On Mon, 23 Dec 2013 11:22:10 +0000, Stephen wrote:

> On 23/12/2013 3:10 AM, Jim Henderson wrote:
>> Spoiler alerts below for Breaking Bad (read no further if you don't
>> know how it ends).
>>
>>
> Or if you live in a media vacuum. :-)

Well, some people do manage to avoid spoilers for a while, so I thought 
I'd be courteous. ;)

>> On Mon, 23 Dec 2013 00:23:27 +0000, Stephen wrote:
>>
>>> I've given up going to the movies and watching them on TV.
>>> I've just watched a play about Kenneth Williams. A very troubled man,
>>> indeed. There were no goodies nor baddies and it was a difficult
>>> watch.
>>> Seeing how hard and sad life was for one of my childhood heroes.
>>
>> Theater itself probably does have more complexity in its storytelling,
>> that's for sure.
>>
>>
> Sorry, it was a TV play. Every now and again a drama budget is spent on
> drama.

Well, yeah, but even still - the development process is similar to actual 
theatre productions.

>>> It got good reviews but I knew that he would die in the end. Even in
>>> American book, so my wife tells me. The character that does something
>>> bad has got to pay for it.
>>
>> Watching the story, I wasn't so sure - Walt didn't really *pay* for his
>> crimes, in the end, his death was a bit more of an easy way out.  It
>> wasn't a "fair" punishment, and it wasn't clear how they were going to
>> wrap it up.  Having it be an accident as a result of his own hubris had
>> kind of a poetic justice to it, but it was far from the punishment he
>> deserved.
>>
>>
> (How to put this without sounding overly critical, or personal?)
> It is that attitude, the one that expects people (exclude politicians)
> to pay for their wrong doings, to the N th. degree, that disturbs me.
> It is reflected in American literature and films. Which is where I came
> in.

No, not taking it personally at all - over here, there is a rather strong 
belief that people get the punishments they deserve.  Which is odd, 
because just as with Walt in BB, it's rarely the case.  Justice wouldn't 
have been death, it would've been a long time in prison, knowing his 
family hated him.

But don't forget that we don't expect the wealthy to pay for their 
misdeeds either.  We call people who get to a position of wealth and 
power who get away with stuff "successful".  Makes me sick.

>>> Noy you know how we feel when we hear SF called Sci Fi. And while I am
>>> on the subject. It is MATHS not math. ;-)
>>
>> Depends on whether we're talking about the subject as a singular object
>> or not. ;)
>>
>>
> It is a collective noun.
> The different branches are singular.

Exactly what I was saying.  One might be talking about a singular "math 
branch."

Jim

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