In an effort to further alienate those who read my column, I feel like it is important to note that this week’s piece will contain minor-to-kind-of-major spoilers from the latest episode of “Breaking Bad.”
I understand that some people have not seen said episode, so read at your own peril. If you’re not down with that, I got two words for you: stop reading. In fact, if you have not yet seen “Breaking Bad,” get started on it. Watch “The Wire” first, though, it’s better. Your official to-do list should now read: 1.”The Wire” 2.”Breaking Bad” 3. Matt’s column. Don’t disappoint me.
The scene I would like to dive into involves one of the main characters, we’ll call him “Walt,” trying to reach his son. For the purpose of this column, we’ll call the son “Walt Jr.,” because “Flynn” is the dumbest nickname since “Muscle Hamster.” The scene is very emotionally charged, with Walt attempting to buy his son’s love back and Walt Jr. revealing that he doesn’t want money because he’s a big, dumb, card-carrying communist. Seriously, Walt Jr., how do you expect to make breakfast without that bread?
Anyway, Walt is calling his son from a bar somewhere in New Hampshire (that’s New Hampshah, for the wicked smaht). That alone was enough to distract me with thoughts of, “Oh my god, New Hampshire! That’s like other Maine!” It was swift justice for my friend Adam, whom I mocked when he fist-pumped at Saul mentioning Omaha. The whole time Walt was in the Granite State I was waiting for a reference that I could look at my friends and smugly declare, “Oh you guys don’t get why that’s funny because you guys are filthy Midwestern peasants who don’t have [Moxie/the ocean/trees/etc.].”
Alas, that moment never came, but there was something even more distracting: Hockey. As background noise, “Breaking Bad” writer Vince Gilligan had a hockey game playing on the bar’s television. There is nothing that distracts me more than sports as background noise. So while Walt Jr. was droning on about morality or having no friends or something, I was trying to figure out what was going on in the hockey game.
That might seem odd, but sports are a big deal in my life. I will generally choose sports over my other hobbies. This makes watching television difficult from time to time. There are only a few shows that I feel have really nailed the culture of sports, with “Cheap Seats” being first among them. Add “Cheap Seats” to your to-do list.
Most people, especially busy television writing people, don’t follow sports to the degree that I do. I accept that, but it keeps me from embracing things. I never got into “The League,” for example, out of a crippling fear that it would get something wrong about fantasy football or football in general. And so, as a neurotic fan, I started to pick the scene in “Breaking Bad” for flaws.
First, and most astounding, I didn’t hear any Jack Edwards. From here I deduced that owner of the bar was also a “pinko commie” for not having NESN on in New Hampshire. I then thought it could be a UNH game, which would be fair, I guess. Through Ryan Lambert (@twolinepass), I learned that the game was a 1998 clash between the University of Denver and the University of Wisconsin.
What?
Nothing against those institutions, but I fail to see the reason why they are on television in New Hampshire a decade after the game was played. There are a few possibilities for this curious case of Badger hockey.
First, and most common in television, is the possibility that a 10-year old NCCA game was the easiest thing to get rights to. In this case grabbing the first available game is the easy way out for someone who doesn’t really care about sports. This is the same reasoning that led to a recent episode of “Elementary” featuring something like 58 different baseball games on TV in one scene. If this is the case, I am very disappointed in Mr. Gilligan.
Another possibility is that this game was some sort of inside joke within the cast. Maybe someone went to the aforementioned schools. Maybe it was a play on the character named “Badger.” Either way, it’s pretty weak.
The most commonly held idea from what I’ve read online is that the game has a special meaning. For those of you who were not paying attention to college in 1998, Wisconsin was down 3-1 heading into the third period. The Badgers ended up scoring six goals in the final frame to cruise to a 7-4 victory. The idea is that this might be foreshadowing for the last episode. Walter could be making his own comeback, and hopefully, to paraphrase T.I., pull up on Todd’s set and make a mess.
This is all very speculative, but if it’s true, I don’t know why they used this particular game. In October 2009, 2009 being the year this season takes place, the Bruins had a third period comeback against the Islanders. It even ended in a shootout. It would make more sense to put that game on in New Hampshire.
With things being as they are, I have to come up with a backstory for why this bar would have this particular game on. Right now I’m thinking that the owner of the establishment had a son. That son passed away due to blue meth overdose. Now the bar owner can only watch ESPN Classic as a reminder of the good times. Poor bar owner.
That or they didn’t know that you can watch Habs games by switching to that one French channel everyone in New England seems to get. I guess that’s the lesson here for television writers. If you want no one to care, put the Habs on.