Pilots

About a week or so ago, I read this article on Grantland: http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/6763000/bad-decisions about how, in the author's opinion, Breaking Bad is a better show than Mad Men and is better than the Wire and Sopranos were. I've only seen the first episode of the Wire and no episodes of The Sopranos. I also just watched the pilot of Mad Men this past Sunday, and have been thinking about what I consider the best drama, currently and ever. After watching the pilot of Mad Men, I felt neutral. I've since watched about 4 more episodes, but after watching the first episode, and the slight reveal about Don Draper in the final scenes, I felt a little disappointed. I felt I was watching a 1960s version of The Great Gatsby. I've always wanted to watch the show, but waited (since I don't have cable) and now since it is on Netflix Instants I thought I'd tackle it. Over the past 4 years or so, I had heard rumblings about the journey to discover who Don Draper is, among other things. But, the pilot, in comparison to the pilots to the other dramas I watch(ed) and love(d), does not compare. I can think of three pilots it does not compare to: Friday Night Lights, Lost and Deadwood. I can't include the Wire in my argument as I haven't seen any other episodes, and Breaking Bad, while ongoing like Mad Men, I feel is exempt from the argument- more on that later.

I will start off with Lost. Be warned, there will be some spoilers. First, at the time of its airing, Lost's pilot was the most expensive in the history of television. Now you may want to throw out that fact, but those expenses were for some of the memorable scenes of any pilot: the carnage after the plane crash, Jack saving Claire and Hurley from a falling wing and an unlucky soul who gets sucked into a spinning turbine. After the chaos, Jack finds shelter in the forest to (or attempt to) sew up his minor wounds. He can't and has to have Kate assist him, and talk her through it, as she is nervous (giving her advice: let the fear in for 5 seconds, just 5 seconds and then do what you have to do- advice I hope will work when I read my piece). The episode ends with our   first glimpse at the black smoke monster. In the pilot, we get what we got throughout 6 six seasons: Jack and Kate heavily flirting, weird shit happening on the island, Sawyer giving people nicknames and Locke being weird. Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse, prior to the last season talked about how they wanted the show to go full circle (literally- the opening scene is the final scene.) But the themes that appear in the first episode- the strange things on the island and the human connections- are what carry the show.

The same can be said for Friday Night Lights.In the first episode, star QB Jason street is paralyzed from the waste down. After the game is over, and Street's team has miraculously won, both teams huddle in the middle of the field and Coach Taylor gives his "We all fall down" speech (which reminds me of advice given to a young Bruce Wayne: Why do we fall down? So we can learn to pick ourselves up). Throughout the seasons, every characters falls. But early in the episode, we see the true heart and soul of the show in one scene: Caoch Taylor's wife, Tammi, nags him about moving into a bigger house, and he tells her to drop it. We know this is an argument/conversation they've had before; Tammi hangs the picture of the house on their fridge and goes to bed; later in the episode Coach Taylor is seen, alone, looking at the house, but because of Street's accident, the issue of house is almost forgotten in future episodes. The show is about the sacrifices Tammi makes for her husband's coaching career, until the final episode where coach makes a (big) sacrifice, and throughout the series, how the couple keeps their marriage afloat.

On a smaller scale, the same can be said about Deadwood. It is hard to say the themes of Deadwood carried out throughout the short lived 3 seasons, because it was canceled (thanks a lot True Blood and HBO- worst move ever). Since Deadwood is the least fresh in memory, the main themes I remember in the pilot were the use of the words fuck and cunt, violence, alliances and plotting. They all were heavily used in all the episodes.
But, I think my point is clear. The themes of the pilots will determine the quality of the show. I think a show about a mysterious island and human connections and a show about marriage in a football crazed city will trump a show that mimics F. Scott's Fitzgerald's classic, and nothing against The Great Gatsby. I can't say where Mad Men will go, but I feel the themes, other than Don Draper's story: the racist/sexism of the time, and the ad agency workings and ideas/slogans (which I didn't think we very creative at all, to be honest) can't compete with Lost's and FNL's themes.

[It is also interesting to examine how the pilots are different than the rest of episodes for Lost and FNL: Lost's pilot was directed (and created by) J.J. Abrahams, his one and only Lost episode, a common misconception  is that he stuck around. For FNL, the pilot is shot day-to-day, leading to Friday night. This rarely, if ever happens again, and as the series progressed, the football became less and less important.]

Breaking Bad, I think could be the exception to what I discovered. I also usually believe that what I've seen last (or read, or listened to, etc.) is the best, and Breaking Bad falls into that category. But, the themes presented in the first episode of Breaking Bad have only somewhat survived. Yes, Walt is still somewhat in the meth production business to support his family. But, his conscious has changed, as well as the mood. Walt has changed. Maybe more so than any other character in the history of television. I don't think there is any violence in the pilot, and if so, nothing compared to the violence in final episodes of season 3 and the season 4 premiere . The whole first season is sort of depressing, especially the first few episodes about Walt dealing with his cancer. But, I would say around the middle of season one to the middle of season two, a mood was established that is unlike anything else of television. It is a constant feeling of dread, a feeling of watching and all you can think is "oh no,oh no, oh, no" as if the characters are actually your neighbors or coworkers, and the snow ball effect of all Walt's decisions and how they not only have cost people their lives, but more importantly changed Walt as a person. Vince Gilligan has said in interviews that he wanted Walt to change from the protagonist to the antagonist, and I believe he has done so. I also think Breaking Bad is the most literary show of them all, in the way that there is a focus on certain images, especially in the second season and connected they are to plot. Also the character development, and how there is that sort of car crash on the screen/page feeling, always reminds me of stories by Dorothy Allison, Stephanie Vaughn, Donald Barthelme, Stephen Dixon, Wells Tower and Denis Johnson.