that wins.
From there the story moves on to King's Landing to check in on everyone's favorite first family of incest, the Lannisters. With Tywin now the Hand of the King and Margaery Tyrell set to merry King Joffery, things have certainly continued to press forward. And the Lannisters do in a flurry of the episodes most compelling scenes. It begins when Tyrion is paid a visit by Cersei. As he opens the door, ax in hand, for his sister who is flanked by bodyguards, viewers are braced for a brutal standoff. Instead the scene is a wonderful banter that combines their political and familial struggles. The shows writers, and maybe most importantly Lena Headley, even have a little bit of fun with the tension of these rival siblings when Tyrion asks Cersei how she was aware of a meeting he had requested with their father the hand. Cersei launches into a speech about spies and knowledge and power only to smirk and final admit "Father told me." Oh those playful Lannisters.
From there the Lannister highlight hour of acting heads to that very meeting between Tywin and Tyrion. I spent most of last season praising Charles Dance, who plays Tywin, for his wonderful relationship with Arya Stark that balanced respect with a sly threat in what was some of the second seasons best work. But here we see him in a different light as he slashes his son with words that will scar Tyrion worse than that sword at Blackwater. And Peter Dinklage responds perfectly by saying nothing and simply choking back his words and emotions because, well, its his father.
Robb Stark is rediscovered in what has become the shows typical fashion with him, briefly. But what we get is certainly important as we see the division between he and his mother continue to grow as he chooses to lock her in a cell for releasing Jamie Lannister.
The episode came down the home stretch swimmingly (no pun intended for all those stranded on a rock somewhere) when we found out that not only was Davos still alive after going overboard at Blackwater, but that he would be rescued by none other than Salladhor Saan, whose "I will fuck the queen" speech was one of the more light-hearted and enjoyable moments last year. Despite the welcomed sight of our favorite sex-over-gold pirate, Davos is taken back to Stannis who now seems thoroughly under the control of The Red Lady.
Daenerys was our final stop on the map in the first episode back. We find her training dragons at sea as she figures out how to acquire an army so she can enter the fray. And where she finds that army is, in typical Thrones fashion, a very odd and exciting place. She ends up being pitched on the purchase of an army called the Unsullied. The Unsullied themselves are an odd group, trained with baby slaughtering and having to stand in place for days on end. Oh, and did I forget they are all eunuchs who also don't mind getting their nipples cut off(seriously, only in Westeros). As the wonderful exchange between Daenerys and her non-English speaking used car salesman/army trainer and his very liberal translator (who confirms all of our suspicions that when someone says 33 words it doesn't translate to "yes") we begin to feel the continuing slow burn of her plot line. Time spent in yet another exotic town where strange magic still exists while that war Dany so desperately wants to be a part of and that throne she wants to sit on are still so far off. And then a hood gets removed. Our favorite exiled knight is brought back into the fold. And he likely won't want to wait for his own revenge against the king.
I would have loved to see how Arya and Bran are doing in their parts of the world, as well as getting back to that most wonderful twosome of Lady Brienne and Jamie. But there will always be more time for that. And that is the wonderful thing about this show. We are into the third season and yet can feel that there is still tons of time to go as our characters continue to search Westeros for a way to be brought together for whatever end this story could eventually bring.
But in this one episode it was just a great moment of re-establishment as almost everyone was checked in on so that we knew where things were picking up at. And it was Sansa who at least got the heart of the episode half right. While sitting on the docks of Kings Landing fantasizing about far off lands she says "The truth is either boring or terrible." Well, in Westeros I don't think anything is boring. But the truths faced by all of the characters, whether in the presence of friends, allies, family, enemies, strangers, or those that fall into multiple categories, about what they are facing moving forward was almost entirely, like most things that happen in Westeros, pretty damn horrible when you get down to the truth of it.
From there the episode finds its way, like most others, trekking across the map to check in on how the characters are faring in their various stories. John Snow is taken by Ygritte, his crush above the wall, to see the King Of The North. Shortly after the reveal of the existence of giants, yet another thing said to be lost to the world that we are finding out actually isn't, Snow meets the king and gets the chance to show his worth. After he makes a transparently cheesy plea that the reason he is there for freedom, his admission of the corruption he witnessed among his own men who know of the white walkers earns him the trust of this new king. But for all the honesty on Snow's face and the empathy we can all feel for wanting to fight a pure fight, one can only wonder at Snow's own sincerity towards the wildlings. Not to mention the fact that we all know, after having spent two years in Westeros, that the honorable and honest fight is probably not the one that wins.
From there the story moves on to King's Landing to check in on everyone's favorite first family of incest, the Lannisters. With Tywin now the Hand of the King and Margaery Tyrell set to merry King Joffery, things have certainly continued to press forward. And the Lannisters do in a flurry of the episodes most compelling scenes. It begins when Tyrion is paid a visit by Cersei. As he opens the door, ax in hand, for his sister who is flanked by bodyguards, viewers are braced for a brutal standoff. Instead the scene is a wonderful banter that combines their political and familial struggles. The shows writers, and maybe most importantly Lena Headley, even have a little bit of fun with the tension of these rival siblings when Tyrion asks Cersei how she was aware of a meeting he had requested with their father the hand. Cersei launches into a speech about spies and knowledge and power only to smirk and final admit "Father told me." Oh those playful Lannisters.
From there the Lannister highlight hour of acting heads to that very meeting between Tywin and Tyrion. I spent most of last season praising Charles Dance, who plays Tywin, for his wonderful relationship with Arya Stark that balanced respect with a sly threat in what was some of the second seasons best work. But here we see him in a different light as he slashes his son with words that will scar Tyrion worse than that sword at Blackwater. And Peter Dinklage responds perfectly by saying nothing and simply choking back his words and emotions because, well, its his father.
Robb Stark is rediscovered in what has become the shows typical fashion with him, briefly. But what we get is certainly important as we see the division between he and his mother continue to grow as he chooses to lock her in a cell for releasing Jamie Lannister.
The episode came down the home stretch swimmingly (no pun intended for all those stranded on a rock somewhere) when we found out that not only was Davos still alive after going overboard at Blackwater, but that he would be rescued by none other than Salladhor Saan, whose "I will fuck the queen" speech was one of the more light-hearted and enjoyable moments last year. Despite the welcomed sight of our favorite sex-over-gold pirate, Davos is taken back to Stannis who now seems thoroughly under the control of The Red Lady.
Daenerys was our final stop on the map in the first episode back. We find her training dragons at sea as she figures out how to acquire an army so she can enter the fray. And where she finds that army is, in typical Thrones fashion, a very odd and exciting place. She ends up being pitched on the purchase of an army called the Unsullied. The Unsullied themselves are an odd group, trained with baby slaughtering and having to stand in place for days on end. Oh, and did I forget they are all eunuchs who also don't mind getting their nipples cut off(seriously, only in Westeros). As the wonderful exchange between Daenerys and her non-English speaking used car salesman/army trainer and his very liberal translator (who confirms all of our suspicions that when someone says 33 words it doesn't translate to "yes") we begin to feel the continuing slow burn of her plot line. Time spent in yet another exotic town where strange magic still exists while that war Dany so desperately wants to be a part of and that throne she wants to sit on are still so far off. And then a hood gets removed. Our favorite exiled knight is brought back into the fold. And he likely won't want to wait for his own revenge against the king.
I would have loved to see how Arya and Bran are doing in their parts of the world, as well as getting back to that most wonderful twosome of Lady Brienne and Jamie. But there will always be more time for that. And that is the wonderful thing about this show. We are into the third season and yet can feel that there is still tons of time to go as our characters continue to search Westeros for a way to be brought together for whatever end this story could eventually bring.
But in this one episode it was just a great moment of re-establishment as almost everyone was checked in on so that we knew where things were picking up at. And it was Sansa who at least got the heart of the episode half right. While sitting on the docks of Kings Landing fantasizing about far off lands she says "The truth is either boring or terrible." Well, in Westeros I don't think anything is boring. But the truths faced by all of the characters, whether in the presence of friends, allies, family, enemies, strangers, or those that fall into multiple categories, about what they are facing moving forward was almost entirely, like most things that happen in Westeros, pretty damn horrible when you get down to the truth of it.
Friday, March 29, 2013
mlb preview part one: the national league
sports: With opening day approaching it is time to talk some baseball. Time to talk about the teams potentials outcomes and the effects that certain players will have on them. Today, in part one of my Major League Baseball preview, we will be taking a look at the National League.
We will begin out west. The NL West could prove to be one of the most fascinating divisions in baseball. Whether it is that competitive will remain to be seen, but it should be interesting. The world champion San Francisco Giants bring backs the lions share of their roster from last year. This does largely appear to be a very promising thing. Led by last years MVP Buster Posey, the offense looks to be about on par with last years which was clearly good enough even though not great. Pablo Sandoval should continue to be strong in the middle of the lineup despite his occasional lack of consistency. Brandon Belt and Brandon Crawford showed enough promise last year to expect the two of them to improve this year, and a whole year of Hunter Pence will provide great stability in the five spot behind Posey and Sandoval. The only real area for concern in Marco Scutaro. It would be no surprise if Scutaro had a serviceable year as the teams second basemen, but there is sure to be some considerable regression from the otherworldly run he had late last season and into the playoffs when he was hitting over .400 and over .500 with runners in scoring position. The real strength of the Giants though will once again be their pitching. With Cy Young candidate Matt Cain at the top of rotation and the same depth behind him that brought home the World Series last year, there is no reason not to believe that this will be one of the best staffs in baseball again. And if Tim Lincecum has a bounce back year, that already great staff will be even better. The Giants best competition should come from the Los Angeles Dodgers. The Dodgers have been on an historic spending spree the past year. Bringing in a ton of huge contracts at the end of last year in one of the biggest trades ever. That trade brought in Carl Crawford, Josh Beckett, and Adrian Gonzalez. Then in the off season they brought in Hanley Ramirez from the Marlins. The Dodgers still have Matt Kemp anchoring their lineup as one of the best hitters in the game and former Cy Young winner Clayton Kershaw at the top of their rotation. It will be very difficult to predict how the Dodgers will fare this season. The difference between being merely competitive and a true contender will hinge on whether or not all of the players they brought in live up to their enormous contracts or not. But then again, if they don't the Dodgers may just spend more money and bring in more players to try and right the ship. All anyone can say for sure right now is that their attempt to chase down the Giants should be a lot of fun to watch. The rest of the NL West looks at best to be mediocre. The Arizona Diamondbacks have an excellent young pitching staff lead by Ian Kennedy and last years rookie of the year Wade Smiley. With the acquisition of Brandon McCarthy, Daniel Hudson coming back from surgery, and two blue chip pitching prospects waiting in the wings this could be a really exciting staff to watch. Unfortunately their lineup doesn't have the same quality. And having traded top hitting prospect Trevor Bauer won't help that. The San Diego Padres and Colorado Rockies however will be hoping for .500 at best. The Padres begin the year with their best player, Chase Headley, on the DL and the lineup is filled with young unproven players. For the Rockies its pretty simple. With all the injuries and setbacks last year, things can't get worse this year. Plus they still had at least one all world player in Troy Tulowitzki.
The National League Central should once again this year be the Cincinnati Reds' to lose. Joey Votto should be back to MVP form after his a slow recovery from injury that contributed to his difficult fall. The acquisition of Shin-Soo Chu will provide an upgrade in on-base ability in the lead off hole. And then theirs Jay Bruce. Bruce has great power but strikes out a ton. If he can get that even a little bit under control, Bruce could make the Reds offense almost unstoppable. On the pitching front the Reds bring back one of last years best one-two starting combos in Johnny Cueto and Mat Latos. And while it would have been awfully fun to see Aroldis Chapman in the starting rotation with his 100+ mph fastball, putting the Cuban Missile at the back end of a deep bullpen should make most opponents once again feel like they are playing eight inning games. The St. Louis Cardinals will be looking for a return trip to the post season as well, but doing with with a few more questions than last year. The Cardinals did little to improve their lineup over the off season. They do however have on of the best hitting prospects in the majors in Oscar Taveras. Where he will fit will be an issue though given that Tavaras is an outfielder and the Cardinals already have too many of those already. There will also be questions on the pitching staff as well. Matt Carpenter retired and Kyle Lohse has left for Milwaukee While Adam Wainwright still leads a very strong staff, the injury issues surrounding Jamie Garcia along with those two losses could and should be the difference between strong and great. For the Milwaukee Brewers things are fairly basic. If Ryan Braun can put up his usual MVP numbers and avoid and trouble surrounding the Biogenesis scandal (i'll let you read up on that on your own time), and Lohse and Yovanni Gallardo can be stellar at the top of an otherwise average pitching staff, this team can challenge for a wild card. But if the Biogenesis scandal blows up in Braun's face, it could be a long year for the Brewers. The fourth team in the NL Central that could contend for a playoff spot is the Pittsburgh Pirates. Their lineup is led by Andrew McCutchen, who is coming off an MVP caliber season, and Pedro Alverez who was a great surprise last year hitting thirty home runs. Adding to those two talented young hitters is Brian McCann who will provide some great stability at catcher. The Pirates pitching staff could be a regression candidate after getting some huge seasons from A.J. Burnett and Wandy Rodriguez. But if those two can pitch well again this year and the Pirates stable of pitching prospects can move up to the majors this season, things could finally start looking up in Pittsburgh this year. The Chicago Cubs should round out the bottom of the division this year without the Astros to sit below them. There are some things to be happy about for the Cubs. Starlin Castro and Anthony Rizzo look like the types of young players that could be the cornerstone of a bright future in an otherwise unimpressive lineup. The pitching staff could be good this year for the Cubs though. Jeff Samardzija and Edwin Jackson are solid pitchers and once Matt Garza returns from the DL the starting rotation could look somewhere in the range of Damn Good. But with the team in year two of the Epstein rebuilding plan it should be a tough year in an already tough division.
And now we come to the National League East. The Washington Nationals appear to be so loaded I could probably spend a thousand words just on them. So lets just focus on a few main points. In the lineup there are three things to look at. The addition off Denard Span provides a legit presence in the lead off spot. Bryce Harper should be even better this year than he was last year. And resigning Adam LaRoche kept a coveted big bat in the middle of their lineup. On the pitching side there are two major happenings for the Nats. Taking the innings count off of Stephen Strausburg should be some of the worst news in all of baseball for opposing hitters. And the acquisition of Dan Haren to be the teams number four started should only help the team. Haren may not be his former ace self, but he is still a valuable pitcher and will provide a great veteran leadership for this young team. And now on to the rest of the division that will be chasing the Nationals. The biggest threat to the Nationals will come from the Atlanta Braves. The Braves boast one of the best young outfields in the game. The acquired both of the Upton brothers in the off season. The two of them alongside Jason Heyward will be a fierce outfield both offensively and defensively. The real question for the Braves will come in their pitching for the maybe the first time in twenty years. Can Kris Medlen be the elite pitcher he looked like at the end of last season? Is Mike Minor ready to make a full time jump to the majors? If the answers to these questions, as well as many others about the Braves pitching is yes, then the Braves will be a team that no one wants to play, just like normal. Otherwise things could take a sharp turn back towards mediorcrity. The Philadelphia Phillies are baseballs version of the Boston Celtics. They are a team full of great veterans looking to hang on for one more ride. They go into the season completely healthy. But the age and health of all their star players will be the lynch pin of the teams success this year. And if either start to rear their ugly heads it can all go wrong in a hurry. But if the Rollins-Howard-Utley lineup and the Hamels-Lee-Halladay rotation can put it all together, even if it is just one more time, then anything might be possible. But that's a lot of ifs and if any one of those players has problems it could all fall apart. The New York Mets simply in need of a lot of help. They have David Wright and Ike Davis, who hit a very quiet 32 homers last year in the lineup. But they also have an outfield that projects to be historically bad. Their pitching staff would be intriguing and full of young promise if they had a true ace at the top of it. But they don't. Right now it seems like the Mets are just hoping that some of their young talent, at all positions, can come into its own around Wright. But that is still looking towards the future and not the present. And then there are the Miami Marlins. After spending big last off season, they have completely blown up the team. Their lineup is super-stud Giancarlo Stanton and an aging Juan Pierre and a bunch of guys who still probably need another year in the minors. Their pitching staff, well, I think they're just hoping that one of these young guys works out. Because there is just no established starter in the bunch. It is rebuilding process no. 64651614650610684630 for the Marlins.
There you have it. The American League is coming tomorrow.
We will begin out west. The NL West could prove to be one of the most fascinating divisions in baseball. Whether it is that competitive will remain to be seen, but it should be interesting. The world champion San Francisco Giants bring backs the lions share of their roster from last year. This does largely appear to be a very promising thing. Led by last years MVP Buster Posey, the offense looks to be about on par with last years which was clearly good enough even though not great. Pablo Sandoval should continue to be strong in the middle of the lineup despite his occasional lack of consistency. Brandon Belt and Brandon Crawford showed enough promise last year to expect the two of them to improve this year, and a whole year of Hunter Pence will provide great stability in the five spot behind Posey and Sandoval. The only real area for concern in Marco Scutaro. It would be no surprise if Scutaro had a serviceable year as the teams second basemen, but there is sure to be some considerable regression from the otherworldly run he had late last season and into the playoffs when he was hitting over .400 and over .500 with runners in scoring position. The real strength of the Giants though will once again be their pitching. With Cy Young candidate Matt Cain at the top of rotation and the same depth behind him that brought home the World Series last year, there is no reason not to believe that this will be one of the best staffs in baseball again. And if Tim Lincecum has a bounce back year, that already great staff will be even better. The Giants best competition should come from the Los Angeles Dodgers. The Dodgers have been on an historic spending spree the past year. Bringing in a ton of huge contracts at the end of last year in one of the biggest trades ever. That trade brought in Carl Crawford, Josh Beckett, and Adrian Gonzalez. Then in the off season they brought in Hanley Ramirez from the Marlins. The Dodgers still have Matt Kemp anchoring their lineup as one of the best hitters in the game and former Cy Young winner Clayton Kershaw at the top of their rotation. It will be very difficult to predict how the Dodgers will fare this season. The difference between being merely competitive and a true contender will hinge on whether or not all of the players they brought in live up to their enormous contracts or not. But then again, if they don't the Dodgers may just spend more money and bring in more players to try and right the ship. All anyone can say for sure right now is that their attempt to chase down the Giants should be a lot of fun to watch. The rest of the NL West looks at best to be mediocre. The Arizona Diamondbacks have an excellent young pitching staff lead by Ian Kennedy and last years rookie of the year Wade Smiley. With the acquisition of Brandon McCarthy, Daniel Hudson coming back from surgery, and two blue chip pitching prospects waiting in the wings this could be a really exciting staff to watch. Unfortunately their lineup doesn't have the same quality. And having traded top hitting prospect Trevor Bauer won't help that. The San Diego Padres and Colorado Rockies however will be hoping for .500 at best. The Padres begin the year with their best player, Chase Headley, on the DL and the lineup is filled with young unproven players. For the Rockies its pretty simple. With all the injuries and setbacks last year, things can't get worse this year. Plus they still had at least one all world player in Troy Tulowitzki.
The National League Central should once again this year be the Cincinnati Reds' to lose. Joey Votto should be back to MVP form after his a slow recovery from injury that contributed to his difficult fall. The acquisition of Shin-Soo Chu will provide an upgrade in on-base ability in the lead off hole. And then theirs Jay Bruce. Bruce has great power but strikes out a ton. If he can get that even a little bit under control, Bruce could make the Reds offense almost unstoppable. On the pitching front the Reds bring back one of last years best one-two starting combos in Johnny Cueto and Mat Latos. And while it would have been awfully fun to see Aroldis Chapman in the starting rotation with his 100+ mph fastball, putting the Cuban Missile at the back end of a deep bullpen should make most opponents once again feel like they are playing eight inning games. The St. Louis Cardinals will be looking for a return trip to the post season as well, but doing with with a few more questions than last year. The Cardinals did little to improve their lineup over the off season. They do however have on of the best hitting prospects in the majors in Oscar Taveras. Where he will fit will be an issue though given that Tavaras is an outfielder and the Cardinals already have too many of those already. There will also be questions on the pitching staff as well. Matt Carpenter retired and Kyle Lohse has left for Milwaukee While Adam Wainwright still leads a very strong staff, the injury issues surrounding Jamie Garcia along with those two losses could and should be the difference between strong and great. For the Milwaukee Brewers things are fairly basic. If Ryan Braun can put up his usual MVP numbers and avoid and trouble surrounding the Biogenesis scandal (i'll let you read up on that on your own time), and Lohse and Yovanni Gallardo can be stellar at the top of an otherwise average pitching staff, this team can challenge for a wild card. But if the Biogenesis scandal blows up in Braun's face, it could be a long year for the Brewers. The fourth team in the NL Central that could contend for a playoff spot is the Pittsburgh Pirates. Their lineup is led by Andrew McCutchen, who is coming off an MVP caliber season, and Pedro Alverez who was a great surprise last year hitting thirty home runs. Adding to those two talented young hitters is Brian McCann who will provide some great stability at catcher. The Pirates pitching staff could be a regression candidate after getting some huge seasons from A.J. Burnett and Wandy Rodriguez. But if those two can pitch well again this year and the Pirates stable of pitching prospects can move up to the majors this season, things could finally start looking up in Pittsburgh this year. The Chicago Cubs should round out the bottom of the division this year without the Astros to sit below them. There are some things to be happy about for the Cubs. Starlin Castro and Anthony Rizzo look like the types of young players that could be the cornerstone of a bright future in an otherwise unimpressive lineup. The pitching staff could be good this year for the Cubs though. Jeff Samardzija and Edwin Jackson are solid pitchers and once Matt Garza returns from the DL the starting rotation could look somewhere in the range of Damn Good. But with the team in year two of the Epstein rebuilding plan it should be a tough year in an already tough division.
And now we come to the National League East. The Washington Nationals appear to be so loaded I could probably spend a thousand words just on them. So lets just focus on a few main points. In the lineup there are three things to look at. The addition off Denard Span provides a legit presence in the lead off spot. Bryce Harper should be even better this year than he was last year. And resigning Adam LaRoche kept a coveted big bat in the middle of their lineup. On the pitching side there are two major happenings for the Nats. Taking the innings count off of Stephen Strausburg should be some of the worst news in all of baseball for opposing hitters. And the acquisition of Dan Haren to be the teams number four started should only help the team. Haren may not be his former ace self, but he is still a valuable pitcher and will provide a great veteran leadership for this young team. And now on to the rest of the division that will be chasing the Nationals. The biggest threat to the Nationals will come from the Atlanta Braves. The Braves boast one of the best young outfields in the game. The acquired both of the Upton brothers in the off season. The two of them alongside Jason Heyward will be a fierce outfield both offensively and defensively. The real question for the Braves will come in their pitching for the maybe the first time in twenty years. Can Kris Medlen be the elite pitcher he looked like at the end of last season? Is Mike Minor ready to make a full time jump to the majors? If the answers to these questions, as well as many others about the Braves pitching is yes, then the Braves will be a team that no one wants to play, just like normal. Otherwise things could take a sharp turn back towards mediorcrity. The Philadelphia Phillies are baseballs version of the Boston Celtics. They are a team full of great veterans looking to hang on for one more ride. They go into the season completely healthy. But the age and health of all their star players will be the lynch pin of the teams success this year. And if either start to rear their ugly heads it can all go wrong in a hurry. But if the Rollins-Howard-Utley lineup and the Hamels-Lee-Halladay rotation can put it all together, even if it is just one more time, then anything might be possible. But that's a lot of ifs and if any one of those players has problems it could all fall apart. The New York Mets simply in need of a lot of help. They have David Wright and Ike Davis, who hit a very quiet 32 homers last year in the lineup. But they also have an outfield that projects to be historically bad. Their pitching staff would be intriguing and full of young promise if they had a true ace at the top of it. But they don't. Right now it seems like the Mets are just hoping that some of their young talent, at all positions, can come into its own around Wright. But that is still looking towards the future and not the present. And then there are the Miami Marlins. After spending big last off season, they have completely blown up the team. Their lineup is super-stud Giancarlo Stanton and an aging Juan Pierre and a bunch of guys who still probably need another year in the minors. Their pitching staff, well, I think they're just hoping that one of these young guys works out. Because there is just no established starter in the bunch. It is rebuilding process no. 64651614650610684630 for the Marlins.
There you have it. The American League is coming tomorrow.
Monday, February 18, 2013
happy birthday michael jordan
sports: On February 17th Michael Jordan turned fifty years old. Normally the birthdays of even the most famous athletes is not cause for much more than brief a mention. But as I have found out over the past week or so on various television outlets and in magazines and online, this seems to be a special occasion. Just about every major media outlet was doing retrospectives on Jordan. Reminding us that he is the greatest basketball player ever. They talked about his stats, of which are always just staggering to look at. It is amazing how many lists of NBA accomplishments around between just Jordan and Wilt Chamberlain, or belong to Jordan and no one else. The MVP's, the championships, the scoring titles, even mentioning his streak of ten straight triple doubles during a rather remarkable run by Lebron James recently. We also got to see tons of highlight packages. The dunks and buzzer beaters and fade away jumpers and always that shrug in the 1992 Finals. And every time they ended on that game winning shot that put an exclamation point on the best career in basketball history in the 1998 Finals. Or as Jordan himself said, it was like a perfect bookend. In 1982 his career began at North Carolina with a buzzer beater that put him on the map in the NCAA championship game and it ended that way with the Bulls all those years later.
But beyond the stats and beyond the rings is the impact that Jordan had on young boys around the city of Chicago. People like me, who grew up watching him were given a unique experience. I was nine and living in the southwest suburbs of Chicago when the Bulls won their first championship. Before that I was really only aware of Michael Jordan as this guy who was the biggest star in the city I was from and the dude with the funny Mars Blackman advertisements. I was a baseball fan.
All of a sudden I became aware that the Bulls were going to win the NBA championship in 1991. And that was when everything changed. At some point in that year (I can't remember exactly when) people started saying not that we could win the championship but that we would. I started to pay attention just to see the excitement After the Bulls swept the Pistons in the Conference Finals in a moment that ruined my view of all of those players forever (we'll maybe get to Rodman's redemption later) and Jordan switched hands in mid-air, at which point I thought I saw a man fly for the first time ever, I was sold. I was a fan.
The Bulls did win the championship and over that summer I immersed myself in the Bulls. I just lost my mind. I read and watched everything I could. And when the next season got ready to start I just assumed we would win the championship We did. (Yes I am saying "we" like I was a part of the effort.) Another summer went by filled with driveway pickup games and little league. The 92-93 began and I just figured that meant another title in Chicago, and sure as the change of seasons, it came.
The next two seasons were a little different. Jordan retired for the first time and I was left to watch my team lose. In 93-94 the Bulls had a very successful season considering losing Jordan the previous off season, making it back to the Conference Finals. I sweated nearly another full season of basketball with a team that was not quite good enough to go all the way, a concept I was still adjusting to. Then on March 18th 1995 order was restored. A fax was shown on every news station in the city and, for all I knew, the country. It said, "I'm Back."
I spent the next couple months watching Michael Jordan play himself back into shape in a way only he could, more buzzer beaters and fifty plus point performances in Madison Square Garden. But then that off season there was a new talk around town. People were talking not just about a championship but also about this being "the best team ever." The Bulls were going to break the Lakers record of 69-13. As with everything else, I just figured that it was going to happen. We still had Phil Jackson and Scottie Pippen. We got Dennis Rodman, the best rebounder off all times (when you consider his size it almost impossible to argue.) and Michael Jordan was back for the whole year. He had never let me down and I knew he wouldn't now. My blind trust was reward with a 72-10 season and another championship (just a quick side note: I would put 72-10 right up their with Dimaggio's 56 game hitting streak and Cy Young's 611 wins as an unbreakable record. That win-loss record is simply preposterous).
Two more championships followed as I continued to assume the best. Then in one fell swoop it was all gone. Jordan, Pippen, Jackson, and Rodman were all gone. The Bulls were a bad team, years away from success and in full on rebuilding mode. As I started following the rest of the league I became confused. Surely there was some newfangled brand of basketball being played or the quality of players was going down. What kind of lame league was I watching where scoring leaders couldn't even average 30 points a game. Why was there a different guy leading the league in scoring every year? Couldn't somebody just take over the league? Eventually I realized that the answer to those questions was that Michael Jordan was gone.
But I also realized I was a fan of the league and the game. I continued to love the Bulls. But in their losing times I found other players and teams to enjoy as well: Chis Webber's Kings, Jason Kidd, Steve Nash, Kobe, and Tim Duncan among others.
There is now hope in Chicago with the arrival of Derrick Rose. He has Bulls fans believing that championships are possible again. But hope is different than certainty. And that is what we had in the '90s with Jordan. Certainty. And that is the thing I have come to reflect on the most. There is now a generation gap. I now sometimes work with people who are too young to remember what those championship years were like. I have also moved away from Chicago. And when people ask me why I love basketball so much that is what I tell them. I ask them to imagine waking up every morning knowing that a team and player you rooted for were always going to deliver. Want to win championships? Done. Want to have the best record for a single season ever? Done. Want to always watch the greatest player be the greatest player ever night no matter what else was going on? Done. There was no doubt. I don't think I even considered having doubt. Michael Jordan would never let us lose. It was impossible.
Since then I have been in search of that feeling only to continually feel let down. Tiger Woods has let me down. Tom Brady has let me down. In the same way that I didn't understand why basketball players couldn't do what Jordan did after he left the game, I started to wonder why none of these other "best evers" lost. If they were really the best ever, like Michael Jordan was, they wouldn't ever lose. But then again those greats, even in other sports, Weren't Michael Jordan.
I would like to think I wasn't spoiled too much as a child. But in this specific case I was. I was spoiled by winning. I was spoiled by getting to see the greatest ever at what he did 100 days a year. And I was spoiled by getting to see it at such a young age. Normally I would say that being spoiled is a bad thing. But in this case I don't. So thank you Michael Jordan. Thank you for letting me watch you be the best ever. Thank you for letting me see your teams be the best ever. Thank you for showing me the highest form of what it is to win and to deliver at all costs every day. And right now, happy birthday.
Tuesday, February 5, 2013
my super bowl sunday
sports: The couple of days leading up to the Super Bowl were kind of tough on me. I was busy with work and a friends birthday and just keeping on the day to day. I also knew that I wanted to write a post about the Super Bowl before it happened. As I got more and more busy and time to write that got shorter and shorter it became harder to do.
Then the irrational superstitious sports fan in me took over and I became totally at home with not doing a Super Bowl prediction post. The day of the game was also my friend Matt's birthday. Matt is from San Francisco and a 49ers fan having grown up through the glory days of Montana and Rice and Young. I realized that I had written in consecutive weeks that the Niners were the best team in football and yet picked against them. For a number of reasons I decided well before the game that I was going to pick San Fran this time. I still thought they were the best team in the league and was finally ready to right my wrongs in that respect. I was sold on Colin Kapernick. Maybe most importantly I believed that this game would come down to which defense could stop which offense, and the answer to that to me was the Niners, simply because their defense was better, younger and faster than the Ravens. Then there was the least important reason: as a Patriots fan I just don't like the Ravens. I was all ready to put all that out there in the universe and in greater detail, and then realized that I had picked against the Niners despite how I felt about the team and became so irrationally sure that I couldn't pick them and expect them to win. And with it being Matt's birthday, I wanted them to win for him. So I wrote nothing. And when he asked why I wrote nothing I lied and and made up something about being tired and needing to rest to adequately party for the big game just so that I wouldn't undo my irrational belief that not making that pick would keep him from having to watch his team lose the Super Bowl on his birthday.
We were settled in to watch the game, watching the clock on the over/under on the National Anthem. Then the game begins. San Fransisco comes out jittery and goes three and out after a penalty negates their first play, a pass to Vernon Davis. No big deal its just the first drive. After an efficient ensuing drive, Joe Flacco hit's Anquan Boldin up the middle for a touchdown and Phil Simms tells us all that we just seen how the Ravens have had success this year. I suddenly remembered that there was, no matter the outcome, something to enjoy during the game. I could make fun of Phil Simms! Anyone who has watched the the Ravens knows, especially during these playoffs, that they have success when they go deep on the outside, not with Brady-esque precision plays through the middle. Despite all that being said, it was a hell of a pass.
The first half was about as bad as possible. We sat and drank and watched the Ravens route the 49ers to the tune of 21-6. The commercials weren't even good enough to make either of us forget what we were watching. Our only relief was getting to constantly hear Simms compliment the play of Haloti "NAAAHTAAAHHHHH". Matt hid his disdain behind his California cool while scarfing pizzas and Miller Lite's.
Halftime was a welcomed break. We talked about how we were sure that things would change. Kapernick was too exciting to not make something happen. That defense was too good not to come up with some stops. Jim Harbaugh was too good a coach to not make adjustments and get them back in this game. Also we had Beyonce to take our minds off things. The lights and the fires and her spectacular outfit (come on, every dude in America was glad she was wearing that). We even got a wierdly TMZish upskirt shot to start the show and the return of Destiny's other two children to end it.
After the pep talks, Beyonce, a smoke and a fresh beer we were ready to start the second half that we were sure would bring a comeback worthy of being the Atlanta encore. Then Jacoby Jones ran 108 yards in Olympic time. Clearly Matt and I were going to need another fresh beer soon. But as I finished that one I could at least have a laugh as I heard Simms yell "Don't run it out of the endzone!!!!!" during that run back.
All of a sudden the lights went out while it was third and thirteen for the Niners right as the game was about to get way out of hand. I don't go to a lot of comedy shows. But I am sure that anyone who has ever done improv before thought that the CBS football crew was the funniest thing they had ever seen as they struggled to talk for half an hour. Bill Cowher even suggested putting in Alex Smith! Wasn't the whole reason that Kapernick was playing instead of Smith was because of Smith's struggles playing from behind that could be remedied by Kapernick's explosiveness and huge arm? For the record I don't think I really believe that Cowher believed this was the right move. But when you have thirty minutes of dead air to fill you just want a talking point. And he found one.
Thankfully the lights came back on. We were hoping that all of that preaching Shannon Sharpe had done about shifting momentum in favor of the 49ers was true. Despite the fact that they didn't convert on third and thirteen, on their next possession (after a three and out by Baltimore) the change would start to come. San Fransisco marched up the field and capped their first touchdown drive of the day with a play by Michael Crabree that saw two Ravens defenders run into each other instead of Crabtree. Finally there was something to smile about. Then: RAY RICE FUMBLED THE BALL!!!!!!!! Bang bang on a short field and Frank Gore runs in a touchdown. All of a sudden that 28-6 massacre has become 28-20. And there was still five minutes left in the third quarter. Matt's California cool is starting to fizzle as he actually cheers out loud for the first time since I have known him; I know there is hope. Phil Simms probably mentioned a blown play by Haloti NAAAAHTAAAAAH. I think it is somewhere around this point that I wonder why Wilem Defoe is playing the devil in a car ad(by the way, Defoe totally one my award for random celebrity sighting in an ad of which there were a few: Naya Rivera having the red M&M sing Meat Loaf to her, Stevie Wonder and Zoe Saldana doing wierd voodoo on a dudes chair. What was going on!?). Before the end of the quarter David Akers added a field goal that only went through because he got ran into on the first attempt, which he missed, and was able to make the second attempt. After that kind of terrible play by the Ravens, maybe they didn't deserve to win. 28-23.
The fourth quarter ended being as great as one could have hoped. A field goal by the Ravens stretched the lead back to eight. A touchdown run by Kapernick and a failed two point conversion cut the lead to two. Then with just over four minutes left The Ravens get another field goal to take the lead back up to five. Leaving no shortage of drama, the 49ers marched the ball down in side the five year line at the two minute warning. But that is where things finally went too haywire even for this game to continue.
Coming out of the two minute warning, the Niners had to spend a time out to avoid a delay of game penalty, leaving themselves only one more. People have argued the use of this time out. If you take the five yard penalty you still can throw on third and fourth down and if you don't you have two timeouts and whatever time is left to stop the Ravens and go the length of the field. If using that one meant that the Niners were banking on scoring on that drive or they would lose the game. So that was questionable to begin with. But once you use the timeout to keep the ball at third and goal inside the five with over a minute and half to go you accept the situation and make the most of it. So on third down they throw the ball. This is where all comprehension breaks down. If you are relying on that score to win the game why not run the ball? The worst case out of that play is that you have to run a fourth down play which you are prepared to do anyways. Plus it runs the clock down and gives the Ravens very little opportunity to respond. Instead the 49ers call a pass play that falls incomplete and stops the clock. Now you have to throw on fourth down and even if you convert you are giving the Ravens the ball back with about 90 seconds left and all of their timeouts to get into field goal range to either win or force overtime.
Instead the most awful of all scenarios happens. San Fransisco doesn't score. On fourth down a pass goes incomplete on a pass where there was pass interference. Phil Simms tells me he likes the no call because he doesn't want the referees influencing the ends of games. For the last time in the night I laugh at Simms as I wonder about no calls on obvious penalties influencing the ends of games as much as blowing the whistle. The Ravens get the ball back. The 49ers have to use their final timeout just to stop the clock (that being said, I did like Michael Wilbon's argument on PTI that it had been a loosely called game to that point, thus warranting the no call, and all the refs were doing was being consistent, which is what you want as much as anything). And then... and then the Ravens' punter is allowed to run around in the back of the end zone before taking a safety that, while cutting their lead back to three, takes enough time off the clock to virtually end the game.
The game ends after Ted Guinn cannot run the free kick back. I am still screaming at the TV about the no call and the terrible coaching at the end of the game by what might be my favorite coach in football (This is true becuase even if Jim Harbaugh was a terrible coach, his crazy faces would be enough to make me love him, but he is also very good at what he does.).
And that was about it. Ray Lewis cried as he either enjoyed the Super Bowl win that would end his career or becuase he realized he was too slow to cover Vernon Davis or because he was anticipating a failed attmept at stealing the microphone from Jim Nantz to tell the world about how God loves him more than anyone else. All joking aside, the Ravens played a very good game and were the better of two teams on the field. And win or loss, Joe Flacco probably deserved that MVP. Matt and I enjoy one last beer as we try to deal with the fact that his Super Bowl birthday wasn't so by talking about the TV shows we need to get caught up on (that reminds me....). And then I left disappointed that I didn't get to hear Phil Simms congratulate Haloti NAAAAHAAAAH on his Super Bowl win.
Then the irrational superstitious sports fan in me took over and I became totally at home with not doing a Super Bowl prediction post. The day of the game was also my friend Matt's birthday. Matt is from San Francisco and a 49ers fan having grown up through the glory days of Montana and Rice and Young. I realized that I had written in consecutive weeks that the Niners were the best team in football and yet picked against them. For a number of reasons I decided well before the game that I was going to pick San Fran this time. I still thought they were the best team in the league and was finally ready to right my wrongs in that respect. I was sold on Colin Kapernick. Maybe most importantly I believed that this game would come down to which defense could stop which offense, and the answer to that to me was the Niners, simply because their defense was better, younger and faster than the Ravens. Then there was the least important reason: as a Patriots fan I just don't like the Ravens. I was all ready to put all that out there in the universe and in greater detail, and then realized that I had picked against the Niners despite how I felt about the team and became so irrationally sure that I couldn't pick them and expect them to win. And with it being Matt's birthday, I wanted them to win for him. So I wrote nothing. And when he asked why I wrote nothing I lied and and made up something about being tired and needing to rest to adequately party for the big game just so that I wouldn't undo my irrational belief that not making that pick would keep him from having to watch his team lose the Super Bowl on his birthday.
We were settled in to watch the game, watching the clock on the over/under on the National Anthem. Then the game begins. San Fransisco comes out jittery and goes three and out after a penalty negates their first play, a pass to Vernon Davis. No big deal its just the first drive. After an efficient ensuing drive, Joe Flacco hit's Anquan Boldin up the middle for a touchdown and Phil Simms tells us all that we just seen how the Ravens have had success this year. I suddenly remembered that there was, no matter the outcome, something to enjoy during the game. I could make fun of Phil Simms! Anyone who has watched the the Ravens knows, especially during these playoffs, that they have success when they go deep on the outside, not with Brady-esque precision plays through the middle. Despite all that being said, it was a hell of a pass.
The first half was about as bad as possible. We sat and drank and watched the Ravens route the 49ers to the tune of 21-6. The commercials weren't even good enough to make either of us forget what we were watching. Our only relief was getting to constantly hear Simms compliment the play of Haloti "NAAAHTAAAHHHHH". Matt hid his disdain behind his California cool while scarfing pizzas and Miller Lite's.
Halftime was a welcomed break. We talked about how we were sure that things would change. Kapernick was too exciting to not make something happen. That defense was too good not to come up with some stops. Jim Harbaugh was too good a coach to not make adjustments and get them back in this game. Also we had Beyonce to take our minds off things. The lights and the fires and her spectacular outfit (come on, every dude in America was glad she was wearing that). We even got a wierdly TMZish upskirt shot to start the show and the return of Destiny's other two children to end it.
After the pep talks, Beyonce, a smoke and a fresh beer we were ready to start the second half that we were sure would bring a comeback worthy of being the Atlanta encore. Then Jacoby Jones ran 108 yards in Olympic time. Clearly Matt and I were going to need another fresh beer soon. But as I finished that one I could at least have a laugh as I heard Simms yell "Don't run it out of the endzone!!!!!" during that run back.
All of a sudden the lights went out while it was third and thirteen for the Niners right as the game was about to get way out of hand. I don't go to a lot of comedy shows. But I am sure that anyone who has ever done improv before thought that the CBS football crew was the funniest thing they had ever seen as they struggled to talk for half an hour. Bill Cowher even suggested putting in Alex Smith! Wasn't the whole reason that Kapernick was playing instead of Smith was because of Smith's struggles playing from behind that could be remedied by Kapernick's explosiveness and huge arm? For the record I don't think I really believe that Cowher believed this was the right move. But when you have thirty minutes of dead air to fill you just want a talking point. And he found one.
Thankfully the lights came back on. We were hoping that all of that preaching Shannon Sharpe had done about shifting momentum in favor of the 49ers was true. Despite the fact that they didn't convert on third and thirteen, on their next possession (after a three and out by Baltimore) the change would start to come. San Fransisco marched up the field and capped their first touchdown drive of the day with a play by Michael Crabree that saw two Ravens defenders run into each other instead of Crabtree. Finally there was something to smile about. Then: RAY RICE FUMBLED THE BALL!!!!!!!! Bang bang on a short field and Frank Gore runs in a touchdown. All of a sudden that 28-6 massacre has become 28-20. And there was still five minutes left in the third quarter. Matt's California cool is starting to fizzle as he actually cheers out loud for the first time since I have known him; I know there is hope. Phil Simms probably mentioned a blown play by Haloti NAAAAHTAAAAAH. I think it is somewhere around this point that I wonder why Wilem Defoe is playing the devil in a car ad(by the way, Defoe totally one my award for random celebrity sighting in an ad of which there were a few: Naya Rivera having the red M&M sing Meat Loaf to her, Stevie Wonder and Zoe Saldana doing wierd voodoo on a dudes chair. What was going on!?). Before the end of the quarter David Akers added a field goal that only went through because he got ran into on the first attempt, which he missed, and was able to make the second attempt. After that kind of terrible play by the Ravens, maybe they didn't deserve to win. 28-23.
The fourth quarter ended being as great as one could have hoped. A field goal by the Ravens stretched the lead back to eight. A touchdown run by Kapernick and a failed two point conversion cut the lead to two. Then with just over four minutes left The Ravens get another field goal to take the lead back up to five. Leaving no shortage of drama, the 49ers marched the ball down in side the five year line at the two minute warning. But that is where things finally went too haywire even for this game to continue.
Coming out of the two minute warning, the Niners had to spend a time out to avoid a delay of game penalty, leaving themselves only one more. People have argued the use of this time out. If you take the five yard penalty you still can throw on third and fourth down and if you don't you have two timeouts and whatever time is left to stop the Ravens and go the length of the field. If using that one meant that the Niners were banking on scoring on that drive or they would lose the game. So that was questionable to begin with. But once you use the timeout to keep the ball at third and goal inside the five with over a minute and half to go you accept the situation and make the most of it. So on third down they throw the ball. This is where all comprehension breaks down. If you are relying on that score to win the game why not run the ball? The worst case out of that play is that you have to run a fourth down play which you are prepared to do anyways. Plus it runs the clock down and gives the Ravens very little opportunity to respond. Instead the 49ers call a pass play that falls incomplete and stops the clock. Now you have to throw on fourth down and even if you convert you are giving the Ravens the ball back with about 90 seconds left and all of their timeouts to get into field goal range to either win or force overtime.
Instead the most awful of all scenarios happens. San Fransisco doesn't score. On fourth down a pass goes incomplete on a pass where there was pass interference. Phil Simms tells me he likes the no call because he doesn't want the referees influencing the ends of games. For the last time in the night I laugh at Simms as I wonder about no calls on obvious penalties influencing the ends of games as much as blowing the whistle. The Ravens get the ball back. The 49ers have to use their final timeout just to stop the clock (that being said, I did like Michael Wilbon's argument on PTI that it had been a loosely called game to that point, thus warranting the no call, and all the refs were doing was being consistent, which is what you want as much as anything). And then... and then the Ravens' punter is allowed to run around in the back of the end zone before taking a safety that, while cutting their lead back to three, takes enough time off the clock to virtually end the game.
The game ends after Ted Guinn cannot run the free kick back. I am still screaming at the TV about the no call and the terrible coaching at the end of the game by what might be my favorite coach in football (This is true becuase even if Jim Harbaugh was a terrible coach, his crazy faces would be enough to make me love him, but he is also very good at what he does.).
And that was about it. Ray Lewis cried as he either enjoyed the Super Bowl win that would end his career or becuase he realized he was too slow to cover Vernon Davis or because he was anticipating a failed attmept at stealing the microphone from Jim Nantz to tell the world about how God loves him more than anyone else. All joking aside, the Ravens played a very good game and were the better of two teams on the field. And win or loss, Joe Flacco probably deserved that MVP. Matt and I enjoy one last beer as we try to deal with the fact that his Super Bowl birthday wasn't so by talking about the TV shows we need to get caught up on (that reminds me....). And then I left disappointed that I didn't get to hear Phil Simms congratulate Haloti NAAAAHAAAAH on his Super Bowl win.
Tuesday, January 29, 2013
a look in on the nba (part 2)
sports: In the first part of this post I covered the Eastern Conference. Now it is time to talk about the West. So lets dive right in by talking about the Lakers. The Lakers have spent most of the season being nothing short of a disaster. They are five games under 500 and up until their past few games have been struggling mightily under new coach Mike D'Antoni. His high paced style seemed thoroughly exciting with the group of stars he has. People like me who were looking forward to the D'Antoni era forgot that this team lacks some of the necessary pieces, such as a stretch player and some great outside shooters that would make his style work, not to mention the fact that age and fast paced styles typically don't go well together. Dwight Howard has not been himself to this point in the season. He still doesn't seem healthy and lacks the explosiveness to make a great impact on games, particularly on defense, despite his still solid numbers on offense (18 ppg and 12 rpg). Pau Gasol has been taken out of his natural position as a post player and has been given the task of being their stretch player. Along with his brother Marc, Pau may be the best passing big man in the league but that still doesn't change the fact that Pau is a center at heart (see the USA vs. Spain gold medal game when Pau torched the US for proof) Up until the past few games there seemed to be little hope for the Lakers even making the playoffs despite their star studded lineup. Unless they can acquire some depth before the trade deadline that may still be the case despite Kobe Bryant's new found willingness to play the role of distributor. Bryant has posted double digit assists in three straight games. Whether this trend continues for Bryant or other changes that seem necessary get made, it is a long road to reaching the early season expectations for this team that seem destined now for no better than a first round exit at the hands of the West's number one seed.
That seed appears to be going to one of three teams. The Oklahoma City Thunder have proven to be maybe the best team in league up to this point. With the loss of James Harden in the trade to Houston, it was clear that Kevin Durant and Russel Westbrook would have to pick up a lot of the slack not just in their scoring but in other facets of their games as well. They certainly have. Durant and Westbrook have improved their assist and rebounding numbers to help fill out the team. The continued growth of Serge Ibaka has also helped. Ibaka has gone from a raw shot blocker to a reliable third scoring option and has remained stout on defense. The addition of Kevin Martin, who came over in the Harden trade, has also helped. His spot up shooting has provided the off the bench scoring that was going to be sorely missed in Harden's absence. And with Durant and especially Westbrook willing to take on the roll of passers more often now, having a spot up shooter like Martin has filled out their roster in a very positive way. I think it fair to say as well that the Thunder seem to have a different look to them last year. Not only does the team look different, but they look different. Gone are the affable smiles of young superstars. Now we watch a team that has no interest in mercy as they keep a more serious tone between themselves as they make their way back to the match-up they in the finals they seem destined for.
The second team fighting for the top seed in the West is the Los Angeles Clippers. With Chris Paul playing at an MVP level, he is leading this team to legit top flight status. The addition of the bench players such as Jamal Crawford, Matt Barnes and Eric Bledsoe have also added to the ferocity of this team. With those three, along with Lamar Odom playing a more serviceable game than the one that got him kicked out of Dallas last year, the depth of this team has been one of its biggest advantages. Their depth could also be the difference maker moving forward. While DeAndre Jordan and Blake Griffin are fun to watch and very talented players, the Clippers lack depth on their front line. This especially shows late in games when you have Jordan, one of the leagues worst freethrow shooters, and Griffin, who is below average, which leaves Odom as their lone big late in close games. I wouldn't be surprised if the Clippers use their depth to acquire a serviceable big to come off the bench alongside Odom by way of unloading from their plethora of scoring guards. Make no mistake that this team is as good as any, but if that hole gets filled and the chemistry remains, this is a team that can win this year. Unlike last year when they felt a year or two a way, now they are just a player away and then there might not be anymore waiting in Lob City.
The third contending team in the West is the San Antonio Spurs. It is really hard to talk about the Spurs despite their greatness. The Spurs have the second best record in the West but have done so in their typically quiet way. As people continue to question their age and stamina, Tim Duncan is having one his best statistical years in recent memory. Tony Parker is once again playing as well as anybody in the league while being largely overlooked as the league's MVP. With Manu Ginobli recently back from injury, the growth of untradable young talent like Danny Green and Kawaii Leonard, Greg Popovich (the best coach in the game and a top five or six coach of all time) has his team showing they aren't too old to make another title run. The one concern for the Spurs is that in recent years they seem to have run out of steam in the playoffs. That may happen again. But no one will know till we get there.
The only team in the West with a real chance to make waves against the top three teams seems to be the Memphis Grizzlies. Despite the fact that Rudy Gay has regressed this year, shooting in the low 40s, this team does pose a huge match-up issue for teams. With Marc Gasol and Zach Randolph down low and Mike Conley and Gay on the outside, this is a team that is very difficult to stop. They have proven this with wins at one time or another this season against just about every good team in the league from Miami to New York, to Chicago to Oklahoma City. All it would take for this team to strike fear into their opponents as they head into the playoffs would be some dominant play from Gasol and Randolph (which they have been getting most of the year anyways) and Gay to get hot at the right time and carry the scoring load. If that happens they are capable of beating anyone. But until they show they can do it consistently, they appear to be on the outside looking in.
Beyond that the West is riddled with middling teams like the Rockets who are still growing and looking to improve and the Timberwolves who had a chance to be this years darlings untill their injury problems snowballed. The Denver Nuggets have proven to be a tough out on most nights, but in a playoff series where the game always slows down, they lack a player they can go to and a defense that can lock down on command. The top heavy Western Conference will surely be a great race for the top seed and home court advantage. With such great talent atop the conference that could prove to be the difference.
That seed appears to be going to one of three teams. The Oklahoma City Thunder have proven to be maybe the best team in league up to this point. With the loss of James Harden in the trade to Houston, it was clear that Kevin Durant and Russel Westbrook would have to pick up a lot of the slack not just in their scoring but in other facets of their games as well. They certainly have. Durant and Westbrook have improved their assist and rebounding numbers to help fill out the team. The continued growth of Serge Ibaka has also helped. Ibaka has gone from a raw shot blocker to a reliable third scoring option and has remained stout on defense. The addition of Kevin Martin, who came over in the Harden trade, has also helped. His spot up shooting has provided the off the bench scoring that was going to be sorely missed in Harden's absence. And with Durant and especially Westbrook willing to take on the roll of passers more often now, having a spot up shooter like Martin has filled out their roster in a very positive way. I think it fair to say as well that the Thunder seem to have a different look to them last year. Not only does the team look different, but they look different. Gone are the affable smiles of young superstars. Now we watch a team that has no interest in mercy as they keep a more serious tone between themselves as they make their way back to the match-up they in the finals they seem destined for.
The second team fighting for the top seed in the West is the Los Angeles Clippers. With Chris Paul playing at an MVP level, he is leading this team to legit top flight status. The addition of the bench players such as Jamal Crawford, Matt Barnes and Eric Bledsoe have also added to the ferocity of this team. With those three, along with Lamar Odom playing a more serviceable game than the one that got him kicked out of Dallas last year, the depth of this team has been one of its biggest advantages. Their depth could also be the difference maker moving forward. While DeAndre Jordan and Blake Griffin are fun to watch and very talented players, the Clippers lack depth on their front line. This especially shows late in games when you have Jordan, one of the leagues worst freethrow shooters, and Griffin, who is below average, which leaves Odom as their lone big late in close games. I wouldn't be surprised if the Clippers use their depth to acquire a serviceable big to come off the bench alongside Odom by way of unloading from their plethora of scoring guards. Make no mistake that this team is as good as any, but if that hole gets filled and the chemistry remains, this is a team that can win this year. Unlike last year when they felt a year or two a way, now they are just a player away and then there might not be anymore waiting in Lob City.
The third contending team in the West is the San Antonio Spurs. It is really hard to talk about the Spurs despite their greatness. The Spurs have the second best record in the West but have done so in their typically quiet way. As people continue to question their age and stamina, Tim Duncan is having one his best statistical years in recent memory. Tony Parker is once again playing as well as anybody in the league while being largely overlooked as the league's MVP. With Manu Ginobli recently back from injury, the growth of untradable young talent like Danny Green and Kawaii Leonard, Greg Popovich (the best coach in the game and a top five or six coach of all time) has his team showing they aren't too old to make another title run. The one concern for the Spurs is that in recent years they seem to have run out of steam in the playoffs. That may happen again. But no one will know till we get there.
The only team in the West with a real chance to make waves against the top three teams seems to be the Memphis Grizzlies. Despite the fact that Rudy Gay has regressed this year, shooting in the low 40s, this team does pose a huge match-up issue for teams. With Marc Gasol and Zach Randolph down low and Mike Conley and Gay on the outside, this is a team that is very difficult to stop. They have proven this with wins at one time or another this season against just about every good team in the league from Miami to New York, to Chicago to Oklahoma City. All it would take for this team to strike fear into their opponents as they head into the playoffs would be some dominant play from Gasol and Randolph (which they have been getting most of the year anyways) and Gay to get hot at the right time and carry the scoring load. If that happens they are capable of beating anyone. But until they show they can do it consistently, they appear to be on the outside looking in.
Beyond that the West is riddled with middling teams like the Rockets who are still growing and looking to improve and the Timberwolves who had a chance to be this years darlings untill their injury problems snowballed. The Denver Nuggets have proven to be a tough out on most nights, but in a playoff series where the game always slows down, they lack a player they can go to and a defense that can lock down on command. The top heavy Western Conference will surely be a great race for the top seed and home court advantage. With such great talent atop the conference that could prove to be the difference.
Monday, January 28, 2013
a look in on the NBA
sports: My laziness seems to be a good omen for these basketball posts. My plan was to write this sometime last week as the NBA regular season approached its halfway point. That didn't happen and now the halfway has past by a game or two for most teams. And yet again, my laziness was rewarded with something significant happening that completely altered the way I view the league. First it was a one game late playoff preview that allowed me to comment on Derrick Rose's torn ACL, then it was waiting till the last possible second to do a season preview and getting to see the James Harden trade go down. This time it was the Rajon Rondo injury. And with that we begin with the East.
The Eastern Conference has been shaping up to be a lot more compelling than anyone thought. The Miami Heat are still the best team in the conference. Lebron James is still the best player in the league. He is leading is team to the best record in the East while putting up staggering numbers. He leads his team in points, assists, rebounds, and steals while shooting 55% from the field. This is on top of the fact that he has not missed a game after being the only player to play all 66 games last year and make a championship run and play in the Olympics. The team has been built around him in the fashion we saw in the Finals last year and thought they would play this year. Spreading the floor with stretch bigs and shooters spacing the floor while James either runs point or plays out of the post while Dwayne Wade slashes towards the basket on cuts. They have however shown signs of weakness. They are only 10-10 on the road, which could be cause for concern in the playoffs if they happen to slip up and lose one at home. The other area of concern for the Heat is that they have been a terrible rebounding team. The Heat have been so bad in fact that if nothing changes and they win the title they would qualify as the worst rebounding championship team ever if they were to go all the way again. While this was a concern last year and they still were champs, it is worth noting that there has actually been regression in this area that could cause problems especially against the other top teams in the east all of whom have very good rebounding bigs in their lineups(Noah, Garnett, Chandler, Hibbert, Smith and Horford).
Ok, now back to the Rondo injury. It was reported on Sunday that Rajon Rondo has torn his ACL and will miss the rest of this season. The Boston Celtics have certainly not been their typically stellar selves this year. They are under 500 as I write this and are currently eighth in the East. But with Rondo leading the league in assists and triple-double games he changes the potential narrative for this team. With the Celtics holding the eighth seed, they would be matched up against the Heat in the first round. Between the fact that Boston is not afraid of the Heat and the fact that Rondo is capable of going off for 40 points, up until yesterday this was a team that had the chance to pull an upset in the first round. The Celtics have not been a great offensive team for the past couple of years (they rank 25th in offensive efficiency this year), but without Rondo in the lineup the Celtics now appear to either be just another sacrificial bottom seed or a team that is going to blow up what they have by getting rid of their aging stars and looking towards the future by picking up as many expiring contracts as they can so that they can rebuild in the off season.
The way I see it there are two other real threats to Miami in the East. The first would be the New York Knicks. The Knicks are currently second in the East and playing as well as anyone could have hoped. Carmelo Anthony has put himself in the MVP discussion by accepting his role at power forward and really taking on the identity of James in Miami. Melo plays out of the post more now and uses a spread out of floor full of three point shooters to pass to if the defense collapses. The big difference in New York is that Tyson Chandler has continued to show that he is one of the best (if not the best) pick and roll center in the league. With his amazing 67% field goal percentage, he allows the Knicks to run a wildly effective pick and roll game when not going to Anthony in the post that centers around guards Ray Felton and Jason Kidd with Chandler rolling to the basket and the shooters lying in wait. Add to that efficient style of play that they have Melo to go to in late game situations to create on his own and you have a team that despite their slower pace and age is definitely for real. And if Amar'e Staudemire continues to accept his role as sixth man, things could get even better for the Knicks heading forward.
The other threat to Miami could be the Chicago Bulls. With Derrick Rose still out and a revamped supporting cast after losing a lot of their bench last season, Tom Thibideau has the Bulls in a place that very few expected them to be entering the year. They are atop the Central Division and in the three seed with Rose's return in sight. No one knows what Rose will look like when he returns, but with the emergence of new players like Jimmy Butler and Danillo Balinelli and the continued improvement of Luol Deng and Jokim Noah, there is certainly a lot of hope in Chicago. Thibideau has the team playing its usual elite defense while the offense continues to do enough to win. If Rose comes back anywhere his old form the production he will provide as well as taking some of the pressure of the players that are forced to carry heavier production than they are used to this team could be right back where they were when he go hurt last year: ready to take on the Heat for top dog status in the East. Most people, myself included, hoped the Bulls would tread water until Rose came back. With them doing more than that all bets are officially off.
There certainly are other teams in the East that have had good seasons. The Indiana Pacers are right back in the thick of things, chasing the Bulls for the top spot in the Central Division. The Atlanta Hawks have exceeded a lot of expectations with stellar team play on offense and a surprisingly great defense. The Brooklyn Nets have more than met expectations. Darron Williams has only gotten better as the season has progressed after a slow start and Brook Lopez has lived up to his new contract with an all-star level season. Each of these teams have issues though that could keep them from being legit contenders. Atlanta and Indiana both seem like they are still a player away offensively, both needing a scorer who can get to the free throw line with regularity. As far as the Nets go, I just am not willing to put my eggs in a basket led by someone like Williams who continues to get his coaches fired. I just can't bet on a team lead by a guy who is earning a reputation as a coach killer.
With the trade deadline approaching in a few weeks there is certainly a lot that can happen to change the complexion of the Eastern Conference. But right now it seems that Rondo's ACL tear has made this a three team race. While I still think that Miami is the best team in the conference and should emerge as its finals representative, there is one thing that could trip them up from both New York and Chicago. Neither of these teams should go into a series afraid of the Heat. Over the past few years, Rose's Bulls have shown that they can beat Miami, including a road win in Miami this year without Rose. His return should only bolster their confidence. The Knicks will also not be afraid, having already beat the Heat by more than twenty points twice this year, once in Miami. That was always the x-factor with Boston; they believed they could beat the Heat. Now there seem to be teams that believe they can do it in their place.
(part two: Western Conference coming tomorrow)
The Eastern Conference has been shaping up to be a lot more compelling than anyone thought. The Miami Heat are still the best team in the conference. Lebron James is still the best player in the league. He is leading is team to the best record in the East while putting up staggering numbers. He leads his team in points, assists, rebounds, and steals while shooting 55% from the field. This is on top of the fact that he has not missed a game after being the only player to play all 66 games last year and make a championship run and play in the Olympics. The team has been built around him in the fashion we saw in the Finals last year and thought they would play this year. Spreading the floor with stretch bigs and shooters spacing the floor while James either runs point or plays out of the post while Dwayne Wade slashes towards the basket on cuts. They have however shown signs of weakness. They are only 10-10 on the road, which could be cause for concern in the playoffs if they happen to slip up and lose one at home. The other area of concern for the Heat is that they have been a terrible rebounding team. The Heat have been so bad in fact that if nothing changes and they win the title they would qualify as the worst rebounding championship team ever if they were to go all the way again. While this was a concern last year and they still were champs, it is worth noting that there has actually been regression in this area that could cause problems especially against the other top teams in the east all of whom have very good rebounding bigs in their lineups(Noah, Garnett, Chandler, Hibbert, Smith and Horford).
Ok, now back to the Rondo injury. It was reported on Sunday that Rajon Rondo has torn his ACL and will miss the rest of this season. The Boston Celtics have certainly not been their typically stellar selves this year. They are under 500 as I write this and are currently eighth in the East. But with Rondo leading the league in assists and triple-double games he changes the potential narrative for this team. With the Celtics holding the eighth seed, they would be matched up against the Heat in the first round. Between the fact that Boston is not afraid of the Heat and the fact that Rondo is capable of going off for 40 points, up until yesterday this was a team that had the chance to pull an upset in the first round. The Celtics have not been a great offensive team for the past couple of years (they rank 25th in offensive efficiency this year), but without Rondo in the lineup the Celtics now appear to either be just another sacrificial bottom seed or a team that is going to blow up what they have by getting rid of their aging stars and looking towards the future by picking up as many expiring contracts as they can so that they can rebuild in the off season.
The way I see it there are two other real threats to Miami in the East. The first would be the New York Knicks. The Knicks are currently second in the East and playing as well as anyone could have hoped. Carmelo Anthony has put himself in the MVP discussion by accepting his role at power forward and really taking on the identity of James in Miami. Melo plays out of the post more now and uses a spread out of floor full of three point shooters to pass to if the defense collapses. The big difference in New York is that Tyson Chandler has continued to show that he is one of the best (if not the best) pick and roll center in the league. With his amazing 67% field goal percentage, he allows the Knicks to run a wildly effective pick and roll game when not going to Anthony in the post that centers around guards Ray Felton and Jason Kidd with Chandler rolling to the basket and the shooters lying in wait. Add to that efficient style of play that they have Melo to go to in late game situations to create on his own and you have a team that despite their slower pace and age is definitely for real. And if Amar'e Staudemire continues to accept his role as sixth man, things could get even better for the Knicks heading forward.
The other threat to Miami could be the Chicago Bulls. With Derrick Rose still out and a revamped supporting cast after losing a lot of their bench last season, Tom Thibideau has the Bulls in a place that very few expected them to be entering the year. They are atop the Central Division and in the three seed with Rose's return in sight. No one knows what Rose will look like when he returns, but with the emergence of new players like Jimmy Butler and Danillo Balinelli and the continued improvement of Luol Deng and Jokim Noah, there is certainly a lot of hope in Chicago. Thibideau has the team playing its usual elite defense while the offense continues to do enough to win. If Rose comes back anywhere his old form the production he will provide as well as taking some of the pressure of the players that are forced to carry heavier production than they are used to this team could be right back where they were when he go hurt last year: ready to take on the Heat for top dog status in the East. Most people, myself included, hoped the Bulls would tread water until Rose came back. With them doing more than that all bets are officially off.
There certainly are other teams in the East that have had good seasons. The Indiana Pacers are right back in the thick of things, chasing the Bulls for the top spot in the Central Division. The Atlanta Hawks have exceeded a lot of expectations with stellar team play on offense and a surprisingly great defense. The Brooklyn Nets have more than met expectations. Darron Williams has only gotten better as the season has progressed after a slow start and Brook Lopez has lived up to his new contract with an all-star level season. Each of these teams have issues though that could keep them from being legit contenders. Atlanta and Indiana both seem like they are still a player away offensively, both needing a scorer who can get to the free throw line with regularity. As far as the Nets go, I just am not willing to put my eggs in a basket led by someone like Williams who continues to get his coaches fired. I just can't bet on a team lead by a guy who is earning a reputation as a coach killer.
With the trade deadline approaching in a few weeks there is certainly a lot that can happen to change the complexion of the Eastern Conference. But right now it seems that Rondo's ACL tear has made this a three team race. While I still think that Miami is the best team in the conference and should emerge as its finals representative, there is one thing that could trip them up from both New York and Chicago. Neither of these teams should go into a series afraid of the Heat. Over the past few years, Rose's Bulls have shown that they can beat Miami, including a road win in Miami this year without Rose. His return should only bolster their confidence. The Knicks will also not be afraid, having already beat the Heat by more than twenty points twice this year, once in Miami. That was always the x-factor with Boston; they believed they could beat the Heat. Now there seem to be teams that believe they can do it in their place.
(part two: Western Conference coming tomorrow)
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