Colombian Breaking Bad

My favorite show was Breaking Bad, and I was excited when Univision announced it was Metastasis going to do a re-make of the show in Spanish. The adaptation is called “Metasasis” and is nearly identical to the U.S. version. Here we point out some of differences. If you teach a high lever (of more mature students who may have been fans of the show), they may find these tidbits interesting.1. Walter White, is now known as Walter Blanco, a typical Spanish last name. And our friend Jesse Pinkman becomes José Rosa. Skylar is Cielo and Hank is Henry Navarro.

2. In the English version, Jesse always refers to his former teacher respectfully as Mr. White even though they work closely together. In the Colombian version, José always refers to him as “Profe”. In the Colombian school system, teachers are either called by this title, or sometimes their first name. Students do not call their teachers by their last name, hence why you don’t hear “Sr. Blanco”.

3.
In the U.S. version, Walter creates the alter-ego Heisenburg. So why is it “Jaisenber” in the Colombian version. Well, as someone with a German last night, I can tell you how difficult it is for Spanish to pronounce. So, that’s why we get the phonetic “Jaisenber”.

4. As in typical novela fashion, this show airs one hour every night, Monday through Friday. Instead of waiting an entire week, you wait until the next night. The entire series airs in months instead of years.

5. This occurred to me after switching from the Spanish version on Caracol to the English version which was airing on another channel. One of the more interesting scenes from the early season is when Walter tosses a pizza onto the roof of his house. It got me thinking, if he would toss an arepa in the Colombian version. An arepa is a very traditional Colombia food, as essential to Colombians as the tortilla is to Mexicans.

Update:

6. An alternative to Walter breaking so many cell phones may be buying “minutos” to make a phone call. In Colombia, you will find many people selling minutes on the street for anywhere between 150-300 Colombian pesos (about a nickel).