Shows and Movies

Let's try something different today.  If you're not into TV shows and movies, you can skip this post.  :)

Because it's summer and there are 29 days until kickoff, Matt and I are watching various shows to occupy our time.  And of course since I'm stuck doing nothing while I recup from surgery, I am pretty much binging shows and reading books.  Makes for a good summer actually!  Let's chat about the shows we're watching.

First, Matt watched Breaking Bad a while ago when it was on TV I think. Well, I watched the first couple of episodes back then and just couldn't get into it.  But everyone seems to love it, so I decided to give it another try.   I'm on Season 5!  It's so good! 

My favorite character is a toss up between Saul and Hank.  Hank you just have to love because he's such a classic nice guy and a cheeseball.  The answer to his mystery is right in front of his face, but he can't see it because he believes in the good in people too much.  You can't help but love him.  Of course his good nature is the only reason he can put up with his crazy wife, Marie.  She's nuttier than a fruitcake.  There's been a couple times that I'm thinking, "you need to just sedate her and put her in a bedroom."  She just keeps yapping like an annoying chihuahua.  Saul is just hilarious in every sense of the word.  He straddles the ethics line and cracks me up how he rationalizes the "right" thing to do.  It's so wrong, it's funny.  I am definitely going to check out the spinoff show about Saul after I'm done with Breaking Bad. 

My least favorite character is without doubt Skylar.  Ugh!!!!  I just keep hoping the cartel or Gus or someone will knock her off!  She's horrible!  She gets on Walt for cooking meth, but she's perfectly willing to spend the money.  In fact she spends it to clean up her illegal mess at Beneke's.  Really??  She's such a hypocrite!  Another example of her yuckiness, Walt buys Jr a car, and she throws a royal fit and makes him return it, and then she turns around and buys him a car of her choice, which was Horrible.  A PT Cruiser....really??   I absolutely cannot stand her.  My luck, someone will knock off Hank and not her.  Ugh and more Ugh. 

Anyway, I just finished Season 4, so it appears that Gus is dead.  But I don't believe it.  And we know that Mike is still alive.  So obviously, things aren't going to be over for Walt and Pinkman.  I am so excited to watch Season 5.  Matt says the final episode is perfect, which makes me very happy.  I like all loose ends to be tied up in a nice little bow at the end of a show.

Next show - Stranger Things.  Again I wasn't sure about it during the first couple episodes, but I'm hooked now.  It's set in the 80's, which is fun for Matt and me, since that's the era we grew up.  There are a ton of fun artifacts that are a blast from our past.  The bikes the kids are riding are banana seat bikes.  My first bike was one of those.  I have fond memories of riding my bike all over the neighborhood.  It was freedom!  It is for these kids too.  They ride their bikes all over the little town. 

Another interesting point is the houses.  It seems that in the 80's everyone's house was pretty much the same.  Not the same in shape and size, but nobody cared all that much about the interior.  Everyone had an average living room with a normal couch and chair and TV.  Everyone's kitchen had laminate counter tops and average appliances.  When Karen goes over to visit Joyce and comfort her after her son went missing and was thought dead, she doesn't appear to care that there was clutter around the house and how it was decorated or other features.  That is refreshing.  Today it seems like everyone is always judging everything.  Regarding homes, how many square feet do you have?  Is your basement finished?  What kind of counter tops do you have? Are your appliances high end or stainless steel?  How big is your TV?  Do you have a nice sound system?  Etc Etc Etc.  It goes on and on and on.  I'm not sure if that is due to more awareness, via social media and the internet, or if it is because people have become so obsessed with material possessions, or both.  Either way, I don't remember it being like that in the 80's.  Everyone had generally the same house on the interior.  Some people decorated with different color schemes or styles or wallpapers.  But beyond that, people appeared to focus more on the social interaction with people, rather than the material aspect of decor.  Oh, the Good Old Days!!

Beyond the retro features, I like the story line too so far.  At first I wasn't interested because I thought it was just going to be some sort of alien invasion show.  But now that it appears to have some sort of government conspiracy and testing, I am more interested.  Everyone loves a good conspiracy show!