Now THIS is a party…
Lauren’s watching Breaking Bad from scratch on Netflix. I was at her house for lunch yesterday and I watched an episode in the middle of Season Four with her. I am an irritating person to watch any television show with, or any movie or stage play, but I am particularly irritating when I am not invested in the storyline (or come in mid-series). I can’t seem to help myself from asking questions like, “Wait, so that guy that looks like the main guy, but fatter, is his wife’s brother?” and “If he’s DEA, how come he doesn’t know about the meth lab, and why is he in bed eating rice pudding?”
It is family folklore that I watched most of Lord of the Rings with my son at the movie theater, never having read the book, and leaned over to whisper the question, “So what’s the deal with this ring everyone’s so keen about?”
But, I know addiction. No questions asked. And this show is all about the ugliness of addiction… The cute blonde guy, with the circles under his eyes in blue light, has just relapsed and his hunger is so palpable it made me salivate. He asks his meth lab partner, “Do you wanna do something? Go-carting?” He sits in his house like a scalded cat, his restless leg twitching and asks the stray friends who sit on his couch, “Is it too quiet in here?” He plays music turned all the way up, stuffs pizza in his mouth, paces, has a party, throws away money, begs acquaintances to “stay over”, paces some more.
All to feed this unquenchable thirst, this insatiable hunger.
I figure everyone in the show has to have been an addict at one time or another, or at least the director. It is too raw, too authentic at capturing this horrible thing we try to feed…
Today I’m not drinking because I am full(ish)…
