Taking The 'Breaking Bad' Tour Of Albuquerque
February 27, 2013 9:09 AM   Subscribe

 
Cranston has blood on his hand in those photos. SPOILER!
posted by bondcliff at 9:18 AM on February 27, 2013


Awesome post. Should point out that if you're not caught up on the show yet, this contains a considerable number of spoilers.
posted by jbickers at 9:20 AM on February 27, 2013 [1 favorite]


My husband's aunt is the Albuquerque film commissioner, and he and my daughter got to visit the set last year. My ten year old has no idea why her dad was so excited to have his picture taken in front of a bullet-ridden RV.
posted by padraigin at 9:24 AM on February 27, 2013 [3 favorites]


I am somehow sad to see Los Pollos Hermanos is a real place. Because I know I want to go there and have polite convo with Gus. Actually, I want to be Gus's pal, be the best girlfriend to Jesse he ever had, and give Skylar a hug. I am too invested in this show.
posted by angrycat at 9:25 AM on February 27, 2013 [1 favorite]


Cranston is the Nick Swisher of actors.
posted by any major dude at 9:26 AM on February 27, 2013


It always floors me that Bryan Cranston also played this guy. He definitely has not fallen into the typecasting trap. (OK, they are both suburban husbands, but beyond that...)
posted by TedW at 9:32 AM on February 27, 2013


I'm not yet done with the last season, so I'm going to bookmark the link for later.

I shouldn't even be in this thread, for fear of spoilers!

But I have to say how much I love this show. LOVE. IT.
posted by MoxieProxy at 9:34 AM on February 27, 2013


Except for his work, I don't know anything about Bryan Cranston, but for some reason, the fact that he's known to be "the nicest, most charming guy in the world" delights me beyond reason.
posted by MCMikeNamara at 9:39 AM on February 27, 2013


from article: “New Mexico is a very boring state.”

Yeah, most of us don't like Breaking Bad, either. Go figure.
posted by koeselitz at 9:42 AM on February 27, 2013


It always floors me that Bryan Cranston also played this guy.

Somebody on Twitter suggested that Malcolm in the Middle was Walter White's life after entering the witness protection program.

Cranston is everywhere. If it wasn't for BB and MitM he'd be "That Guy" that you see in all sorts of movies and TV shows. He played Buzz Aldrin, for christ sake! He got to walk on the moon AND cook that sweet, sweet blue meth.
posted by bondcliff at 9:43 AM on February 27, 2013 [1 favorite]


I was watching "3rd Rock From the Sun", and Cranston appeared in a cameo as a Neil Diamond impersonator in Season 4.
posted by reenum at 9:43 AM on February 27, 2013


angrycat: “I am somehow sad to see Los Pollos Hermanos is a real place. Because I know I want to go there and have polite convo with Gus. Actually, I want to be Gus's pal, be the best girlfriend to Jesse he ever had, and give Skylar a hug. I am too invested in this show.”

Los Pollos Hermanos is most definitely not a real place (for various values of "real place," I guess). It's a sign on the back wall of one location of a New Mexico chain called Twister's. There is no place called "Los Pollos Hermanos," though.

However, the roast chicken at Golden Pride is some of the best I've ever had in my freaking life. And if you're willing to drive down the road to Santa Fe, the chicken at this place is supposed to be even better.
posted by koeselitz at 9:47 AM on February 27, 2013


I spent far too long staring at Bryan Cranston's/Walt's clothing and face imagining the reasons that he looks like that. This show is truly my favorite and the closest to perfection that I've seen on TV. I'm sad to see it leave this summer but I know it's better than letting it continue and have the quality inevitably falter. Just five more months...
posted by Defenestrator at 9:54 AM on February 27, 2013


It's killing me that Netflix hasn't gotten season 5 to the US yet, and that I missed it last year. My appreciation for the show has waned a bit since the first season, which was just an unassailable pathos bomb, but it's still damn-near the best thing going.
posted by uncleozzy at 9:54 AM on February 27, 2013


Cranston is everywhere.

You're not kidding; until I looked him up on wikipedia, I had forgotten that he was Jerry Seinfeld's dentist, as well!
posted by TedW at 10:00 AM on February 27, 2013 [1 favorite]


After binge-ing on Season 4 on Netflix in... well, a very short time, I weighed my options for about a tenth of a second before pulling the trigger on the first half of Season 5, which is on iTunes.

The lack of purple at Hank and Marie's actual house... heh.
posted by emelenjr at 10:05 AM on February 27, 2013


Cranston's interview with Marc Maron is very good - includes stories of his his early life as a carnie, and so much more. (you'll need the premium subscription to access this older episode, but it's dirt cheap and you get access to the entire catalog of WTF interviews.)
posted by chambers at 10:06 AM on February 27, 2013 [2 favorites]




And to see Jesse Pinkman unable to utter the lines, "Ebola, that disease where your intestines slide out your butt" without dying of laughter.
posted by angrycat at 10:28 AM on February 27, 2013


from article: “New Mexico is a very boring state.”

Yes, that was a weirdly offensive interjection from the writer. And somewhat tone deaf given the love Breaking Bad's cinematographers and directors show for New Mexico's landscape.
posted by We had a deal, Kyle at 10:37 AM on February 27, 2013 [3 favorites]


The Whites' house is literally around the corner from my mom's house, where I spent my teenage years, and where my mom still lives and I visit often. Jesse's house (vol 1) is a few blocks from my dad's house during the same time period (he since moved a few blocks away). It's pretty surreal seeing your hometown neighborhoods as the setting of such a show. At least it's a great show.
posted by krinklyfig at 10:41 AM on February 27, 2013


New Mexico is a very boring state.
Maybe 'boring' is not the best choice of words, but I don't really take offense at statements like that. The picture - flat, no trees, brown dirt and sky - does a pretty good job of conveying how different the landscape is here than in a lot of places, and it takes some getting used to. Just like when I go someplace else it feels weirdly claustrophobic for a bit, only being able to see for a few hundred feet in any direction, what with all the trees and vegetation.
My favorite quote along those lines was someone's comment overheard at the airport in Albuquerque and published in the Albuquerque Journal: "Why is there nothing here?"
posted by Killick at 10:53 AM on February 27, 2013


includes stories of his his early life as a carnie

Wait, what?

Along the way he almost became a cop, he was briefly wanted for murder, and he went broke making a labor of love

WHAT?
posted by dubold at 10:56 AM on February 27, 2013


Yeah, I finally got around to watching Argo the other night and I realized that, due to Breaking Bad, I will now buy Cranston in almost any role.

In Argo he's an amicable and affable yet professional fellow CIA agent to Affleck's protagonist.

Yes, for a moment I thought, "hey, it's Walter and, yeah, Walter can seem sweet and professional." After that thought on the few occasions when my brain still insisted on going "WALTER!" it didn't hamper my ability to see him in his current role.

That's how 3 dimensional the writing for Walter and Cranston's acting have been on Breaking Bad. Even when you associate him with a single character it doesn't hurt your ability to believe him in a number of other guises.

Yeah, Mr. White! Yeah, science!
posted by sendai sleep master at 11:18 AM on February 27, 2013


New Mexico is a very boring state.
I live in AZ but get to NM a couple times a year and this seems awfully ABQ-centric. Get out to Silver City, or the Gila National Forest, or Santa Fe, or Acoma Pueblo, or Chaco Canyon, or drive west on I-40 and try to tell me that New Mexico isn't weird, wonderful, and beautiful.
posted by TungstenChef at 11:27 AM on February 27, 2013 [4 favorites]


Yeah, every state has its boring bits and its interesting bits. I grew up in central Illinois and it might seem to a casual visitor that it's mostly endless cornfields, but it's also home to a 280,000-acre national forest. The Dakotas look exceptionally flat and featureless even to an Illinoisan, but then there's also Mount Rushmore and the Badlands. Etc.
posted by Halloween Jack at 11:41 AM on February 27, 2013


Yeah, it's more accurate to say that Albuquerque is boring. I really like living here, but when I have out of state visitors I usually suggest meeting up in Santa Fe.
posted by El Sabor Asiatico at 12:32 PM on February 27, 2013


Mini-spoiler.























I cannot wait for the second half of season 5. There aren't many shows that can cliff-hang on a character taking a shit.
posted by essexjan at 1:23 PM on February 27, 2013


An interesting tidbit from Cranston's WTF interview: He and his brother were wanted for murder in Colorado because someone they knew had died mysteriously and the Cranston brothers were nowhere to be found.
posted by reenum at 4:08 PM on February 27, 2013


They have a picture of the donuts from Rebel Donuts, which use the "meth" made by the Candy Lady. The Candy Lady has a special room for their x-rated stuff, which is mostly candy boobs and dongs, lol. It's perfect they make the blue "meth".

Anyway, I just want to say that Rebel Donuts has great donuts, espacailly the ones with maple frosting and crispy bacon on top. The cocoa crisp coated are great too! Mmmm donuts!
posted by annsunny at 4:34 PM on February 27, 2013


Yeah, most of us don't like Breaking Bad, either. Go figure.

Why would most of a state's residents not like this show? This comment confuses me.
posted by getawaysticks at 6:22 AM on March 1, 2013


I do know that my mother, who has done significant time in big pens and juvie institutions providing mental health care, has zero interest in Breaking Bad. Because she knows a bunch of kids who gone and got killed or are behind bars because they killed somebody else, so it makes sense that say, the dissolved body in the tub doesn't strike her as something she'd want to hang with. OTOH, she prefers animated animal films and almost slaughtered my brother and me when we showed her The Blair Witch Project on a lark, so who knows.
posted by angrycat at 8:12 AM on March 1, 2013


(And Ma is in ABQ, buried the lede)
posted by angrycat at 8:12 AM on March 1, 2013


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