REVIEW: "The Bridge" Season 1

FX's The Bridge wrapped up its first season last night, and having not seen the Danish series Bron, on which this version was based, I can't say how it compared to the original. But as a separate entity unto itself, I think this show has a lot of potential, even if the first season was weighted down by a standard serial killer plot that prevented it from exploring the more interesting aspects and storylines hovering around the fringes.

Set on the border between El Paso, TX and Juarez, Mexico, the show set up a story about a serial killer who was kidnapping girls in Juarez, and forcing our two leads to partner up in an investigation regarding the disappearances. Those leads are Demian Bechir as Marco Ruiz, one of the only non-corrupt cops in Juarez, and Diane Kruger as Sonya Cross, from the El Paso police department. This partnership and eventual friendship is one of the most successful and intriguing parts of the show- when we first meet Sonya, who has Asbergers, she is such a robotic, cold, slightly alien presence that I wasn't sure if it was the character or Kruger's acting that was so off-putting. But as the season progressed, she gradually began to grow on me, and surprisingly without a drastic change in personality. By the end of the season I'd done a complete 180 on the character and found myself genuinely liking her- which I think is actually a tribute to Diane Kruger's portrayal. She manages to endear us to Sonya without fundamentally softening her through some kind of romance (which is how Claire Danes's character on Homeland was softened), and she remains the uptight professional she's been throughout as well as the socially awkward and sometimes hilariously abrupt oddball. The only thing that changes in her is a genuine, friendly affection towards her partner Marco, which is a moving and natural development that we see step by step as the season progresses. It was quite an impressive evolution.

Demian Bechir on the other hand, is fantastic from the start as the warm, friendly Ruiz, hampered by problems in his marriage, family and work life, pressured by the police corruption and cartel forces that depend on the collaboration of the cops. The city of Juarez is itself a character in this series, shown as kind of a hell on earth, where anyone can be murdered or kidnapped at any moment, sometimes right in front of you. There are a myriad of subplots involving different aspects of Juarez's various crime scenes, all of which are ongoing and not even brought to a head in this first season, such as the entirely separate story involving Annabeth Gish as the woman who inherits an illegal underground tunnel from her dead husband and finds herself knee deep in cartel smuggling. There's also Matthew Lillard and Emily Rios as reporters for the El Paso Times who find themselves interacting with the police and various criminals, and both of them are quite good on the show (Lillard surprisingly effective) as well. Finally there's the series' most mysterious and perplexing character, Steven Linder, played by Thomas M. Wright, a weird loner who evolves, like Sonya, from a baffling question mark early on into a (spoiler alert) rather lovable and kind of hilarious kook by the end, who I can only hope has more screen time in the second season.

So on one level, it's a labyrinthine show that wants to showcase all these different characters and all these different facets of Juarez crime, but on the other, it had to follow the main thread from the original series, which was a hunt for a serial killer that was intriguing at times in the beginning, but led up to a rather cliched and unoriginal conclusion that the show itself didn't even wait until its season finale to wrap up. It's hard to explain this plotline without giving away nearly every twist, but suffice it to say the killer himself was only mildly interesting when all was said and done, and the various stories surrounding the rest of the show remain far more enticing. There's potential here in every frame, and with all these great characters and performances (including Buffalo Bill himself, Ted Levine, who's great as Sonya's police chief), I think this show will benefit enormously next year from being able to let go of its serial killer plot and devote itself to fully exploring the details and complexities of the city it's set in. I'll definitely be sticking with it.

Grade: B

TRAILER: "Metastasis"

This is priceless. And it's not a joke either- a Colombian remake of Breaking Bad is coming, about the saga of Walter Blanco:

RECAP: Breaking Bad 5x16 "Felina"

Wow. It's all over. And this was one incredible series finale. For a show this plotted from beginning to end, it really has to have an ending that gives you everything you wanted to see and I can tell you for sure that this one definitely did. No ambiguous Lost or Sopranos style endings here. The saga of Walter White comes to its natural conclusion and it goes out beautifully and in hugely satisfying fashion, cementing Breaking Bad's legacy as one of the very best (if not the best) television shows of all time.

We start off with Walt experiencing some of that classic luck that Jesse mentioned episodes ago, by finding a car outside the bar in New Hampshire that just happens to be unlocked. As he waits inside, hidden from the police by the snow piled on top of it, he searches for something to start the ignition with and finds a wrench, but can't get it to work. Then he prays out loud, "just let me get home, I'll do the rest," and we see the blurry police siren slowly pass him by and what do you know, he pulls down the sun visor and the keys fall into his lap, as if by miracle. Walt revs up the engine as the theme music kicks in for the last time.

We see Walt pull up outside a gas station with the stolen car that has the words "live free or die" on the license plate (the title to the first episode of the fifth season), and he uses a pay phone to call someone named "Susan," claiming to be from the New York Times and asking for Gretchen and Eliott's current address for an interview. I know there were people who were convinced he was going to kill Gretchen and Elliott in this episode for being the ones who started the whole thing, but I never bought it as I assumed they were a one-off return last week. Boy was I wrong. Walt takes off his watch (the birthday present Jesse gave him last season) and places it on the pay phone before walking away.

So Gretchen and Elliott make their way home as Walt is indeed, hiding in their yard and he nonchalantly follows them into the house and acquaints himself with their digs, checking everything out as neither of them notice he's there. When Gretchen turns around to see him she screams and both of them are afraid that Walt's there to kill them. Elliott even holds up a knife, which amuses Walt, who tells him if he wants to go that way, he needs a bigger knife. No, Walt's not there to kill them- what he wants to do is give them the last of his money, and he makes them drag all $9 million in cash out of his car and put it on their table. Walt tells them he wants the two of them to anonymously give the money to his children in a trust fund, use it to pay for any of their legal bills, etc. Gretchen refuses, but Walt thinks this is the only way it would work, seeing as Skyler and Walter Jr. won't take the money from him, but could accept it from two wealthy benefactors. The final touch is great, as Walt threatens them with the "best hitmen this side of the Mississippi" if they fail to comply, signaling for lasers to be shined on their chests and telling them they will be followed for the rest of their lives if his kids don't get the money. It's pretty much a horror movie scene, as Gretchen and Elliott are both terrified and quivering in fear as Walt leaves them standing there with the huge pile of cash.

When Walt picks up the two "hitmen," they turn out, in a brilliant move, to be Badger and Skinny Pete doing it for the money, which makes them feel better about the whole "shady deal" they just pulled off. It's pretty awesome. Walt asks about the blue meth that's still been making its way around town, and both guys thought it was him all along. Walt realizes that it's been Jesse the whole time and he seems to be angry about it (remember his freakout when Jesse learned how to make meth as good as his?) There's a flashback/fantasy sequence of the story Jesse told way back in the third season, about constructing a wooden box in his shop class, and how it was the one thing that he ever felt proud of. It's a sadly moving moment as we then see poor Jesse tugging on his ceiling chain as he hauls the meth supplies back and forth in the underground lab, still trapped in his life as the meth cooking slave.

Walt's now at the diner for his 52nd birthday, which means we've finally caught up to the present day flashforwards we'd been getting, and we see all the guns in the trunk again, along with the trip to the house to get the ricin cigarette, where Walt pauses in a flashback to his birthday from the pilot episode, with Hank offering to take him on a ride-along.

Lydia's at the coffee shop and this is where I finally realized that the ricin was for her, in place of the stevia she constantly asks for, and somehow I feel I should have figured this out sooner. It seems so obvious now. She's meeting Todd of course, but Walt is lurking in the background and he suddenly crashes their meeting, offering, begging to give them a new method he's created that works without methylene, seeing as they must be running low. He says he'll do it for $1 million, and Jesse's unsure, but Lydia accepts, even as Walt collapses in a coughing fit in front of them. Walt sets up a meeting with the Nazis that night and slinks out of the cafe, but Lydia tells Jesse just to kill him as she pours the stevia into her cup. And that is accompanied by a MAJOR closeup of the stuff going in, so in case you hadn't figured it out yet- yeah, Lydia gets the ricin in full. She's done.

Walt's out in the desert, singing to himself and making what looks like various explosives and bombs, and he sadly puts his wedding ring that he's still wearing around his neck back under his shirt when it falls out. Meanwhile, Marie calls Skyler at her new house and warns her that Walt's back in town, having been spotted by various people, including her old neighbor Carol, and to keep an eye out in case he comes to her. Skyler listens, but seems ambivalent as she smokes a cigarette, hanging up and saying to someone off screen, "you've got five minutes." The camera peers around the corner and we see that Walt is of course, already there. He tells her it's all over and that he just wants one more goodbye in place of their last phone call. Skyler tells him about the Nazi threat from the last episode, but Walt says there won't be any threat after tonight. Then he gives her the lotto ticket with the GPS coordinates where Hank and Gomez are buried and tells her to trade it for a deal with the prosecutor that absolves her of any guilt. Skyler tears up as she tells Walt not to tell her again that he did this for the family, but Walt surprises her by finally admitting to her and to himself, in a cool, calm, and collected manner, that he did it for him. Because he liked it, he was good at it, and it made him feel alive. Bryan Cranston is fantastic in this scene, and I'm convinced this is the episode that will get him his fourth and last Emmy next year. He asks to see the baby one last time and as he strokes Baby Holly's sleeping cheek, Skyler gives him one last, loving gaze as he silently walks out of the house. I have to admit, I almost teared up here. Walt hides behind a wall outside where he watches from a distance as Walter Jr. comes home from school, giving himself one last look at his son as well.

And now here comes the climax. Walt pulls up to the Nazi commune, as one of them gets in with him and directs him to park the car, but Walt backs up in front of the house instead (for a reason, as we'll see) and then he comes inside to meet Jack, Todd and the rest of the crew. He has a trigger on his car keys, which Jack takes from him and he's searched for a wire as well, before Walt yells at them that they owe him for not killing Jesse and making him a partner instead. Jack almost kills him, but is insulted by this accusation and orders Todd to bring Jesse here to show Walt how much of a "partner" he is. While Todd goes off to drag Jesse over, Walt slowly gets the keys back in his grip, and as Jesse is hauled in by his chains, Walt stares at him and walks over to face him, his hand on the trigger. As Walt and Jesse stand face to face, Walt suddenly dives on Jesse, tackling him to the ground and shielding him as he hits the trigger and a James Bond style machine gun contraption he rigged up in his trunk goes off, shattering bullets through the wall and taking out every single Nazi in a bloody hail of gunfire. It''s kind of unbelievable, but you have to admit, pretty amazing as they all go down one by one. All except Todd that is, who miraculously misses the bullets solely for the following reason: As Todd looks through the window at the rigged machine guns, Walt gets off of Jesse, who immediately lunges at Todd, wraps his chains around his neck and strangles the asshole to death, slowly until his neck snaps while Walt lets him do it. He Instead walks over to a still breathing Jack, who pathetically tries to save himself by offering up the money, but Walt picks a gun off one of the corpses and blows him away instantly. Well, my wish to see Todd die a slow, painful death at the hands of Jesse came true to a tee, so no complaints on that end.

Jesse gets rid of his chains and stand up to face Walt for the last time, but Walt slides the gun over to him and tells him to shoot him, giving him the chance to decide whether he wants to be the one to do it. Jesse holds up the gun but hesitates when he sees that Walt has already taken a bullet in the gut from protecting Jesse and is bleeding out anyway. He tells him he won't do it unless Walt says he wants it, which he does, but Jesse puts the gun down, telling him to do it himself. Then he takes off as Todd's phone rings, which Walt picks up when he sees that it's Lydia, asking her how she's feeling. She is of course, not looking too great, already experiencing flu-like symptoms and on her way out, which Walt cordially tells her before hanging up. As he walks outside he sees Jesse getting into a car and they exchange one last, meaningful look as they both nod in acknowledgement, and then Jesse hops in the car and races out of his enslaved hell, crashing through the gates and whooping it up as he sails to freedom at last, from the Nazis and from Walt. It's a good moment, and I personally like to think that he went off to take care of poor little Brock somehow, who's now an orphan. I'm also happy to see that Walt did in fact, save Jesse one more time instead of going there to kill him, as I half-feared he would.

Walt, now struggling from the gun wound, makes his way into the meth lab and looks around nostalgically as the police sirens get louder, making their way towards him. The Badfinger classic "Baby Blue" kicks in, as Walt succumbs to his fate, falling to the ground as the cops move in to find him already dead, staring up at the ceiling, surrounded by the thing he loved most, the thing he was good at it. He did what he wanted- he got his kids the money and he went out on his own terms. Heisenberg is gone.

And with that finale, so is one of the best shows in television history, an experience that I'm thrilled to have had as a fan while it was actually going on. I'm not anticipating a show this great to come along again for a good long while, although who knows what could happen in this golden age of TV that we're living in, right? But still, Breaking Bad and creator Vince Gilligan have left a special place for themselves in TV history, with many millions more who will eventually discover it as the years pass by. Walter White will live on for generations. I'm just glad to have been one of the first to see his reign.

RECAP: Homeland 3x01 "Tin Man is Down"

After many months, Homeland is at last back for its third season, and hopefully this year it can veer a little closer to the line of plausibility (although I tend to give this show a lot of leeway on points like that, since it thrives on over the top dramatics, and unlike many people, I think it has since the first season).

We open on a shirtless Peter Quinn back in action and building what looks to be some kind of explosive device while holed up in a dark and dank apartment, but we don't yet get to see what it's for. First off, if it's true that we're going to get less Brody this year, Quinn's not a bad replacement, as I really thought Rupert Friend was great in this part last season and I'm glad to see him back (and shirtless to boot).

Now we see Carrie in front of a congressional committee, being grilled on the events of last season, which serves to recap for the audience anything we might have forgotten from nearly a year ago now. But we find out in the show's universe it's only been 58 days since the CIA attack that led to a worldwide manhunt for Brody, and Carrie now faces questions about Abu Nazir and doubts about her role on the task force after she'd been fired in the first place. Carrie is upset (her token cry-face makes its first appearance), and says she'll never forgive herself for what happened.

Saul, now director of the CIA, and Dar Adal, the retired black ops specialist we met last season played by F. Murray Abraham, are strolling the halls into work, where Adal is telling Saul to go ahead and publicly throw Carrie under the bus for the whole Brody catastrophe, because they're being punished for letting the attack happen. Saul is reluctant, but then a guy comes running up to them to inform Saul the operation with Quinn is a go.

Back at the hearing Carrie is questioned about Brody and asked directly if the CIA offered him immunity, even producing the Department of Justice memo that proves they did. Carrie is shocked they got their hands on the memo and all she can do is deny it, but when asked why the CIA was so cozy with a known traitor in their midst, she blurts out that he didn't do it. The chairman asks her what it is she's smoking (lol) and rather than say "love" and look even more ridiculous, Carrie just sits in silence while her lawyer shuts her up and calls for a recess. In the hallway, the lawyer tells her not to defend Brody in public because she loses credibility and that she's got to lie to Congress about that memo in order to cover for the CIA. When Carrie takes off, we see the piece of paper she was scribbling on and uh-oh, the Carrie map of crazy is back, with all kinds of links and circles and theories scrawled all over it, presumably making her lawyer even more concerned. Carrie then yells at Saul over the phone about the memo leak, telling him to find out whoever did it.

Great, out first Dana moment of the new season, just the story I've been waiting for all year. Sigh. Well, let's get it over with. Dana's in some kind of support group for troubled teens, flirting with a boy and promising she's going to get her life together, and then we see Jess with the the head of this facility, explaining that Dana's in here because she slit her wrists in the bathtub after Brody took off. Jess complains that she now has no money or insurance, having lost her military benefits, and the guy lectures her for being a bad mother for having missed Dana's suicide attempt in the first place. We see Dana making out with the guy from the group before she and Jess leave for home and are swarmed by the press as they flee to the car.

Saul's now at an intelligence meeting concerning the operation in question this episode, which targets 6 people connected to the Langley attacks, and explains about a new Iranian mastermind known as "The Magician," (I'm guessing the possible new Big Bad of the season?). There's some pushback from the National Security Advisor about Brody not being one of the targets, but Saul is still unsure about the whole operation. Adul later scolds him for being wishy-washy in front of the team and tells him Carrie's blowing it in front of Congress, but Saul just wants to know who's leaking documents and seems to suspect it's Adul.

Back at Carrie's house, her dad is staring at her new and improved Wall of Crazy, with Brody at the center and all possible links and sightings to him covering the wall, and when Carrie comes in she explains that she's been tracking him ever since he left. Her dad figures out that she's off her meds and has been for some time, but Carrie says she medicating herself in other ways, with things like exercise and alcohol (not exactly the perfect regimen for bipolar disorder). Dad's worried, but Carrie is convinced she missed the attack because she wasn't totally herself and wants to be at her best (intelligence-wise that is, I guess she's not concerned about behavioral antics).

Dana is welcomed home by Jess's mom who we've never met (I don't think, was she in the pilot?) and Chris, who's grown about a foot since we last saw him and is now taller than everyone in the house. Dana slinks off to her room in order to (and this is priceless) text naked pictures of herself to the guy back at the rehab. I don't know why the writers of this show are obsessed with Dana's love life, but I can guarantee you that no one in the audience could possibly care less about this kid and her boyfriends. That element on this show remains utterly mystifying.

Saul is talking now to his wife Nira, who's returned to him in the wake of the attack, telling her he doesn't feel right about ordering outright assassinations, saying that's not what spies do, but Nira wants to talk about their marriage, wondering why they're still sleeping in separate rooms after two months. Hmm, that is a good question. But Saul has no answer to that either, saying he just wants to do what feels right and as she leaves the room he continues to look contemplative (this entire episode Saul has pretty much been nothing but contemplative).

The next day we're back with Carrie at the hearing, where she's retracting her statements from the day before and now being questioned about her whereabouts for 14 hours after the bomb went off. Carrie says she was knocked out in the bathroom the whole time (lol), and the chairman finds that, understandably, hard to believe, telling her he has a source that saw her leave with Brody. Carrie refuses to answer so the chairman holds her in contempt, telling her he's going to find out what she's hiding.

Saul stares at the still empty crater where the bomb hit from an office window and gives his final word to Adul to greenlight the op ("take 'em all"). We then cut to Quinn in Venezuela on his motorbike, following two dudes in a black car. He turns the explosive device on when he gets right next to the vehicle, but stops short when he sees there's a kid in the car with the target. Meanwhile, at CIA headquarters, everyone is monitoring the operation via screens at the 6 locations when Quinn calls in to say he had to abort. Saul says they have to get all 6 at once or the op's off (don't get why- I think I'm with Adul when he says 5 ot of 6 ain't bad, but I'm guessing it's so some suspense will be created for this scene), and gives Quinn ten minutes to get the target somehow. So badass Quinn jumps a fence into the guy's mansion and pretty much kills everyone that he encounters as he makes his way into the house and all the way to the dude's office, killing the target on sight and collecting all the data in the room. Man, this guy's efficiency dwarfs Carrie's in spades. Unfortunately he hears another noise and when he shoots at it he realizes he just accidentally killed the kid he went out of his way to avoid earlier. Crap. Quinn looks bummed, but honestly not too broken up as he calls in to confirm the kill, and as we see from Langley, the rest of the operation seems to go smoothly.

Meanwhile, Carrie's buying lots of liquor (and I mean LOTS) at the store and is immediately attracted to a Brody lookalike she sees in the aisle next to her. Of course, the next scene we see is her fucking him on the stairs of her house, which is kind of amusing actually- even though she's nuts, one of my favorite parts of the show is watching her go over the top and Claire Danes just does it so well that it always entertains.

Ugh, a Brody family dinner scene. Jess is saying she needs a job and is trying to get accounting work in an office, but Grandma buts in and starts badmouthing Brody for leaving them like this with no government benefits. Dana tries to break the ice by telling a bad joke, but the whole scene is stupid and pointless, frankly.

The next morning Carrie's dad calls her with news from today's paper- though her name is left out, her entire affair with Brody has been leaked to the press (the weirdest thing about this is they got the story from the print media- I mean seriously, what news breaks in actual newspapers these days?) Carrie is furious and bursts into Saul's lunch at a restaurant with Adul and some other guys, screaming at everyone, accusing Adul of leaking the story and telling Saul to go fuck himself before being dragged out of the restaurant in hysterics. Crazy Carrie is back everyone! Adul denies it to Saul and is especially firm about it, so Saul seems to believe him.

The last Dana scene of the night is her in her bedroom, receiving shirtless pics from her boyfriend, but when she walks into the hallway she hears Jess and Grandma arguing, with Grandma telling Jess her suicide attempt was just a cry for attention and if she really wanted to kill herself she'd be dead. If only.

Saul's now at the hearing in front of Congress, which Carrie's watching on TV, and he informs everyone about the successful CIA strike in response to the attack on Langley, but the chairman isn't that impressed, saying they didn't kill anyone directly responsible for the attack. He then asks Saul to comment on the Carrie/Brody thing, which Saul refuses to do, saying it's a "flawed" report- but then he proceeds to throw Carrie under the bus after all, outing her as unstable, bipolar, saying that she hid her condition from him, and that she also hid the affair. Carrie watches in incredulity, and though the cry-face makes an even bigger return here, her acting is also great as shock, disbelief and betrayal sinks in one by one across her face.

That's the end of the premiere, and overall it was a fairly quiet, contemplative episode that explored the emotional consequences to the fallout from last season, and for that I did like it (the Dana stuff notwithstanding). I'm curious about where the season's headed and of course when Brody's going to make his big return, which I'm sure is coming, but it seems to be good start so far. See you next week folks!

RECAP: Saturday Night Live 9/28 "Tina Fey"

Pretty decent premiere! They made the right choice in getting Tina back to host on a night where we meet 6 new cast members, but most of the sketches hit tonight, which is actually pretty rare for SNL.

COLD OPEN: I said most of the sketches hit, but unfortunately this was not one of them. They got off to a weak start with a town hall where President Obama explains the ACA and we get appearances from a ton of cast members but none of them gets anything really funny to say. The highlight was seeing Aaron Paul (!) show up in character as Jesse to explain the downfall of a certain teacher he knew due to lack of health insurance. That was good, but the rest was lame.

MONOLOGUE: Tina Fey brings everything up a notch with high energy and a funny bit where all 6 new cast members are hauled out onstage to embarrass themselves dancing. But man, they're constantly getting complaints for not hiring enough minorities and when they have this big cast turnover they choose 5 white guys and only one (also white) woman? I'm totally going to have a hard time telling those dudes apart from one another for a while.

GIRLS: yes! I'm all for anybody making fun of that show for any reason. This was good, but since I'm a bonafide hater of Girls, of course i think it wasn't nearly merciless enough. But they got in some good digs and the new girl does a spot-on Lena Dunham.

AIRPORT: A cute bit with Tina and Taran Killam as airline announcers calling out passenger stereotypes to board a plane one by one. My favorite was Kenan and his gigantic suitcase with "no chance of fitting in the overhead compartment," lol.

GAME SHOW: "New Cast Member or Arcade Fire"- more picking on the newbies as Kenan replaces Bill Hader as our go-to game show host, with Tina coming out to guess if the person in question is a new cast member or band member of the very numerous Arcade Fire. Another good sketch, especially at the end when Lorne Michaels can't tell who the new guy is either and thinks it's Kenan- that was great.

E-METH COMMERCIAL: loved this one! and it's Aaron Paul again! maybe he should have just hosted, huh?

WEEKEND UPDATE: with Seth and our new co-anchor, as was announced a couple of weeks ago, Cecily Strong! I still can't believe they went with somebody who's only been on for one year as a featured player, but here she is at the news desk. She's actually pretty good for her first crack at it. Tina gets a cameo before the first real dud of the night- one of the new guys in a bit about an unfunny comic that's pretty unfunny itself. But then Update redeems itself with an appearance from Drunk Uncle, who's just as great as ever, and the third showing from Aaron Paul as his meth head nephew (methneph!), so it goes out on a high note.

PBS CINEMA CLASSICS: So Kenan really is the new Bill, as host of the show that looks back on unreleased old movies. Nothing that funny in this one, it's a joke about a taxidermist's animals showing up as product placement.

USED CAR COMMERCIAL: I nearly forgot about this one. One of the new guys in a black and white car commercial in the 1940's, Tina as his wacky wife. Meh. Totally forgettable.

PORN STARS: Yay! One of my favorite skits (I thought this sketch was great since the first time they ever did it) doesn't disappoint, as the mentally challenged porn stars wax on about "Manuel Blondiks" (Manolo Blahniks) with Tina showing up to call out her old high school teacher for not believing in her. The perfect skit to end the night.

So, more good bits than bad ones with a promising start for Cecily Strong on Weekend Update and for that, plus all the Aaron Paul love, I'm giving the premiere a solid B+. See you next week for the perfectly timed Miley Cyrus hosted episode!

VIDEO: 5 Things You Don't Know About Downton Abbey

Behind the scenes video from PBS about Season 4 (which premiered in the U.K. last week). The weirdest thing about videos like this is how totally different the cast looks out of costume- you practically wouldn't recognize any of them:

TRAILER: "Masters of Sex"

The trailer for the new Showtime series Masters of Sex, debuting after Homeland this Sunday night at 10pm. It's based on the 2009 biography of Masters and Johnson, the most famous sex researchers in American history next to Alfred Kinsey, whose studies in the 1950's and 60's recorded some of the first laboratory data on the anatomy of the human sexual response. Starring Michael Sheen and Lizzy Caplan in the lead roles, the show's getting some pretty good reviews so far and could be a new hit of the fall season.

RECAP: Breaking Bad 5x15 "Granite State"

Well, tonight was only slightly less dramatic than last week's fireworks, and certainly no less dark, but I figured it had to at least slow up a little from the shockwaves of what went down in the last episode. We kick things off with Saul's long mentioned "guy," the one who gives people new identities, finally showing his face to the audience and he turns out to be no less than the Oscar nominated Robert Forster (of Tarantino's highly underrated Jackie Brown), and since we don't get his name of course, I'm going to refer to him as RF. He pulls Saul out of a van at a vacuum cleaner store, and Saul's got luggage with him because since last week (it seems to have been a number of weeks on the show), Saul is going to need to disappear too. RF is sending him to Nebraska with a new ID, but first he's going to have to stay a while at the room underneath the store with his new roommate, who happens to be Walt himself, seen pacing intently in the little room from the store's upstairs monitor.

As Marie is driven home by the police, who promise her they're going to find Hank and Gomez, it turns out her house has been broken into and rampaged by the the Nazi crew, who are seen laughing and making fun of Jesse's taped confession that he'd given up last week. Jack turns sour though, when they get to the part where Jesse rats Todd out by name as having been the one who murdered Drew Sharpe, and Jack starts on his way to kill him before Todd prevents it, still wanting him around to cook. Jack immediately sees through Todd as having the hots for Lydia, which amuses the rest of the Nazi crew in their twisted little way. Meanwhile Jesse's in his cage, trying to wriggle out of his cuffs with a paper clip that was tied to the photo of Andrea and Brock (which seems like a pretty major oversight on the part of Todd, if you ask me, leaving him with that).

Walt and Saul are still sharing a room, with Walt plotting revenge against Jack and his guys for killing Hank and stealing his money, telling Saul to find five assassins to take them out. Saul is dubious about the whole thing though, telling Walt his best move is to stay and give himself up, because there's no way the feds won't go after Skyler, despite his phone call to her from last week. But Walt is determined not to give up his money and only wants to take revenge and get the rest of it back. He tries to threaten Saul into coming with him on the run, but Saul refuses, telling him it's over as Walt collapses into a coughing fit. Saul then picks up his bags and leaves, and something tells me that's probably the last we'll see of Saul, so farewell to Bob Odenkirk (until his upcoming spinoff that is).

Skyler is staring into space, in kind of a dazed funk as we see she's in a room with a bunch of lawyers, who are doing exactly as Saul said they would, telling her they're going to come after her with everything they've got unless she gives up Walt. But Skyler's in no position to do so, telling them she genuinely doesn't know where he is. Later than night, as the cops are staking out her house, she walks into Holly's room to find the Nazi crew in hooded masks, led by Todd, who hold her still and threaten her life and the baby's as Todd politely and very creepily asks her if she's told the police anything about Lydia. Skyler denies it and the crew sneaks away after making sure she's gotten the message to keep quiet.

Todd meets up with Lydia at a coffee shop to tell her he's made sure Skyler won't talk, but it's clear Lydia wants her dead, as we all know she's not hesitant to do away with any threats to her own safety. She wants to break away from their partnership but Todd tells her he's got the meth up to 92% and blue like she wanted, which peaks her interest and prolongs their association (for the time being).

RF now pulls Walt out of the bottom of a truck in the middle of a snowy woods that we're told is New Hampshire, where he's been procured a cabin with no access to phone, internet or TV, aside from two DVD copies of that all-time classic Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium (RF drily notes he's not a "movie guy). With Walt the target of a nationwide manhunt and his face all over every television, RF can't do any better than this for him, and promises to show up once a month with newspapers and his medicine. He tells Walt not to leave the premises if he wants him to keep coming back, so of course it's the first thing Walt does when RF leaves- putting on his notorious Heisenberg hat before doing so. But at the last minute he coughs and thinks better of it, deciding to coop up in the cabin after all.

Jesse has finally gotten the cuffs off and is trying to get out of his cage when Todd comes over and drops him some ice cream ( Ben & Jerry's "Americone" - Colbert shout out!) through a bucket and rope. Jesse hides that he's gotten free and asks Todd to leave the tarp off at night so he can see the stars, but when Todd leaves Jesse uses the bucket as his last step to jump up and reach the bars, freeing himself and running off, right past the surveillance camera. He manages to make it all the way to the fence before the Nazis catch him, and here comes the most devastating part of the episode. Jesse tells them to kill him as he's not cooking for them anymore no matter what, so Todd drives over to Andrea's house, asks her to come out on the porch and shoots her through the head as Jesse cries and screams in despair, tied up in the car and being forced to watch. I say this every week, but poor, poor Jesse. Will his suffering ever end?

RF comes back to visit Walt and update him on his family as we find out it's now been months since he fled Albuquerque. He tells him Skyler moved and is now making money from taxi dispatch and using her maiden name, while the house has been trashed and fenced off from the public in light of all the graffiti we saw earlier. Walt has lost a lot of weight and has hair now, and he's feeling pretty lonely so cut off from the world, offering RF $10,000 dollars just to stay with him a little longer while he takes his chemo. Walt asks RF to give his family the money he has left when he's dead, but RF won't make such a risky promise. Later that night, Walt's wedding ring falls off as he sleeps and he ties it around his neck, then deciding to mail $100 grand to his family somehow, finally making the 8 mile trek to the village down the road.

While at a bar, Walt calls Junior's school and gets him on the phone in the principal's office, desperately telling him everything he did was for the family, trying to make him promise to get the money if he sends it to his friend's house, practically breaking down on the phone as he does so. Junior, as you can imagine, does not take this call very well, screaming at his father for killing his Uncle Hank and telling him to just die already. Walt seems to lose all hope at this point and calls the DEA, essentially turning himself in before sitting down at the bar for a drink. But of course (and rather conveniently, but it had to happen), as the bartender's channel surfing Walt sees Elliot and Gretchen Schwartz on Charlie Rose, talking about Gray Matter and Walt's involvement, and fully denying that Walt had any part in the creation of the company aside from the name. Gretchen even insists that no matter where "Heisenberg" is, the Walter White she knew is gone forever.

Upon hearing this, Walt experiences a visible surge of fury and realization. That old, stubborn pride comes roaring back, the root cause of Walter White's whole twisted journey in the first place. As this ugly pride makes its return appearance it's accompanied by the Breaking Bad theme music, and the scene is pretty awesome, as the cops surround the cabin and the bar, searching for Walt, but only finding the not quite empty glass on the bar- confirmation that Walter White is indeed, long gone and only Heisenberg remains, at large once again.

Wow, I can't believe it- the series finale is here next week and then it'll all be over. I have no real clue what to predict at this point, but my last stab in the dark is that Walt will succeed in getting the only thing he has left- his revenge. All the Nazis will be blown away and Jesse will live- I say that because after his endless suffering this season, I think that'll be the one slice of relief for the audience. I predict that Walt will go down in the struggle and die himself, but on his own terms, as Heisenberg. And if Todd in particular does not die a horrible, miserable death, I'll be pretty unhappy because I HATE him- but something tells me that's not going to be an issue. After what he did in this episode, he's really gotta go. What do you think?

Recapping the Emmys and Thoughts on the Winners

Well, despite going a woeful 9 for 17 in my Emmy predictions tonight, I did at least get the top two winners right, and I couldn't be more thrilled that Breaking Bad finally got that deserved Best Drama award. However, in my defense it was a HUGE night for upsets, which is highly, highly unusual for the Emmys, who almost always favor repeat winners. Let's take a look at all the surprise victories:

Supporting Acting:

This is where I really bombed out in nearly every category. Aside from Anna Gunn, who walked away with her well deserved first Best Supporting Actress Emmy, everyone else was a shocker, from Merritt Wever and Tony Hale to Bobby Cannavale. I have no explanation for Merritt Wever's upset win after all these years, but hey, she did give the very best acceptance speech of the night ("I gotta go, bye!"). My theory is that Arrested Development probably helped Tony Hale in his victory (he had a fantastic episode on AD this year), but it's also evidence that they really do love Veep, and I'm starting to think that will eventually be the alternative to Modern Family's crown at some point. As for Bobby Cannavale, I did think there was an outside chance for him and I'm kicking myself now for not at least putting him in the Dark Horse position instead of Peter Dinklage. It was a very baity role, and I have to remember how much they like theatrics. I actually fared pretty well in the Movie/Mini categories, thanks to Behind the Candelabra's expected dominance, but Laura Linney and Ellen Burstyn I did not see coming. I forgot that Laura Linney is absolutely beloved by Emmy voters (she's actually 4 for 5 in Emmy noms now) and Ellen Burstyn matches well with James Cromwell for their tendency to award veteran names here. Silly me for predicting based on the performances over the name recognition.

Lead Acting and Variety:

Colbert! Aside from Breaking Bad, this was my very favorite win of the night, and it won for writing too! I adore The Colbert Report deeply and had this as my "should win", so I just wanted to stand up and cheer. But I do hope now that The Daily Show's streak has finally been broken, they might actually spread the wealth more in this category from now on- there's more than one variety show that deserves recognition out there, you know. And Jeff Daniels seemed to be the biggest shock of the night for everyone watching, but I had an inkling that he and Kevin Spacey were the dark horses because of their movie star status, but again, I went with Spacey for my outside chance pick. Crap. And then there was The Voice, picking up Best Reality/Competition program on popularity after American Idol could never win that prize for the same reason, even though it was the highest rated show on television for years. Forgive me for thinking if anything was going to beat The Amazing Race, it wasn't going to be that. I'll remember that in the future too.

neil_patrick_harris_jimmy_kimmel_jane_lynch_emmys_h_2013.jpg

The Show:

Man, as for the show itself, I thought it was pretty bad this year. Neil Patrick Harris was not in top form like he was at the Tonys (most of his bits fell pretty flat) and the whole thing was very weirdly put together, with sad and moving tributes to select people who died right after someone had just won. That jarring tone made for some very awkward transitions all night, and served to present, as Modern Family creator Steven Levitan put it, "the saddest Emmys ever." Plus, they played off every single winner this year after about 10 seconds, apparently so they could make room for random musical numbers from Elton John and Carrie Underwood, that only vaguely had something to do with celebrating TV. The only person not played off was choreography winner Derek Hough, who got to accept his award right after one of those out of place dance tributes. Here's hoping they do better next year.