Synopses & Reviews
and#147;I am not in danger . . . I am the danger.and#8221; With those words, Breaking Badand#8217;s Walter White solidified himself as TVand#8217;s greatest antihero. Wanna Cook? explores the most critically lauded series on television with analyses of the individual episodes and ongoing storylines. From details like stark settings, intricate camerawork, and jarring music to the larger themes, including the roles of violence, place, self-change, legal ethics, and fan reactions, this companion book is perfect for those diehards who have watched the Emmy Awardand#150;winning series multiple times as well as for new viewers. Wanna Cook? elucidates without spoiling, and illuminates without nit-picking. A must-have for any fanand#8217;s collection.
Review
and#147;This 'unofficial' companion book is essential for fans of
Breaking Bad and for those who want to learn more about what some have called the 'greatest television show.'and#8221; and#151;
Library Journal"The Only Guide You Will Ever Needand#133;and#160;Reading through the book, which grabbed me like a fiction bestseller, I constantly felt the need to pull out my DVDs and watch again as I read. This is literally a companion guide that needs to go right next to your complete series, and be thumbed through, bookmarked and read as you view the show.and#160;Wanna Cook?and#160;is an interactive treasure you will read again and again, just like the show requires multiple viewingsand#133; Iand#160;cannot recommend this book enough." and#151; Biff Bam Pop!
"Wanna Cook?and#160;succeeds in no small part by being not only an excellent guide to fans of the show, but also a well-researched, authoritative and most importantly, entertaining re-examination of one of the best shows in the history of television." and#151; Forces of Geek
"For five seasons, the AMC television series Breaking Bad, which was created and produced by Vince Gilligan, garnered both critical acclaim and widespread audience appeal. Historian Guffey and pop culture writer Koontz (Faith and Choice in the Works of Joss Whedon) offer an insightful companion text to the Emmy Awardand#150;winning drama, which aired from 2008 to 2013. Besides introductory and concluding essays analyzing the production and its characters, the authors provide an episode-by-episode recap of the series. Titles, air dates, and the director of each episode are included. Fun facts, character analyses, film and production notes, and dialog highlights are found in each chapter under the headings 'Lab Notes' and 'Special Ingredients,' a clever reference to the showand#8217;s plotline about a chemistry teacher who 'breaks bad' and turns to a life of crime as a methamphetamine producer and dealer after being diagnosed with cancer. and#173;VERDICTand#160;This 'unofficial' companion book is essential for fans of Breaking Bad and for those who want to learn more about what some have called the 'greatest television show.'and#8221; and#151; Library Journal
Synopsis
I am not in danger . . . I am the danger. With those words, Breaking Bad s Walter White solidified himself as TV s greatest antihero. Wanna Cook? explores the most critically lauded series on television with analyses of the individual episodes and ongoing storylines. From details like stark settings, intricate camerawork, and jarring music to the larger themes, including the roles of violence, place, self-change, legal ethics, and fan reactions, this companion book is perfect for those diehards who have watched the Emmy Awardwinning series multiple times as well as for new viewers. Wanna Cook? elucidates without spoiling, and illuminates without nit-picking. A must-have for any fan s collection."
Synopsis
An accessible and in-depth guide to all five seasons of Breaking Bad "I am not in danger ... I am the danger." With those words, Breaking Bad's Walter White solidified himself as TV's greatest antihero. Wanna Cook? explores the most critically lauded series on television with analyses of the individual episodes and ongoing storylines. From details like stark settings, intricate camerawork, and jarring music to the larger themes, including the roles of violence, place, self-change, legal ethics, and fan reactions, this companion book is perfect for those diehards who have watched the Emmy Award-winning series multiple times as well as for new viewers. Wanna Cook? elucidates without spoiling, and illuminates without nit-picking. A must-have for any fan's collection.
About the Author
Ensley F. Guffey:
Ensley F. Guffey is a historian of American popular culture, and he has published scholarly essays on
Breaking Bad,
Buffy the Vampire Slayer,
Farscape, and Marveland#8217;s
The Avengers.
K. Dale Koontz: K. Dale Koontz is the author of Faith and Choice in the Works of Joss Whedon (McFarland, 2008) and teaches courses in areas as diverse as communications, film, theatre, and the law.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgements
Introduction
Whats Cooking: Change We Can Believe In
Episode Guide
Season One
1.01 Pilot / Breaking Bad
Special Ingredients: What Is Crystal Meth, Anyway?
Mustard Gas Versus Phosphine Gas
Sidebar: Breakfast
1.02 The Cats in the Bag
Special Ingredients: Chirality, Thalidomide, and Methamphetamine
1.03 . . . And the Bags in the River
Special Ingredients: Baking Soda
1.04 Cancer Man
Special Ingredients: Gluing Stab Wounds
American Health Insurance
1.05 Gray Matter
Special Ingredients: Cerebral Palsy
Crystallography
1.06 Crazy Handful of Nothin
Special Ingredients: Stages of Lung Cancer
Mercury Fulminate
Heisenberg
1.07 A No-Rough-Stuff Type Deal
Special Ingredients: Etch A Sketch Thermite
Meth Used to Be Legal
Whats Cooking: Walter White and the Anti-Hero
Season Two
2.01 Seven Thirty-Seven
Special Ingredients: Castor Beans to Ricin
Georgi Markov Poison-Tip Umbrella Assassination
2.02 Grilled
Special Ingredients: LoJack Technology
Cartels versus Mexican Law Enforcement and the Mexican Army
Mexican Meth Superlabs
2.03 Bit by a Dead Bee
Special Ingredients: Fugues and Fugue States
Grills, or Grillz Dental Appliances
2.04 Down
Sidebar: Marie and the Color Purple
2.05 Breakage
Special Ingredients: Anxiety and Panic Attacks
Chemotherapy Treatment
2.06 Peekaboo
Special Ingredients: H. Tracy Hall
2.07 Negro Y Azul
Special Ingredients: Narcocorridas (Drug Ballads)
Saint Jesus Malverde
2.08 Better Call Saul
Special Ingredients: Attorney-Client Privilege
Loan Out
2.09 4 Days Out
Special Ingredients: PET/CT Scans
Homemade Batteries
2.10 Over
Special Ingredients: Striker Strips or Match Heads?
2.11 Mandala
Special Ingredients: Heroin and Works
12-Step Programs
2.12 Phoenix
Special Ingredients: Is It Murder?
2.13 ABQ
Special Ingredients: Lung Lobectomy
Air Traffic Controllers
Whats Cooking: Saul Goodman and Bus Bench Advertising
Season Three
3.01 No Más
Special Ingredients: Santa Muerte
Tenerife Airport Disaster
Sidebar: The Cars of Breaking Bad
3.02 Caballo Sin Nombre
Special Ingredients: Los Zetas
Polleros (Coyotes) and Chicken Runs”
3.03 I.F.T.
Special Ingredients: Industrial Chicken Farming
3.04 Green Light
Special Ingredients: Class-Action Lawsuits
3.05 Más
Special Ingredients: Heated Floors (Back to Ancient Rome)
3.06 Sunset
Special Ingredients: Probable Cause for Searching Vehicles vs. Searching Residences
Walt Whitman
3.07 One Minute
Special Ingredients: JHPs and the Winchester Black Talon”
Universal Pain Assessment Tool
Meet One of the Cooks: Interview with Michael Slovis, Director of Photography
3.08 I See You
Special Ingredients: Pablo Escobar
3.09 Kafkaesque
Special Ingredients: Gambling Addiction
Money Laundering
3.10 Fly
Special Ingredients: Contaminants Found in Crystal Meth
Common Housefly
3.11 Abiquiu
Special Ingredients: Georgia OKeeffe and the Door Paintings
Marital Privilege
3.12 Half Measures
Special Ingredients: Bonnie and Clyde
3.13 Full Measure
Special Ingredients: Metallic Balloons and Power Lines
Desert Eagle Pistols and Silencers
Whats Cooking: Fan Hatred and Skyler White
Season Four
4.01 Box Cutter
Special Ingredients: Rocks and Minerals
4.02 Thirty-Eight Snub
Special Ingredients: New Mexico Is Not a Retreat Jurisdiction”
4.03 Open House
Special Ingredients: EPA Car Wash Inspectors?
4.04 Bullet Points
Special Ingredients: The Kelly Criterion
4.05 Shotgun
Special Ingredients: Dead Drops
4.06 Cornered
Special Ingredients: Four Corners
4.07 Problem Dog
Special Ingredients: Rage and Product Placement in American Television
Sidebar: Veggie Trays
4.08 Hermanos
Special Ingredients: Chile and the Pinochet Junta
4.09 Bug
Special Ingredients: The CID Division of the IRS
GPS Tracking Devices with USB Connectivity
4.10 Salud
Special Ingredients: Huntingtons Disease
Phenylacetic Acid
4.11 Crawl Space
Special Ingredients: Macho” Camacho
Charms Against the Evil Eye
4.12 End Times
Special Ingredients: Cell Phone Detonated Pipe Bombs (IEDs)
4.13 Face Off
Special Ingredients: Lily of the Valley
Sidebar: Walt and the Backyard Pool
Essay: Buying the House”: Place and Space in Breaking Bad
Season Five Part 1
5.01 Live Free or Die
Special Ingredients: Popcorn Effect” on Superheated Teeth
Saul and Clarence Darrow
5.02 Madrigal
Special Ingredients: Suicide by Portable Defibrillator
Federal Authority to Seize Offshore Funds in a Drug Trafficking Case (RICO)
5.03 Hazard Pay
Special Ingredients: Why Are They Called Second Story Men”?
5.04 Fifty-One
Special Ingredients: House Tenting
5.05 Dead Freight
Special Ingredients: North American Tarantulas
Post 9/11 Rail Transport Security Measures
5.06 Buyout
Special Ingredients: How Can Electrical Wiring Burn Through Plastic?
TROs and Ex Parte Orders
5.07 Say My Name
Special Ingredients: Antoine Lavoisier
5.08 Gliding Over All
Special Ingredients: Meth in the Czech Republic
Hank and Marie and Kids
Season Five Part 2
5.09 Blood Money
Special Ingredients: Forensic Handwriting Comparison
The All Seeing Eye
5.10 Buried
Special Ingredients: Christian Louboutin
5.11 Confessions
5.12 Rabid Dog
5.13 Tohajiilee
5.14 Ozymadias
5.15 Granite State
5.16 Felina
Whats Cooking: The One Who Knocks”: The Violentization of Walter White
Special Ingredients Index