Fresh Parallel

Fresh is a film about a kid involved in the drug business who figures out how to take down the adult dealers and thugs surrounding him.  When it came out in 1994 I couldn't help but notice something. It features Samuel L. Jackson as a brilliant street chess player in New York who teaches valuable lessons to a young man--just like how Searching For Bobby Fischer in 1993 featured Laurence Fishburne as a brilliant street chess player in New York who teaches valuable lessons to a young man.  Jackson and Fishburne have often been confused for each other, and I'm sure these two roles didn't help.

But watching Fresh today made me notice something that I couldn't have noticed back then.  The film is about how an underling in the drug business uses a long-term chess-like strategy which involves lying to others and pinning false crimes on a smart Latino drug lord played by Giancarlo Esposito who's threatening him and his family.  Very much like Breaking Bad's fourth season, where an underling in the drug business uses a long-term chess-like strategy which involves lying to others and pinning false crimes on a smart Latino drug lord played by Giancarlo Esposito who's threatening him and his family.