aaronpaul

On the eighth day of Festivus, TV gave to me ... eight stars a shinin'!

There are a lot more than eight wonderful stars shining in the TV pantheon for 2009, but these eight are a remarkable bunch who have been exemplary this past year. They've left us with memories that'll last long after this Festivus has ended. So, in no special order, here are the eight stars a shining from the year gone by.

1. Jane Lynch. If the Emmy doesn't already have Jane Lynch's name engraved in a statuette for Glee, it will by the time the awards are handed out. Lynch has been the perfect villain, the villain you love to hate. But if she were just a one-note nasty, it wouldn't work. Lynch has shown the other side of Sue Sylvester. Her "swing" date showed Sue in love, and her visit to her sister Jean was a soft earthquake emotion. Jane delivers week in and week out. Her star is glowing.

Now that the excitement has died down, I've been scouring the complete list of nominations. Here's a few observations... Then, let me know what you think.

-- Why bother with the Outstanding Mini-Series category? There were only two nominees worthy of a nomination. Exactly how many mini-series are even produced anymore? This is an outmoded TV format. Kill the category.

-- What's going on with the writers? 30 Rock dominates the comedy category and Mad Men dominates the drama category. What are the chances that the lone nomination in each category wins? I'd say slim and none. I call for limitations; only two episodes per series. Writing is such a subjective thing anyway. If you like 30 Rock's scattershot humor, you're more likely to vote for it compared to a traditional sitcom like Big Bang Theory. The latter should have snagged a nom for The Lizard-Spock Expansion episode.

Talk about a wealth of choices! When it comes to the Primetime Emmys in the supporting actor and actress categories for drama, there are a plethora of worthy candidates. Some shows, like Mad Men or Lost, for instance, have multiple choices in the supporting ranks, especially since these ensembles seem to have a hard time determining who's really the lead.

Earlier, I shared my wish list for the Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama nominations, and I mentioned that Chloe Sevigny from Big Love would be a deserving selection. A TV Squad reader let me know that Chloe has actually been submitted in the supporting category. Good to know, and with that in mind, I'll start my wish list by talking about that category. (Remember, there are six nominees per category.)

On July 16th when the Primetime Emmy nominations are announced, one name that is likely to appear in the category of Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series is Aaron Paul. As Jesse Pinkman on AMC's Breaking Bad, Aaron has done amazing work, revealing a character as fascinating as he is flawed.

His performance this past season on Breaking Bad has generated lots of talk about an Emmy nomination, but not to be overlooked is the fact that Paul is also doing great work on HBO's Big Love. On that drama, his character, Scott, is the antithesis of Jesse. It's a testament to Aaron's skill as an actor that I didn't recognize him at first from Big Love when I watched Breaking Bad. A search of his IMDB listing was one of those 'ah-ha' moments. Recently, I had to chance to speak with Aaron, and we started with the jaw-dropping season finale of Breaking Bad.

(S02E13) Cause and effect, random selection, grief, life and death... "My father is my hero, he's just decent." Breaking Bad covered all that and more in the season finale, setting up Walter White's life after successful surgery that bought him more time. The question was this when the end credits rolled, what will that life be for the New Mexico science teacher after all that's come before?

Anyone out there who thinks they know is lying because only creator Vince Gilligan has a handle on what's been going on and what's to come. What we do know after watching the season finale is this: Breaking Bad is as good as any other drama currently on television, and that includes Lost, Mad Men, House, 24 and the other potential Emmy nominees for Outstanding Drama Series.

A few weeks ago, I got to speak with Bryan Cranston about Breaking Bad winning a Peabody Award. In the course of that conversation, Bryan told me that writer/creator Vince Gilligan had considered killing the character of Jesse Pinkman at the end of last season. This was a bit of shock to me, but according to Bryan, what saved Jesse was Aaron Paul's performance. "He has this puppy dog quality even when he's doing the most despicable things," Bryan told me.

Well, as I watched Breaking Bad the other night, it occurred to me that Jesse's days might be numbered. In fact, Jason alluded to the possibility in his review; those two dead bodies lying under blankets that have been beside the White pool in the season-long foreshadowed crime scene could be Jane and Jesse.

(S02E11) After last week's episode, I thought we might have a moment where Walt came back to Jesse and said that it was back on. He'd got the passion for cooking in his soul and he couldn't shake it out. It's really starting to make me worry more about those foreshadowing opening sequences we've seen with body bags and destruction. Explosion at the White house? Is his family going to be collateral damage?

We didn't get any further on the foreshadowing sequence in the opening segment, instead we got something equally devastating in the here and now. If you're going to get into drug distribution, you have to learn to expect collateral damage. When that damage came it was perfect that Walter didn't even recognize him by name.

(S02E09) When a cancer patient awaits the results of a PET-CT scan, the anxiety can be overwhelming. Walt deals with that anxiety by preparing for the worst, which in his case means cooking. And cooking in mass quantities, though even he wasn't prepared for just how massive it turned out to be. As for poor dumb Jesse, I'm just waiting for his whole life to fall apart again.

Jesse is a nice guy, but he's not that smart and he has the absolute worst luck of almost anyone on television. So now that he's getting into this semi-serious relationship with the landlord/neighbor, I'm just waiting for something horrible to happen to him or her or both. It's inevitable. Nobody suffers like Jesse suffers. Well, except for tonight. There was a whole lot of suffering going on from everybody. I'm sure Skinny Pete was suffering too, wherever he wound up. As for Bob Odenkirk up there, well he barely appeared, but I like his character so much on the show I'm featuring him anyway!

(S02E07) The episode opened with a video by Mexican cousins Los Cuates de Sinaloa; the song is our episode title. It looks like the boys were hired to pen a tune that explains exactly what is going on in the drug community now that White and Pinkman are peddling their blue meth. The video is produced like something you'd see on Latin MTV (sort of) in Spanish with English subtitles. It also goes on to tell us that White, as "Heisenberg," has gained notoriety of the not-so-great sort in the drug cartel world further south. It was a unique if strange way to open the episode, as well as provide exposition on White's growing infamy.

As for Walt, one of the benefits of his newfound career in drugs is that he's a much more aggressive taskmaster in the classroom. No more timid Mr. White; Walt's apparently becoming a badass in all walks of his life. Or at least much bolder than he was. Meanwhile. Jesse is finding out that it's a lot tougher to be the badass everyone thinks he is when he doesn't have the self-confidence to be as hardcore as his image.

(S02E01) Three hundred and sixty-four days after the first season finale, the second season of Breaking Bad finally began last night (Damn you, writers strike!). While we only got seven episodes last year, the show still made a huge impact on the television landscape, primarily by being just amazingly produced and acted. The action and tone pick up here as if we've never been away, and despite a year since new episodes, it feels like only last week that we first saw Tuco go ballistic and viciously beat his own man.

Of course, if it had been last week then I doubt we'd have rewound the scene and replayed it in its entirety. Still, it was a nice reminder of just how crazy and unpredictable Tuco is. And it was the problem of Tuco that pretty much drove the entirety of the main plot tonight. It says something as to how perfectly disturbed Raymond Cruz portrays Tuco that despite being in the episode only during two sequences, his presence hovered over every moment.

I love Patrick Swayze as much as the next guy... assuming that the next guy is generally aware of Patrick Swayze, has seen him in a few movies and usually enjoyed his performances and finds his battle with cancer as inspirational as anyone else's battle with cancer. I'll even go so far as to say I'm really enjoying Patrick Swayze's performance in A&E's new series The Beast. But ... man, aside from that this show is getting all kinds of dull! In the beginning we got this promise of Swayze's character getting this new partner, but what he didn't know was this his new partner was recruited to be a double agent put in to spy on him.

We're four episodes into a thirteen episode run and that hasn't happened yet. Instead, we get these tag scenes at the end of each episode that cra-a-a-awls that storyline along. Other than that it's another generic FBI procedural. Only one that's terribly acted, and almost as badly written. Except for Swayze. 99% of the time he's on the screen he's rocking it and owning it. The other 1% ... well he's giving an odd smile that makes it look like his face is breaking.

All I can say after word came out today that they AMC renewed Breaking Bad is FINALLY! What the hell took so long? Every bit as critically acclaimed and amazing as the already renewed Mad Men, this meth and cancer dramedy defies description and blows away expectations. After the strike-shortened seven episode first season, AMC has committed to a full thirteen-episode run for its sophomore effort; no word yet on when the new season will film or air.

Bryan Cranston is a veritable tour de force in the role of Walter White, the high school chemistry teacher who begins producing meth to procure the funds necessary for his family to get by after he dies. Aaron Paul is equally strong as his half-witted cohort in crime, and the two of them are the grimmest comedy duo since ... well, maybe ever. Each week the series surpassed expectations by getting better and better, and that was only seven weeks. I can't imagine nearly twice that!

[via Ain't It Cool News]

(S01E07) Well, I have to say that while this finale did establish a certain status quo, albeit a highly precarious one, it was by no means a satisfying series ender. Thus, I fully expect that AMC will renew this amazing show for a second season post haste. Did you here me, AMC? Whatever you need to do to secure these actors and get this ball rolling. And maybe give us at least 13 episodes next time, eh?

(S01E06) I hadn't even realized how quickly this season has gone by until the closing moments told me that next week was the season finale. That's way too soon, and yes I understand there was a pesky writer's strike which played havoc with production schedules. But Breaking Bad is just too good of a show that's just starting to find its groove. Bryan Cranston just constantly blows me away with his performance, and Aaron Paul continues to find ways to turn what could be a very one-dimensional, archetypical street thug into a complex personality.

(S01E05) This episode served as a bridge in our larger story to the next chapter of both Jesse and Walt's lives. In the previous installment, Walt withdrew from the sordid world of drug trafficking and focused on his family, revealing his cancer and looking at the varying options available to him. Meanwhile, his erstwhile partner Jesse had a bad drug reaction and sought refuge in the home of his parents, which didn't turn out as well as he had hoped. Here they both continued their efforts to move on with their lives, to varying degrees of failure.