Belated Thoughts on Breaking Bad, True Blood, & Weeds

Took me a bit longer to catch up on TV this week what with Irene knocking my power out for two days and the US Open starting up in earnest. But summer is winding down and the fall season is only a few weeks away, so these shows don't have much time left! Onwards!

"I made you my bitch!"

We're at the halfway point of the season and while the first half of Breaking Bad has been a bit more deliberately paced than I would've liked, things seem to be picking up. Now even though we got some nice car moves from Walt, a bit more laundering from Skylar, and a nice tense scene with Gus the episode really belonged to Jesse (until the end when Hank gets a gold star, but more on that later). I have to say that while the main character is Walt, for the past couple of seasons, Jesse has been far more interesting to me and Aaron Paul just acts the hell out of the role. In fact, with this episode alone he's already the frontrunner for the Emmys in 2012 in my opinion. His scene at the support group meeting was specifically stunning especially since he's so good at this dramatic monologues with equal parts anger, sadness, and self-loathing. Looking forward to seeing where his character goes now since his loyalties are up for grabs. The great thing with this show is that it's unpredictable enough that I can believe he would stick with Walt, but not at all be surprised if he ended up betraying him as well. As for Hank, he was kind of brilliant in the end there presenting the evidence he has gathered regarding Gus' connection with Gale and his blue meth. I applauded in the end for him.

There are two episodes left in True Blood this season and the big storyline of Witch vs. Vampire is reaching its climax. Our main vampires survive the bloodbath that is the Festival of Tolerance mostly due to Sookie doing her fairy thing thereby curing Eric from his spell as well. Both sides regroup as Antonia goes back to the Moon Goddess full of imprisoned humans as the vamps hunker down in Bill's mansion where Sookie tells Eric that she still loves Bill and Nan Flanagan wishes true death on everyone (she is hilarious). Their big plan though is to essentially blow up Moon Goddess, damn the humans inside. Sookie wants to save Tara obviously so with reinforcement in Jason, Lafayette, and Jesus, they venture to negotiate with Antonia. Jesus thinks he can get through Marnie to expel Antonia but SHOCKER Marnie is actually the bloodthirsty one of the pair! Long story short, Marnie transports all of them somewhere as the vamps all decked in leather bring a bazooka. Fun! In other news, Terry/Andy do some bonding/intervention which was nice, but a bit superfluous and Hoyt is still clueless about Jason/Jessica. That's going to hurt. Finally, poor Tommy dies and what a waste. I wished he and Sam got to be more brotherly with each other this season if this was how he was going to leave the show anyways. Now Sam's all "You were loved and blah blah" which made me teary, but their relationship could've really been MORE, you know?

"There are whores. And then there are cheap whores."

Finally, Weeds was a bit of a haze for me this week. I know that Nancy did her usual talking her way out of trouble spiel simultaneously bonding with the cop mentor of Shane to get her son free and to push him into arresting people from Poncy House, their pot-dealing rival. In true style though, it may be more trouble ahead as Silas has now seemed to have forged a partnership with them, which I thought was a bit too naive of him after what has transpired last episode. Crazy Andy was back in full force this episode and for some reason, I loved it.