Filmed on Location
Besides being very impressed for all the reasons others have already mentioned, I am also very impressed that the show was actually filmed in Albuquerque & surrounding areas. The car wash was one we drive by regularly. The license plates and fire engines were all authentic. The drug house looks to have been located in a typical Westside tract neighborhood. Sadly for our town, it is a VERY ACCURATE portrayal of the darker side of life here. One example: when the fire trucks speed by him standing there with a gun in his underwear, it is not even noticed by the firemen. They've seen much weirder, especially out in the rural areas. If you saw the local news every day, you'd know what I mean. Even the older episodes of COPS from the 90's tell the story of our colorful characters. Our film industry is growing rapidly here. I'd love to see more than Westerns and Biker movies filmed here, so this was refreshing. Maybe the next one will highlight some of our positives, or I fear we'll never get past our third-world reputation. Any other locals out there? Would love to hear your take on this!
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I agree the show's setting adds scores to its meaning. I think you see a lot of desolation in the scenes, and that adds to Walt's desperation to make a change in his life.
You can always tell when a show is being filmed in Los Angeles, so the fact that the producers took the trouble to shoot in New Mexico I think really proves their dedication to making the show as real and raw as possible.
Clayton, thanks for your insightful response. For me, even worse than filming in LA is the overabundance of shows filmed in British Columbia. Very beautiful, but definitely not Santa Barbara (as in "Psych").
@ New Mexico Tam:
Glad you saw this post. I noticed some of your other posts and was hoping you'd reach this one. You've got some good insights on the show--I hope you keep sharing with us in the coming weeks. I'll do my best to reply to as many as possible!
Yes Yes... Ditto!
I have been looking around for info on who the Creative/Art Directors on Breaking Bad are... Not sure why the New Mexican location was chosen. Lord knows there are plenty of locations (Modesto, Bakersfield, to name a few that are a little closer to L.A.) that they could have chosen if they were looking for an "authentic" meth location; but the vivid desert colors and big blue skies of New Mexico are a great on film. It just wouldn't be the same set anywhere else.
The colors from the cars to the costuming are really great too. It's almost as if the makers walked through a marketplace in Santa Fe with their pantone books saying we need this color for Capn's car and this color for Bryan's shirt...
So far... Breaking Bad is a work of art!
*jd
My brother and I were up last night channel surfing and we came across this show, I noticed the giant carwash, and I thought It was Albuquerque, and just seeing the old Brian O'Brians outside the carwash sealed the deal. We did enjoy watching the episode last night, and we even made a little game; Figure out where on location they were. About the only place I couldn't nail was the shop where they went to go buy their son a pair of pants and the jocks were giving him a hard time. It was either off of central in the nob hill area or off of second street somewhere (I read the 216 adress that was above the doorway).
Either way, amazing show, amazing cast, and it's nice to see that the New Mexico filming is picking up even more since Wildfire came out here.