Skyler White vs. The Haters

Other than Game of Thrones' pint-sized sadist Joffrey, I can't think of another character on TV now who has received more hate than Breaking Bad's Skyler White. I have friends who regularly take to twitter and facebook to share how much they despise her. Anna Gunn, who plays Skyler -- a difficult role which she does wonders with -- is well-aware of the mounting hate-campaign against the character too, and has contributed a thoughtful op-ed piece to New York Times discussing this. It's distressing to read how the hate bleeds into real life, with fans conflating Gunn with Skyler to the point where death threats are being made. Ugh. I've never understood it: Skyler's not the most likeable character, but she's as complex and flawed you'd want the long-suffering wife of a sociopathic meth-dealer to be. The final season of Breaking Bad is currently screening on Soho.

Anatomy of a Trailer

By now moviegoers should be familiar with the generally hyperbolic audio-visual sensation offered by modern Hollywood trailers (i.e. increasingly fast-cutting of money shots set to loud booming music). But if you really want to get into the details of trailer analysis, New York Times have taken it a step further by breaking down the trailers for 5 of this year's 9 Best Picture Nominees into cleverly devised interactive graphs that show shot length and exactly where in the movie the clips are taken from. You can see some fascinating patterns emerging from the different approaches. Click here to read more. Very cool stuff.