Anna Gunn Goes to Bat for Skyler White

In an op-ed for the New York Times entitled "I Have a Character Issue," Anna Gunn, who plays Skyler White on AMC's Breaking Bad, expresses her shock at the way the Skyler character has been treated by the fans, and blames much of it on misogyny, saying a lot of it "has to do with their (fans') own perception of women and wives."

She states that being on the show for five seasons has been a wonderful journey for her, but she was bewildered and unprepared for the anger directed at her by the show's more rabid fans, especially on the internet.

She also says that she was always aware that Skyler would probably not be the show's most popular character, reasoning that "Because Walter is the show's protagonist, there is a tendency to empathize with and root for him, despite his moral failings...As the one character who consistently opposes Walter and calls him on his lies, Skyler is in a sense, his antagonist." But the level of hatred and vitriol directed towards the character online ("hate pages" on Facebook, "hate boards" on AMC's website), and eventual threats towards the actress herself convinced her it had more to do with people's complex feelings about TV wives and strong women (citing similar dislike of characters like Carmela Soprano and Betty Draper). 

It's an interesting editorial. I myself have wondered about this very thing, and as a fan of Breaking Bad, I will freely admit to finding Skyler annoying at times in the past (although nothing approaching anything like hatred and threats towards the actress, that's insane), but I too have always figured the sole reason for this reaction was because audiences are pretty much always set up to be on the side of the protagonist, even anti-heroes like Walt, Don Draper, and Tony Soprano. But it goes back further than them, it goes back to films that have glorified gangsters and villains, always putting us on the side of the guy who seems like he can get away with it. I don't think that's anything new really, but my own personal annoyance has been the similarity of the "wife" characters on TV- they're always on the outside, usually in the dark, set up against the protagonist, never allowed to be part of the action themselves. My argument would be for something different: why not let them be part of it? Why can't there be female antiheroes on television, just like men? As a woman myself, I have been wanting to see this for a long, long time.

Take the example of a show like Justified (and there will be spoilers here if you haven't watched every season). Raylan Givens (Timothy Olyphant) is our protagonist (he's not even an antihero, really, just reckless), and he was saddled with the same "wife" problem at the outset of the show. In this case, his ex-wife Winona (Natalie Zea) was the love interest, and she ended up becoming, like so many of these other women, a character that audiences didn't like because of her complaining about Raylan's job, the violence, the safety issues. Now of course she's right, but if Raylan quits his marshal job, obviously the show's over, so that's not going to happen- and eventually they just ran out of things for Winona to do and she had to be written off the show, only to show up occasionally. Now on the other hand, Justified has two protagonists- and one is Boyd Crowder (Walton Goggins) whom audiences love just as much as Raylan, if not more. Boyd's true love Ava (Joelle Carter) was brought into the fold completely as a member of his crime circle and made a true partner in his nefarious activities. She wasn't forced, she was ready and willing to do it and happy not to be lied to. Ever since they've gotten together, there have not been any complaints about Ava, she's very well liked, and in fact she's the one woman on the show with any significant role because she gets to be a part of the action.

And why is that so hard to do on these other shows? Ava is the only example I can think of that is allowed to be a part of things (and even then the writers draw the line at times, last season balking at her killing someone, saying they wouldn't want her to be "too bad"), but I dare them to go further with these female characters. These shows are really about entertaining people, and audiences have always loved a good bad guy (probably because we can live vicariously through them), but I'm saying that applies to both men and women.

I'm willing to bet if there was a show about a female protagonist that audiences liked in part because she was somehow getting away with all kinds of criminal or questionable activities, but was saddled with an annoying husband who did nothing but nag her and try to stop her, that audience antipathy would wind up directed towards the husband. Or maybe I'm wrong and the deep seated feelings about strong women that Anna Gunn talks about really are true and widespread (I'm sure they are in some people, I just question that as being the primary reason behind dislike of these characters), but as a woman myself who has often, like many in the audience, found these characters annoying, I can only tell you how I wish they were instead. And I'd like to see more shows test this theory by trying out a female antihero and seeing what the reaction would be.

New SNL Cast Members Recruited

With the mass exodus of cast members this season, SNL needs to find new people to replace the likes of Bill Hader, Jason Sudeikis, Fred Armisen and Seth Meyers, and it looks like they're taking their pick from the Upright Citizen's Brigade Theatre (which has given them past and present cast members like Amy Poehler, Rob Riggle, Horatio Sanz, Kate McKinnon and Bobby Moynihan) . According to Deadline, the new candidates are John Milhiser, Noel Wells, Kyle Mooney, and Beck Bennet, plus Michael Patrick O'Brien, who's apparently coming out of the writer's room to become a featured player.

The only one I know much of is Beck Bennet, and you'll probably recognize him too, from these AT&T commercials:

It's funny, when I first saw these ads, the guy seemed like a natural for a position as a correspondent on The Daily Show. Maybe this is a future Weekend Update host? 

Tatiana Maslany to guest on Parks and Rec

Yay! My current favorite TV actress Tatiana Maslany, from BBC America's Orphan Black, has been discovered by Mike Schur and will be guest starring on Parks and Recreation this fall, according to EW. She will appear in two episodes as a love interest for Tom (Aziz Anzari). This girl deserves to be a bigger star and we know she's good with comedy, so I'm sure she'll knock it out of the park. Anything that draws more attention to Orphan Black is a good thing. Parks comes back Sept. 26th. 

VIDEO: "Applause"

The official vid for Lady Gaga's Applause: 

She's performing at the VMA's this Sunday, along with Katy Perry, Robin Thicke, Justin Timberlake, Macklemore and Lewis, and Daft Punk. The stacked lineup seems to be in response to last year's disaster of a show, and even though it's kind of a joke that MTV still purports to give out video awards when they NEVER play videos, Gaga shows  there are still some people out there getting it done.

RECAP: The Newsroom 2x06 "One Step Too Many"

Operation Genoa takes front and center tonight as the episode opens with a red team meeting, with Mac, Jerry, Charlie, Maggie and Neal filling in Jim, Sloan and Don about the story they've been investigating for the last 7 months. Of course, everyone is still skeptical and it takes Charlie a minute to convince everyone that he believes it happened, but they still need a witness to corroborate. That witness comes in the form of a general, played by Stephen Root (of tons of movies of course, but who I will always see as Milton from Office Space), so Charlie and Mac head out to his house in Maryland to have him confirm the story. After they knock over his trash cans, he first mistakes them for Jehovah's Witnesses and then seems a lot more interested in watching his March Madness game than in talking to them, but he agrees to do an interview in which he's assured his image will be blurred and his voice doctored.

Meanwhile, Will in this episode is concerned about his falling likability numbers and has commissioned his own focus group to figure out how to get people to like him again. We find out that much of this new preoccupation stems from Nina, who he is still dating, and who has urged him to change his image and not let Mac and Charlie do their own show at his expense. Will insists that it's his show too, but isn't fully confident and is all too willing to go along with Nina's suggestion that he appear on ACN Morning to show off his warm and cuddly side (something that we certainly haven't seen any of thus far). ACN Morning seems to be some kind of take off of the ridiculous Fox and Friends where they force him to put on a helmet and throw footballs through a tire. Will of course, smashes the lights behind it instead, and is subject to a sisterly "chewing out" from Sloan, who tells him to be true to himself, etc. I've never quite bought this whole affectionate Will/Sloan relationship, but I suppose if you're a fan of those two, it's a nice moment. Will also promptly dumps Nina after the morning show debacle, and yet again, it's an example of a relationship that has apparently lasted at least 7 months and we never got to see any of it, so the impact of that is pretty much zilch. I also think we should get some kind of a flashback at some point to the days when WIll was this likable, inoffensive, supposedly Leno-ish news anchor, because with everything we've seen of him, I find that to be pretty unimaginable.

In other subplots, Jim's girlfriend Hallie is in town with the Romney campaign, and they make plans to go on a double date with Neal and a girl she brings along who happens to be a Ron Paul supporter, so of course she turns out to be a delightful wacko, as all Paul supporters are. And Taylor, the Romney spokesperson, is also invited to the dinner because Hallie feels sorry for her, which later turns out to be because she was fired by the Romney people for suggesting ways to improve his standing. This is only known after several exchanges between her and Jim over Romney's consistent gaffes of late, and a verbal takedown of Ron Paul from Neal, so this little storyline was alternately irritating and amusing throughout the episode. In the end, Jim and Hallie's night is cut short when she has to fly to Colorado for a press event and Jim runs into Maggie on one of her outings she mentioned last week- getting drunk in a hotel bar and going home with a random guy. He's concerned about the effect of this on her work, namely, her ability to keep a secret on the Genoa story, but it turns out she lets it affect her work in a different way, by leaving the room when Jerry conducts his interview with the general, which as we'll soon see is a huge mistake.

Maggie and Jerry prepare to interview the general, and as mentioned, he insists on talking to Jerry alone. During the interview, Jerry is increasingly frustrated with the general's refusal to confirm that sarin gas was used, instead phrasing it as "IF we used sarin," so in order to push the story along, and buoyed by his own determination, Jerry doctors the tape, including the raw footage. When showing the interview to the group in another red team meeting, Mac asks for the raw footage, and no one notices the doctored clip (although if you ask me, there's a pretty obvious gap where he fudged the audio), but Charlie still insists on another witness. Jerry blows up at this, and we finally see the real reason behind his pushing the story so hard- he's a hard left liberal who's dismayed by the continual loss of civil liberties and Bush foreign policies under the Obama administration, and convinced that the reason no one in the room wants to believe it is because they like and trust the president personally. Echoes of Glenn Greenwald, anyone?

Right after this scene there's a montage of Will reading various news stories and we jump ahead another 5 months, all the way to the Republican convention (and that's a hell of a lot of news they just passed, including the Supreme Court upholding the ACA, which would have been perfect Newsroom fodder, given all the shoddy media reporting on that day), when suddenly Jim gets a phone call from another general involved in the operation who was previously thought to be dead by the news staff. We then jump back to "present day" and Charlie being questioned by MGH, who confirms that was the moment he gave the green light. Charlie is at first defensive, saying with their witnesses and sources that anyone would have gone ahead with the story, and they were getting huge ratings on the night they ran it, but in the middle of the show he realized, rather ominously, that "none of it was true."

So we basically confirm Jerry Dantana (a very good Hamish Linklater by the way) as the villain this season, after seeing him doctor the tape, but I'm curious as to what the motivations were of all of these witnesses who were apparently lying about everything, if none of it was true. Seems very coordinated- some kind of conspiracy, perhaps? Still, next week looks to be rather action-packed, as we finally get to when News Night aired the Operation Genoa story on a Sunday special and then had to retract.

Aside from all that, I'm thinking they really need to get a handle on this time jumping issue. Another scene that occurred tonight is Don confessing to Mac that he doesn't have the courage to ask Sloan out, because that she's now dating a New York Giant, and despite what fairly little we've seen of their budding romance, the fact is that that situation has now been going on for YEARS, which is faintly ridiculous. This show either needs 20 episode seasons, or to stick within a consecutive period of time, even if it means foregoing big news events you want to get to. It would serve the storytelling a lot better.

RECAP: Breaking Bad 5x10 "Buried"

Another great episode tonight, as the countdown and nail-biting continues. The cold open is an old man coming out of his house to find a wad of cash in front of his car, and then another down the driveway, on the sidewalk, and so on. He journeys across the street to find more cash, along with Jesse's empty car, and Jesse himself lying on his back on the playground wheel, spinning mindlessly, wracked with guilt and misery.

When we get back from the break we see Hank's garage door slowly lift open, and Walt come cruising out of it, looking fairly cool and collected. When he gets to his car he turns around to face Hank one last time as Hank shuts the door on him, and then suddenly Walt bolts into action, peeling out of the driveway and calling Skyler immediately- he pulls over when he can't get her on the line, only to find that she's already on the phone, and when he looks over his shoulder Hank is already outside his house and on the cell, pointedly staring at him. Walt races to the office, but we see Skyler on the phone with Hank, nervously agreeing to meet with him and by the time Walt gets back to the car wash she's already gone.

Skyler meets Hank at a diner, where he hugs her and expresses sock and sympathy over Walt's actions, telling her how it all makes sense to him now. Skyler seems at first relieved and nervous, but as Hank pretty quickly goes from coddling her to demanding she tell him right there and then everything she knows so he can go after Walt with all his might, Skyler's attitude slowly shifts. She tries to say she might need a lawyer and Hank's immediate reaction is to tell her not to because it will only delay his ability to go after Walt. Skyler grows visibly more uneasy at his lack of concern for her and when Hank tells her the cancer is back, this is what seems to cement her change of heart. She refuses to talk and runs out of the diner in a panic, leaving Hank in a haze of disappointment and frustration, having revealed what little evidence he actually has to put Walt away.

Meanwhile, Saul's goons Huell and Kuby are sent to collect the money pile hidden away in the garage, but not before taking the opportunity to hilariously roll in it, like "Scrooge McDuck" as Kuby puts it (and who wouldn't, really?). Saul and Walt are barricaded in Saul's office, trying aimlessly to get a hold of Jesse, while Saul tells Walt not to answer Skyler's calls, as she's now presumed to have cut a deal with Hank and is likely bugging her phone. Walt is dismayed that Skyler went straight to Hank, but nonetheless balks at Saul's suggestion of offing Hank, claiming "family" is off-limits. Walt then takes off in a van with the barrels of money Huell and Kuby bring back, and heads into the desert alone to start burying it (hence the episode title).

Back at the White household, Skyler is trying to call both Walt and Saul, having seemingly decided stand by her man, but Marie knocks on her door, demanding to see her. Hank's standing outside, but Skyler will only talk to Marie, and then goes on to tearfully and wordlessly confess that she knew everything about Walt's activities. Marie is stunned and after learning Skyler knew as far back as Hank getting shot she slaps her sister in the face (physical violence is the Schrader's gut reaction to this betrayal, apparently) and then tries to take baby Holly with her as she thinks Skyler won't talk because she's trying to help Walt get away with it. Hank comes in to stop the sister's fight and order Marie to give the baby back, but as Hank and Marie leave, Marie is as determined as Hank to put Walt away.

After Walt buries the six barrels of money, he memorizes the location, and puts it into lottery numbers stapled to the fridge when he goes home. Skyler is waiting for him and insists she hasn't told Hank anything, but Walt simply collapses in the bathroom from the exhaustion of exerting himself. When he comes to, Skyler is sitting with him, wanting to know if his cancer's really back. Walt confirms it and asks if she's happy about it, but Skyler simply says she can't remember the last time she was happy. Walt offers to turn himself in as long as she promises to keep the money and pass it down to the kids, but Skyler says Hank doesn't have any proof and they should just stay quiet.

Lydia is escorted to the location of the meth production, supposedly to find out what the problem in quality is, but as we soon learn, really to have Todd and his crew show up and blow all the workers away so that Todd can take over operations again himself. Lydia hides while the shooting takes place but doesn't want to see the bodies as Todd casually leads her through the corpses with her eyes closed. Todd of course, as you will remember, seems to have no reaction whatsoever to killing and death, and it'll be interesting to see what part he plays as the series wraps up, now in just 6 episodes.

In the final scenes of the episode, Hank tells Marie he can't go to the DEA with the Walt situation, since he has no real proof and when they find out the guy he's been chasing all this time is his own brother-in-law his career is finished. But he at least wants to be the guy who caught him as his final victory lap, and so it looks like Hank is on his own as he heads into the office. But in a last minute development, none other than Jesse Pinkman has been brought in for tossing money all over the neighborhood, and though he's not talking and simply staring into space in his typical depressed funk, Hank seizes the chance to talk to him alone, and we end on him heading in to confront Jesse...to be continued next week.

Another great episode, with another great cliffhanger, and of course AMC had to force you to stick around for half an hour to see the previews yet again- I had a sinking feeling this was going to be the new norm when it started last week. Of course, the previews seem to have taken a cue from the Mad Men peeps, as when you finally do see them, it's nothing but a quick few shots of random images, with unrelated lines of dialogue being spoken over it and no way to tell what's happening. Not that I blame them of course, with just 6 more to go, why ruin it?

Character Notes:

Skyler- She's never been that popular with fans, but I now find her to be among the show's more interesting characters, as she veers between wild emotional decisions in this episode, all taking place internally, as she goes from fearing and despising Walt to firmly deciding to stand by him in reaction to Hank's attitude and the fact that his cancer has returned. We've seen her be terrified of Walt before, yet obviously there is something that keeps her standing beside him, even willingly colluding with him on the money laundering. It's perhaps a deep-seated belief that he really has done all this for his family's future, but of course she's still naive to the extent of his murders.

Hank and Marie- despite their justified reactions to all this finally being revealed, the show can't help but place you on Walt's side, no matter what he does, and their vow to take him down only solidifies the audience's desire to see him get away with it. Hank and Marie are now the antagonists in the eyes of the audience, no matter how right they might be in their newfound hatred of the Whites.

Pointless Prediction #2: My one from last week seems to be right on track, as Jesse very well could collude with Hank to take Walt down, but I'm going to say that Walt will renege on his no kill policy re: family members, and recruit the murderous Todd to help him get rid of Hank after all.