1) Left to Right. Right to Left.
I studied for a summer at the well-known Northwestern Cherub Theater Program and learned a tremendous amount about stage dynamics. One thing in particular I learned: a human being will prefer to watch something panning left to right because it is the direction in which the eye reads. Watching anything or anyone move right to left is therefore intrinsically more uncomfortable for us and therefore clouds that moment in subliminal tension and anxiety. Check out the many times they used this fabulous move.
a) When Jesse is wrestled into the car to his doom he is pulled from right to left across Walter White
b) When Walter’s car is full of gas he travels speedily from left to right. When he sputters out? You guessed it–right to left.
c) When Jesse is tied to the Buffalo Bill tether and sees the pic of Andrea and Brock–he limps pathetically across our screen from right to left.
d) When Skylar moves to get the knife she comes in slowly from right to left.
The list goes on and on! Masterful work!
2) Speaking of the knife–My proud fiancée called the knife attack when they so prominently featured the knife block in the foreground of that flashback phone call from the intro.
3) The amazing acting job of Bryan Cranston AND Walter White. There is no way Walter believes that the police weren’t at his house trying to tap his phone. Why else did he buy a burner phone which we saw him break after his phone call? That tirade to Skylar was completely scripted so that he would implicate himself solely in building the meth empire which lets Skylar off the hook in front of the Police. I mean, c’mon! It didn’t even sound like Walter White. The speech was one movie cliche after another but his performance was believable from the Cops point of view. Skylar catches on to his ploy (prob when he calls her a “Bitch”) and starts to go along with it in yet another brilliant chess move by the ever brilliant Heisenberg
4) The way the gun shot interrupted Hank’s last words. So sad. So effing, effing sad.
5) Holly’s amazeballs acting performance. I smell an Instant Infant Emmy!
(BONUS FEATURE Check out the above photo for the moment Walter White walks past his own pants he lost in the desert from the very first time he cooked meth. This Easter Egg was brought to my attention by Vulture so props to them)
Cannot wait for Sunday!