Happy Birthday… Bitch.
Monday 10th February 2014 marks the 47th birthday of none other than the creative genius that is Vince Gilligan, the big brain behind the brilliant Breaking Bad and, seeing as we were too tight to get him anything nice, here at JOE we decided to pick five of our favourite minor characters from that terrific television show.
WARNING: Super spoilers galore.
Breaking Baddicts will argue long and hard into the night as to who their favourite characters are, never mind their favourite minor characters, and so, after eight hours of in-house fighting, three broken nails and one death, the JOE staff finally decided on the five fantastic characters who, although they were afforded only limited screen-time, made an absolutely explosive impact.
Tortuga
Speaking of explosive…
The iconic Danny Trejo turned in quite a performance as a Mexican cartel member who also happened to be a DEA informant. When the going got tough though, it was fair to say he just couldn’t keep his head…
The Cousins
Forget those two wee girls from The Shining, Leonel and Marco Salamanca (Daniel and Luis Moncada) AKA The Cousins were much, much, MUCH scarier and they’re most likely the sole reason that JOE now pretends to not be home whenever our own cousins call around to the house.
We’d good reason to be scared of these mute, robotic killers and the preying, praying pair really made their mark at the opening of Season 3 as they crawled their way into the terrified hearts of Breaking Bad fans everywhere.
Like a well-worked, perfectly-disguised fart, these buckos were silent but deadly…
Kuby and Huell
Patrick Kuby and Huell Babineaux, played by comedians Bill Burr and Lavell Crawford respectively, were Saul’s super sidekicks, often helping the wonderful Walter White out of the many scrapes that he inevitably found himself in.
Oh, and they made us laugh. A lot.
Ed the Extractor
Perfectly played by the effortlessly cool Robert Forster, the Extractor was oft-mentioned by the shneaky Saul Goodman in earlier episodes but didn’t actually appear in person until Breaking Bad’s phenomenal penultimate episode, ‘Granite State.’
The initial shock of “wait, he’s actually a vacuum repair man!?” soon gave way to revered respect as Ed removed, re-homed and recharged a weak Walter White Mr Lambert in a secluded cabin in the white woods of New Hampshire.
A dignified, efficient man.
Spooge and “his woman”
Spooge (David Ury) and his nameless “skank woman” (Dale Dickey) are grimy, abusive and downright horrible, obsessing over Crystal Meth and cash, all while neglecting their young son who befriends an angry and confused Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul).
Terrifying, terrible people.
And whatever you do, don’t call her a skank to her face because she doesn’t like that kind of thing…
LISTEN: You Must Be Jokin’ with Aideen McQueen – Faith healers, Coolock craic and Gigging as Gaeilge
