[center] **"Bromine & Barium"** [/center] [Broooo did u know breaking bad is the best show of all time I'm for real serious right now this is not a joke I've felt that way for a while now I rewatch it basically every two years. I think I've done this since about age 15 or 16 whenever I first got into it I really enjoy that shows like this age with you as you revisit them. I understand subtle jokes and life lessons more at every stage I experience it. Better Call Saul sharpened my sword as I became an adult I look forward to basically anything done by Vince Gilligan now Oh also the El Camino movie is surprisingly good] --- >>I likely cannot give any newfound insight on how brilliant the characters of this Southwestern drug canon are with their internal struggles and complexity. You see a constant push and pull at play between family obligation, self actualization, as well as genuinely vain egoism and greed. >>Underneath this are a host of family and cultural dynamics within the bizarre state of New Mexico; a place with odd roots and history spanning government, local folklore, and an unabashedly Native ancestral pride. It's also one of the most Catholic-Spanish states in the Union, and feels different architecturally and spiritually for a reason. >>There's an odd liminality and emptiness to the West. It's the creepy potential that brought Vaqueros and Settlers here in its expansion of settlements. That same liminality has been respected by various historical Tribes going even further back. >>The desert remains hostile and unrelenting in its natural state; that energetic setting is part of what makes Breaking Bad feel so distinctly personal to me. There is a special type of brutality when you're going through the negative tides of life and you still have to deal with 110 degree heat somehow. I think it makes people here pretty Nihilistic and unfriendly sometimes. >>It feels vast, empty, and unforgiving, yet there is an odd romance to the barren conditions and sensitivity you accept. You feel like you're not supposed to be here, but the mirage of illusory waves dancing in the distance looks oddly hypnotizing. >>It feels spiritually reminiscent of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas; another desert epic which captivated me deeply when I was younger. I think of these adventure stories in a common theme of braving hostile journeys through an alluring, dangerous terrain; sometimes forgetting why you are even doing it in the first place. Good intentions or not, sometimes your grasp at novelty can subsume itself into a pit of decisions and hallways.