In 2008, AMC premiered its hit drama series Breaking Bad. Throughout five thrilling seasons, the show follows high school chemistry teacher, Walter White, who is afraid his life can not get much worse. He had recently been diagnosed with cancer while his wife is pregnant with his second child and he does not have the funds to support a new child let alone pay for his cancer treatment. He decides to join forces with former student and high school dropout, Jesse Pinkman to start cooking meth in an old RV to start making money to be able to pay for his cancer treatments.
The scene I chose was originally from season 4 episode 6 titled “Cornered.” The entire scene takes place in the bedroom of Walter and his wife Skyler. Prior to the conversation a person very close to Walter is killed after someone enters his home and shoots him from point-blank range. Skyler is worried that Walter is next but little does she know he’s the one responsible for this man dying. She is pleading with him to go to the police for help and to try to back out of this new business venture he’s apart of before that same thing happens to him. He then explains that if he were apart of that scenario he’d be, ‘the one who knocks.”
This can be looked at as an example of how much programming has changed since the beginning of the Post-Network era. For example, even though this scene only takes place in one room, it still shows multiple camera angles for the duration of the clip. When looking at the average television show from the network era, almost every scene takes place in one room from one camera angle. Another example that could be used is the dialogue and the conflicts throughout the series. In shows like The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show, the characters would encounter whatever conflict and then resolve it by the end of the episode. Not only is the dialogue much more intense and serious, the conflicts are often not resolved by the end of the episode. This show is like many early shows in the Post-Network era like Hill Street Blues that uses cliff-hangers to keep audiences involved so they will tune in next week to find out what happens next to Walter and Jesse.