Friday, June 29, 2012

Breaking Bad Uncensored [NSFW]

(NO BIG SPOILERS.)

I've been rewatching the entirety of BREAKING BAD in anticipation of the new season which starts July 15th. AMC has been re-airing all the seasons.

Since AMC is basic cable, they allow the use of "shit" and near-nudity. No f-bombs or nipples. It's an absurd line to draw, to be sure, and says a lot that graphic violence and drug-use is a-okay but nipples are obscene, but I digress...

The version of BREAKING BAD's first season that I originally saw was filled with uncensored f-bombs and nudity. However, the version of the pilot that I just watched off of AMC was censored up the wazoo, including blanking out some instances of "shit".

Evidence: When we're first introduced to Jesse Pinkman, he's climbing out of a neighbor's window and a naked woman is throwing his clothes out after him:

However, in the version that AMC aired (at the top), the neighbor is suddenly wearing a bra.

It's fine but I'm curious about why they have such different versions. Did they go to the trouble of shooting the sequence two different ways? Or did they add a bra digitally? Note that in the censored version above she's throwing his sneaker with her LEFT hand, and in the uncensored version she's throwing it with her RIGHT hand, suggesting these were two different takes. (Also, you have to account for the amount of *bounce* they'd have to cover up digitally... which justifies my creation of the animated gif, thankyouverymuch.)

In terms of conveying the narrative, the neighbor in the bra works well enough: we still understand that she and Pinkman just screwed. But why would you shoot something for a network in a way that they couldn't simply air it? Are uncensored takes shot for other markets? Is this what they do with all shows?

Is there a raunchier version of THE SHIELD out there...?

These are the big mysteries that keep me awake at night.

3 Comments:

Anonymous Greg said...

If I remember, they filmed the Pilot episode to be shopped around at networks like HBO, Showtime, etc. The paid cable networks would have allowed the nudity, but when they landed at AMC, they had to make the edit.

8/28/2012 12:30:00 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Great post. There are quite a few pointless debates on whether the series is censored and whether uncensored versions exist. Could you shed some light on this topic as regards Season 2, etc?

12/23/2012 07:16:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

The entire series on Netflix is virtually uncensored

11/08/2013 06:59:00 PM  

Post a Comment

<< Home